L.A. Chamber seeks big guns to protect Southland’s coast

Cop rousts city councilman from his lunch to help canvass election returns

Ghouls ravish old Buena Vista Cemetery

Hmm. Husband says he accidentally gave his wife an overdose of morphine

Writ of habeas corpus brings girl into court, where she rejects her suitor

Motorcyclists speeding at 38 miles an hour are nabbed by bicycle officers

Hot supper will be served to women sales clerks

After fleeing from police, loafer is held ‘on suspicion’

L.A. death rate drops despite city’s sickly visitors

You, too, can look distingué in a fancy bath robe! (Adv.)

•

Mystery device for men! (Adv.)

The radium-and-milk doctor is being sued for fraud by a cancer patient

Los Angeles Herald, December 13, 1906

COAST DEFENSES ARE SUGGESTED

Protection Is Asked for Coast Near Los Angeles

Through an act of the Chamber of Commerce yesterday, . . . the Southwest may soon have one of the most thoroughly fortified and equipped harbors in the world.

It is proposed to interest Congress in the San Pedro harbor and in other points near Santa Monica and Long

To fortify San Pedro with batteries on Dead Man’s Island and disappearing batteries in the Santa Monica hills would

[A]ccording to the contentions of the businessmen, Los Angeles, with its proposed annexations and its large commercial interests, is in sore need of such protection. . . .

GET QUORUM BY POLICE AID

Officer Reads Subpoena to Sixth Warder

After waiting four hours for Councilman Houghton to appear and failing to see him, subpoenas were issued for all members of the city’s lawmaking body to insure their presence. . . .

At 8 o’clock Houghton was again missing, and every

He was finally located at 2:15 in the Imperial [Hotel], dining, by Officer Sloan.

The officer waited a few minutes until the party a

The session will be resumed today.

SAYS MILK PUNCH FAILED TO CURE

For the second time within the month, the marvelous “cures” by the milk and radium process, advertised by a certain Dr. H. Russell Burner at a “temple of health” institution, have been attacked in . . . a suit for $5,450 filed yesterday by Mrs. Rhoda E. Mitchell. . . .

Mrs. Mitchell alleges she was suffering with cancer of the breast and that she entered into contract with Burner whereby he agreed to cure her of the cancer within three months if she paid him $450.

Mrs. Mitchell alleges that . . . Dr. Burner was to furnish her with an osteopath for massage work and with radium to put into milk to drink.

Mrs. Mitchell alleges that no osteopath was supplied, that something else besides radium was supplied her and that her treatment was so careless that she is now in a worse condition than before.

Dr. Burner is well known to all the readers of the Sunday papers. He and himself are said to form one of the strongest mutual-admiration societies in Los Angeles, and he takes great delight in a large cut of himself . . . in frock coat with arm outstretched in beatific attitude, bringing “radium and milk” and other queer dope to all the world.

A few weeks ago, Burner had a long story in the daily newspapers to the effect that he had cornered the radium market, and all the radium in the world would be used in his peculiar “rest cures.”

He asserted in very black type that he had spent $50,000 for radium. Fifty thousand dollars’ worth of radium could be placed in the southwest corner of Burner’s vest pocket and leave room enough for a small family. . . .

Brother Burner has other eccentricities. Some time ago a member of his family died, and he had a large cut of the departed relative made and run in his advertising space, with the heaviest black border the print shop offered.

He invited everyone to attend the funeral.

Los Angeles Herald, December 25, 1906

Find Woman Dead in Bed

Mrs. Joseph Lederer, wife of a machinist from Cincinnati, who arrived in Los Angeles Sunday, was found dead in her room at the Brunswick Hotel, Sixth and Hill streets . . . .

According to Patrolman Dave Adams, . . . Lederer told him that his wife was a sufferer from asthma

Lederer stated he had forgotten the physician’s orders and gave her too many.

Detectives are now working on the case, and an inquest will be held tomorrow.

Breaks Her Admirer’s Heart

. . . Felix Ybarra, gay in the garments of sunny Mexico, . . . desperate for a sight of his beloved one, the dainty Severina Bustus, took the unusual step of swearing out a writ of habeas corpus to have the girl produced in court.

