Water to the Angels: William Mulholland, His Monumental Aqueduct, and the Rise of Los Angeles by Standiford Les

Author:Standiford, Les [Standiford, Les]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2015-03-30T21:00:00+00:00

FITS AND STARTS

IN THE END, THE FUNDING SLOWDOWN ACTUALLY WORKED in Mulholland’s favor. With much of the hardest tasks behind him, any walkouts simply meant fewer men to pay, and he was confident that once funding was fully restored to the project, he could put enough men to work to bring the aqueduct in on time and under budget.

Joe Desmond’s operations had long been the subject of workers’ complaints, though even if he had been a more experienced commissary man, supplying fresh food over such distances in those days presented great challenges. As young laborer Erwin Widney put it, “When you are in the desert, 150 miles from the producer, with no ice, no fresh vegetables or fruit, no butter, eggs or fresh milk, you are somewhat limited in your bill of fare.”

Still, the cooks, at least in the independent camps, did their best. Principal items on the menu at Camp 30-A included “fresh meat which had not lost its body heat, beans, much gravy, potatoes, onions, bread, stewed raisins or prunes, pie, and coffee and tea.” The latter two, Widney claimed, were indistinguishable, “except for the red string tied to the coffee pot.” Likewise, Widney found little to appreciate in the ambiance surrounding mealtime, for as he put it, “Eating was a duty, not a social event,” with little of substance passing between himself and his fellow diners beyond the occasional “Let’s have the potatoes.”

Surveyor’s helper Frederick Cross also remembered the food in the smaller crew tents as being good, but at Desmond’s mess in Cinco, the food was “execrable.” He recalls that two enterprising Frenchmen at one point brought a tent onto unspoken-for lands in the desert near the camp and set up a veritable dining emporium, giving workmen “an opportunity to rejuvenate their stomachs.” However, when Desmond learned of the competition, he had the workforce reminded in no uncertain terms that subsistence would be deducted from everyone’s pay whether they took their meals in his tents or not.

Cross also remembers that one day Desmond had made the “cardinal error” of having himself chauffeured into the camp at Cinco in an elegant new Mitchell touring automobile just as the men were changing shifts. The result, Cross says, “was a volley of abuse as only Irishmen know how to direct.”

Not the least of Desmond’s difficulties involved recruiting able cooks and keeping them on the job under trying conditions. One of the standing jokes was that it took three crews of cooks and helpers to man every mess house: one working, one coming up the line to go to work, and one on the way home.

As he traveled to his first assignment on the aqueduct, Widney was in fact accompanied by one of Desmond’s crew chiefs who was escorting four new cooks bound for work in the commissaries. These were the toughest cooks in the cooking business, the crew chief announced, but he was going to see that they made it to their assigned stations if he had to kill them all with his bare hands.

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