THE CHINESE MASSACRE
1871
H. Newmark & Company enjoyed associations with nearly all of the most
important wool men and _rancheros_ in Southern California, our office
for many years being headquarters for these stalwarts, as many as a
dozen or more of whom would ofttimes congregate, giving the store the
appearance of a social center. They came in from their ranches and
discussed with freedom the different phases of their affairs and other
subjects of interest. Wheat, corn, barley, hay, cattle, sheep,
irrigation and kindred topics were passed upon; although in 1871 the
price of wool being out of all proportion to anything like its
legitimate value, the uppermost topic of conversation was wool. These
meetings were a welcome interruption to the monotony of our work. Some
of the most important of these visitors were Jotham, John W. and
Llewellyn Bixby, Isaac Lankershim, L. J. Rose, I. N. Van Nuys, R. S.
Baker, George Carson, Manuel Dominguez, Domingo Amestoy, Juan Matías
Sanchez, Dan Freeman, John Rowland, John Reed, Joe Bridger, Louis
Phillips, the brothers Garnier, Remi Nadeau, E. J. Baldwin, P. Banning
and Alessandro Repetto. There was also not a weather prophet, near or
far, who did not manage to appear at these weighty discussions and
offer his oracular opinions about the pranks of the elements; on which
occasions, one after another of these wise men would step to the door,
look at the sky and broad landscape, solemnly shake his head and then
render his verdict to the speculating circle within. According as the
moon emerged "so that one could hang something upon it," or in such a
manner that "water would run off" (as they pictured it), we were to
have dry or rainy weather; nor would volumes of talk shake their
confidence. Occasionally, I added a word, merely to draw out these
weather-beaten and interesting old chaps; but usually I listened
quietly and was entertained by all that was said. Hours would be spent
by these friends in chatting and smoking the time away; and if they
enjoyed the situation half as much as I did, pleasant remembrances of
these occasions must have endured with them. Many of those to whom I
have referred have ended their earthly careers, while others, living
in different parts of the county, are still hale and hearty.
A curious character was then here, in the person of the reputed son of
a former, and brother of the then, Lord Clanmorris, an English
nobleman. Once a student at Dr. Arnold's famous Rugby, he had knocked
about the world until, shabbily treated by Dame Fortune, he had become
a sheepherder in the employ of the Bixbys.
M. J. Newmark, who now came to visit us from New York, was admitted to
partnership with H. Newmark & Company, and this determined his future
residence.
As was natural in a town of pueblo origin, plays were often advertised
in Spanish; one of the placards, still preserved, thus announcing the
attraction for January 30th, at the Merced Theater:
TEATRO MERCED
LOS ANGELES
Lunes, Enero 30, de 1871
Primero Función de la Gran Compañia Dramática, De Don Tomás
Maguire, El Empresario Veterano de San Francisco, VEINTE Y
CUATRO Artistas de ambos sexos, todos conocidos como
ESTRELLAS de primera clase.
In certain quarters of the city, the bill was printed in English.
Credit for the first move toward the formation of a County Medical
Society here should probably be given to Dr. H. S. Orme, at whose
office early in 1871 a preliminary meeting was held; but it was in the
office of Drs. Griffin and Widney, on January 31st, that the
organization was effected, my friend Griffin being elected President;
Dr. R. T. Hayes, Vice-President; Dr. Orme, Treasurer; and Dr. E. L.
Dow, Secretary. Thus began a society which, in the intervening years,
has accomplished much good work.
Late in January, Luther H. Titus, one of several breeders of fast
horses, brought from San Francisco by steamer a fine thoroughbred
stallion named _Echo_, a half-brother of the celebrated trotter
_Dexter_ which had been shipped from the East in a Central Pacific car
especially constructed for the purpose--in itself something of a
wonder then. Sporting men came from a distance to see the horse; but
interest was divided between the stallion and a mammoth turkey of a
peculiar breed, also brought west by Titus, who prophesied that the
bird, when full grown, would tip the beam at from forty-five to fifty
pounds.
