The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, January 31, 1904, Page 14

THE SAN by Thomas Fitch.) son who nas all mankind ease the value In fac invests wise- tory and 1 count- nd in the e busy C 1 world. treasure pitiless velops shions new for- But t set boom, has con- e roads irection. »d and les, rbara dnd sleepy d doz- d high out of d wered works and settle- selling real merchants. ted to be a a free 2 to the s expe: premises. One enterprising real es- tate firm chartered a column in a daily journal and changed the adver- tisement every other day. I extract from an old newspaper file some speci- mens of the advertising of that day: “On Wednesday afternoon at 1 o'clock we will sell at public outery to the highest bidder the Pacific Ocean, draped with a western sky of scarlet and gold; we will sell a bay filled with white winged ships; we will sell a southern horizon rimmed with a choice collection of purple mountains, carved in castles and tur- rets and domes; we will sell a frost- less, bracing, wa vet unlanguid air, braided in d in with sunshine, and odored with the breath of flowers. The purchaser of this joblot of climate and scenery will be presented with a deed to a piece of land 50x100 feet, known as lot A, in block 251. The title to the land will be guaranteed nt owner. The title to d sunset, the hills and . the breath of the life-glv- ozone and the song of the birds is aranteed by the beneficent God, who bestowed them in all their beauty and afluence upon block 251, and attached them thereto by Almighty warrant as an incorporeal hereditament to run with the land forever.” by the the the Sometimes the advertiser extolled his wares verse 2500—Half cash. On fair slope of Middletown Warmed by day and kissed by the nights. moistened dew Reposes fair block number 2. Occasionally in their advertisements these gentilemen would tell the truth, just to prove to the \.arld that ghe was mighty, even if she did lie in the bottom of a well. The following is a nearly literal copy of such an adver- ment: "OR SALE—BIlock 602, Middle- town Heights Addition. This choice property is situated partly on the nearly perpendicular sides and partly at the bottom of a deep arroyo. Par- ties desiring visit it' will need a rope ladder and a pair of steel-lined, cactus-proof pantaloons. It drains a factory, two slaughter-houses a Jone-yar It would make an the And with morning’s silver soap d admirable picnic ground for tourists from Chicago, for the smells of it would remind them of ‘Home, Sweet Home.” It could be cut up to advan- tage into post holes. A splendid view of the sky can be obtained from it by lying upon your back. It will be sold at a sacrifice, as the owner de- sires to go abroad—as far abroad as possible.” The next day a customer appeared. “How much, said he, “do you ask for this block of land we hundred and fifty dollars,” was the answer. “I 1 take it,” said he, “make out your “Do you know what you are d - buying? Have you seen it?” said the agent. “Yes,” was the answer, “T ‘have seen as much of it as I could by looking into the hole where it is; It's prétty bad, though not so bad as you state. Anyhow, I'll buy it. Here's your money.” The deed was soon executed. tranger,” said the real estate man, “I don’t usually pry inte the business of a customer, but I would really like to hear what is your object in buying this block.” “I am the proprietor of a saloon on the water front,” was the answer. “Sail- ors get drunk and get into trouble and I have to furnisf bail. I have plenty of money, but to be eligible ar a surety T must be the owner of rea, estate, Now I can qualify. See?” It may not be denied that the vendors of “dirt” oceasionally in- dulged in strategy. When, on a De- cember morning, a train filled with tourists from the blizzard tortured Northwest would roll into a Southern California seaside city, and the excur- sionists would journey past rose gar- dens and Orange groves, and behold men and women bathing in the surf, they were prepared to become real estate investors. They did not know that a syndicate of real estate brokers paid the bathers $1 per pair each to bathe in the winter waters, and that some of the gardens were kept alive with pumped water costing $1 for each 1000 gallons. The ocean water was not really very cold, but people did not usually bathe in it in Decem- ber, and the fresh water was a trifle costly for profitable agriculture, but the traffic was able to bear it. A gentleman who, had previously been connected with a dime museum as “The Human Frog in a Glass Tank,” opened a real estate office in San Diego, and secured free advertise- ments by having a friend tumble off the steamer wharf into the bay, and immediately plunging in and rescuing the drowning man. Of course, he re- ceived a half-column write-up for his heroic act. But after this had occur- red three times, the reporters were a little “shy” and our friend had to look up a new sensation. He secured it. His wife had