Read All About It in the Los Angeles Herald, 17 March 1875

by Paul R. Spitzzeri

On this St. Patrick’s Day and its celebration of all things Irish, we turn in our latest “Read All About It” post featuring historic greater Los Angeles newspapers in the Homestead’s collection, to the pages of the 17 March 1875 edition of the Los Angeles Herald, in which there are some notable items relating to the holiday. There is much more of interest, however, so we’ll look at these first.

In the editorial section on page two, a piece titled “Immigration” observed that, with the incipient arrival of spring and the melting away of winter, “the number of passengers on the overland route, as well as by the Isthmus, increases,” meaning those who traveled on the transcontinental railroad or by ship through the Central American isthmian paths.

While those who were boosting California for those making their way to the Golden State, it was asserted that this was done with “much zeal and but little knowledge” with “the result [that there] may be disappointment and great suffering to many.” Naturally, a major feature of the promotion was “to a shivering population” who had “to work hard five months to keep themselves warm the other seven” and were “ready to make any sacrifice to get to a land of perpetual sunshine.”

Observing that there were projections of some 75,000 persons coming to the Pacific Coast during the year, the paper identified the two key prerequisites for immigrant success; namely, that “they are pleased” and that “they have means to procure homes and comforts” as these were crucial for “good citizenship.” While it was expressed that “this is the best country we ever saw” for meeting these basics, it was added,

But if the poor and destitute suppose that they will be clothed and fed by the benevolent population of California they are very much mistaken. There are as many of that class now as can be provided for. All the loose boulders of gold have disappeared long ago . . . We advise all to come who have means to situate themselves if they like . . . In a word we want immigration, but we want an independent immigration that can leave if they don’t like the country. There is perhaps as much benevolence here as in other countries, but the old mining population whose charities were as bountiful as the sunshine, have passed away and their places filled by men of quick business habits, with no time and but little inclination to hunt up objects of charity.

This is a fascinating comment, given the recent post here on F.P.F. Temple’s assistance, thought to be noble and instructive to others, to a poor family from Oregon the prior fall, not to mention by comparison and contrast to future years and our current attitudes. The Herald added that those who had means “can drop into the current” and swim fine, but those without financial independence “will be elbowed out and must shift for yourself.”

It was further observed that, while the climate, health and soil of California were even better than advertised, “it is a hard country for men without means to get a start” and the poor were advised to understand this “before they make the venture to brake [sic] up and come here.” Anticipating a question of why such was the case if the Golden State had such prime conditions, the piece ended with a simple answer: “The Chinaman does much of the work in California, that poor men do in other countries.”

Another cheery commentary came in “A Word to Parents” which began with the opinion that “one of the worse animals that is permitted to roam over this world’s surface is a bad boy” because “he is a daily torture to his little sister and a plague to the whole neighborhood.” It did continue that “one of the worse boys we ever saw lived to be an editor” and then the influences of a poor early upbringing really came to the fore and he served in the state legislature and then Congress.

Given that “a vicious and dishonest boy” was a bane to parents, city jailers and those who ran industrial schools for incorrigible youth (California’s was the Preston school at Ione in Amador County, southeast of Sacramento), the paper went on that “we regret to have to announce that Los Angeles is just now pretty well stocked with the bad boy element.”

A letter was just received that informed the Herald that “there is a considerable number of boys, ranging in age from five to fifteen years, banded together in this city, who do not hesitate to scale fences, steal fruit, break down trees and do other mischief of a serious character.” In conclusion, the paper offered this admonition:

Unless the parents and guardians of these youths are careful, not a single one of them will ever become angels unless the transformation comes after years of preparation in the workshops of San Qentin [sic]. Seriously, people who have boys should look after them a little more assiduously, and if possible sever their connection with the many bad examples that disgrace our city. Remember that as the twig is bent, the tree inclines.

Another societal threat on a much broader basis were communists with the paper understanding that there were 10,000 of these subversives in Philadelphia, where the uncited report claimed “thousands of buildings were secretly marked in one night.” One of the main culprits, said the Herald, was agrarianism, a movement which stressed the centrality of the family farm as well as ownership of property on a wider scale and having a political system that was less centralized. The Grangers organization, established several years prior and which issued a Farmers Declaration of Independence on 4 July 1873, became very popular including in greater Los Angeles’ farming communities with a specific concern being the railroads’ control over shipping rates.

