It has been considered a poor week for killing

ALL THE NEWS THAT’S FIT TO PRINT. John Phoenix, San Diego Herald: “Very little news will be found in the San Diego Herald this week. The fact is there never is much news in it and it is well that it is so. The climate here is so delightful that residents in the enjoyment of the dolce far niente care very little about what is going on elsewhere and residents of other places care very little about what is going on in San Diego.”

RUN THROUGH THE MUSTARD. In late spring, wild mustard grew on thick stalks, the tallest up to six feet. And the mustard grew in such abundance throughout Southern California that, even when the yellow bloom was gone, the dry stalks could conceal cattle. Ranchers would arrange a “run through the mustard” – a two or three day search to track down strays. C. H. Brinley, manager of Rancho Los Alamitos, wrote of inviting other rancheros to participate: “The Temples, Manuel Dominguez, and the Coyotes will be there sure, and most likely a sufficient number of people will be brought together to effect some good.”

POLITICAL RHETORIC. Colonel Edward J.C. Kewen runs against J. J. “Juan Largo” Warner [of Warner’s Spring Ranch]. At a mass meeting and barbecue, Kewen observes: “This trifling fellow, Warner, is so notoriously corrupt and villainous, as to wholly exclude him from any consideration except that which prompts a man to kick a snarling cur that intercepts his path. The reptile’s teeth have been extracted, there is now no venom in his bite.”

THE RECTOR’S COMPLAINT. Minister of the Episcopal Church in Los Angeles on frontier preachers (1869): “In our day people do not wish to be reminded of their faults. A minister to be popular in this place must be possessed of great eloquence, extensive learning, a handsome face, fine form, excellent teeth, small feet and hands, and possessed of no religion whatsoever.”

READY CASH. After the land boom of 1885-1888 came to a sudden halt, January 1, 1888, a nameless man told the San Diego Union: “I lost over two million dollars. Worst part of it: $500 was in real money!”

LIFE IS CHEAP I. Los Angeles Star Feb. 26, 1852: “There is no country where nature is more lavish of her exuberant fullness; and yet with all our natural beauties and advantages, there is no country where human life is of so little account. Men hack one another to pieces with pistols and other cutlery, as if God’s image were of no more worth than one of the two or three thousand ownerless dogs that prowl about our streets and make night hideous.”

LIFE IS CHEAP II. Southern Californian, November 16, 1854: “The week has been comparatively quiet; four persons have been killed it is true, but it has been considered a poor week for killing; a head or two has been split open, and an occasional case of cutting has occurred, but these are minor matters and create but little feeling.”

LIFE IS CHEAP III. Los Angeles Star: “Unfortunately the combatants escaped with their lives but killed a fine horse.”