LAWYERS AND COURTS
1853
In the primitive fifties there were but comparatively few reputable
lawyers in this neighborhood; nor was there, perhaps, sufficient call
for their services to insure much of a living to many more. To a
greater extent even than now, attorneys were called "Judge;" and at
the time whereof I write, the most important among them were Jonathan
R. Scott, Benjamin Hayes, J. Lancaster Brent, Myron Norton, General
Ezra Drown, Benjamin S. Eaton, Cameron E. Thom, James H. Lander, Lewis
Granger, Isaac Stockton, Keith Ogier, Edward J. C. Kewen and Joseph R.
Gitchell. In addition to these, there was a lawyer named William G.
Dryden, of whom I shall presently speak, and one Kimball H. Dimmick,
who was largely devoted to criminal practice.
Scott, who had been a prominent lawyer in Missouri, stood very high,
both as to physique and reputation. In addition to his great stature,
he had a splendid constitution and wonderful vitality and was
identified with nearly every important case. About March, 1850, he
came here an overland emigrant, and was made one of the two justices
of the peace who formed, with the county judge, on June 24th, the
first Court of Sessions. He then entered into partnership with
Benjamin Hayes, continuing in joint practice with him until April,
1852, after which he was a member successively of the law firms of
Scott & Granger, Scott & Lander, and Scott, Drown & Lander.
Practicing law in those days was not without its difficulties, partly
because of the lack of law-books; and Scott used to tell in his own
vehement style how, on one occasion, when he was defending a French
sea captain against charges preferred by a rich Peruvian passenger, he
was unable to make much headway because there was but one volume
(Kent's _Commentaries_) in the whole pueblo that threw any light, so
to speak, on the question; which lack of information induced _Alcalde_
Stearns to decide against Scott's client. Although the Captain lost,
he nevertheless counted out to Scott, in shining gold-pieces, the full
sum of one thousand dollars as a fee. In 1859, a daughter of Scott
married Alfred Beck Chapman, a graduate of West Point, who came to Los
Angeles and Fort Tejón, as an officer, about 1854. Chapman later
studied law with Scott, and for twenty years practiced with Andrew
Glassell. In 1863, Chapman succeeded M. J. Newmark as City Attorney;
and in 1868, he was elected District Attorney. If I recollect rightly,
Scott died in the sixties, survived by Mrs. Scott--a sister of both
Mrs. J. S. Mallard and Mrs. J. G. Nichols--and a son, J. R. Scott,
admitted in 1880 to practice in the Supreme Court.
Hayes was District Judge when I came, and continued as such for ten or
twelve years. His jurisdiction embraced Los Angeles, San Diego, San
Luis Obispo and Santa Bárbara counties; and the latter section then
included Ventura County. The Judge had regular terms in these
districts and was compelled to hold court at all of the County seats.
A native of Baltimore, Hayes came to Los Angeles on February 3d,
1850--followed on St. Valentine's Day, 1852, by his wife whose journey
from St. Louis, _via_ New Orleans, Havana and Panamá, consumed
forty-three days on the steamers. He was at once elected the first
County Attorney, and tried the famous case against the Irving party.
About the same time Hayes formed his partnership with Scott. In
January, 1855, and while District Judge, Hayes sentenced the murderer
Brown; and in 1858 he presided at Pancho Daniel's trial. Hayes
continued to practice for many years, and was known as a jurist of
high standing, though on account of his love for strong drink, court
on more than one occasion had to be adjourned. During his residence
here, he was known as an assiduous collector of historical data. He
was a brother of both Miss Louisa Hayes, the first woman public-school
teacher in Los Angeles, later the wife of Dr. J. S. Griffin, and Miss
Helena Hayes, who married Benjamin S. Eaton. Judge Hayes died on
August 4th, 1877.