Early in February, the first steps were taken to reorganize and
consolidate the two banking houses in which Downey and Hellman were
interested, when it was proposed to start the Bank of Los Angeles,
with a capital of five hundred thousand dollars. Some three hundred
and eighty thousand dollars of this sum were soon subscribed; and by
the first week in April, twenty-five per cent. of the capital had been
called in. John G. Downey was President and I. W. Hellman was Cashier;
their office was in the former rooms of Hellman, Temple & Company. On
the tenth of April the institution was opened as the Farmers &
Merchants Bank; and on July 10th, J. G. Downey, Charles Ducommun, O.
W. Childs, I. M. Hellman, George Hansen, A. Glassell, J. S. Griffin,
José Mascarel and I. W. Hellman were chosen Trustees. From the first
the Bank prospered, so that when the crisis of 1875 tested the
substantiability of the financial institutions here, the Farmers &
Merchants rode the storm. In April, 1871, Hellman inaugurated a
popular policy when he offered to pay interest on time deposits, for
it brought many clients who had previously been accustomed to do their
banking in San Francisco; and before long the Bank advertised one
hundred thousand dollars to lend on good security.
On February 14th, Stephen Samsbury, known as Buckskin Bill, and a man
named Carter murdered the twin brothers Bilderback who had taken up
some land very close to Verdugo--now incorporated in Glendale--and
were engaged in chopping wood; the murderers coveting the land and
planning to sell the fuel. Deputy Sheriff Dunlap went in pursuit of
the desperadoes, and noticing some loose earth in the roadbed near by,
he thrust a stick into the ground and so uncovered the blood-stained
end of a blanket which led to the finding of the bodies.
J. F. Burns, who, at eighty-three years of age, still manifests his
old time spirit, being then Sheriff, pursued Buckskin Bill until the
twenty-fourth of June. A young soldier on the way to Fort Yuma met
Burns at San Pedro, and having agreed to sell him certain information
about the fugitive, revealed the fact that Bill had been seen near
Tecate, mounted on a horse, with his squaw and infant riding a mule.
The chase had previously taken the Sheriff from Verdugo Cañon to White
Pine, Nevada, and back to Los Angeles; and acting on this new clue,
Burns obtained a requisition on the Mexican Governor from Judge
Ygnácio Sepúlveda, and went to Lower California where, with Felipe
Zarate, a Mexican officer, he located the man after two or three days'
search. About twenty miles north of Real Castillo, the Sheriff found
the fugitive, and in the ensuing fight Samsbury accidentally shot
himself; and so terribly did the wounded man suffer that he begged
Burns to finish him at once. The Sheriff, refusing, improved the
opportunity to secure a full confession of Bill's numerous crimes,
among which figured the killing of five other men--besides the
Bilderback brothers--in different parts of California.
After Samsbury died, Burns cut off his foot--known to have six
toes--and placed it in _mescal_, a popular and strongly-intoxicating
beverage of the Mexicans; and when later the Sheriff presented this
trophy to the good citizens of California, it was accepted as abundant
proof that the man he had gone after had been captured and disposed
of. The Legislature promptly paid Burns nearly five thousand dollars;
but Los Angeles County, which had pledged two hundred dollars' reward,
refused to recompense the doughty Sheriff and has never since made
good its promise. In 1889, Burns was Chief of Police, with Emil Harris
as his Captain.
The earliest move toward the formation of a Los Angeles Board of Trade
was made, not in 1883, nor even in 1873--when the first Chamber of
Commerce began--but in 1871, a fact that seems to be generally
forgotten. Late in February of that year, a number of leading shippers
came together to discuss Coast trade and other interests; and B. L.
Peel moved that a Board of Trade be organized. The motion was carried
and the organization was effected; but with the waning of enthusiasm
for the improvements proposed or, perhaps, through the failure of its
members to agree, the embryonic Board of Trade soon died.
In February, B. L. Peel & Company installed the telegraph in their
commission office--probably the first instance of a private wire in
local business history.
At the outset of the somewhat momentous decade of the seventies,
Hellman, Haas & Company was established, with H. W. Hellman, Jacob
Haas and B. Cohn partners; their first store being on the east side of
Los Angeles Street opposite H. Newmark & Company's. Abraham Haas, who
came in December, 1873, had a share in his brother's venture from the
start; but it was not until 1875, when he bought out Cohn's interest,
that he became a partner. Ten years after the firm commenced business,
that is, in 1881, Jacob Baruch, who had come to California with J.
