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Show IRdjEIR BEVERLY HILLS. Well all I know Is just what I read in the papers, pa-pers, or what I see as I prowl hither and thither. Did I ever tell you about the time we steamed into the beautiful Pacific Pa-cific Ocean. Well set down mates, draw up a coil of ropes to set on, and I will tell you. We had sailed out of Los Angeles harbor. Now mind you 111 ' 1 Los Angeles is a place that had no more harbor than Claremore, Oklahoma. But by golly they just went out and dug em a harbor. Houston Texas did the same thing. Amon Carter of Ft Worth has the most ambitious plan of any of tho late harbor diggers. Ft Worth Is several hundred miles from the nearest sea gull, but Amon wants to give Ft Worth the benefit of a tidal wave. They have had drouths, floods, boll weevils, cattle fever ticks, and were struck by two visits of Jim Furgeson, but they never have tasted salt water. Its the only thing they havent tasted in a bottle But to get back to the Los Angeles harbor. There was a town called San Pedro. That had what might in a pintch, or a bad storm, be called a kind of an amateur harbor. They had stole it away from Santa Monica many years before, in a bit of political politi-cal skullduggery, as Santa Monica was where it should have been located. lo-cated. So Los Angeles said to them-Belvs them-Belvs one day, "We ought to have a harbor". Someone happened to think of this little place San Pedro having one, so they decided to take theirs. Well you dont know our town. They have a thing called "Annexation." "Annexa-tion." They dont buy you, or borrow you, they just annex you. Well they just grabbed this San Pedro by the scuff of the neck one night, and when it woke up the next morning it had a big L.A. branded right on its left hip. And it was written on the minutes of the meeting as, "We annex an-nex you for harbor purposes". And they commenced piling rocks out there, and the first thing you know they had quite a pile, but like everything every-thing in our fair land that wants to put over something, you show what a great thing it would be for the U.S. Government if Los Angeles had a harbor. Well the Government had never thought of that, but they had some Congressmen there reminding em of it. Thats what a Congressman or Senator is for, is to see that too much money dont accumilate in the National Treasury. They said "We got a million people," (old time figures) fig-ures) "We want a harbor". Now all the million had come in by land and was going out the same way, and a harbor had never entered en-tered their heads. In fact if it hadent been for reading about San Francis-cos Francis-cos we wouldnt have know what one was. But we showed the Government Gov-ernment where they could anchor near .the movie studios, where it would make it handy for the picture companies taking pictures, and by golly the Government pitched in and helped em pile rocks. And you would be surprised, they got a rock corral built away out like a cattle chute, so you wont run past the harbor, har-bor, like a wild steer will by the corral cor-ral if the chute aint there. And you would be surprised at the amount of stray ships they catch in that trap. Well the big strike had been on, and it was just in the first throes of being settled. Wait a minute 1 am wrong, I dident sail out of this harbor har-bor at all, I got a little afraid of it. I was afraid we couldent make it, so . we drove down and when we found that the boat was going to go to San Francisco, why we just loaded load-ed the plunder on it and turned right around and beat it to Frisco, beat the boat I mean. Ever since they so cruelly robbed Santa Monica from having it, I have never used it. I am on what you call a port or harbor strike. I wont sail out of It till they move it to Santa Monica. So 1 just drove 400 miles and used another harbor. Thats the best way to take a boat trip anyhow, is to load your bag- gage on and I then get in car and go and meet it when it gets there. There would be fewer sea casualties If everybody did that. But we are building what they call a yacht harbor in Santa Monica. None of us living down ' " ' there have a yacht. There Is a good many horses and a n awful lot of Fords,-but no yacht in the village. But we hope iu this "Chute" we are building there to catch a few. for a fellow on a yacht never knows or cares where he Is going nnyhow. So he had just as well wind up on Santa Monica as anywhere elso. 1934. McNaught Srduet,. Inc. |