The Logan Republican

How Sunday School People Put Long Beach "on the Bum"

It is Only Six Times as Large as it Was Six Years Ago, and the Town is so Dead as to Feel nothing But Prosperity.

One of the great arguments offered by saloonkeepers and many sane business men against a "no-license" town or a "dry" town. is that such towns are always dead. The following from the Stockton Record. in reference to Long Beach. California. besides being a readable article completely disproves the idea advanced by those who want "booze-joints" in every town. After making the statement that Long Beach now has a population of 19,000, the Record says:

Four years ago Long Beach had 3,000 people within its confines, so I am informed. This was the summer time mark.when the railroads brought there people who were attracted by the fact that it was a clean resort. The moral atmosphere and the sea breezes were its assets. From 3,000 to 19,000 in five years! Will the reader stop and think what a tremendous growth that is? Having fixed that in mind. let us take up some other facts about Long Beach. Let us consider some of the characteristics of the life of its people.

Regular Sunday School Town.

Strange as it may sound to our wide open ears. Long Beach is a Sunday School town of the most depressing kind.

'The no-license crank early decided to put the town"on the bum."

They cut out the saloons and wasted their time in building hotels, fine houses. business houses, good

streets

and

other accessories of a cheap town.

These pinch-faced Puritans improved their beach, laid out parks, and tolerated preachers.

There is hardly any necessity for saying, after this brief statement of their muddle-pated policy, that the barriers were up against prosperity and advancement.

But, some how, the perversity of human nature proved to be their undoing. Eastern people came and looked over their back fences. They began to sneak in. The Easterners thought it was a good kindergarten in which to raise their families.

These Things Happened.

The Long Beachers made their fence higher and stronger against "necessary evils."

But the people kept coming.

Banks were opened.

Storekeepers spread their wares.

Streets were improved.

Houses and hotels began to multiply.

Electric lights began to blink.

The railroads began to take notice.

Long Beach was not only on the ocean's side, but on the map.

The new ones were Eastern people.

Some had money. Others had labor.

They had a diversity of town building necessities. One thing they had in common -a love of decency.

How Values Advance.

I was told about a piece of land on Locust street which sold in May for $12,000. It sold two months later for $16,500. A few days before my visit the owner refused $20,000.

New houses are so common as to hardly excite notice. but a hotel costing $50,000 will attract some attention. A few weeks ago the contract was let for the building of such a hotel.

It will be located on the beach.

Public Improvements.

The great wharf and pavilion are wonders of stability and detail. I was informed that nearly $200,000 have been spent on this model piece of work. The supporting piers are built of concrete. The wharf has two decks. so to speak. The upper is for pedestrians and the lower for carriages.

Everything is spick and span. clean and inviting. The sum of $18,000 is paid annually by the city for music in the pavilion.

Not So Very "Tight."

Recently a mass meeting was called to discuss a Y. M. C. A. building. I am told by a man who was present that it took just thirty minutes to raise $30,000. How is that, gentlemen. you who are laboring with the financial details of the diverting canal? Surely. we ought to do better than a Sunday School town In such places people are supposed to be "tight."

Here we have the lubricating effects of 103 saloons. and how many other things we venture not to say.

How Money is Made.

I rode out to the pretty home of Prof. Marshall with that gentleman. I think it was, easily, a mile and a half from the center of town. Suburban lots out there are selling as high as $1200-maybe more by this time.

One man. a new-comer. told me how he and an associate had contracted to buy a piece of land for $6,000.

They made one payment on it and the final settlement was some way off. The same day I talked to him he and the other party in interest had decided to accept an offer of $10,000 for their as yet unpaid for realty.

This For "On the Bum."

I found evidences of deadness everywhere.

The restaurants were full of people.

With a friend I waited some time in a big

ice to get a seat.

The fare was excellent and the cost modest.

Nowhere did I find a disposition to cinch a visitor. Along.thebeach there were many places in which money could be spent. but they were quiet and orderly, and the crowds were refined and good natured.

Sunday on the Beach.

On Sunday I saw at Long Beach one of the largest, the best toned, the least noisy, and as jolly a lot of people as it was ever my privilege to look upon. The throng was not tawdry. nor was

it

oppressively

"puritanical."

There were abundant evidences

of

wealth, tempered in its display by good taste. There were lots of young people. The young fellows and the maidens seemed to be enjoying themselves greatly.

The children were very much in evidence.

The solid,

staid heads of families did not seem to have monitorial faces. The day was ideal. An Italian band played in the great pavilion and all classes of innocent amusement were well patronized. No body seemed to be cramped by the regulations.

These Were Missing.

Now, let me tell you what I didn't see. I didn't see a single tin-horn gambler, nor a single courtesan carrying her signs, not a drunken person, not a gambling device. I didn't see a lot of fakers. I didn't see a lot of things you may see around Santa Cruz. The orderliness of the place, the cleanliness of the scraps of conversation that could be overheard and the absence of sad and annoying scenes were most marked.

I talked with F. C. Jensen. one of the most prominent sheepmen of the inter-mountain country. He is a banker and a man of affairs, and has been spending the winter with his family in Long Beach. He praised the town, its people, its laws and its prospects.

He was but one of the many in this respect who relish the "Sunday School" medicine.

How They Enforce Law.

notasked."Do they enforce the anti-liquor laws down there?' Indeed they do Sweet Susan and Doubting Thomas! If you do not believe me, just try tosell liquor there or display it on the streets. Blisters on your hands may serve to remind you of your adventure with these shallow pated town-killers. A few weeks ago some men developed a thirst and dispatched a fellow to San Pedro for some of its waterfront talk-fluid. He got it all right.'but failed to conceal it while leaving the Long Beach landing. A policeman arrested him with the whisky and took him before the justice. Hearing of the plight of the victim of their thirst the men who had employed him went to his aid. They intimated to the court that they felt responsible for the defendant and would gladly pay his fine. Did they pay his fine? No. no: they did not. Long Beach's treasury is not dry, even if the town is. The court didn't think the money was any good, but some hard graft was needed over in the public park. Thither the man was sent by the court. For fifteen days. I am told, he labored in the park, doing pennance in honest perspiration for his sin against the sovereign will of the flinty bigots who are putting Long Beach "on the bum." Liquor selling is not likely to become popular in Long Beach. It is altogether too hazardous, especially when there are so many places up this way where it can be profitably carried on, with time left for the running of the town.

Has Commercial Ambitions.

Lest the reader may harbor the mistaken conclusion that Long Beach does not share the commercial ambitions of other cities it may be well to remark that it already touches elbows with San Pedro. It is at San Pedro that the United States government has spent such vast amounts building a break-water for the creation of harbor facilities. Even now there is talk of consolidation. Long Beach is getting strong enough in point of voting strength to carry its anti-liquor and other laws into the compact of consolidation, should it ever come.

And who shall say it will not? Wonderful things happen down there in a short space of time.