Loew, and with him had made his start at Galatin, was admitted to
partnership; and in 1889, a year after Jacob Haas's death, Haas &
Baruch bought out H. W. Hellman. Then it was that Haas, Baruch &
Company, a name so agreeably known throughout Southern California,
first entered the field, their activity--immediately felt--permitting
very little of the proverbial grass to grow under one's feet. On
January 7th, 1909, Jacob Baruch died. Haas since December 12th, 1900
has been a resident of San Francisco.
This year the United States Government began the great work of
improving Wilmington or San Pedro Harbor. The gap between Rattlesnake
and Dead Man's islands was closed by means of a breakwater, creating a
regular current in the channel; and dredging to a depth of seventeen
or eighteen feet first made it possible for vessels of size to cross
the bar at low tide. Among those active in preparing documents for
Congress and securing the survey was Judge R. M. Widney, of whose
public services mention has been made; while Phineas Banning, at his
own expense, made trips to Washington in behalf of the project.
A genuine novelty was introduced in 1871, when Downs & Bent late in
February opened a roller-skating rink at Teutonia Hall. Twenty-five
cents was charged for admission, and an additional quarter demanded
for the use of skates. Ladies and gentlemen flocked to enjoy the new
sensation; a second rink was soon opened in Los Angeles and another in
El Monte; and among those who became proficient skaters was Pancho
Coronel, one of the social lions of his day. In time, however, the
craze waned, and what had been hailed as fashionable because of its
popularity in the great cities of the East, lost in favor,
particularly among those of social pretensions.
In March, a call for a meeting to organize an Agricultural Society for
the Counties of Los Angeles, Santa Bárbara, San Bernardino, Kern and
San Diego brought together a large number of our citizens. L. J. Rose
and his neighbor L. H. Titus, Dr. J. S. Griffin, Colonel J. J. Warner,
Judge H. K. S. O'Melveny, Judge A. J. King, John G. Downey, F. N.
Slaughter and many others including myself became actively interested,
and then and there started the Southern District Agricultural Society
which, for years, contributed so much to advance the agricultural
interests of Southern California. Annual trotting races, lasting a
week, lent impetus to the breeding of fine stock, for which this part
of the State became famous. L. J. Rose was the moving spirit in this
enterprise; and he it was who induced me and other friends to
participate.
Even the first ice machine, in March, did not freeze the price below
four cents per pound.
Edited by Henry C. Austin, the _Evening Express_ made its first
appearance on March 27th. It was started by the printers, George and
Jesse Yarnell, George A. Tiffany, J. W. Paynter and Miguel Verelo; but
James J. Ayers--in 1882 State Printer--who was one of the founders of
the San Francisco _Morning Call_, succeeded Austin in 1875, and then
the Yarnells and Verelo retired.
L. V. Prudhomme, better known as Victor Prudhomme--a name sometimes,
but probably incorrectly, spelled Prudhon--who is said to have come
from France about the middle of the thirties, died here on May 8th.
His wife was a Spanish woman and for a while they resided on the east
side of Main Street between Requena and First, not far from my
brother's store. As a rather active member of the French Colony, he
was a man in good standing, and was engaged, it seems to me, in the
wine industry. He also owned some land near San Bernardino and was
continually visiting that place.
On May 27th, S. J. Millington, announced as "the pioneer dancing
master of California," opened a dancing academy at Stearns's Hall, and
it at once sprang into social favor. He had morning classes for
children and evening classes for adults. I happen to recall the
circumstances more clearly for I was one of his committee of patrons.
Dances, by the way, were given frequently, and were often attended in
costume and even in disguise. I remember such an occasion in the early
seventies when elaborate toilettes and variety of dress marked an
advance in these harmless diversions. Conspicuous among the guests was
John Jones, elderly and seldom given to frivolity, who appeared in the
character of the Father of his Country.
In early June, a Chinese junk, cruising in search of _abalones_,
attracted no little attention at San Pedro as a primitive and clumsy
specimen of marine architecture.