Brent, a native of the South, was also a man of attainment, arriving
here in 1850 with a fairly representative, though inadequate library,
and becoming in 1855 and 1856 a member of the State Assembly. He had
such wonderful influence, as one of the Democratic leaders, that he
could nominate at will any candidate; and being especially popular
with the Mexican element, could also tell a good story or two about
fees. When trouble arose in 1851 between several members of the Lugo
family and the Indians, resulting finally in an attempted
assassination and the narrow escape from death of Judge Hayes (who was
associated with the prosecution of the case), several of the Lugos
were tried for murder; and Brent, whose defense led to their
acquittal, received something like twenty thousand dollars for his
services. He was of a studious turn of mind and acquired most of Hugo
Reid's Indian library. When the Civil War broke out, Brent went South
again and became a Confederate brigadier-general. Brent Street bears
his name.
Norton, a Vermonter, who had first practiced law in New York, then
migrated west, and had later been a prime mover for, and a member of,
the first California Constitutional Convention, and who was afterward
Superior Court Judge at San Francisco, was an excellent lawyer, when
sober, and a good fellow. He came to the Coast in the summer of 1848,
was made First Lieutenant and Chief-of-Staff of the California
Volunteers, and drifted in 1852 from Monterey to Los Angeles. He
joined Bean's Volunteers, and in 1857 delivered here a flowery Fourth
of July oration. Norton was the second County Judge, succeeding
Agustin Olvera and living with the latter's family at the Plaza; and
it was from Norton's Court of Sessions, in May, 1855, that the
dark-skinned Juan Flores was sent to the State prison, although few
persons suspected him to be guilty of such criminal tendencies as he
later developed. Norton died in Los Angeles in 1887; and Norton Avenue
recalls his life and work.
Judge Hayes' successor, Don Pablo de la Guerra, was born in the
_presidio_ of Santa Bárbara in 1819, a member of one of the most
popular families of that locality. Although a Spaniard of the
Spaniards, he had been educated in an Eastern college, and spoke
English fluently. Four times he was elected State Senator from Santa
Bárbara and San Luis Obispo, and was besides a member of the
Constitutional Convention of 1849. Late in 1863, he was a candidate
for District Judge when a singular opposition developed that might
easily have led, in later years at least, to his defeat. A large part
of the population of Santa Bárbara was related to him by blood or
marriage; and it was argued that, if elected, De la Guerra in many
cases would be disqualified from sitting as judge. On January 1st,
1864, however, Don Pablo took up the work as District Judge where
Hayes surrendered it. Just as De la Guerra in 1854 had resigned in
favor of Hunter, before completing his term as United States Marshal,
so now toward the end of 1873, De la Guerra withdrew on account of
ill-health from the district judgeship, and on February 5th, 1874, he
died.
Drown was a lawyer who came here a few months before I did, having
just passed through one of those trying ordeals which might easily
prove sufficient to destroy the courage and ambition of any man. He
hailed from Iowa, where he had served as Brigadier-General of Militia,
and was bound up the Coast from the Isthmus on the steamer
_Independence_ when it took fire, off Lower California, and burned to
the water's edge. General Drown, being a good swimmer and a plucky
fellow, set his wife adrift on a hencoop and then put off for shore
with his two children on his back. Having deposited them safely on the
beach, he swam back to get his wife; but a brutal fellow-passenger
pushed the fainting woman off when her agonized husband was within a
few feet of her; she sank beneath the waves, and he saw his companion
go to her doom at the moment she was about to be rescued. Though
broken in spirit, Drown on landing at San Pedro came to Los Angeles
with his two boys, and put his best foot forward. He established
himself as a lawyer and in 1858 became District Attorney, succeeding
Cameron E. Thom; and it was during his term that Pancho Daniel was
lynched. In 1855, too, Drown instituted the first Los Angeles lodge of
Odd Fellows. Drown was an able lawyer, eloquent and humorous, and
fairly popular; but his generosity affected his material prosperity,
and he died, at San Juan Capistrano, on August 17th, 1863, none too
blessed with this world's goods.
