June 14, 1908

View Larger Map Wilshire and Westmoreland via Google street view
View Larger Map Lake and Hoover via Google street view
	ow if only research led in a straight line -- but thankfully, it doesn't. Research corkscrews and jets off at unexpected angles. Today's project was supposed to be about the home of the week -- in this case, the house built by Reuben Shettler at Wilshire and Westmoreland. At top, we have the home as it appeared in 1908 and the corner as it appears today via Google street view. (Bonus view: Hoover and Lake, the site of the other home of the week.) Of course, it would be nice if I had a little information on Reuben Shettler, so I dug up the personal note about him and his wife entertaining Ransom E. Olds, maker of the Reo automobile, at 3100 Wilshire Blvd. It turns out that Shettler's son Leon was an early Los Angeles car dealer. But in tracking down that information, I stumbled across new details on the Chinese massacre of 1871 -- on the society page, of all places. The woman being interviewed, Mrs. William LeMoyne Wills, says her father sheltered Chinese to protect them from the violence of the mob. This is the first I've ever heard of anyone offering sanctuary to the Chinese during this tragic incident. Then, in researching the Chinese massacre, I came across a photo of our old friend the dragon in Chinatown that was once part of The Times' flagpole. I really need to go looking for this thing to see if it's still there. E-mail me

April 12, 1908

Who do you suppose is lounging in this hammock? Certainly not the poor lady doing the housework, below. This article isn't terribly legible, but the housekeeping tips are worth the eyestrain. I'm not sure I'll be hanging my Kasmhiri Kashans and Taba Tabrizes over a pan of burning sulfur anytime soon, but it's nice to know that I could. And yes, the writer, Marion Harland, quotes her "colored mammy" in dialect.

Quote of the Day: "The fight with dust, like that we wage with inbred sin,  must be incessant and it will last until we lie down to be resolved for all time into what we hate and would destroy while we live." --Marion Harland

 

And here, by the way, is the article she mentions, John Tyndall's "Dust and Disease," published in 1871.

 

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Chinese Massacre, 1871

Oct. 27, 1883

Today is the 136th anniversary of the Chinese Massacre. [Note: This article uses names for ethnic minorities that were common in the 19th century--lrh].