The sudden and abnormal demand for the _abalone_ shell offered such
large returns as to tempt men to take desperate chances in hunting for
them among the rocks. Sometime in the seventies, a Chinaman, searching
near San Diego, thrust his hand into an open shell and the _abalone_
closed upon his wrist with such an irresistible grip that the
unfortunate shell-hunter was held fast until overtaken by the rising
tide and drowned.
For many years Los Angeles booklovers were supplied by merchants who
sold other things, or who conducted a limited loan library in
conjunction with their business. Such a circulating collection Samuel
Hellman displayed in February, 1871. The first exclusively book and
periodical store was opened in the same year, by Brodrick & Reilly,
adjoining the Post Office on Spring street.
Albert Fenner Kercheval, who took up his residence in 1871 on the west
side of Pearl Street near the end of Sixth, on what was formerly known
as the Gelcich Place, first came to California--Hangtown--in 1849 and
experienced much the same kind of mining adventure as inspired Bret
Harte. On his second visit to the Coast, Kercheval raised strawberries
and early tomatoes, for which he found a ready sale in San Francisco;
and in his spare moments he wrote poems--collected and published in
1883 under the title of _Dolores_--some of which rather cleverly
reflect California life.
On June 19th, the Teutonia-Concordia society merged with the Los
Angeles Turnverein, forming the Turnverein-Germania; and about the
same time, the original home of the _Verein_, a frame building on
South Spring Street, was erected. In that year, also, the first German
school was founded--the sessions being conducted at the old Round
House.
[Illustration:
(_Standing_) Lorenzo Leck
Louis Mesmer
William Nordholt
(_Sitting_) Henry C. G. Schaeffer
Henry Hammel
John Schumacher]
[Illustration: Turnverein-Germania Building, Spring Street]
Having had no fitting celebration of the Fourth of July for years, a
number of citizens in 1871 called a meeting to consider the matter,
and A. J. Johnston, L. Lichtenberger, W. H. Perry, J. M. Griffith,
John Wilson, O. W. Childs and myself were appointed to make
arrangements. A list of forty or fifty leading merchants willing to
close their places of business on Independence Day was drawn up; a
program was easily prepared; and the music, display of flags and
bunting, and the patriotic addresses awakened, after such a neglect of
the occasion, new and edifying emotions.
Slight regard was formerly paid by officers to the safety or life of
the Indian, who had a persistent weakness for alcohol; and when
citizens did attend to the removal of these inebriates, they
frequently looked to the Municipality for compensation. For instance:
at a meeting of the Common Council, in July, Pete Wilson presented a
bill of two dollars and a half "for the removal of a nuisance," which
nuisance, upon investigation, was shown to have been a drunken squaw
whom he had retired from the street! The Council, after debating the
momentous question of reimbursement, finally reached a compromise by
which the City saved just--twenty-five cents.
Alexander Bell died on July 24th, after a residence of twenty-nine
years in Los Angeles.
Beginning with the seventies, attention was directed to Santa Monica
as a possible summer resort, but it was some years before many people
saw in the Bay and its immediate environment the opportunities upon
which thousands have since seized. In the summer of 1871 less than
twenty families, the majority in tents, sojourned there among the
sycamore groves in the Cañon where J. M. Harned had a bar and
"refreshment parlor." The attractions of beach and surf, however, were
beginning to be appreciated, and so were the opportunities for
shooting--at Tell's and elsewhere; and on Sundays two or three hundred
excursionists frequently visited that neighborhood, Reynolds, the
liveryman, doing a thriving business carrying people to the beach.
Speaking of this gradual awakening to the attractions of Santa Monica,
I recall that school children of the late sixties held their picnics
at the Cañon, going down on crowded stages where the choicest seats
were on the box; and that one of the most popular drivers of that
period was Tommy O'Campo. He handled the reins with the dexterity of a
Hank Monk, and before sunrise Young America would go over to the
corral, there to wait long and patiently in order to get an
especially desirable seat on Tommy's stage.
With the completion of the Los Angeles & San Pedro Railroad,
excursions to Catalina began to be in vogue; but as the local
population was small, considerable effort was needed sometimes to
secure enough patrons to make the trips pay. Thus an excursion for
Sunday, August 13th, was advertised by the skipper of the steamer
_Vaquero_, a couple of dollars for the round trip being charged, with
half price for children; but by Saturday morning the requisite number
of subscribers had not been obtained, and the excursion was called
off.
