Random thoughts on art, technology, stuff, and occasionally Real Estate: Wisdom from 1889

As I was searching researching the history of my little commmunity of Northeast Los Angeles, I came across this gem in the Southern California Quarterly.

It was written in 1889, two years after the Great Southern California Real Estate Boom of 1887. 

Here's the conclusion of the article:

When the boom had become a thing of the past, those who had kept aloof from wild speculation, pursued the even tenor of their ways, building up the real cities and improving the country.  Those who had invested recklessly in paper cities plowed up the sities of prospective palace hotels and massive business blocks, and sowed them in grain, or planted them with trees, or they sought some other employment by which they could earn their bread and butter, sadder, and it is to be hoped, wiser men. 

There was for a time stringency in the money market, but even this proved a blessing in disguise.  It compelled to more economic methods of living, and impelled people to greater efforts to develop the resources of the country.  On the whole, with all of its faults and failures, with all its reckless waste and wild extravagance, our boom was more productive of good than evil to Southern California.

Here's a link to the full article, hosted on one of my sites http://www.bob-taylor.la/greatboom1887.pdf

Thank you, Google Books, for preserving this treasure.