The Bancroft Library
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Index to Interview
Interviewee: MAUSER, LAWRENCE HENRY
1. Biographical Data
-
1. Biographical Data
- A. 1st Memory S.F.
- 1
- B. Neighborhood
- 1
- C. Education
- 1
- D. Marriage/Children
- 1
- E. Family Origin
- 1, 2
2. Religion
-
2. Religion
- A. Role of Family in Training
- 5, 6
- B. Training
- 5, 6
- C. Effects of Training
- D. Reaction to Training
3. Schooling
-
3. Schooling
- A. Role of Family
- 6
- B. Training
- 6
- C. Effects of Training
- D. Reaction to Training
- E. Favorite Instructor
- F. Favorite Subject
4. Political Socialization
-
4. Political Socialization
- A. Role of Family in Training
- B. Training
- 10, 11
- C. Effects of Training
- D. Reaction to Training
- E. Remembered Pol. Event
- 14
- F. Govt. Better or Worse
- G. Childhood Friends in Politics
- H. Political Figure
- 12, 14
5. Economics
-
5. Economics
- A. First Recollection
- B. Idea of National Economy
- C. Cause of Eco. Conditions
- D. Major Eco. Event
- E. Family Condition
- 8, 9, 10
- F. Opinion of Family Condition
- 10
- G. Types of Work Considered
- H. Job History
- 7, 8
6. Self-Definition
-
6. Self-Definition
- A. First Recollection
- B. Role of Family
- 15
- C. Training
- 15
- D. Effects of Training
- E. Reaction to Training
- F. Homosexuality
7. Love and Marriage
-
7. Love and Marriage
- A. First Recollection
- B. Role of Family in Training
- C. Training
- 15
- D. Effects of Training
- E. Reaction to Training
- F. Ideal Family Size
- G. Divorce
- 16, 17
- H. Perfect Mother / Father
- 15
- I. Perfect Husband / Wife
- 15
- J. Compare Children then and now
- 16
- K. Sex Education
- 16
8. Ethnicity
-
8. Ethnicity
- A. Role of Family
- B. Training
- 17
- C. Effect of Training
- D. Reaction to Training
- E. Ranking of Ethnic Groups
- 17, 18
- F. Fights
- 18
- G. Institutional Conflict
- H. Marriage
- 18, 19
- I. Meaning of Belonging
- 19
9. General - Special Subset
-
9. General - Special Subset
- A. Expenditures
- B. Leisure
- C. War Attitudes
- D. Travel outside S.F.
- E. "Ourtown" Theme
- F. Key Factor
10. Conclusion
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10. Conclusion
- A. Greatest Difference Today/Then
- 19, 20
- B. Greatest Similarity Today/Then
- 20
- C. Single Explanatory Event
- 20
- D. Picture of S.F.
- 21
- E. Earth Quake
- 2, 3, 4
- F. Spanish Influenza
- 13
Lawrence Henry Mauser
Lawrence Henry Mauser
San Francisco
Q: First, would you care to tell me your name, your age, and when you were born.
A: My name is Lawrence Henry Mauser. I was born in San Francisco on August 15, 1893.
Q: I'd like to ask you what your first memory of San Francisco is as a young child.
A: My first...uh...are you asking for a comparison?
Q: I'll ask for a comparison later. But right now, I'd like to know what your first memory was of the city as a very young boy.
A: Yes. Of course, at that time there was...uh...
Q: Maybe I could help you. What neighborhood were you born in?
A: I was born directly at the corner of Hays and Divisadero, but actually I should say Divisadero and Hays.
Q: Was that a very small village-like at that time, in the middle of the big city, or was that a part of the downtown area?
A: As far as, no. In so far as buildings and streets are concerned, it hasn't changed at all. Exactly the same.
Q: You went to school near there?
A: Yes.
Q: How long did you live in that place that you were born?
A: AHHH. Up to, I was about seventh grade in school. That was the old Fremont School. Then I was transferred to the Crocker School, which was on Page Street.
Q: Both of these were public schools, won't they? They weren't church schools?
A: When I say Page Street, it was located on Page Street beyond Divisadero, I can't remember the address.
Q: At what age were you married?
A: I would say kind of late. I was married in my very early twenties.
Q: Children?
A: One child.
Q: What were the origins of your family? Were they natives of San Francisco, or did they come here?
A: No. My father came from Cleveland, Ohio.
Q: When was that, roughly?
A: Oh, God. You're asking me a toughy. I wasn't born.
Q: I see. And your mother. Were they married before they came here or after he came here?