ex- hibited in the same museum as “The Lady with an Iron Jaw.” She became excited over an alleged delinquency of “The Human Fro and acted so violently that she was arrested. She struggled with the officers and they handcuffed her; but she liberated her- self by biting off her handcuffs, and they let her go. She and the “Human Frog” adjusted their difficulties, and the next morning the real estate firm of which he was a member had an- other column of free advertising. A company of speculators proposed to establish a Monte Carlo at the Iit- tle town of Tia Tuana on the Mexican line, half an hour’s ride by rail from San Diego. On the American side of the village there is a hot spring, ¥4 to be efficacious for rheumatism. It was proposed to erect there a hotel e ' ABSENT-MINDED JONES---85 C.Derickson K. M. Whitehead.) village stores s Dry Goods, Groceries, Hardware, etc.,” but there was no “Co.” It was put on by Jones because he thought well and somehow in- crease importance. Salathiel Jones was Jones & Co., and the only Jc and he was a mystery to all He was a successful he same time he nded that he was scores of people. all odds the largest nd for miles ears he had Y ks in his employ. day, to keep up with the I to a young by the & Co., it would look nes who knew him s by of (its ki ie Trent made her nd the counter at wh e women customers made hases. Miss Minnie, Jones had worthy widow and a smart ar ooking daughter to eke out the e, and he deserved all credit for ue, he calied her it half of the time, occasions when he and wondered where he have seen her before, but he was a good employer and she a smart salesgirl, and things went along without any trouble. One of the three male clerks in the store was med James Thomas, and was ger ly understood in the t he was “sweet” on Minnie. e said that it was through his in- fluence that she secured her place, but that was not the truth. One of the other clerks was a bachelor of forty-five. Nobody could ever understand how he ned to mercantile life. He seemed 1 be s slow-witted as he was slow- footed, and sonal appearance was anything but prepossessing. It was dc ul if any other merchant except Jones would have employed him at wages,'but Jones wanted honest people about him, and he had the high- est confidence in Albert Ross. had been running smoothly at the store for months and months, when there came such an interruption as had never been known before. A woman lost a purse containing fifty dollars. There was not a half a dozen people in the store at the time, and she was sure she had it in her hand when she sat down at the counter presided over by Miss Trent. Search was made at once and continued for half an hour. Jones had Jeft the store five minutes before the alarm was raised to get an early dinner and attend a funeral, and he did not learn of the loss until sev- eral hours after. Then he proceeded to & judicial examination. He called in the constable and the justice of the peace, and the employes were examined and cross-examined. The loser was firm in saying that no other person except Miss Minnie wa8 at the counter when she missed her purse, and although she made no charge there could be but one inference. She herself was permitted to search the protesting and iIndignant girl, and a thorough search was made above and under the counters and all over the store, but nothing was brollght to light. Then Jones did the right thing. He handed the woman $50 with his compliments and regrets and said nothing further to the clerk Nothing further would have been said by any one had not the woman talked. Anything i= a segsation in a village. The fact that $50 had been lost in Jones & Co’s was a big sensation—bigger than a circus'and a Fourth of July in one. People at once divided off. One- half of them were sure that the daugh- ter of the widow had yielded to the sudden temptation and concealed the purse for her future benefit; the other half charitably argued that some one else had picked it up, or even that there had been no loss at all. Jones & Co. tried to pass the affair over and hush it up, but the people wouldn't have it - there w sensation now. While Miss Trent's character was cleared, people hositated to believe that' Albert Ress was a thief. However, when a man says he is a thief, swears that he is a thief, and demands that he be sent tc prison as a thief, what are you goins to do about it? The key to unlock th mystery was kicking around under foot all the time, but nobody could see it. The trial in the higher court came along in about a month, and Ross pleaded guilty and was sent to State prison for a year. He took the sen- tence meekly, and in a couple of days had disappeared from sight of the peo- ple who had known him for fifteen’ long years and believed in his honesty every day. Miss Trent returned._to the store, and things went on in the old way except with Jones & Co. Jones did not for one instant believe the girl guilty; neither did he believe that Ross took the