Dimmick, who at one time occupied an office in the old Temple Block on
Main Street, had rather an eventful career. Born in Connecticut, he
learned the printer's trade; then he studied law and was soon admitted
to practice in New York; and in 1846 he sailed with Colonel J. D.
Stevenson, in command of Company K, landing, six months later, at the
picturesquely-named Yerba Buena, on whose slopes the bustling town of
San Francisco was so soon to be founded. When peace with Mexico was
established, Dimmick moved to San José; after which with Foster he
went to the convention whose mission was to frame a State
constitution, and was later chosen Judge of the Supreme Court. In
1852, after having revisited the East and been defrauded of
practically all he possessed by those to whom he had entrusted his
California affairs, Dimmick came to Los Angeles and served as Justice
of the Peace, Notary Public and County Judge. He was also elected
District Attorney, and at another time was appointed by the Court to
defend the outlaw, Pancho Daniel. Dimmick's practice was really
largely criminal, which frequently made him a defender of
horse-thieves, gamblers and desperadoes; and in such cases one could
always anticipate his stereotyped plea:
Gentlemen of the Jury: The District Attorney prosecuting my
client is paid by the County to convict this prisoner,
whether he be guilty or innocent; and I plead with you,
gentlemen, in the name of Impartial Justice, to bring in a
verdict of "Not guilty!"
Through the help of his old-time friend, Secretary William H. Seward,
Dimmick toward the end of his life was appointed Attorney for the
Southern District of the United States in California; but on September
11th, 1861, he suddenly died of heart disease.
Eaton, another prominent representative of the Bar, came from New
England as early as 1850, while California government was in its
infancy and life anything but secure; and he had not been here more
than a few months when the maneuvers of António Garra, Agua Caliente's
chief, threatened an insurrection extending from Tulare to San Diego
and made necessary the organization, under General J. H. Bean, of
volunteers to allay the terror-stricken community's fears. Happily,
the company's chief activity was the quieting of feminine nerves. On
October 3d, 1853, Eaton was elected District Attorney and in 1857,
County Assessor. Later, after living for a while at San Gabriel, Eaton
became a founder of the Pasadena colony, acting as its President for
several years; and in 1876 he was one of the committee to arrange for
the local Centennial celebration. Frederick Eaton, several times City
Engineer and once--in 1899-1900--Mayor of Los Angeles, is a son of
Benjamin Eaton and his first wife, Helena Hayes, who died a few years
after she came here, and the brother of Mrs. Hancock Johnston. He
reflects no little credit on his father by reason of a very early,
effective advocacy of the Owens River Aqueduct. Under his
administration, the City began this colossal undertaking, which was
brought to a happy consummation in the year 1913 through the
engineering skill of William Mulholland, Eaton's friend. In 1861,
Judge Eaton married Miss Alice Taylor Clark, of Providence, R. I., who
is still living.
[Illustration: Henry Mellus
From a Daguerrotype]
[Illustration: Francis Mellus
From a Daguerrotype]
[Illustration: John G. Downey]
[Illustration: Charles L. Ducommun]
[Illustration: The Plaza Church
From a photograph, probably taken in the middle eighties]
While I am upon this subject of lawyers and officialdom, a few words
regarding early jurists and court decorum may be in order. In 1853,
Judge Dryden, who had arrived in 1850, was but a Police Justice, not
yet having succeeded Dimmick as County Judge; and at no time was his
knowledge of the law and things pertaining thereto other than
extremely limited. His audacity, however, frequently sustained him in
positions that otherwise might have been embarrassing; and this
audacity was especially apparent in Dryden's strong opposition to
the criminal element. He talked with the volubility of a Gatling gun,
expressing himself in a quick, nervous manner and was, besides, very
profane. One day he was trying a case, when Captain Cameron E. Thom
(who had first come to Los Angeles in 1854, as the representative of
the National Government, to take testimony before Commissioner
Burrill) was one of the attorneys. During the progress of the case,
Thom had occasion to read a lengthy passage from some statute book.