A: Umm. There's quite a romance there. My father, as far back as my history of him goes, was, he was put in the Cleveland Orphan Asylum, because his parents had passed away. My mother also was a girl who had been put in the Cleveland Orphan Asylum. That was the first meeting,. My father was in the Civil War. He was a calvary sergeant, and my mother was, as near as I could gather, a few relatives got interested and had her put in the orphan asylum. So anyway, they were friendly kids together and they used to go to the same school, public school they went to. And he carried her books to school and so forth, quite a romance, until they grew up to the age when they send them out on their own. In his case, they, he was so adaptable, evidently, in his case they kept him in the orphan asylum and gave him a position of sort of a assistant superintendent. My mother, when she went out on her own, she went to the Mt. Sinai Hospital when she had her board and lodging. She had no money. Also, stayed there and became a trained nurse. That was the deal. Anyway, the orphan asylum in San Francisco, got in the need of having to have another superintendent. I think there was some friction going on over there. The job was offered to my father. First thing he did, no I'm getting out of the story. He and my mother kept on corresponding even though they were not in the same town anymore. But they kept correspondence all through those years. When he had this job offered to him, he immediately got in touch with her, proposing marriage to her, which she accepted, and they came out and took the job. He evidently must have, in accepting that job, he must have said to them that he would be married and would want his wife to be his assistant. Which they accepted.
So the two of them came out to what was then called the Pacific Hebrew Orphan Asylum on Divisadero and Hays and it took in the whole square block, the grounds did. They had their own living quarters, of course, in the building, the same building. They had their living quarters there, very nice. Did very well. I was born and so my sister was born, too. My sister was two years old and just recently passed away. Two years older than me. We were there, this may interest you or may not, my sister and I—here's where you can gage an age. My sister and I were there in the orphan asylum, my dad was still superintendent, my mother was not the matron because she had become an invalid but lived with him just the same. We were there all through the earthquake and fire situation.
Q: Let's see. Were you located beyond the fire line?
A: Yes.
Q: Did you have any damage from the earthquake?
A: The fire line was Van Ness Avenue. The reason that it didn't get us was because Van Ness was a wide street. They went through and dynamited it. Backfiring.
Q: Did you see any of that?
A: Well, I'll tell you how much of it I saw. This lady that was given the position that my mother formerly had before she became sick, she had a daughter, a little daughter about the same age as I. We were kind of sweet on one another and used to be pals. At that time, Hays Street was at its full height. See, Hays Street was almost at forty-five degrees. From Divisadero on up, it was almost forty-five degrees, and it was cable cars, because an electric car couldn't climb that at that time. My dad appointed Kitty and I, and about every hour or so, he had us climb that hill to see how near and so forth the fire was getting.
So we did our little share. It's a funny thing, as I look back, and I've never thought of this before until just now, we were completely and absolutely unafraid.
Q: You would have been how old?
A: Eighteen.
Q: Did the earthquake wake you up that morning?
A: Very much so. Around that period, the ladies in their rooms had a fad which was comparatively new of little green puttery things. They would have a brown wicker covering around it and I think they had them hanging on the wall. One of these little jugs was hanging right over my head and it came down and konked me on the head.
Q: You knew what it was right away, I suppose, that rumble and so on. You knew it was an earthquake.
A: We knew that it was an earthquake, definitely, but to my knowledge and my remembering, and I have a pretty good memory, we had never experienced an earthquake before. My dad, I remember these kind of things so distinctly. The children had a great confidence in my dad and he was quite well loved by the children, and my mother. The whole family. My father made no distinction between us. I played with the children, the same games, and played with them and everything, and the great treat for me was, maybe once a week, to be allowed to go in and eat dinner with them. They had a great big dining room, tremendous big place. We had our own private dining room. My great big treat was to sit with my pals, and about once a week my father would let me do it. They had old-fashioned ideas at that time.
Q: Well, when this earthquake happened, what was their reaction?
A: Now I've told you up to that konking me on the head business. Then they came in right away, of course, and they got me out of the bed, because I slept in one of these beds that had the sides you could pull down. I was a small little fellow, so they kept me sleeping in that bed for a long time. I remember they came in, and they got me dressed and everything. They didn't know anymore what it was than I did, actually, but...I remember my father—the way the orphan asylum was built, was great big, very wide spiral staircase going up three stories. There were bedrooms on, see we had different ages. There were bedrooms on, call it the second story,
Now, of course, days are going by. Not a lot of days, just days are going by. Then he took some of the older boys, and he had them walk 'cause there was no transportation, had them walk to the Presidio and tell them our plight. The Presidio sent out what they called at that time, "trench stoves." They're completely flat top and an oven underneath, you could fry on top and roast. We were not allowed to light fires inside anyway, or light our gas or anything in the house. That was verboten. They had guards parading around. So we got that kitchen facility going out in the air, you see, so they ate well. They had enough to eat, and they ate well. They also examined the building. They found the building had gone a very, very small amount of a footage out of its mudsill. It was perfectly safe. Course, it was all cracked, but we didn't have wreckage. Don't confuse our walls being cracked with wreckage. We didn't have wreckage.
Q: Not a boy was injured in that?
A: No. Absolutely not a injury so ever. This was working with old type equipment, too. You slid down the pole, you didn't come down a ladder. You came down the stairs, and when you got to the last landing, then you slid down a post.
Q: So you saw the fire when you went up the hill every hour or so in that first day, you could see the fire coming closer?
A: Just as if it was yesterday.
Q: How close did it come to you? How much blocks, do you recall?
A: Well, to Van Ness Avenue.
Q: Just to Van Ness which was how many—well, I'll look it up on the map later, but it sounds pretty close. Were there many people running by you in that period?