Yesterday was the date set for hearing and Ybarra appeared, dressed in his best, for if these American courts of which he understood but little would give

It was bad enough for the mother to take the witness stand and prove that her daughter was not yet 18 years of age; it was worse to take the witness stand himself and agree that he did not know the girl’s age; but it broke his heart to hear the petite Severina testify that . . . she would not marry Ybarra because she did not love him.

Los Angeles Herald, December 18, 1906

Speeders Are Fined

William Pietsch and Harry DeAllen were found guilty for violating the speed ordinance by Police Justice Austin yesterday and were fined $20 each.

The two young men were said to

For the Women Who Work

. . . supper is to be served hot every night from 5:30 to 8 o’clock by the Y.W.C.A. secretaries for the benefit of the women who work . . . [evenings] in the stores.

This will not be discontinued until after Christmas.

Hundreds of the clerks in the department stores who have to work late get either an unwholesome or a cold dinner because they cannot afford a better, but the Y.W.C.A. will serve at a nominal price within the reach of all.

Los Angeles Herald, December 14, 1906

Report Decrease in Death Rate

Los Angeles can boast of a lower death rate last year, notwithstanding the increasing army of health seekers and half-dying visitors who seek balmy California, but often too late.

For the fiscal year ending November 20, the Health Department reports 3,740 deaths, . . . or 15.16 per 1,000 of the population, estimated at 250,000. . . .

The large number of health seekers who come to Los Angeles in advanced stages of incurable disease is a potent factor in causing this [high] death rate. . . .

There were 20 homicides, 15 of whom were male. Of these, three were Negroes and one a Chinese.

Of the 3,743 deaths, 743, or 20 percent, were due to tuberculosis.

There were 88 deaths between 1 and 2 years, 87 between 2 and 5.

There were but 31 cases of enteritis under 2 years of age, which speaks well for the milk supply of the city. . . .

Concerning tuberculosis, the report says:

The enforcement of the anti-expectoration ordinance, the fumigation of all the rooms of houses in which tuberculosis patients have lived or died, the sanitary inspection of tenements and lodging houses and the compulsory notification of cases by physicians, all of which are provided for by an ordinance now before the City Council, it is hoped will reduce the mortality from this disease.

Many incipient cases would recover . . . if the city and county would provide a suitable sanitarium in the hills for this class of patients.

Los Angeles Herald, December 19, 1906

Starts to Run and Is Caught

Joseph Farrel was arrested late last night on Central Avenue near Ascot Park on a charge of suspicion.

Officers Henderson and May saw Farrel loafing in an alley with several other men. When Farrel saw the officer, he started to run, but he was caught before he had gone far.

When taken to the Central Police Station, he alleged that he had run because he had been drinking beer in an alley and was afraid he would be arrested for doing this.

The police did not accept his story with much credulity, and he will be kept in jail until his record can be exposed.

Los Angeles Herald, December 25, 1906

Ghouls Disturb Bones of Dead

Ghouls are said to have been ravishing the graves in the old Calvary Cemetery on Buena Vista Street [now North Broadway].

Many coffins are said to have been taken from there, while numerous coffins have been broken open for the apparent purpose of learning if they concealed any jewels.

Yesterday morning visitors . . . discovered that the brick tomb in the northwest corner had been broken into recently and that four bodies had been taken from it.

. . . it was impossible to learn the names of those who occupied the tomb.

In former days this was the most important cemetery in Los Angeles,

Ten years ago the cemetery was abandoned, and since that time . . . ghouls have made frequent visits to it.

Something decidedly novel in the skating line . . . has been developed.

It is nothing less than a motor power skate, patented by a young Negro, Henry Beauford of Kansas City.

Beauford is at present in Los Angeles and wishes to dispose of his invention.

The young man is an African of the veriest type, so far as appearances go, but

The rolling apparatus is a “foot automobile,” pure and simple, modeled along the lines of the chug wagon.

A regulation stride is required in starting, but once the motor moves, the rink devotee need do nothing but place his feet together and

A cord is connected with the exhaust valve, by which the skater may stop at will.

But two wheels are used, provided with pneumatic tires. . . .

Mr. Beauford, who desires to place his product on the market, has quarters at the Agricultural Park car barns.

Hamburger’s Store

What the hell is THIS?