Whoever Has Deservedly Failed In The
Older States Is Sure At Least Once In His Life To Think Of Redeeming His
Fortunes In California.
Once on the Pacific slope the difficulties in
the way of his return seem insurmountable.
The dread of the winter's
cold is in most cases a sufficient reason for never going back. Thus San
Francisco, by force of circumstances, has become the hopper into which
fall incompetents from all the world, and from which few escape. The
city contains more than four hundred thousand people. Of these, a vast
number, thirty thousand to fifty thousand, it may be, have no real
business in San Francisco. They live from hand to mouth, by odd jobs
that might be better done by better people; and whatever their success
in making a living, they swell the army of discontent, and confound all
attempts to solve industrial problems. In this rough estimate I do not
count San Francisco's own poor, of which there are some but not many,
but only those who have drifted in from the outside. I would include,
however, not only those who are economically impotent, but also those
who follow the weak for predatory ends. In this last category I place a
large number of saloon-keepers, and keepers of establishments far worse,
toward which the saloon is only the first step downward; a class of
so-called lawyers, politicians and agents of bribery and blackmail; a
long line of soothsayers, clairvoyants, lottery agents and joint
keepers, besides gamblers, sweaters, promoters of "medical institutes,"
magnetic, psychical and magic "healers" and other types of unhanged, but
more or less pendable, scoundrels that feed upon the life-blood of the
weak and foolish. The other cities of California have had a similar
experience. Each has its reputation for hospitality, and each has a
considerable population which has come in from other regions because
incapable of making its own way. It is not the poor and helpless alone
who are the victims of imposition. There are fools in all walks of life.
Many a well-dressed man or woman can be found in the rooms of the
clairvoyant or the Chinese "doctor." In matters of health, especially,
men grasp at the most unpromising straws. In certain cities of
California there is scarcely a business block that did not contain at
least one human leech under the trade name of "healer," metaphysical,
electrical, astral, divine or what not. And these will thrive so long as
men seek health or fortune with closed eyes and open hands.
In no way has the unearned increment been more mischievous than in the
booming of towns. With the growth of towns comes increase in the value
of the holdings of those who hold and wait. If the city grows rapidly
enough, these gains may be inordinately great. The marvelous beauty of
Southern California and the charm of its climate have impressed
thousands of people. Two or three times this impression has been
epidemic. At one time almost every bluff along the coast, from Los
Angeles to San Diego and beyond, was staked out in town lots. The
wonderful climate was everywhere, and everywhere men had it for sale,
not only along the coast, but throughout the orange-bearing region of
the interior. Every resident bought lots, all the lots he could hold.
The tourist took his hand in speculation. Corner lots in San Diego, Del
Mar, Azusa, Redlands, Riverside, Pasadena, anywhere brought fabulous
prices. A village was laid out in the uninhabited bed of a mountain
torrent, and men stood in the streets in Los Angeles, ranged in line,
all night long, to wait their turn in buying lots. Land, worthless and
inaccessible, barren cliffs' river-wash, sand hills, cactus deserts'
sinks of alkali, everything met with ready sale. The belief that
Southern California would be one great city was universal. The desire to
buy became a mania. "Millionaires of a day," even the shrewdest lost
their heads, and the boom ended, as such booms always end, in utter
collapse.
Mr. T. S. Van Dyke, of San Diego, has written of this episode: "The
money market tightened almost on the instant. From every quarter of the
land the drain of money outward had been enormous, and had been balanced
only by the immense amount constantly coming in. Almost from the day
this inflow ceased money seemed scarce everywhere, for the outgo still
continued. Not only were vast sums going out every day for water-pipe,
railroad iron, cement, lumber, and other material for the great
improvements going on in every direction, most of which material had
already been ordered, but thousands more were still going out for
diamonds and a host of other things already bought - things that only
increase the general indebtedness of community by making those who
cannot afford them imitate those who can. And tens of thousands more
were going out for butter, eggs, pork, and even potatoes and other
vegetables, which the luxurious boomers thought it beneath the dignity
of millionaires to raise."
But the normal growth of Los Angeles and her sister towns has gone on,
in spite of these spasms of fever and their consequent chills. Their
real advantages could not be obscured by the bursting of financial
bubbles. By reason of situation and climate they have continued to
attract men of wealth and enterprise, as well as those in search of
homes and health.
The search for the unearned increment in bodily health brings many to
California who might better have remained at home. The invalid finds
health in California only if he is strong enough to grasp it. To one who
can spend his life out of doors it is indeed true that "our pines are
trees of healing," but to one confined to the house, there is little
gain in the new conditions. To those accustomed to the close heat of
Eastern rooms the California house in the winter seems depressingly
chilly.
I know of few things more pitiful than the annual migration of hopeless
consumptives which formerly took place to Los Angeles, Pasadena, and San
Diego.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 5 of 6
Words from 4046 to 5067
of 5818
