July 9, 1907
Los Angeles

Grace Methodist Episcopal Church on Hewitt Street was barren; the pastor had gone away and the congregation had moved on. And so the City Council, in struggling to house inmates at the crowded, filthy prison on West 4th Street, decided to lease the old church for $100 ($2,052.36 USD 2005) a month as a temporary jail until a larger facility could be built “more nearly adequate for a city of the size of Los Angeles,” The Times said.

In discussing the move, Councilman Wallace berated his fellow lawmakers for neglecting the jail and said the council members were far worse criminals for their neglect than anyone housed in the crumbling structure.

“In the present building there is almost an utter absence of ventilation. We have a building with but one open front, and we fill that front with offices. It appears that we have built a jail to keep the foul air of the prison from escaping that we desire to confine it there, keeping it away from the world.”

Wallace added that on a recent visit to the jail, he found several youths being held with hardened criminals. After learning that they had been caught “bathing improperly clad in a dam back of Eastlake Park” he persuaded police to free them.

“We have been looking complacently at conditions that were condemned 100 years ago,” Wallace said. “We are criminally responsible if we permit conditions to exist at the city prison that make such things possible. It is high time that we do something in the interest of common decency.”

Lmharnisch.com

Lmharnisch.blogspot.com

July 5, 1907
Los Angeles

See here, you pesky temperance workers, beer is “liquid bread.” It’s good for you.

Lmharnisch.com

Lmharnisch.blogspot.com

July 1, 1907
Los Angeles

If you ever wondered if the Locomobile or Pope-Hartford got great gas mileage, the answer is no, as shown in the results of the 185-mile Lakeside Endurance Race. In cost and fuel efficiency, the 1907 automobiles were about the equivalent of a 2006 Ford Explorer (MSRP $31,650) or a Range Rover Sport (MSRP $56,085-$69,025).

The car with best gas mileage in the economy competition was the Pope-Hartford, 8½ gallons (21.76 mpg), in the class of touring cars costing $1,501-$3,000 ($30,805.88-$61,570.71 USD 2005).

Next was a Tourist auto, 8¾ gallons (21.14 mpg), competing in the class of touring cars with a price of $1,500 or less.

Another Tourist won in the class for runabouts priced at $1,501-$3,000, 11 1/8 gallons (16.62 mpg).

The winner in the class of touring cars costing more than $3,000 was an American, 11 gallons (16.81 mpg).

The winner in the event for high-powered runabouts was a Simplex roadster, which covered 6 miles in 7:56 minutes, or a little over 47 mph.

Lmharnisch.com

Lmharnisch.blogspot.com

June 28, 1907
Los Angeles

Give cars to a bunch of wealthy Los Angeles residents and what do they do? Race them, of course. Not on a track this time, but in an endurance test from Los Angeles to Lakeside. And yes, it’s a bit warmish for an endurance race, especially once the drivers get further inland—100 degrees.

So far, all 62 cars that began the race arrived intact at Lake Elsinore. Note that the drivers didn’t have the advantage of maps.google.com and went via Upland and Riverside.

For a while, it looked as if the machines were going to be stranded in Lake Elsinore because there was no gasoline, but a freight train arrived in time with two carloads of gas. One driver, George Kowonto, suffered heat prostration, The Times noted.

So far, most of the cars have fared well. Forty received perfect scores, while several had points deducted for problems with the coil or the carburetor. “There were a few complaints of road hogging, but not many,” The Times said.

Lmharnisch.com

Lmharnisch.blogspot.com

A Kinder, Simpler Time

June 27, 1907
Los Angeles

Louise arrived in Los Angeles three months ago from Norway with her four young children. She met a man who worked in San Pedro (we only know his initials, F.G.) and before long, they were married and living in his small home at 825 Tennessee St.

One morning, she got up to make coffee, turned on the stove, took a glass of dark liquid from a shelf and poured it into the coffee pot.

But the liquid was gasoline.

“In a flash, the woman was on fire,” The Times said. “Shrieking with pain, Mrs. Rohan dashed into the bedroom, where her husband was just arising. He seized her and rolled her in blankets until the flames had been extinguished, but too late.”

Doctors said there was nothing they could do for her. She had been burned over 50% of her body and also inhaled the flames, apparently scorching her lungs.

“I do not fear to die,” she whispered to her husband, “but take care of the children and furnish them a good home.”

