Show BOOM RESULTS Doleful tales of poverty suffering and want come from Los Angeles Two years ago all eyes were turned in the direction of the City of the Angels > and a good many feet also moved in that direction Extra trains of cars were daily running therefrom the east and the transportation facilities of the railway companies were taxed to the utmost to carry the people who wanted to go thither There was a boom on and many feared they would not reach the place in time to get any of the climate cli-mate or before the fruit was gone Men women and children walked the I street at night slept under sheds or made their homes in canvas tents vhicbjCons derate individuals permitted them to pitch on the sand lots until green and enthusiastic persons with money came along and paid fabulous laud Business houses prices for the i dwelling houses hotels and lodging I houses sprang up like magic blocks and even miles of bricK stone and mortar mor-tar being laid At the speed at which the place was going Los Angeles would soon have been the largest and most populous city in America Of all the booms hers was the biggest the most sudden and phenomenal and the least substantial People were actually crazy 30 reckless and unreasonable had they become and such firm hold had the Los Angeles mania taken upon them They would not listen to words of caution and defied de-fied those who bade them beware Observant thoughtful people could foresee what was coming They knew that the boom could not last and predicted pre-dicted the crash which was inevitable It is now more than a year since the decline set in and it has been as swift as the ascent was rapid Recently one of the newspapers devoted over twelve pages of fine type to a list of the delinquent taxes on lands which two years ago were rated at millions Today the owners cannot or will not pay the taxes in many instances it is said the land will not fetch under the hammer more than enough to satisfy the collector col-lector A gentleman writing from there says there are fully fifteen thousand thou-sand people in the city without visible means of support and unable to pay railway fare out They tramp the streets in day time and at night find shelter in stables dry goods boxes and houses maintained by charity The hotels and lodging houses are by no means full and rents are about 30 percent per-cent of what they were in 1887 There are hundreds of vacant dwelling houses which the owners would beglad to lease for enough to pay the taxes and keep the places in repair Formerly the trains left hundreda in the city everyday every-day now no more get off than sop at any ordinary villagebut more get on Briefly there has been a complete collapse col-lapse of the Los Angeles boom and the city is eminently worse off than if it I had indulged it no phenomenal growth It will take years to recover from the I black eye and regain its lost reputation reputa-tion Climate has come to be a hiss and a term of contempt and a boomer is looked upon as worse than a thief Los Angeles has before her a long period of financial prostration The business failures which are nowreported as forty or fifty a week will continue until the i speculators have paid for their recklessness I i reckless-ness and reparation been made fo i doing business by wrong methods THE HERALD does not refer tc use things for the purpose of refiec ng on Los Angeles but rather that Sal L eke may congratulate herself th t the boom which threatened to tarn peoples heads here as it had done elsEwhere else-where quickly subsided and left the city to grow and progress by regular and legitimate methods The advance has not been as swift as soxe would have made it but tke ground covered has been held The growth has been healthy and the foothold foot-hold is firm If we have indulged in no mad excitement and wild speculation specula-tion neither are we to be afflicted by a financial crash the population has not increased rapidly and it will continue con-tinue to grow there has been no craze for building and the result is that the demand for houses is always a little ahead of the supply Ours is decidedly de-cidedly the better way for everybody save the few speculators and what is I good for them is generally bad for the I community |