Interrupting him, the Judge asked to see the weighty volume; when,
having searched in vain for the citation, he said in his
characteristic, jerky way:
"I'll be ---- _damned_, Mr. Thom, if I can find that law!"
All of which recalls to me a report, once printed in the _Los Angeles
Star_, concerning this same jurist and an inquest held by him over a
dead Indian:
Justice Dryden and the Jury sat on the body. The verdict
was: "Death from intoxication, _or_ by the visitation of
God!"
Dryden, who was possessed of a genial personality, was long remembered
with pleasure for participation in Fourth of July celebrations and
processions. He was married, I believe, in 1851, only one year after
he arrived here, to Señorita Dolores Nieto; and she having died, he
took as his second wife, in September, 1868, another Spanish lady,
Señorita Anita Dominguez, daughter of Don Manuel Dominguez. Less than
a year afterward, on September 10th, 1869, Judge Dryden himself died
at the age of seventy years.
Thom, by the way, came from Virginia in 1849 and advanced rapidly in
his profession. It was far from his expectation to remain in Los
Angeles longer than was necessary; and he has frequently repeated to
me the story of his immediate infatuation with this beautiful section
and its cheering climate, and how he fell in love with the quaint
little pueblo at first sight. Soon after he decided to remain here, he
was assigned as associate counsel to defend Pancho Daniel, after the
retirement of Columbus Sims. In 1856, Thom was appointed both City
and District Attorney, and occupied the two positions at the same
time--an odd situation which actually brought it about, during his
tenure of offices, that a land dispute between the City and the County
obliged Thom to defend both interests! In 1863, he was a partner with
A. B. Chapman; and twenty years later, having previously served as
State Senator, he was elected Mayor of the city. Captain Thom married
two sisters--first choosing Miss Susan Henrietta Hathwell, and then,
sometime after her death, leading to the altar Miss Belle Cameron
Hathwell whom he had named and for whom, when she was baptized, he had
stood godfather. A man ultimately affluent, he owned, among other
properties, a large ranch at Glendale.[2]
Another good story concerning Judge Dryden comes to mind, recalling a
certain Sheriff. As the yarn goes, the latter presented himself as a
candidate for the office of Sheriff; and in order to capture the vote
of the native element, he also offered to marry the daughter of an
influential Mexican. A bargain was concluded and, as the result, he
forthwith assumed the responsibilities and dangers of both shrieval
and matrimonial life.
Before the Sheriff had possessed this double dignity very long,
however, a gang of horse-thieves began depredations around Los
Angeles. A _posse_ was immediately organized to pursue the
desperadoes, and after a short chase they located the band and brought
them into Los Angeles. Imagine the Sheriff's dismay, when he found
that the leader was none other than his own brother-in-law whom he had
never before seen!
To make the story short, the case was tried and the prisoner was found
guilty; but owing to influence (to which most juries in those days
were very susceptible) there was an appeal for judicial leniency.
Judge Dryden, therefore, in announcing the verdict, said to the
Sheriff's brother-in-law, "The jury finds you guilty as charged," and
then proceeded to read the prisoner a long and severe lecture, to
which he added: "But the jury recommends clemency. Accordingly, I
declare you a free man, and you may go about your business." Thereupon
someone in the room asked: "What _is_ his business?" To which the
Judge, never flinching, shouted: "_Horse-stealing_, sir!
_horse-stealing!_"
Lander was here in 1853, having come from the East the year previous.
He was a Harvard College graduate--there were not many on the Coast in
those days--and was known as a good office-practitioner; he was for
some time, in fact, the Bar's choice for Court Commissioner. I think
that, for quite a while, he was the only examiner of real estate
titles; he was certainly the only one I knew. On October 15th, 1852,
Lander had married Señorita Margarita, a daughter of Don Santiago
Johnson, who was said to have been one of the best known business men
prior to 1846. Afterward Lander lived in a cottage on the northeast
corner of Fourth and Spring streets. This cottage he sold to I. W.