The Times explained that before installing a gas stove, Mr. Rohan had used a gasoline burner and kept fuel on a shelf in the kitchen.  

This is one of the frustrating moments in historical research. There’s no further record of F.G. Rohan or the children. In fact, the California death records don’t even report Louise Rohan’s death, raising the question of whether The Times misspelled her name. It’s also impossible to locate 825 Tennessee St. in the maps at 1907 HQ. There is a Tennessee just north of Pico on the Westside, but much too far to the west. We can only wonder what became of her four children.

Lmharnisch.com

Lmharnisch.blogspot.com

June 26, 1907
Los Angeles

Fred D. Samuels is a monster and nothing less, according to his aunt, Sister Kostka, assistant mother superior of the Ursuline Convent in Frontenac, Wis. As her mother, Maria S. Bowman, lay dying at her home, 1266 E. Adams, Samuels refused to let Sister Kostka (nee Minnie Bowman) see her.

In fact, Kostka charged, Samuels refused to let a Catholic priest visit Mrs. Bowman and refused to grant her a Catholic funeral. Instead, Bowman received two services, one at St. Patrick’s on Central Avenue and another at the Lutheran church on East 46th St.

Kostka complained to the district attorney’s office that Samuels starved Bowman and abused her, leaving bruises on Bowman’s arms from where she was restrained. He did all of this, Kostka said, because he wanted the inheritance, which included $12,000 ($246,282.84 USD 2005) and some property.

“My mother died of starvation,” Kostka said. “She would be alive today but for my nephew. He has a horrible temper and he abused my mother shamefully. He repeatedly held her hands behind her back and forced her into a chair by taking hold of her wrists. I saw the marks of his fingers on my mother’s dead body.”

In an account supported by Mrs. Bowman’s nurse and doctor, Samuels said that Bowman was senile and that the marks on her wrists were from holding her hands so she could receive an injection. She had been unable to eat for the last week of her life, he said.

And he added: “I would not allow the Catholics to bury her because was not a Catholic.” As for not allowing Kostka to see Bowman, Samuels said: “My grandmother hated her and did not want her near her.”

The Times noted that Bowman was the widow of former East St. Louis Mayor John B. Bowman, who was assassinated in 1885.

Lmharnisch.com

Lmharnisch.blogspot.com

June 22, 1907
Los Angeles

Let’s suppose for a moment that you are a handsome former Army sergeant who has served in the Philippines. Let’s further suppose that you get into a fight in a bar on South Main Street and hit another patron in the face with a heavy beer glass. Then let’s suppose you escape to St. Louis, change your name and start life over.

Which is exactly what Edward H. Freund did. And then he was undone by a woman, or rather two women, since he was courting two at the same time. It seems that one of them wanted a picture of dear Edward and the only photo he had of himself was the wanted posted issued by the Los Angeles Police Department.

So he gave her a copy of the wanted poster.

We know where this is going, don’t we? Edward was held in the local jail on $1,500 bail.

Lmharnisch.com

Lmharnisch.blogspot.com

June 20, 1907
Los Angeles

The salesclerks of Los Angeles are steaming—and not over the warming temperatures. Beginning last summer, all the department stores agreed that instead of closing at 10 p.m. on Saturdays, they would close at 12:30 p.m., giving the staff a half-day off with pay.

But the new manager of the Bon Marche, J.W. Eccleston, decided he could increase business by remaining open, incurring the anger of every other merchant—and clerk—in town. Eccleston said: “We have the matter under advisement. We have not determined that we will not close, but we will probably not do so on next Saturday night. We have our side of the story; our employees are unanimously with us and I don’t see that we need any outside sympathy.”

Thousands of store workers crowded into Simpson Auditorium for a meeting on preserving the half-holiday in the summer and closing at 6 p.m. instead of 10 p.m. on Saturdays for the rest of the year. Speeches were made and boycotts were threatened.

In the end, the half-holiday prevailed.

Here’s an inflation reality check:

Women’s mohair swimsuits $3.50-$12 ($71.83-$246.28 USD 2005). Taffeta silk $15-$20 ($307.85-$410.47 USD 2005).

Weather in Los Angeles for June 20, 1907: A low of 55 and a high of 72; at midnight, it was 61 and cloudy.

Lmharnisch.com

Lmharnisch.blogspot.com