A: I was going to come to that. You see, our orphans, some of them were half orphans, some of them were full orphans. They were all
Q: Did he feed them?
A: Sure he did.
Q: He had no place to put them except out on the lawn?
A: That's right. Then he put them to work. Then he put them to work. So anyway, my dad was a great one. I'll tell you something, he has never publicly in any way, not in any partical way or any periodical or anything that I have ever seen or heard of in all of the years, even up to this day, have I ever seen any praise of any kind given to him. He had a hundred and eighty-two children on his hands, but he did turn grey in a couple of days.
Q: Because of that experience, the worry?
A: The responsibility.
Q: How long did he stay at that position afterwards? How many years?
A: Well, I'll figure overall, I think, if I remember right, it was thirty-six years.
Q: He was a rabbi?
A: Not an ordained rabbi.
Q: How was your own religious training provided for in those circumstances?
A: I would say just about average in this way. For one thing, I was in the choir, had a nice voice, and we had our own choir, and we had an organist from outside that was paid. She taught us the singing, too. And we went to public school.
Q: How about your religious training, though? Did you go to a temple?
A: We had our own. Our own. Our own temple right there, yes. Just like a, like when you come into a synagogue, we had just the same kind of building. There was one room that was used and fixed with your altar and everything else, just like a regular synagogue, and my dad set the girls on one side and the boys on the other side. And he went through all the rabbetical things. I was bar mitzvahed, my father bar mitzvahed me, he bar mitzvahed the rest of the children and confirmed the girls. Those things I remember as if it was yesterday. We had a fine life, we really did. Not only that, we taught the boys trades, too. We had a very, very excellent that any outside firm would have been proud of, printing. Complete printing facility. Then after things were kind of settled down and everything, there was one of the biggest printing companies in San Francisco that had no place to work, machinery or anything. The Board of Directors gave my father permission to have them set up and do their work in our printing shop, and for that they paid the orphan asylum a certain
Q: How about your own train—
A: Oh, incidently, I'll get back to the religious training. We had Sunday School. We had outside teachers in Hebrew history teach. They came in every Saturday, regular as clockwork, and we had the various ages.
Q: Was this Orthodox Judaism?
A: No. Reform.
Q: How about the role of your mother in this religious training?
A: Well, my mother merely played from the time that they got the assistant, another matron because my wife couldn't do it. She just became, and was, my mother.
Q: Talking about early training, you mentioned a couple of schools you went to. First, let me ask, was this a Jewish neighborhood in which the orphanage was located?
A: No.
Q: Then the school that you went to had a mixture of people from different ethnic backgrounds and religion?
A: Yes, definitely.
Q: Was any one dominant or that had a larger number than the others?
A: I don't think I quite understand. Oh, absolutely non-secterian.
Q: Do you remember the role of your father and mother in your going to school?
A: They were very strict.
Q: Did you ever play hookey?
A: They couldn't be too strict with me because I was very backward. When I went to school, I was very backward. You see, I was born with progressive myopia which I'm still troubled with and which I never will get rid of. So consequently, in those days, you know, they used to put an awful lot of stuff on the blackboard and you had to copy it down for homework. So I used to have to go up in front of the classroom and look, and the kids used to razz me. They called me cocky and everthing. Cockeyed.
(new tape) ..my own at times.
Q: Oh, yes, children can. They take one that is different, particularly. So they would call you cockeyed because you had to go up and do this?
A: Yeah. I got so I didn't want to. I got so I would miss a lot of stuff. So what my dad did, he got me a coach. He sent me to a coaching school, which I think is still in existance. Drew's.
Q: Did you finish high school?
A: No, I didn't go to high school.
Q: How many grades then, did you finish all together?
A: I finished five. Absolutely refused to go any more. I wanted to be an electrician, and I quit in the low seventh grade and my father sent me to Heald's (?) College of Electrical Engineering. It was not easy with only a seventh grade.
Q: But you were interested in electricity at a very early age, I gather? So, when did you finish that college?
A: I finished, well, what I did. After I got sufficient of knowledge, I went to work in the day time. I got a job and I went to work for what was then then Neebree (?) Electric Company. Mr. Neebree (?) also had been one of boys of the orphan asylum, so it was no more than natural that I went to somebody I knew for a job. He gave me a job housewiring. Also repairing electric toys and things like that. Then I kept on with my Healds at night.
Q: How old were you when you started working like that? Do you think you were over fifteen?
A: Yes.
Q: But not twenty yet?
A: No.
Q: Then how long did you stay at that position with Neebree?
A: Not sc terribly long. I got a better job, so I quit. I got a job with the old Pacific States Electric Company. I also loved music, too. I wanted to play music, too. My father and mother had a teacher come in, and I studied piano five years. Then I was of age and I not only studied piano, but I played clarinet, drums, anything musical I could play. Just give me one day and I was playing it. Then from there on, I wanted to join the union because I knew I could get work, and I wanted to join the union. The union wouldn't take me because, I can't remember the reason. Anyway, they wouldn't let me join the union. Oh, I think I was playing a few jobs and making a small amount of money, scabbing. So the union wouldn't take me.