purse. He went ebout scratching his head and talking to himself and ftrying to remember something, and 4’ was one day, after one of his “fi d lasted him for “half an hour, and he suddenly jumped up and down and used a swear-word. Next instant he clapped on his hat that way. It was a good thing to hang and started on a run for home, he be- onto until some woman eloped or some man stole sheep, and it became a lead- ing and a burning question. It resulted in quarrels between neighbors, and those quarrels finally resulted in Miss ing a widower with a housekeeper. In fifteen minutes he was back at the store with the purse in his hand. It was as easy as breaking ‘eggs. Jones had passed the counter while Trent being called a thief and having the two women were looking at some to take legal cognizance of it by bring- ing a suit for slander. The defendant in that suit swore out a warrant for the girl on a charge of having appropriated the 350, and there was as pretty a ket- tle of fish as a town ever saw. Jones & Co. and the three clerks were placed in an unfortunate position. ‘While all of them fully believed in the girl’s innocence their testimony on a suit would hardly favor her. 7f the purse was lost at her counter, as le loser was ready to swear, then it must be admitted that only the two were there at the time. Things certainly looked very bad for Miss Trent, and the mental worry had put her under the doctor's care, when & strange thing happened. Albert Ross, 1 e old bachelor clerk, went before a Justice of the Peace and chargel him- self with the offense and made a full confession. In this confession he ad- mitted to passing the counter while clerk and customer were busy looking at goods, and to have seen the purse and slipped it into his pocket. He had destroyed the purse, but he ~ : ready to restore the money. He asked to be arrested, tried and punished, and in the course of a week he was azraigned and bound over to a higher court for trial. If there had been excitement before . garment. He had seen the purse and picked it up to hand it along to its owner. A clerk had called him at the moment and he had started off..The purse had gone into his coat-tail pocket, walked home to dinner with him, and when he changed his coat to go to the funeral it was left in the old one. Upon his return he had put on another, and so for weeks the missing money had been hanging in his wardrobe, “Why did you do it?” asked Miss Trent of the homely and {ll-shaped old bachelor as he returned from prison with his character fully cleared. “I—1 thought I was guilty,” lamely replied. “No! you thought T was guilty!” “Not that, Miss Trent. I—I knew that James loved you, and that you— you loved him, and-that—that—"" “Then you thought him guilty and sacrificed yourself for the both of us?” “Well—er—well, you ses, I'm get- ting old and homely—and I never ex- pect to marry—and—er—well, it's all over with.” % And so it was, except that the girl threw her arms around his neck and kissed him and her tears dampened his wrinkled cheeks—the first tears and the first kiss since he in his mother’s arms. et Byt he FRANCISCO SUNDAY and bathhouses, and build a casino on the line. Everything except the gambling tables was to be on the American side, where gambling is a statutory crime. The tables were to be in Mexico, where no law existed to restrain games of chance. Yet looking to the possibility of such law being enacted there, it was planned to have walls of thick stone, without openings of any kind, around that part of the casino where the roulette wheels were to be situated, then, if arrests were made, the Mexican offi- cers would be compelled to cross th line with their priseners, and so soon :z they did that, they must let them The scheme came to grief, because, under the treaty, a strip one hundred feet wide between the two countries was reserved for a road, and neither republic would allow a stone wall to be built across this international high- way. ., Mexican Lower California shared to some extent in the “boom™ of its neighbor. It would have shared to a greater extent if there had been great- er security for property. Under the rule of Diaz Mexico made giant strides, but until recently it was on the peninsula of Lower California and in Sonora a barbarism masquer- ading as a government, and its offi- cials made no attempt to conceal their corruption. A Governer of a Mexican Pacific commonwealth was empow- ered to grant a right of way and other concessions to an American Railway Company. The attorney of the com- pany visited his Excellency and read to him the text of the desired conces- sion. The Governor listened carefully and then remarked in a naive man- ner (it should be spelled with a “k"), ““And if I sign this, how much do I get for myself?” The railroad attorney replied, “I am authorized to pay your CALLL Excellency $20,000, and to assure you that you will be perfectly protected.” “Protected, how?" queried the Gover- nor, “The money will be