From the Los Angeles Times, May 29, 1901

SAN FERNANDO WATER DEAL.

Judge R.M. Widney Sells the System to F.A Rindge, Who
Will Make Extensive Improvements.

Judge R.M. Widney has sold to F.A. Rindge the San Fernando water system, and the new owner will make extensive improvements on the property. [See Notes, below, for more on Widney and Rindge.]

The system consists of thirty-seven miles of iron and steel pipe, ranging from two feet to four inches in size. It is mostly for irrigating purposes, although some water is furnished for domestic use.

The system supplies the towns of San Fernando and Pacoima, as well as the orange, lemon and olive orchards on the Maclay ranch.

The source of supply for the system is the artesian well belt and the mountain waters from the Pacoima Creek, as well as a subterranean dam across the creek. During the last three years the entire colony has been fully irrigated, and all the fruit groves are in first-class condition.

Mr. Rindge is sinking a new twelve-inch test well in the artesian belt, where there are already eight wells. He expects to develop an additional water supply of several thousand inches.

The consideration of the sale was $40,000 in cash, and other property.

From the Los Angeles Times, May 29, 1901

SLIPPERY
JOHN.

Two Chinese Arraigned Before the United States Commissioners Here Yesterday — Hearing This Morning.

Lee Fong, alias Lee Chong, and Lee Look, two slick specimens of the heathen Chinee, were before United States Commissioner Van Dyke yesterday, charged with having unlawfully entered the United States, and were held for hearing until this morning at 10 o'clock.

The first-mentioned Chinaman talks English, and is one of a number who, some months ago, went through from San Francisco to Mexico in bond, and when overhauled, a day or two ago, with a companion, had made his way back as far as Needles, where they were captured by Inspector Putnam. . . .

Le Fong claims to have been in the United States for many years, and that he never has been out, and probably counting on his pigeon English to help strengthen his argument. Deputy McCulloch avers that there is no getting away from the description and photograph, placed on records when he went through in bond, and he probable facts are, that he went back to China, sold his certificate of citizenship to some other Chinaman, and himself took passage from China to Mexico, relying upon his knowledge of this country and its language to get him safe back to California without detection.

A Chinaman taken to San Francisco some months ago and deported was a case of this kind. He had been here for twenty years, but acknowledged that he had “lost” his certificate while in China on a visit.
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From the Los Angeles Times, May 29, 1901

A Lively Interview

How One of Our Public Men Receives Newspaper Reporters.
(Drawn by G. Bowers)

Panel 1: A newspaperman mounts the steps of a fine house at the door of which is a sign reading: “Reporters Always Welcome. Ring Bell.” He does so.

Panel 2: “How do you do, sir?” the reporter begins to say, as a mechanical hand grasps his arm and pulls him inside. He loses his notebook and hat in the process.

Panel 3: The reporter finds himself in some kind of hideous cage. The mechanical hand shakes him violently, another hand, bearing spikes on its palm, pats him on the back and a rake-like contrivance tears off his jacket from above.

Meanwhile, a cylinder phonograph recites mechanically from the floor:

“Shake hands I am always glad to receive a representative of your paper sir.”

Panel 4: Claws grip the reporter as he is mechanically pounded from the back by a padded piston and booted in the rear by a pulley-like foot. A jet of black liquid strikes him in the face.

The phonograph recording goes on:

“You may put me down as being an earnest believer in printer’s ink your paper has always treated all public questions in the fairest possible manner and I am glad of this opportunity to — ”

Panel 5: The mechanical objects twirl him mercilessly, a robotic arm hits him with a hammer, and the voice continues:

“— grant you an interview and at the same time attest to the power of the press in bringing about many needed reforms and furthermore —”

Panel 6: The blackened reporter is ejected from the house and a voice calls from within, “Good day sir.”

(In the original, this final panel was printed upside down, which certainly indicates that a human being placed it in the form, not a machine.)
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Notes

Robert M. Widney:

“The first rail transit line was a horse car line named THE SPRING & WEST SIXTH RAILROAD. It was incorporated February 6, 1874, with a capital stock of $12,000. Its route was from the Plaza on Main to Spring to 1st to Fort (Broadway) to 4th to Hill to 6th to Pearl (Figueroa). Heading this project was Judge Robert M. Widney, an attorney, whose incentive to build the line was to afford a dependable means of transportation for his wife; the Widney residence was way out in the country on Hill near 5th.” From Horse Car Lines, by Gale Edward Vandeventer.

University of Southern California “founder Robert M. Widney, just prior to the founding of our university in 1880, presided over a group that protected the Chinese community of Los Angeles from violence by anti-immigrant agitators. One story relates how Widney, shotgun in hand, successfully defended the Chinese community from a mob attack.” From Diverse From the First by Michael S. Carter.

Widney was the nephew of former state senator Charles Maclay, who founded the city of San Fernando in 1874 after having purchased 50,000 acres of land (including the San Fernando Mission) from the DeCelis family. You can find an interesting exchange of letters between Widney and a DeCelis heir concerning the former’s eviction of some Indians from the land in 1885 by clicking here. Do a search for “Widney” when you reach that page.

 

Frederick Hastings Rindge:

He was owner of the 13,000 acre Malibu Ranch. His daughter, Rhoda, and her husband, Merritt H. Adamson, established the Adohr ("Rhoda" spelled backward) Stock Farms, which became the world’s largest milk producer. From Find-a-Grave.

Fire “repeatedly menaced the Malibu area throughout the 19th century. During the boom of the late 1880s, the entire ex-Tapia latifundium was sold at $10 per acre to the Boston Brahmin millionaire Frederick Rindge. In his memoirs, Rindge described his unceasing battles against squatters, rustlers and, above all, recurrent wildfire. The great fire of 1903, which raced from Calabasas to the sea in a few hours, incinerated Rindge’s dream ranch in Malibu Canyon and forced him to move to Los Angeles, where he died in 1905. ” From Let Malibu Burn: A Political History of the Fire Coast, by Mike Davis.

 

Chinese Immigration:

“By the 1880s, Chinese occupied three sides of El Pueblo Plaza and areas south and east. In its heyday around 1900 with a population of 3,000, Old Chinatown had eight streets, hundreds of buildings and stores, several restaurants, three temples, eight missionary churches, a Chinese school and a theater for Chinese operas. It became an urban center for laborers and farm workers.” From the Chinese-American Museum in Los Angeles.
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For a personal look at Los Angeles in the 1920s and 1930s, click for a new book by George Garrigues
He Usually Lived With a Female: The Life of a California Newspaperman
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