ods, earthquakes,
or other manmade or natural misfortunes. The United States had been a
great nation when Los Angeles was a pueblo of five thousand people; the
movies could set up in business elsewhere, Iowans find another spot for
senescence, the country go on much as usual.

One of the first results of the defeat of the grass was the building,
almost overnight, it seemed, of a great city on the east bank of the
Salton Sea. Displaced realtors from the metropolis found the surrounding
mountains ideally suited for subdivision and laid out romantically named
suburbs large enough to contain the entire population of California
before the site of the city had been completely surveyed. Beyond their
claims, the memorial parks, columbariums, homes of eternal rest and
elysian lawns offered choice lots--with a special discount on
caskets--on the installmentplan. Magnificent brochures were printed, a
skeletal biographical dictionary--$5 for notice, $50 for a
portrait--planned, advertisements in leading magazines urged the
migration of industry: "contented labor and all local taxes remitted for
ten years."

These essential preliminaries accomplished, the city itself was laid
out, watermains installed, and paving and grading begun. It was no great
feat to divert the now aimless Colorado River aqueduct to the site nor
to erect thousands of prefabricated houses. The climate was declared to
be unequalled, salubrious, equable, pleasant and bracing. Factories were
erected, airports laid out, hospitals, prisons, and insane asylums
built. The Imperial and Coachella valleys shipped their products in at
low cost, and as a gesture to those who might suffer from homesickness
it was called New Los Angeles.

Perhaps in relief from the fear and despair so recently dispelled, New
Los Angeles began to boom from the moment the mayor first handed the key
to a passing distinguished visitor. It grew and spread as the grass had
grown and spread, the embryonic skeletons of its unborn skyline rivaled
the height of the green mass now triumphant in its namesake, presenting,
as newsphotographers were quick to see, an aspect from the west not
entirely dissimilar to Manhattan's.

To New Los Angeles, of course, the _Daily Intelligencer_ moved as soon
as a tent large enough to house its presses could be set up. But I did
not move with it. For some reason, perhaps intuitively forewarned of my
intention, Le ffacase never gave me the opportunity to humiliate hi