At that time, I found out—I was a digger, a termite. I found out that the town of Stockton, they didn't have a union. So I decided I was going to go to Stockton. This was just starting into the world war situation. There was an ad in the newspaper that somebody told me, that the Holt Tractor Company were making tanks for the United States government, and they were advertising, they wanted musicians because they wanted to have a band of their own to advertise with. That was right up my alley. I didn't have drums, I didn't have an instrument, I had nothing. But I did have a little diamond pin that was going to be a necktie pin. I hocked that and got myself a very cheap set of drums. I left home - not under diress. My folks backed me up. Not in money, but they thought I should do what I wanted to do. So up to Stockton I go, to the Holt Company. By the time I get to the Hold Company, they were full, they didn't need any more musicians. There I was, stranded in Stockton with a set of
Q: In the musical work or the electrical work?
A: Musical work. I stuck to the musical and I bought good clothes and everything. When I finally decided I would come back home and join the union, become a real full-fledged musician. That's what I did. 'Cause I was always in correspondence with my folks. Not like these kids today. They jump and run and then they don't know where they are, and then they write home for money. I sent money home. Yes, I did.
Q: This was somewhere around World War I. I suppose your eyes deferred you.
A: Yes. The first thing I did, the first thing I did was go to the recruiting office and volunteer to serve in the United States Army as a musician, see. They gave me a physical. Couldn't pass the eye.
Q: Was your father or mother's background, either of them, from Germany?
A: Not directly. My father, the name is Mauser which is gentile German. How we ever got the name, I don't know. But never the less, my dad was born in England and he was brought to the United States when he was four years old. My mother was born in Missouri. Her maiden name was Altmark. Old money.
Q: Thinking about your parents and this business about jobs, when you were young, did you have much of a sense that your personal economic condition was affected by things outside the city, in the nation? Or did you have the sense that your own personal economic condition was affected by what you did?
A: No. I had several battles with myself, but you see, my dad, oh, I'm getting away from it. Yeah, I have to come back. How we came to lose the job at the orphan asylum is, my dad barely saved the life of a old German engineer that they had at the orphan asylum. In doing so, my dad became blind.
Q: He saved the life of an engineer and in the process became blind. Tell me about that.
A: Incidently, he was very mechanical, my dad was. From a hobby standpoint. This plays a point in it. My dad walked into the kitchen one day, we had a big kitchen, walked into the kitchen one day, and the engineer, big husky guy, he was standing over the flame. He had taken the cover off, he was standing over the flame of the stove, a great big range, and he was holding with pliers,
Q: The ball, the gas—
A: Yes, and it saved the engineer.
Q: But it exploded in your dad's face?
A: Yeah.
Q: Half blinded him?
A: Yeah. One eye.
Q: He had to leave the job after that?
A: Yep.
Q: What'd he do for work after that?
A: He went to work for the HIAS (?) of America.
Q: How is that spelled?
A: That's the Hebrew Emidegrate (?) Society. He used to have to go over to Angel Island and help the Jewish immigrants who came. Some of them had money, some of them didn't. He'd have to get them and bring them over here and get them lodging.
Q: Did you ever go over and do any of that?
A: No, I didn't go over and do any of that, but I did go over just to help him go. Guide dog.
Q: And where were these Jewish coming from?
A: I could do that. At that time I could do that because I was pretty well in the music business and that was all night work, so I used to go just to be a guide dog. I wouldn't particularly care for all of this stuff to become public, because it's too late.
Q: Where were the Jews from, incidently?
A: All different countries.
Q: This was after World War I?
A: Yeah. Wait a minute. No. No, he did stay at the orphan asylum. He stayed at the orphan asylum until his eyes got so bad that it was just no go. Then he went to this HIAS (?) business. Well, he did very well with that.
Q: Did you regard yourself as, not poor and not rich, but well off could we say? How would you describe it?
A: Well, it was considered now, that I was now thoroughly entrenched in the music business, and worked in cafes.
Q: Let's go back before that to when you were a young boy growing up in the asylum. Did you consider your family being well off or rich?
A: No. No. According to our standard today, I would say that my family was, um, confortable. They could do things. They could go and see the opera once in a while when they wanted to, and they dressed nice, not gaudy or anything, reasonable things, dressed nice. He had scraped and he had saved his money, and he had the house built for us in West Clay Park, which was a new tract at that time. You know where Lake Street is? And you know where 24th Avenue is? Well, West Clay Park was between 22nd Avenue and 24th Avenue. We were in pretty good financial condition at that time. Plus the fact, you see, that I was working and bringing home money. Every week I brought home money and gave some to them.
Q: Did they ever have a car?
A: No. But that was not due to finances, that was due to eyesight. I've never driven a car myself. My sister, she had very poor eyesight, too, which, she was born with bad eyesight like I told you I was, too.
Q: Did your mother work at the orphanage? Did she work when she was there, as a nurse?
A: She didn't work as a nurse. She worked as the matron, that's when they first went to work there.
Q: And the matron's job would be what? To take care of the young girls?