Hellman in the early seventies, for four thousand dollars; and
Hellman, in turn, sold it at cost to his brother. On that lot, worth
to-day probably a million dollars, the H. W. Hellman Building now
stands. Lander died on June 10th, 1873.
Granger was still another lawyer who was here when I arrived, he
having come with his family--one of the first American households to
be permanently established here--in 1850. By 1852, he had formed a
partnership with Jonathan R. Scott, and in that year attained
popularity through his Fourth of July oration. Granger was, in fact, a
fluent and attractive speaker, which accounted, perhaps, for his
election as City Attorney in 1855, after he had served the city as a
member of the Common Council in 1854. If I recollect aright, he was a
candidate for the district judgeship in the seventies, but was
defeated.
Ogier, a lawyer from Charleston, S. C., came to California in 1849,
and to Los Angeles in 1851, forming a partnership on May 31st of that
year with Don Manuel Clemente Rojo, a clever, genial native of Peru.
On September 29th, Ogier succeeded William C. Ferrell, the first
District Attorney; in 1853, he joined the voluntary police; and later
served, for some years, as United States District Judge. He died at
Holcombe Valley in May, 1861. Ogier Street, formerly Ogier Lane, was
named for him. Rojo, after dividing his time between the law and the
Spanish editorial work on the _Star_, wandered off to Lower California
and there became a "sub-political chief."
Kewen, a native of Mississippi and a veteran of the Mexican War, came
to Los Angeles in 1858 with the title of Colonel, after _fiasco_
followed his efforts, in the Southern States, to raise relief for the
filibuster Walker, on whose expedition A. L. Kewen, a brother, had
been killed in the battle at Rivas, Nicaragua, in June, 1855. Once a
practitioner at law in St. Louis, Kewen was elected California's first
Attorney-General, and even prior to the delivery of his oration before
the Society of Pioneers at San Francisco, in 1854, he was
distinguished for his eloquence. In 1858, he was Superintendent of Los
Angeles City Schools. In the sixties, Kewen and Norton formed a
partnership. Settling on an undulating tract of some four hundred and
fifty acres near San Gabriel, including the ruins of the old Mission
mill and now embracing the grounds of the Huntington Hotel, Kewen
repaired the house and converted it into a cosy and even luxurious
residence, calling the estate ornamented with gardens and fountains,
_El Molino_--a title perpetuated in the name of the present suburb.
Kewen was also a member of the State Assembly and, later, District
Attorney. He died in November, 1879.
Gitchell, United States District Attorney in the late fifties,
practiced here for many years. He was a jolly old bachelor and was
popular, although he did not attain eminence.
Isaac Hartman, an attorney, and his wife, who were among the
particularly agreeable people here in 1853, soon left for the East.
Volney E. Howard came with his family in the late fifties. He left San
Francisco, where he had been practicing law, rather suddenly, and at a
time when social conditions in the city were demoralized, and the
citizens, as in the case of the people of Los Angeles, were obliged to
organize a vigilance committee. William T. Coleman, one of the
foremost citizens of his city, led the Northern movement, and M. J.
Newmark, then a resident of San Francisco, was among those who
participated. Howard, who succeeded William T., afterward General
Sherman in leading the Law and Order contingent, opposed the idea of
mob rule; but the people of San Francisco, fully alive to the
necessity of wiping out the vicious elements, and knowing how hard it
was to get a speedy trial and an honest jury, had little sympathy with
his views. He was accordingly ordered out of town, and made his way,
first to Sacramento, then to the South. Here, with Kewen as their
neighbor, Howard and his talented wife, a lady of decidedly
blue-stocking tendencies, took up their residence near the San Gabriel
Mission; and he became one of the most reliable attorneys in Los
Angeles, serving once or twice as County Judge and on the Supreme
Court bench, as well as in the State Constitutional Convention of
1878-1879.