Otto J. and Oswald F. Zahn, sons of Dr. Johann Carl Zahn who came here
about 1871, were carrier-pigeon fanciers and established a service
between Avalon and Los Angeles, fastening their messages, written on
tissue paper, by delicate wire to the birds' legs. For some time the
Catalina Pigeon Messengers, as they were called, left Avalon late in
the afternoon, after the last steamer, bringing news that appeared in
the Los Angeles newspapers of the following morning. Usually the birds
took a good hour in crossing the channel; but on one occasion, _Blue
Jim_, the champion, covered the distance of forty-eight miles in fifty
minutes.
On the evening of August 23d, the announcement came over the wires of
Don Abel Stearns's death in San Francisco, at five o'clock that
afternoon, at the Grand Hotel. Late in October, his body was brought
to Los Angeles for final interment, the tombstone having arrived from
San Francisco a week or two previously. Awesome indeed was the scene
that I witnessed when the ropes sustaining the eight hundred pound
metallic casket snapped, pitching the coffin and its grim contents
into the grave. I shall never forget the unearthly shriek of Doña
Arcadia, as well as the accident itself.
With the wane of summer, we received the startling news of the death,
through Indians, of Frederick Loring, the young journalist and author
well known in Los Angeles, who was with the United States Exploring
Expedition to Arizona as a correspondent of _Appleton's Journal_.
"Bootless, coatless and everything but lifeless," as he put it, he
had just escaped perishing in Death Valley, when the stage party was
attacked by Apaches, and Loring and four other passengers were killed.
In September, during Captain George J. Clarke's administration as
Postmaster, foreign money-orders began to be issued here for the first
time, payable only in Great Britain and Ireland, twenty-five cents
being charged for sending ten dollars or less; and shortly afterward,
international money-orders were issued for Germany and some other
Continental countries. Then five or six hundred letters for Los
Angeles County were looked upon as rather a large dispatch by one
steamer from San Francisco and the North; and the canceling of from
twelve to fifteen dollars' worth of stamps a day was regarded as "big
business."
Vincent Collyer--the Peace Commissioner sent out with General O. O.
Howard by the Government in 1868--who eventually made himself most
unpopular in Arizona by pleading the cause of the scalping Apaches in
the fall of 1871, put up at the Pico House; when public feeling led
one newspaper to suggest that if the citizens wished "to see a
_monster_," they had "only to stand before the hotel and watch Collyer
pass to and fro!"
In the fall, tidings of Chicago's awful calamity by fire reached Los
Angeles, but strange to say, no public action was taken until the
editor of the Los Angeles _News_, on October 12th, gave vent to his
feelings in the following editorial:
Three days ago the press of this City called upon the
public generally to meet at a stated hour last evening, at
the County Courtroom, to do something towards alleviating
the sufferings of the destitute thousands in Chicago. The
calamity which has overtaken that unfortunate City has
aroused the sympathy of the world, and the heart and pulse
of civilized humanity voluntarily respond, extending
assistance in deeds as well as in words. From all parts of
the globe, where the name of Chicago is known, liberal
donations flow into a common treasury. We had hoped to be
able to add the name of Los Angeles among the list, as
having done its duty. But in whatever else she may excel,
her charity is a dishonorable exception. Her bowels are
absolute strangers to sympathy, when called upon to
practically demonstrate it. At the place of meeting,
instead of seeing the multitude, we were astonished to find
but three persons, viz: Governor Downey, John Jones, and a
gentleman from Riverside, who is on a visit here. Anything
more disgraceful than this apathy on the part of her
inhabitants she could not have been guilty of. For her
selfishness, she justly deserves the fearful fate that has
befallen the helpless one that now lies stricken in the
dust. Let her bow down her head in shame. Chicago, our
response to your appeal is, _Starve_! _What do we care?_
This candid rebuke was not without effect; a committee was immediately
formed to solicit contributions from the general public, and within an
hour a tidy sum had been raised. By October 18th the fund had reached
over two thousand dollars, exclusive of two hundred and fifty dollars
given by the Hebrew Benevolent Society and still another hundred
dollars raised by the Jewish ladies.