A: That's right. Now, we did have a nurse, but the nurse was outside, and in fact, she wasn't even Jewish. We had a regular surgery and everything in there, all the equipment, which she took care of. That was her department.
Q: And your mother, how long did she work there? Did she stay at it as long as your father did?
A: No, no. No, no. My mother got sick, you see. She had a very severe operation, so she really couldn't work any more. But she was a good mother. If I didn't do the right thing, she was still strong enough to take a stick and let me have it.
Q: Was that how you were punished when you were young?
A: Yeah. She had a stick right out of the coal shuttle.
Q: Did your father do that to you, or was your mother the one who punishes in the family?
A: Either one. Whoever caught me doing things. They didn't play any favorites.
Q: Do you recall in those early days very much about politics? What would be a political event you would best remember?
A: Yes. But I would, uh, about what age?
Q: Well, would there be something you could remember that was a local political event or personage up until the age of twenty-five?
A: (silence)
Q: How about any national political election?
A: I'm not stupid, I'm just not...Well, I was very public spirited. I was very public spirited.
Q: What did that involve you doing?
A: Well, just boosting for the men that I thought should go in to the various offices. Don't forget, this was a hectic time. I don't know if you ever heard of the Ruef and Schmitt episode.
Q: They were involved in the scandal after the earthquake in the construction contracts and so forth.
A: That's right, and owning what we called "sporting houses." When of our very best friends, we had a considerable social life, too, but one of our very best friends was a man by the name of Hauschman (?). He was the curator out at the park museum for many years. He died of a broken heart due to the disgrace of the family. He was the brother-in-law of Abe Ruef.
Q: Were you involved in that at all in terms of the politics of it? Or discussing it or voting or anything like that?
A: Well, we were free to discuss, as far as that goes. We were free to discuss, but insofar as voting was concerned, at that time, I didn't take much part. I didn't take much part in the actual voting and really tabbing (?) for a candidate until I was working playing music in the various cafes and places like that. Then, I was really up to my neck in politics.
Q: What was the politics of cafes in those days? Licenses?
A: You bet your life.
Q: Tell me about that. You don't have to mention any names, but what would be the typical kinds of politics of that sort of thing?
A: Well, for one thing, some cafes were allowed to have dancing and some weren't. Those that were had to have a license to do it, see? Now, one hand treats the other. I used to work at a place called the Columbia Inn Cafe, we had a floor show and we had dancing. We had the works, and a liquor license and all that. We served full course dinners, too. I was the leader of that band. Who do you think got you the dance license?
Q: Precinct captain? Ward captain?
A: Um.
Q: Who?
A: Bail bond broker, by the name of Pete McDonough.
Q: Yes, I've heard of the McDonough brothers.
A: Well, Pete McDonough came to us and became almost a father to me. Anything I wanted, to work, Pete McDonough got me. If I need him, he got me. He was an Irish Catholic and I was a good Jewish boy.
Q: Did this dancing permit cost you very much?
A: There was no cost. No charge. It was a political plum.
Q: Because you had been working in the party for candidates and so on, you got it, was that it?
A: Yes, sure.
Q: You didn't have pay.
A: I didn't get it from him (Pete McDonough), don't misunderstand me.
Q: Oh, he interceded for you?
A: Yes. Through his influence that I was given it.
Q: Were you very active in politics at this time?
A: No, no. I was just...at that time, I was pretty much of a playboy at that time. The money was coming in and I had first class instruments and everything and a nice tuxedo to work with and everything. I started to become very, very interested in women. At that time, I thought women were very nice looking people. I just couldn't get rid of my money fast enough. So anyway, that's about it.
Q: Was San Francisco at that time, did it have a big reputation for being a swinging town?
A: Oh, yes. Absolutely. Definitely.
Q: That would be before it got all the publicity about being a good tourist center? The Fisherman's Wharf wasn't a big tourist center, was it?
A: No. It was not.
Q: Did the people come up from Hollywood?
A: I just want to give you an idea. In the cafe that I worked in, on weeknights, we had the rope up outside, people standing for a block waiting to get a seat.
Q: What kind of music did you particularly play there? Jazz or swing or foxtrot or all?
A: Well, I'd say the shimmy and foxtrots, waltzes. Blackbottom came after.
Q: Were there any people came up from Hollywood to San Francisco?
A: No. Um um.
Q: Were you in the city at the time of the Spanish Influenza?
A: Yes sir. I was working then. At that time, I was working at one of the most well known cafes in the United States, the Black Cat.
Q: And the Spanish Flu came along?
A: The Spanish Flu came along. We wore masks and we still played. It was only a small orchestra because it was a small place, but we had thirty-five entertainers, they used to go around at various times and sing at the tables. We made nothing but money.
Q: They didn't close it down because of the Flu?
A: They didn't close it down because of the Flu, no sir.
Q: Certainly your band didn't play with their masks on, did they?
A: Yeah. And I don't think there ever was a picture taken of it, either. But we had good entertainment. For instance, the six of them, they used to go out on the floor and sing the sextet "New Share" (?) and things like that. They were just little acts and things. It was very popular.
Q: Were there any singers who became famous who were there at your place?