Speaking of the informality of courts in the earlier days, I should
record that jurymen and others would come in coatless and, especially
in warm weather, without vests and collars; and that it was the
fashion for each juryman to provide himself with a jack-knife and a
piece of wood, in order that he might whittle the time away. This was
a recognized privilege, and I am not exaggerating when I say that if
he forgot his piece of wood, it was considered his further prerogative
to whittle the chair on which he sat! In other respects, also, court
solemnity was lacking. Judge and attorneys would frequently lock
horns; and sometimes their disputes ended violently. On one occasion,
for example, while I was in court, Columbus Sims, an attorney who came
here in 1852, threw an inkstand at his opponent, during an
altercation; but this contempt of court did not call forth his
disbarment, for he was later found acting as attorney for Pancho
Daniel, one of Sheriff Barton's murderers, until sickness compelled
his retirement from the case. As to panel-service, I recollect that
while serving as juror in those early days, we were once locked up for
the night; and in order that time might not hang too heavily on our
hands, we engaged in a sociable little game of poker. Sims is dead.
More than inkstands were sometimes hurled in the early courts. On one
occasion, for instance, after the angry disputants had arrived at a
state of agitation which made the further use of canes, chairs, and
similar objects tame and uninteresting, revolvers were drawn,
notwithstanding the marshal's repeated attempts to restore order.
Judge Dryden, in the midst of the _mêlée_, hid behind the platform
upon which his Judgeship's bench rested; and being well out of the
range of the threatening irons, yelled at the rioters:
"_Shoot away_, damn you! and to _hell_ with all of you!"
After making due allowance for primitive conditions, it must be
admitted that many and needless were the evils incidental to court
administration. There was, for instance, the law's delay, which
necessitated additional fees to witnesses and jurors and thus
materially added to the expenses of the County. Juries were always a
mixture of incoming pioneers and natives; the settlers understood very
little Spanish, and the native Californians knew still less English;
while few or none of the attorneys could speak Spanish at all. In
translating testimony, if the interpreter happened to be a friend of
the criminal (which he generally was), he would present the evidence
in a favorable light, and much time was wasted in sifting biased
translations. Of course, there were interpreters who doubtless
endeavored to perform their duties conscientiously. George Thompson
Burrill, the first Sheriff, received fifty dollars a month as court
interpreter, and Manuel Clemente Rojo translated testimony as well;
officials I believe to have been honest and conscientious.
While alluding to court interpreters and the general use of Spanish
during at least the first decade after I came to California, I am
reminded of the case of Joaquín Carrillo, who was elected District
Judge, in the early fifties, to succeed Judge Henry A. Tefft of Santa
Bárbara, who had been drowned near San Luis Obispo while attempting to
land from a steamer in order to hold court. During the fourteen years
when Carrillo held office, he was constantly handicapped by his little
knowledge of the English language and the consequent necessity of
carrying on all court proceedings in Spanish, to say nothing of the
fact that he was really not a lawyer. Yet I am told that Carrillo
possessed common sense to such a degree that his decisions were seldom
set aside by the higher courts.
Sheriff Burrill had a brother, S. Thompson Burrill, who was a lawyer
and a Justice of the Peace. He held court in the Padilla Building on
Main Street, opposite the present site of the Bullard Block and
adjoining my brother's store; and as a result of this proximity we
became friendly. He was one of the best-dressed men in town, although,
when I first met him, he could not have been less than sixty years of
age. He presented me with my first dog, which I lost on account of
stray poison: evil-disposed or thoughtless persons, with no respect
for the owner, whether a neighbor or not, and without the slightest
consideration for pedigree, were in the habit of throwing poison on
the streets to kill off canines, of which there was certainly a
superabundance.
