Aug. 3, 1907
Los Angeles

An enormous explosion shattered the night in the Dayton Heights neighborhood near what is now Virgil Avenue and Middlebury Street.

“The shock of the explosion awakened people for blocks around, many of them rushing out of doors in their nightclothes, fearing that an earthquake had occurred,” The Times said. “Several men were on the scene in a few minutes.”

Neighbors discovered Mrs. William Morley, dazed and stumbling outside the smoking ruin that was once her six-room home. Morley said she had gone to the kitchen to cook something and when she struck a match to light her gasoline stove, the blast blew out the walls of the house, which burned to the ground.

“She did not say how she happened to be up at that hour, fully dressed,” The Times said. “The mysterious feature about the case is the fact that the explosion was strong enough to wreck the building and still left the woman uninjured.”

The house was valued at $1,000 ($20,523.57 USD 2005) and the contents at $500 ($10,261.79 USD 2005). Domania has the current values.
Above, a home-wrecking gasoline stove.

Lmharnisch.com

Lmharnisch.blogspot.com

July 31, 1907
Los Angeles

After a delay due to illness, newsboy Charles “Winnipeg” Wilson took the stand to testify against Evelyn Ferguson, who is accused of shooting him because he was attacking her friend Grace Ryan.

Although “she was not in a condition at the time of the shooting to remember much about how it happened,” Ryan testified that she and Ferguson had returned from a day at the beach when they began fighting with Wilson and a group of companions.

Wilson testified that he and his friends, including a police officer named Norris, had also spent the day at the beach and on the way back to his room, stopped to buy some beer. When they arrived at his room, a fight broke out between him and Ferguson, who was accused of grabbing Officer Norris’ pistol and shooting Wilson in the back.

Unfortunately, nothing further can be found on this case. But one lesson is the age-old truth that alcohol and firearms do not mix.

Lmharnisch.com

Lmharnisch.blogspot.com

July 24, 1907
Los Angeles

On a speaking tour of America, former Columbia professor James H. Hyslop is trying to raise interest in a scientific approach to psychic research while deflating the fabulous claims of mediums and other fakers.

“There is so much fraud in connection with the physical demonstrations, said Dr. Hyslop, that much time would be wasted in making the investigation,” The Times said. “To see a table get up and prance across the floor doesn’t prove anything in connection with a future life.”

“We want this study to stand on the same plane as the search for the North Pole and experimentations in the use of balloons and airships,” Hyslop said.
In a presentation at Blanchard Hall, Hyslop told of what he described as scientific experiments involving in contacting the deceased: his brother, who died at the age of 4; his wife, who had been dead for 18 months; his father; and father-in-law.

Working with a medium identified as Mrs. Leonora Piper of Boston, Hyslop said he received accurate replies to questions although Piper knew nothing about him.

Hyslop wrote extensively about the psychic world in books like “Science and a Future Life” and “Enigmas of Psychical Research.” In 1918, he got in trouble with the family of Mark Twain over claims that he had contacted the deceased author. He died in 1920.

Lmharnisch.com

Lmharnisch.blogspot.com

July 21, 1907
Los Angeles

President Theodore Roosevelt suggests “reading of certain books of pure fiction that have the prime quality of being interesting.”

The Times quotes Roosevelt: “You will learn the root principles of self-help and helpfulness toward others from ‘Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch’ just as much as from the formal treatise on charity, you will learn as much sound social and industrial doctrine from Octave Thanet’s stories of farmers and wageworkers as from avowed sociological and economic studies and I cordially recommend the first chapter of ‘Aunt Jane of Kentucky’ for use as a tract in all families where the men folks tend to selfish or thoughtless or overbearing disregard of the rights of their womenkind.”

More about Octave Thanet (Alice French) here. Was the U.S. president actually recommending that Americans read the works of a lesbian writer? Sure looks that way, doesn’t it?

Lmharnisch.com

Lmharnisch.blogspot.com

July 20, 1907
Los Angeles

The court summoned 80 prospective jurors to decide the case of Dr. Chan, who was accused of practicing medicine without a license, but more than half asked Judge Rose to be excused from service.