charged in the accounts of the company as paid to our firm for legal services,” said the lawyer, “and nobody will ever know of the transaction but you and—" ‘‘Madre de Dios,” said the Governor, “but you Americans are altogether too nice. Make it $25,000 andwyou may publish the transaction in the news- papers.” An attachment suit for a consider- able sum was instituted by an Ameri- can company in a border Mexican court. The plaintiff was, under the Mexican law, entitled to a writ of at- tachment on filing the necessary bond and though the writ could only be signed by the Judge, the act was sub- stantially clerical. “Where,” said his Honor as he poised his pen over the inkstand, “do I come in on this?” The American lawyer replied, “I do not understand your Honor.” “Oh,” remarked the Judge, “it is not diM- cult to understand me. My salary is small and it is thrée-quarters in ar- rears. I do not get such a chance as this very often. I will sign this writ for a thousand-dollars cash.” The lawyer looked horror stricken, and his Honor hastened to add, “But I will decide the case in favor of your com- pany all the way through for the same money.” ‘Was the writ issued? I beg your pardon, but I am not on the witness stand. i In San Diego the apex of the boom was reached somewhat sooner than in other localities and the smash came very suddenly. There is a bald, steep, rocky, sugar-loaf mountain some miles below San Diego. A goat might - climb it—with an effort; but an In- telligent goat would prefer to go round it, for nothing grows upon it except niggerhead cactus, and they would thrive upon the mor- tar seams in a stone wall. This mountain now faces the artificial lake known as Sweetwater Dam, but at the time of which I write there was no dam there, except such ejacula- tory cuss word of that ilk as might have been left by a stockholder of the San Diego Land and Town Company upon the head of the recalcitrant pro- prietor of adjacent valley land, who refused to allow his barren acres to, be converted into a lake, except at a prohibitory price, and thus entailed upon the company the delay and cost of a condemnation suit, with the pros- pect of a sympathetic jury making the conscienceless corporation pay a big price for “the home” upon which no- body lived, and nobody could live ex- cept a bachelor grasshopper, and he would find it\necessary to be frugal in his diet to the verge of parsimony. A company of speculators bought this mountain for a trifling sum. They laid it out into town lots, on paper, for no surveyor could have reached its summit in a straight line without the aid of a pair of wings or a balloon. They mapped it and were about to advertise it, “commanding views fronting Sweet- water Lake, on a line of railroad now being constructéd. Lots at $50 each, one-fifth cagh, balance in two, four, six and eight months. Price uniform. First come, first served.” About 9 o'elock on Saturday morning the real. gstate agent, with a blue print map before him,” was standing at his desk writing an advertisement of the new addition for publication in the evening paper when half & dozen loungers looked over peated two others. “All right, gentie= men,” replied the urbane agent of sub- urban property. “I am really not ready, but I will try and accommodate you. Fort a line.” Before the @rst purchaser had selected his lots and recelved his receipt the line had increased to & dezen. It soon extended to the side- walk. Passersby inquired into the rea- son for it, and joined it. It grew faster than purchasers could be dispatched with their receipts, and each purchaser made an advertiser of himself as he flaunted his receint and boasted of his luck as an early bird in securing a de- sirable worm. The line reached down the sireet for a block, and when at § ©o’clocic at night the sale stopped nearly all the valuable town property on Sweetwater Lake had been sold. and the safe of the real estate man was crowded with manv thousands of dol- lars in gold and greenbacks—"“first pay- ments in town lots.” No second payment was ever made. The next day (Sunday) every livery stable in San Diego was emptied, and that afternoon hundreds of dusty, dis- gusted investors returned from inspec- tion of their investments, and their re- marks were, as a rule, altogether un- parliamentary. The next day, Monday, there was an awful flatness in the San Diego real estate market—not any marked fall in prices, but a sudden and almost total cessation of sales. By Saturday night the real estate boom was as flat as if it had been used for a settee by a cor- pulent elephant, and the boom was burst. The city has since revived, and on a surer foundation is regaining its losses, for its magnificent harbor, its match- less climate and its commanding situa- tion are factors that must command his shoulder. “Here,” said one of them,*for it great and permanent growth, “I want some of those lots. “And so do L” said another. “And I, and L"” re- but “it has been a long time betweem