Ygnácio Sepúlveda, the jurist and a son of José Andrés Sepúlveda, was
living here when I arrived, though but a boy. Born in Los Angeles in
1842, he was educated in the East and in 1863 admitted to the Bar; he
served in the State Legislature of the following winter, was County
Judge from 1870 to 1873, and District Judge in 1874. Five years later
he was elected Superior Judge, but resigned his position in 1884 to
become Wells Fargo & Company's representative in the City of Mexico,
at which capital for two years he was also American _Chargé
d'Affaires_. There to my great pleasure I met him, bearing his honors
modestly, in January, 1885, during my tour of the southern
republic.[3] Sepúlveda Avenue is named for the family.
Horace Bell was a nephew of Captain Alexander Bell, of Bell's Row; and
as an early comer to Los Angeles, he joined the volunteer mounted
police. Although for years an attorney and journalist, in which
capacity he edited the _Porcupine_, he is best known for his
_Reminiscences of a Ranger_, a volume written in rather a breezy and
entertaining style, but certainly containing exaggerations.
This reference to the Rangers reminds me that I was not long in Los
Angeles when I heard of the adventures of Joaquín Murieta, who had
been killed but a few months before I came. According to the stories
current, Murieta, a nephew of José María Valdez, was a decent-enough
sort of fellow, who had been subjected to more or less injustice from
certain American settlers, and who was finally bound to a tree and
horsewhipped, after seeing his brother hung, on a trumped-up charge.
In revenge, Murieta had organized a company of bandits, and for two or
three years had terrorized a good part of the entire State. Finally,
in August, 1853, while the outlaw and several of his companions were
off their guard near the Tejón Paso, they were encountered by Captain
Harry Love and his volunteer mounted police organized to get him,
"dead or alive;" the latter killed Murieta and another desperado known
as Three-fingered Jack. Immediately the outlaws were despatched, their
heads and the deformed hand of Three-fingered Jack were removed from
the bodies and sent by John Sylvester and Harry Bloodsworth to Dr.
William Francis Edgar, then a surgeon at Fort Miller; but a flood
interfering, Sylvester swam the river with his barley sack and its
gruesome contents. Edgar put the trophies into whiskey and arsenic,
when they were transmitted to the civil authorities, as vouchers for a
reward. Bloodsworth died lately.
Daredevils of a less malicious type were also resident among us. On
the evening of December 31st, 1853, for example, I was in our store at
eight o'clock when Felipe Rheim--often called Reihm and even
Riehm--gloriously intoxicated and out for a good time, appeared on the
scene, flourishing the ubiquitous weapon. His celebration of the New
Year had apparently commenced, and he was already six sheets in the
wind. Like many another man, Felipe, a very worthy German, was
good-natured when sober, but a terror when drunk; and as soon as he
spied my solitary figure, he pointed his gun at me, saying, at the
same time, in his vigorous native tongue, "Treat, or _I shoot_!" I
treated. After this pleasing transaction amid the smoky obscurity of
Ramón Alexander's saloon, Felipe fired his gun into the air and
disappeared. Startling as a demand like that might appear to-day, no
thought of arrest then resulted from such an incident.
The first New Year's Eve that I spent in Los Angeles was ushered in
with the indiscriminate discharging of pistols and guns. This method
of celebrating was, I may say, a novelty to me, and no less a
surprise; for of course I was unaware of the fact that, when the city
was organized, three years before, a proposition to prohibit the
carrying of firearms of any sort, or the shooting off of the same,
except in defense of self, home or property, had been stricken from
the first constitution by the committee on police, who reported that
such an ordinance could not at that time be enforced. Promiscuous
firing continued for years to be indulged in by early Angeleños,
though frequently condemned in the daily press, and such was its
effect upon even me that I soon found myself peppering away at a
convenient adobe wall on Commercial Street, seeking to perfect my aim!
FOOTNOTES:
[2] Thom died on February 2d, 1915.
[3] After an absence of thirty years, Judge Sepúlveda returned to Los
Angeles, in 1914, and was heartily welcomed back by his many friends
and admirers.