“We are taxed for schools — taxed as no people ever were — and the reason our children cannot go to school is because our money has not been properly used.”
–Major Horace Bell (1830-1918).
Major Bell was publisher of The Porcupine, a famous 19th Century weekly L.A. newspaper dedicated to skewering civic corruption and hypocrisy.
The above quote is from a Sept. 22, 1888, editorial in which Bell blasts officials for demanding ever more taxpayer money even as they continue to waste public funds, allow school facilities to decay, and overcrowd classrooms with as many as 60 students to a teacher.
Hmmmn. And here we are 121 years later…
If you happen to pass by Angelus-Rosedale Cemetery today, don’t be alarmed at any strange whirring sounds you hear. It’s only Bell spinning in his grave.
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Thanks once again, Mike.
It seems that when Googling a subject of interest, I very frequently end up at mimlay.com.
I this case it was precisely what I was looking for.
This October, are the actors in period clothing going to congregate at Angelus Rosedale Cemetery again?
Will Maj. Horace Bell be in attendance? I was wondering what he might say regarding current events. Now I know.
History is prologue after all.