A: Um. Yes, but they were, you were, uh, the names have not been retained. There was a fellow named Max Coomb. He was like a Bob Hope. He had a wonderful voice and Bob Hope never did have a good voice.
Q: How did the war affect you? You weren't able to enlist because of your eyes. Did the war affect you in any special way? World War I.
A: I'm glad you asked that question because I was going to tell you anyway about we worked and we had the masks on and everything else, see? It was finally the flu got over and everything was alright, and who gets the flu but me!!
Q: Was it the Spanish Flu you got?
A: There was no...I don't know where you get this Spanish Flu thing. As far as I'm concerned, it was the Influenza. Then it grabbed on people and they called it the flu. But it was the Influenza. But I don't remember anything Spanish.
Q: How serious a case did you have?
A: Not bad. I stuck to the good ol' whiskey. Whiskey and absynth. That was beautiful. You call it the flu, well, I could fly.
Q: Did you have much knowledge about what was going on in the world outside the city in those days? Things in Washington or abroad?
A: We, I would say, thinking about the people in general, we always
Q: Even though you had an Italian colony here in San Francisco?
A: Yeah, but nowheres near the colony that we have today.
Q: North Beach was Italian then, wasn't it?
A: Yes. But they were all poor Italians.
Q: Do you recall your mother and father talking about politics when you were a young boy? Do you have any sense whether they were Democrats or Republicans or neither?
A: No, I have no recollection of their stand there at all.
Q: When you went out to vote when you were twenty-one, did you consider yourself a Democrat or a Republican or what?
A: Republican.
Q: In your first twenty-five years, was there any political figure who most impressed you at the local, state, or national level?
A: I'm trying to remember who the people were. I've been here a long time, you know. I can go back further than that — William Jennings Bryant and that bit. I remember the shooting of McKinley. I don't remember what party that was, but I think my dad, I'm pretty sure my dad was interested in McKinley.
Q: But you yourself don't have any political figure that you, yourself thought was very important?
A: I was very much interested before I was that age and after I was that age. See, as I get more around business and things like that, and you know politics, some of it has a great weight in different businesses. But if you'll think back, I was not affiliated in anything commercial, actually commercial. We didn't have the big corporations and things like that that they have today.
Q: Talking about the business you were in and its political connections, were the police—
A: But you see, those things were absolutely local. That was local politics.
Q: Do you have any recollections of people like Woodrow Wilson?
A: Oh, yes. Definitely. I remember him in his Peace Ship. Am I right on that?
Q: Oh, yes, that's correct. Let's see, Harding died about that time in this city.
A: I remember that, yes, definitely. He wasn't particularly one to be proud of.
Q: Were the police involved in the politics of the cafes in those days?
A: Yes.
Q: How was that?
A: Uh. Well, you know, they had a promotion system too, you know. They, if they would break a ring or something like that, they'd get a raise in rank, too, you know. I can tell you two of the most hated policemen, was a man by the name of Captain Lane, oh, how they hated him, the fellows that ran the cafes. They just hated him. And, what was the other one. Gaugh. They were both captains.
Q: Why were they hated?
A: Well, they were hated because they did the job.
Q: What kind of things did they do?
A: Just exactly what the poor policemen are trying to do today. That is, to clean up the city of prostitutes and so forth.
Q: So, that comes and goes in the city, doesn't it? That business of cleaning up the prostitutes.
A: Yes.
Q: On another subject, you were married about twenty-two, did I hear you say?
A: No, you didn't hear me say that. I was, uh, I'll get it... let's see. I was married.... um...
Q: Well, let's back away from that and it will come to you later. Where did you learn how to act as a husband and as a father? Do you recall how you got trained in that business?
A: Yes. yes. From my own father and mother. I merely copied. Let's put it this way, I copied what I thought were their best points. We only had the one child. I'm a great-grandfather, incidently.
Q: At that time, what did you think was the ideal family size?
A: I don't think I even had an idea. No, I really didn't. I always loved children. I always liked children. We had one boy. He got into the usual boy troubles, but nothing like they get in today.
Q: What did you think the ideal father was like?
A: Well, I don't know. I think most fellows had the same idea as I. I think that they, I think that they really loved and respected their fathers, and I think that a lot of them mimicked their fathers. They did. I know, I was very proud of my father, and I was very respectful to him. A lot of my mechanical things and the way I've handled my own life these last several years, I'd say I copied from him.
Q: How about copying things from your mother? Think you copied some things?
A: Oh, definitely.
Q: What do you think you copied when you were a young man?
A: Uh.. when anybody needs medical attention or something like that, I always seem to have something they need. Over there, that's my first aid equipment over there. Some of it. Doing good deeds in general. My mother was a very, very kind hearted woman.
Q: Did your parents teach you anything about what is today called sex education and in the earlier day was called hygiene?
A: No. I learned that in the school of hard knocks.
Q: The public schools had nothing like this, I suppose?
A: No. Um um.
Q: Do you think children today are different very much from the children of your own day in the way they act toward their parents?
A: Without a question of a doubt.
Q: In what ways are they different?