About the twenty-first of October a "war" broke out near Nigger Alley
between two rival factions of the Chinese on account of the forcible
carrying off of one of the companies' female members, and the steamer
_California_ soon brought a batch of Chinamen from San Francisco, sent
down, it was claimed, to help wreak vengeance on the abductors. On
Monday, October 23d some of the contestants were arrested, brought
before Justice Gray and released on bail. It was expected that this
would end the trouble; but at five o'clock the next day the factional
strife broke loose again, and officers, accompanied by citizens,
rushed to the place to attempt an arrest. The Chinese resisted and
Officer Jesus Bilderrain was shot in the right shoulder and wrist,
while his fifteen-year-old brother received a ball in the right leg.
Robert Thompson, a citizen who sprang to Bilderrain's assistance, was
met by a Chinaman with two revolvers and shot to death. Other shots
from Chinese barricaded behind some iron shutters wounded a number of
bystanders.
News of the attacks and counter-attacks spread like wildfire, and a
mob of a thousand or more frenzied beyond control, armed with pistols,
guns, knives and ropes, and determined to avenge Thompson's murder,
assembled in the neighborhood of the disturbance. While this solid
phalanx was being formed around Nigger Alley, a Chinaman, waving a
hatchet, was seen trying to escape across Los Angeles Street; and Romo
Sortorel, at the expense of some ugly cuts on the hand, captured him.
Emil Harris then rescued the Mongolian; but a detachment of the crowd,
yelling "Hang him! shoot him!" overpowered Harris at Temple and Spring
streets, and dragged the trembling wretch up Temple to New High
street, where the familiar framework of the corral gates suggested its
use as a gallows. With the first suspension, the rope broke; but the
second attempt to hang the prisoner was successful. Other Chinamen,
whose roofs had been smashed in, were rushed down Los Angeles Street
to the south side of Commercial, and there, near Goller's wagon shop,
between wagons stood on end, were hung. Alarmed for the safety of
their cook, Sing Ty, the Juan Lanfrancos hid the Mongolian for a week,
until the excitement had subsided.
Henry T. Hazard was lolling comfortably in a shaving saloon, under the
luxurious lather of the barber, when he heard of the riot; and
arriving on the scene, he mounted a barrel and attempted to
remonstrate with the crowd. Some friends soon pulled him down, warning
him that he might be shot. A. J. King was at supper when word was
brought to him that Chinese were slaughtering white people, and he
responded by seizing his rifle and two revolvers. In trying one of the
latter, however, it was prematurely discharged, taking the tip off a
finger and putting him _hors de combat_. Sheriff Burns could not reach
the scene until an hour after the row started and many Chinamen had
already taken their celestial flight. When he arrived, he called for a
_posse comitatus_ to assist him in handling the situation; but no one
responded. He also demanded from the leader of the mob and others that
they disperse; but with the same negative result. About that time, a
party of rioters started with a Chinaman up Commercial Street to
Main, evidently bent on hanging him to the Tomlinson & Griffith gate;
and when Burns promised to attempt a rescue if he had but two
volunteers, Judge R. M. Widney and James Goldsworthy responded and the
Chinaman was taken from his tormentors and lodged in jail. Besides
Judge Widney, Cameron E. Thom and H. C. Austin displayed great courage
in facing the mob, which was made up of the scum and dregs of the
city; and Sheriff Burns is also entitled to much credit for his part
in preventing the burning of the Chinese quarters. All the efforts of
the better element, however, did not prevent one of the most
disgraceful of all disturbances which had occurred since my arrival in
Los Angeles. On October 25th, when Coroner Joseph Kurtz impanelled his
jury, nineteen bodies of Chinamen alone were in evidence and the
verdict was: "Death through strangulation by persons unknown to the
jury." Emil Harris's testimony at the inquest, that but one of the
twenty-two or more victims deserved his fate, about hits the mark and
confirms the opinion that the slight punishment to half a dozen of the
conspirators was very inadequate.