It was acknowledged that the movement was widespread in the United States and elsewhere, but this was seen as “deplorable” and it was asserted that “we may as well look the evil in the face at once and if possible devise means to avert it.” But, the editorial then quoted poet Robert Burns about “man’s inhumanity to man makes countless thousands mourn” and acknowledged that “this inhumanity or heartlessness to the poor” along with government corruption and oppression “increases the tendency towards communism.”

Education was critical for happiness, usefulness and the propagation of “moral culture,” but the Herald decried the denial of “all religious culture in public school” with the result that the nation was “raising a race of giants in intellect, but Lillaputians [sic—Jonathan Swift’s little persons in his famous Gulliver’s Travels] in morals.” It was averred that “man by nature is a religious animal” and that “the religious element of the country was no division of property, no uprooting of society.”

Curiously, the paper made “no pretensions to piety” but was “ready to pay this tribute to religion” in offering its view that “the children of the nation would be as good patriots and as good citizens if they had more moral culture” though it mused on how this could be done “in a land of a hundred religions.” Acknowledging the challenge of introducing religious instruction in public schools, the Herald suggested a “code of morals” under the heading of “moral science” inculcating benevolence, charity and kindness.

The editorial, which can be juxtaposed with its piece on immigration and compared to the situation 150 years later, ended with:

The oppressiveness of the Government is another evil which is very grinding upon all classes and causes feelings of desperation to creep over weak humanity to a very demoralizing extent. This can and must be remedied speedily, or we shall witness a terrible state of affairs before long. We have no disposition to dictate to men of capital, but if they can so invest their means as to give honest occupation to the laboriag [sic] classes they will add much to the moral strength of the Government.

The promoters, bearing the moniker of The Los Angeles Immigration and Land Co-Operative Association, of the new suburban town of Artesia (and, soon, launched Pomona) in advance of its major auction of lots there from 5-8 April, published a monthly called The New Italy (our climate classification is Mediterranean). The Herald devoted two columns of “Questions Answered” from the publication in a format not unlike the paper’s 1874 pamphlet, “Ten Thousand Questions Answered.”

The New Italy stated that it received queries each day about “this American Italy” and assembled the material for the article “promiscuously” from these and some of the material is interesting , especially those dealing with statistics and prices along with other information. For example, when asked about housebuilding, the publication replied that carpenters were kept continually occupied at $3-$5 daily, while lumber cost $28 to $50 per thousand-feet and bricks were $8-$10 per thousand.

As to schools and the prospects of teachers, it was noted that the latter were paid $75 to $150 monthly. Job printers, for all kinds of printed work, could make $18 to $25 weekly and farm laborers were paid $30 a month. With respect to young woman and their employment, it was stated that “good girls for doing housework are very scarce here, and get from fifteen to thirty dollars per month.”

Board and rents were noted as being $5-$6 for mechanics, $6-$10 for teachers for the former, while, for the latter, a good business space would run from $100-$250 monthly, while a five-room house fetched $25 to $40. Purchase of lots could run from $100 to $2,000 for residential ones in the city and $300-$500 in the outskirts, while commercial property could be had for $500 per front-foot and under.

As to the question of whether “a good English gardener” could do well on an irrigated ten-acre tract, fetching $100 to $300 an acre, the reply was “the garden business is mostly monopolized by Chinamen,” which it makes it sound as if the Chinese had the power to control truck farming, “but any one who understands the business can do well with such a garden.” With landscape gardeners and their prospects for improving the landscape at Angel City dwellings, it was noted that “there is no other place in the world where there is a better opportunity to beautify homes with fine gardens than in Los Angeles.”

A fair amount of attention was addressed to railroad matters given how vital this was for the future development of the Angel City and it was noted that the Southern Pacific line from the north was completed 25 miles south of Bakersfield. It was added that federal appropriations for the rudimentary harbor at Wilmington, where the Los Angeles and San Pedro Railway ended, included a completed breakwater, as well as dredging for the removal of a sand bar, with channel deepening to take place soon to allow steamers to disembark cargo and passengers at the wharf, whereas lighters were used because ships had to anchor offshore.