A: Uh.. well, of course, I'm going to have to be forced to put it this way, I think that the parents today, now this won't go for all the parents of course, but I think the parents of today are partially to blame.
Q: What things are they doing wrong?
A: The things they are doing wrong in my estimation is the fact that they're just allowing the children to grow up on their own. Not enough supervision.
Q: How does this make the children different from the children you knew as a young man?
A: Well, uh. When I went to school, now we're taking now the primary school, the older ones in the primary school, I never drempt, absolutely never drempt of getting anybody that was older than I to buy a bottle of beer so I may sneak some place and drink it. That sort of a situation never even entered my mind. Now, I'm going to tell you one of the reasons why. My dad, once in a while, he'd have a glass of beer, maybe a cheese sandwich or something, but like we would have afternoon tea, let's put it that way. But whenever he did, he always had a little glass for me. That satified me. I never ever drempt of going out on my own and getting a drink. I never had to go and sneak for things because it didn't come into my head that I wanted things bad enough to sneak. I don't know if I'm explaining myself. I'm sorry my son isn't here. He comes up and has lunch with me once in a while. I think he could back me up on some of these things.
Q: Talking about differences in parents and children, do you think if the divorce laws had been more relaxed when you were a boy, do you think there would have been more divorces then? Or about the same amount?
A: Oh, gosh. Divorces in those days among the people of my social life, and I think the people in general, divorce was a terrible thing.
Q: Did you ever know anybody divorced back then when you were young?
A: Oh, I must have. In fact, I had one in my own family. My son.
Q: But not when you were a young man.
A: I don't think I gave it a thought.
Q: There's another side of living back when you were a younger man. You mentioned that you went to school with a mixture of ethnic groups. In your experience, did you or your family grade or rank other ethnic groups so that some were thought more desireable than others?
A: No. We had, no only that, when we were at the orphan asylum, we had employees there that were different races, too.
Q: When you thought about the Irish, what picture came to mind?
A: Everybody loved the Irish.
Q: Why was that?
A: Because, well, they were that type of people. They are loveable people. I've been riding to work here in the morning on the bus, stops in front of my house. I've been riding with the same Irishman seven years. I live in Park Merced and so does he and we take the same bus together. His name is Kelly.
Q: What did you think about the Italians?
A: The Italian was unfortunate. The Italian was really unfortunate. They, like I told you, they didn't progress too much. We're talking about the way it was many years ago. They used to have to do all the menial, lousy work. They were hog carriers, not hog carriers, I shouldn't say that. The cleanup men in the buildings and so forth, and they called them Wops.
Q: Did you use names like that when you talked about them?
A: No. If I did, my father would have smacked me.
Q: What comes to mind when you think about Germans?
A: In those days? They were very highly thought of.
Q: Why was that?
A: Well, most of them had a pretty fine education. In those days, too, it was practical education that we thought about more so than the scientific end of it which everybody seems to be interested in today. The Germans, they were great music teachers, they were very excellent disciplinarians. They were very excellent people.
Q: How about the Chinese?
A: Everybody loved the Chinese. Everybody loved the Chinese. One of the reasons is, they were and still are, very public spirited people. They took part in everything, and they didn't have much money of their own, to do it with, either.
Q: Did you go to school with any of them when you were young?
A: Uh..yes. This fellow was a big, husky Korean. He was a tremendous athelete. Oh, boy. We worshiped him. He was really good. But we didn't get many of the Chinese. The reason was, they had schools for the Chinese over where we call Chinatown now. They always had schools that were mainly populated with Chinese, but as far back as I can remember, they were all American teachers.
Q: What was the picture in your mind in those days of blacks?
A: Well, I had no prejudice. I never had prejudice.
Q: Did you have any contact with blacks where you were a young man?
A: Yes, yeah, We used to play together in school when we were little kids. But they were just another kids to us.
Q: Later, when you worked in cafes, were blacks musicians or singers?
A: Singers, yes. Singers did pretty well. But the musicians didn't do pretty well. In fact, they had a local of their own over in Oakland which was governed by our Local Six here in San Francisco until not so many years ago. Not so many years ago they did away with it. Now, they belong to our regular, white...
Q: When you were a young man, do you recall any fights between ethnic groups, fights of young boys?
A: No. We had gangs, we had gangs and we had fights. But not over little kind of things.
Q: What would the fights be over?
A: The fights, most of the fights were just merely who was the toughest guy in the gang.
Q: Did you protect a particular territory or a block from others coming in?
A: No, no. I can give you an instance of that, too. Old-timers will remember this. One of the toughest gangs in the city of San Francisco was the Hayes Valley gang. You'd never dream that one up, would you?
Q: That area now has a lot of kinds of people in it. What was it like then?
A: Mostly mixed people. There were Irish, there were Jewish, there were all different mixures of people.
Q: Sometimes it was difficult for people to marry into different ethnic groups. Did you ever hear about that?
A: Oh, yeah, no question about that.
Q: When you married, did you marry inside the Jewish faith or not?
A: I first became engaged to be married to a girl that I worked with in one of the cafes who was gentile. We didn't go through with the marriage, but it had nothing to do with the religion.