At the time of the massacre, I heard a shot just as I was about to
leave my office, and learned that it had been fired from that part of
Chinatown facing Los Angeles Street; and I soon ascertained that it
had ended Thompson's life. Anticipating no further trouble, however, I
went home to dinner. When I returned to town, news of the riot had
spread, and with my neighbors, Cameron E. Thom and John G. Downey, I
hurried to the scene. It was then that I became an eye-witness to the
heroic, if somewhat comical parts played by Thom and Burns. The
former, having climbed to the top of a box, harangued the crowd, while
the Sheriff, who had succeeded in mounting a barrel, was also
addressing the tumultuous rabble in an effort to restore order.
Unfortunately, this receptacle had been coopered to serve as a
container, not as a rostrum; and the head of the cask under the
pressure of two hundred pounds or more of official avoirdupois
suddenly collapsed and our Worthy Guardian of the Peace dropped, with
accelerated speed, clear through to the ground, and quite
unintentionally, for the moment at least, turned grim tragedy into
grotesque comedy.
Following this massacre, the Chinese Government made such a vigorous
protest to the United States that the Washington authorities finally
paid a large indemnity. During these negotiations, Chinese throughout
the country held lamentation services for the Los Angeles victims; and
on August 2d, 1872, four Chinese priests came from San Francisco to
conduct the ceremonies.
In 1870, F. P. F. Temple, who had seen constructed two sections of the
building now known as Temple Block, made the fatal blunder of
accepting the friendly advice that led him to erect the third section
at the junction of Spring and Main streets, and to establish therein a
bank under the name of Temple & Workman. The building, costing in the
neighborhood of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, was all that
could have been desired, proving by long odds the most ornamental
edifice in the city; and when, on November 23d, 1871, the bank was
opened in its comfortable quarters on the Spring Street side of the
block, nothing seemed wanting to success. The furnishings were
elaborate, one feature of the office outfit being a very handsome
counter of native cedar, a decided advance in decoration over the
primitive bare or painted wood then common here. Neither Temple, who
had sold his fine ranch near Fort Tejón to embark in the enterprise,
nor Workman had had any practical experience in either finance or
commerce; and to make matters worse, Workman, being at that time a
very old man, left the entire management to his son-in-law, Temple, in
whom he had full confidence. It soon became evident that anybody could
borrow money with or without proper security, and unscrupulous people
hastened to take advantage of the situation. In due season I shall
tell what happened to this bank.
In the preceding spring when the Coast-line stage companies were still
the only rivals to the steamers, a movement favoring an opposition
boat was started, and by June leading shippers were discussing the
advisability of even purchasing a competitive steamer; all the
vessels up to that time having been owned by companies or individuals
with headquarters in the Northern metropolis. Matthew Keller was then
in San Francisco; and having been led to believe that a company could
be financed, books were opened for subscriptions in Los Angeles, Santa
Bárbara, San Luis Obispo and elsewhere. For lack of the necessary
support, this plan was abandoned; but late in July a meeting was held
in the Bella Union to further consider the matter. Among those present
was George Wright, long engaged in coast shipping; and he proposed to
sell the control of the _Olympia_.
H. Newmark & Company being considerably interested in the movement,
declared themselves ready to coöperate in improving the situation; for
which reason great surprise was expressed when, in December, 1871, B.
L. Peel, the commission merchant, made an attack on us, openly
charging that, although "the largest shippers in the city," we had
revoked our pledge to sustain the opposition to high freight rates,
and so had contributed toward defeating the enterprise! It is true
that we finally discouraged the movement, but for a good and
sufficient reason: Wright was in the steamship business for anything
but his health. His method was to put on a tramp steamer and then cut
passenger and freight rates ridiculously low, until the regular line
would buy him out; a project which, on former occasions, had caused
serious disturbances to business. When therefore Wright made this
offer, in 1871, H. Newmark & Company forthwith refused to participate.
I shall show that, when greater necessity required it, we took the
lead in a movement against the Southern Pacific which, for lack of
loyalty on the part of many of the other shippers, met not only with
disastrous failure but considerable pecuniary loss to ourselves.
On December 18th, 1871, Judge Murray Morrison died. Three days later,
his wife, Jennie, whom we knew as the attractive daughter of Dr.
Thomas J. White, also breathed her last.