As to the SP, the branch from Florence (South Los Angeles) recently reached Anaheim and was expected to cross the Santa Ana River in a short time. East from the Angel City and past the Workman Homestead on Rancho La Puente, the main line terminated at Spadra (now southwest Pomona) and grading was being conducted to San Gorgonio Pass near where Palm Springs is now.

Also of note was the Los Angeles and Independence Railroad, established in 1874 with F.P.F. Temple as president, but reorganized at the end of that year when Nevada mining magnate and United States Senator John P. Jones took a controlling interest in stock so that a branch line “is now being built from Santa Monica, on the seaboard” with the main line to go “to the [silver] mining district in Inyo county.” The account ended that “”grading is progressing rapidly between Los Angeles and the coast, and in the Cajon Pass, and within a few months trains will be leaving Los Angeles in six different directions” making “Los Angeles the railroad center of Southern California.”

General information included the statement that the City of Angels had approximately 12,000 residents, a little more than double what was enumerated in the 1870 census (these tend to be undercounts), with a quarter of the denizens denoted as “Spanish.” When asked about accommodations, the response was that “like all other countries, one can get good, bad, and indifference; you pay your money and take your choice.”

When asked “what keeps up Los Angeles?” the New Italy answered “the best agricultural section of the Pacific Coast” and, especially, “semi-tropical,” or citrus fruit, while concerning the query of “is there a prospect of Los Angeles growing right along,” especially with the SP building its line through the city, the reply was “we see no reason why Los Angeles should not continue to be prosperous.”

Lastly, there was the celebration of St. Patrick’s Day with the marshal being Henry King and it was reported that “the preparations . . . by our Irish citizens have been made on a scale which warrant the occasion to surpass anything of its kind ever before held in Los Angeles.” Moreover, stated the Herald, “it must be conceded that no people revere or honor their country more than Irishmen” and when the celebrated the holiday, “they do it with a hearty good will that commands our admiration.”

At Noon, the Irish Benevolent Society, the Irish Literary Society and residents were to gather on Arcadia and Main streets and, a half-hour later, parade up Main to the Plaza and then return down the principal thoroughfare to Sixth, then west to Spring and up that street to the Turn-Verein Hall, operated by the German denizens of the city. The young lawyer, Stephen M. White, later a United States Senator whose work for the port gave him the moniker of “Father of the Harbor,” was to deliver an oration, followed by “a few patriotic songs . . . sung by the ladies of Los Angeles.”

An evening ball at the venue “will offer a fitting close to the day’s honors” with “a terpsichorean fete” for which a committee “spared neither time, trouble or money to make the affair a grand success.” The account ended with the prediction that, “there is sure to be a good time for all, and many who do not lay claim to Irish nationality may find pleasure in tripping the light fantastic with the rest.”

Some history, tenuous as the facts may be, of the patron saint of the day was provided in the editorial section, including the tradition that St. Patrick oversaw “the banishment of all venomous reptiles from Ireland by means of his crosier or staff.” The piece observed that “nothing can be more certain than that a great and good man known as ST. PATRICK lived in Ireland at some remote period and a sit [as it] cannot be doubted that he lived for the good of his fellow men, it is but right and proper that Irish born men and women and all others who feel so inclined should celebrate his anniversary.”

Finally, “A Hibernian” submitted to the Herald the text of a poem by Samuel Lover (rendered “Lever” in the paper) called “The Birth of St. Patrick,” including the lines:

On the aith day of March ’twas, as some people say,

Betwixt mednight, and morn St. Patrick first saw the day;

Whilst others declared, on the ninth he was born,

And ’twas all a mistake betwixt midnight and morn . . .

Some fought for the aith, for the ninth some would die,

And who wouldn’t see light, sure they’d blacken his eye;

Till Father McCauley, who showed them their sins,

Said no one could have two birthdays, ‘cept he was twins,

Says he: “Boys, don’t be fighting for ait or for nine;

Don’t always be dividing, but sometimes kimbine;

Kimbine ait wid nine—seventeen is the mark,

So let that be his birthday”—”Amen!” said the clerk.

If he wasn’t a saint, sure our history will show,

That at last he’s worth any two saints that we know.

So they all got blind drunk, which completed their bliss;

And we keeps up the practice from that day to this.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day to all who celebrate the holiday!