Q: But for others, would it have been difficult? How difficult was it for an Irish lad to marry an Italian girl?
A: They weren't too crazy about it. They weren't too crazy about it. There was nowhere near the mixed marriages there is today.
Q: Do you remember anyone you knew back then who had a mixed marriage?
A: I'm trying to think. You're taking me back too far.
Q: I'll bring you up a little further. Did you have any feeling then or now, about what it meant to be a member of the Jewish, to be a Jew?
A: I'm very proud of my race. I think it's been a wonderful race of people, I think it still is. Against great odds, but then again, let's take it to organizations. I think I can give you a better idea of what you want. I don't like to belong to secterian organizations. I enjoy far more, going to mixed organizations. The reason is, I find, too many people have the same origin, how can I explain it? They become too much alike. There's that's artistic, some that like to do this, some to do that. Let's figure that we have three quarters Jewish. Most of that three quarters believe the same way. They want things the same way. I belong to organizations — I'm quite an organization person. I'm a fraternal man, which means I work.
Q: So you like diversity in your organizations?
A: Oh, yes. Absolutely.
Q: Now a set of questions to compare then and now in San Francisco. What's the greatest difference between living in the city then and now?
A: Do you want me to joke a bit? I don't think that we live now, I think that we merely exist. But we really lived then.
Q: What would that be, to live then and exist now?
A: Well, we liked to be with one another in those days, we liked to enjoy things together regardless of race or creed or whatnot. We liked to go out and spend a little money once in a while. Today, people are making more money then they ever drempt of making in their lives, and contrary to what people are thinking, regardless of what's happening, people are spending money, and they're spending it like nobody's business. There's no putting away for a rainy day any more. Banks are owning everything. You can't call your soul your own. You're being taxed to death. So consequently, we are living today actually, we are existing today in fear. If it's not
Q: What things do you most fear?
A: Well, right now, I'm not fearing anything. I'm not fearing anything. I have been a very lucky person. I have been married three times and I have been very lucky. I have a marvelous wife. She's just as fine as she could possibly be. She's had a windfall which allows us to do things which otherwise we wouldn't. I recently have had a windfall which puts us on a very comfortable diet. That allows me to do what I want to do, which is exactly what I'm doing right now. My wife has two sisters, beautiful, wonderful sisters, and they go shopping together. We're having a very, very nice life right now. I haven't got a kick or a complaint.
Q: What do you think most people fear today? Living in the city.
A: Now, they're fearing for their lives. Do you agree?
Q: I hear a great deal about that. If that's some of the greatest difference, what is some of the greatest similarity between living in San Francisco then and now?
A: Well, we didn't have all of the promiscuous cracking people on the heads and raping people and all that stuff. It has been years where something crept up but didn't last too long. We had a different kind of police system, in the first place. The average Mr. or Mrs. Citizen in those days, he just simply got as tough as the other guys, that's all. That's where our big trouble comes in right now. We're chicken.
Q: The citizens are?
A: Yeah.
Q: Do you think there's anything the same?
A: Not very much. Not very much.
Q: Have you ever thought of leaving the city?
A: Oh, yes. I've thought of leaving the city many times because I have had a couple of different homes. One of them, I built myself up in the country. If I had kept one of them, I would have gone there and lived there instead of living here.
Q: If you had the chance, you'd leave the city, you say?
A: Yes, I would.
Q: As you look back to those years when you were growing up in San Francisco, can you think of a single event or incident, which would best expalin to an outsider, what it was like to grow up in the city?
A: Tough one. I don't think that I would be, couldn't and be completely honorable. I'll tell you why I say that. Because I, myself, I didn't go around looking for trouble, and I didn't get into trouble, and consequently, I had a very wonderful life. No trouble whatsoever,
Q: Most people carry around with them a picture of the place in which they live. If you had to put that in one sentence or a few words, what would they be?
A: I heard that question before, and I don't know where at. Just recently. That is a tough one. I'll tell you why it's tough. Because everybody has his own routine and lives his life the way he wants to. That is exactly what I am doing. I came here to work this morning, didn't I? Have I touched a thing to work on? Not a damn thing, have I? Still, I'm very well thought of in this place. I'm sitting and I'm enjoying this very, very much. I'm enjoying this. I don't know what your ultimate reason is for asking all these questions.
Q: I'll tell you about that when we're through. Do you have a sense of this city as a, do you think of San Francisco as a—
A: It's a very friendly city.
Q: Friendly city. Do you think of happiness here?
A: Definitely. Absolutely.
Q: Can you think of another city you'd like to live in rather than here?
A: I can't see, think of another city I'd like to live, I'd love to live, rather than here. Well, Switzerland.
Q: You've been there?
A: Yeah. I've been through Europe. I've done a lot of traveling.
Courtesy of The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-6000; http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/
http://content.cdlib.org/view?docId=hb1j49n7td&brand=oac4
Title: Selections from: Growing up in the cities: oral history transcripts of tape-recorded interviews.: Growing up in the cities: interviewee: Lawrence Henry Mauser
By: Wirt, Frederick M.
Date: 1977-1979
Contributing Institution: The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-6000; http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/
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