“An officer was sent out with the summonses yesterday morning. He had not been at work more than an hour when the first indignant citizen appeared in court and demanded to be released from jury duty on the ground that his wife was ill and he had to go home several times a day,” The Times said.

“Another businessman said that he hated the whole Chinese race and that he wouldn’t give any of them a fair trial.”

Although the court agreed to excuse the head of a local bank, many other people were told they had to serve.

On July 26, The Times reported that the court was still trying to seat a jury in the Chan case, having called 620 prospective jurors, a Police Court record. By July 30, 780 people had been called before a 12th juror was selected.

Chan was convicted and fined $250. The Times said: “Other Chinese cases now pending may require the next two years in trial since it is almost impossible to secure and unprejudiced jury.”

Lmharnisch.com

Lmharnisch.blogspot.com

July 18, 1907
Santa Monica

Officials of Santa Monica and Ocean Park are fighting a lawsuit that seeks to block the discharge of raw sewage into the ocean. According to testimony, the outfall pipe sags so badly that it isn’t always cleared and as a result, sewage molders in the pipeline, a problem aggravated by warm summer temperatures.

Judge Bordwell, however, ruled that he was unable to render a specific decision because the case was improperly presented. Bordwell ordered Santa Monica and Ocean Park to find a way to ease the situation within 15 days.

“It is, and has been for a long time, a miserable mess, but the court will render judgment which will probably very speedily overcome the difficulties. It will be necessary for the officials of Santa Monica and Ocean Park to take such steps as are necessary to abate the nuisance or they may find themselves under judgment of contempt for failure to do so,” Bordwell said.

In September, residents of Ocean Park and Santa Monica approved a $150,000 ($3,078,535.54 USD 2005) bond issue to build a septic tank and wharf at the foot of Colorado Boulevard for disposal of sewage.


Lmharnisch.com

Lmharnisch.blogspot.com

July 14, 1907
Los Angeles

Led by the Rev. Juan Caballeria (or Cabelleria), the city is preparing to celebrate its 126th anniversary Aug. 2 with concerts, Mass in the Plaza church and cannon fire. The old artillery piece will be lit by Gen. Jose Aguilar, a former member of the Mexican army who battled the Americans and later joined Gen. John C. Fremont.

Wearing his uniform and sword, Aguilar, who is nearly 100 years old, will fire the cannon when the flags of Spain, Mexico and the United States are raised in the order they appeared over the city. The cannon will also be fired at noon and sunset.

The Times notes that Caballeria has played a crucial role in removing more recent modifications to the old church and is restoring it to the way it appeared in its prime. “His has been a work of returning to their proper places the old canvases, the quaintly carved wooden images and the many articles in use in the earliest days,” The Times says.

“Many of the paintings are invaluable and that was a serious loss sustained recently when a thief climbed through one of the windows and cut from their frames two of the paintings of Father Tanquery. These were the last two of the 14 stations of the cross. Yesterday, they were replaced with paintings of Senor Jesus Gonzales … who was brought here several months ago to take up the work in restoration of the old church.”

Lmharnisch.com

Lmharnisch.blogspot.com

July 12, 1907
Los Angeles

Gas Co. employees found a man scalded over the lower half of his body wandering the yards at Center and Aliso after he fell into a vat of boiling water produced by the carbon pit. The man, who was unidentified but believed to be J. Cochran of 232 E. 1st St., was so badly burned that much of his skin tore away when he ripped off his clothes.

Gas workers called General Hospital, which held a contract for serving the company, but after waiting 45 minutes for an ambulance while trying to allay the man’s pain, they called the Receiving Hospital, which sent an ambulance immediately. The two emergency crews arrived at the same time and the man was finally taken to a hospital.

The Times said: “He was very much dazed by pain and but little could be gained from him. At midnight, his condition was serious. At first, information was refused at the hospital, but later it was learned that there was some chance for recovery.”

There was apparently no follow-up to the story, so it’s impossible to tell whether J. Cochran survived.

Lmharnisch.com

Lmharnisch.blogspot.com