USA > California > San Francisco County > San Francisco > A history of the city of San Francisco; and incidentally of the state of California > Part 29
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High education is not prized so much here as it is in many Eastern cities. In Boston a circle of nabobs feels uncomfortable unless it has some literary celeb- rities. Fashion demands a few authors at a social gathering as a needful spice. The man who can write a taking book or magazine article, or deliver a scien- tific lecture is regarded as one of the attractions of the city, and of any circle which he may favor with his presence. High education there is usually the prop- erty of those who have good social positions; and it is often the means of obtaining a large income. Literary and scientific eminence have less pecuniary and social value here than in the East.
Nevertheless, money is less worshipped, and the man is more respected for his moral and intellectual worth here than anywhere else. The charge against California, as compared with the Atlantic states, is a repetition of the one made against those states by European writers. They complained of the almighty dollar; they accused the Americans of being a sordid,
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grovelling, money-getting, grossly material nation, but they have become tired of the accusation. They see that the Americans are the most extravagant of all people, the most remote from miserly feeling. The charge of money worship is based on misconceptions. The natural wealth of the country, the relative sparse- ness of population, the extensive use of machinery, the large tide of immigration, the general education of the people, and the respectability of labor and busi- ness, have given facilities for making fortunes much more easily and rapidly than were to be found in the old world; and, therefore, there was more inducement for men to devote themselves to business. The wealthiest people were occupied with money-making in occupations which the wealthy people in Europe had decided to be discreditable. That was the main proof of the pretended sordidness of American society.
It was no proof; it was not even evidence; it did not bear on the main point at issue. The rich Eng- lishman assumed that commerce and mechanical trades are sordid occupations, and that a country where they are held in honor must be sordid. These assumptions were narrow prejudices; and wherever they are ac- cepted, there intellect and morals are relatively less esteemed than where rejected. They are accepted in Europe; they are rejected to a great extent in the Atlantic states; they are rejected to a still greater degree in California. European society is divided into half a dozen different strata, based mainly on occupation; and the members of each strata refuse to
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associate with those below them. The position of these strata is regulated to a large extent by the esti- mate of their general pecuniary conditions. The in- dividual counts for little; the class counts for much.
In Europe, and to a considerable extent in the Atlantic states, manual labor excludes a man from fashionable society, and he who once supported him- self by hard work can never get rid of its stigma in the opinion of fashionable people, no matter how rich he may become. Wherever such prejudices pre- vail, there the man is measured by a false standard. They have less influence here than anywhere else. The sand-shoveler and the millionaire may change places to-morrow, and they know it; so the former does not usually cringe nor the other strut when they meet. They measure each other fairly; each has had his ups and downs; each pays the respect due to the character rather than to the money of the other.
Nearly all the rich men and their wives commenced their adult lives with little save a common school edu- cation, some without even that; and they had to learn of late years what luxury is, and how it is enjoyed else- where by those accustomed to it from childhood. They have traveled; their money has secured admission to the homes of the fashionable in the Atlantic states and Europe; they have observed closely and imitated well; and while here and their one has shown a weak vanity and made a vulgar display of riches, as a gen- eral rule the Californian millionaires have worn their wealth modestly, and have not been ashamed of their
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early poverty, or forgetful of their early friends. So many are now poor who a few years since were rich, and so many rich who a few years since were poor, so many rich people have near relatives among the poor, and there are so many possibilities, if not probabilities, of great change in the future pecuniary positions, that social lines are not drawn according to wealth and occupation, or are drawn less strictly here than elsc- where. The man counts more, and the occupation, family and wealth less socially here than elsewhere.
SEC. 241. Swarming Out. San Francisco early became a central hive from which men swarmed out to other places in the basin of the Pacific, and carried progress and powerful influence with them. Har- greaves who had sailed back through the Golden Gate to his former home discovered the placers of Australia. From San Francisco went bands of adventurers to ex- plore the placers of Peru, New Granada, Honduras, various parts of Mexico, British Columbia, Idaho and Arizona. Meiggs, who became the leading railroad builder of South America, was a graduate of the Californian metropolis. The same city furnished E. D. Baker, a federal senator to Oregon, and J. P. Jones and Wm. Sharon to Nevada in the same capa- city, and many of their leading men to Arizona, Washington, Utah, British Columbia and the Hawaiian Islands. In the civil war, the former residents of the golden city held some of the highest positions on both sides. Virginia city is half colony and half suburb of the sunset metropolis.
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SEC. 242. Governmental Defects. Although the
municipal administration while under control of the
people's or taxpayer's party for nearly twenty years after the reform introduced by the influence of the
office, still when we look back, the general impres- many able and honest men to federal, state and city ures, and both democrats and republicans elected vigilance committee of 1856, had its admirable feat-
sion remains that the American government, as ob- served in its workings in San Francisco for the last quarter of a century, abounds with most serious de-
fided to men, many of whom were considered suspi- the national parties has been to a great extent con- fects. The management of the conventions of both
cious, if not notoriously dishonest. Most of the federal senators who reached a dictatorship, more or less qualified in their respective parties, and controlled or tried to control the federal patronage of the state, regarded the maintenance of their power and the gain- ing of influence to aid them in re-election or in other political advancement as the first consideration, in the distribution of the federal honors and profits, and were ready to turn out the official who refused to pay his personal court, or to render his personal service at needful occasions. The positions that could not be properly filled without experience and without the
permanence that is one of the first demands of
prudent business, have been treated as public plunder,
the enjoyment of which by any one individual for more than four years was a wrong to others who had
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done as much work for the party, often dirty work, and could not be deprived of their equal share of the spoils without danger of a revolt. Wherever the national political organizations have had control, no matter what their name or who their leader, we see the same management of the primary elections or ward meetings by a few professional politicians; a similar large proportion of absolutely disreputable men in the conventions; the same submission to such associations as if they were inevitable, by men of su- perior capacity; the same distribution of the offices as rewards for partisan service; the same brief tenure; the same disposition to shield from exposure any fraud committed by an official of their own party; the same silence among the leaders about the corrupting influence of rotation, and the other features of the spoils system; and the same tendency to distribute the profitable offices among those who would be use- ful lackeys, or at least submissive followers of the leader, or a small ring of leaders.
The average legislator and member of congress in California have favored every abuse that would strengthen their influence in the conventions of their party, or pay a large revenue to their intimate friends. They fawned upon the powerful, assisted fraud in plundering the treasury, and oppressed the helpless victims of popular prejudice at every opportunity. Whenever two classes of the population had conflicting interests which could be affected by legislation, and which were introduced as issues into the political cam-
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paign, and one of the classes had no votes, or rela- tively few, the politicians sided with the other. No senator, no governor, no congressman ever raised his voice in protest against the wrong to individuals, or the injury to the state, unless there was a fair prospect that he would gain more votes at the near elections by his speech than by his silence. In the course of years the hostility to the French miners, to the Spanish grant holders, to the equal taxation of mining prop- erty, to the sale of the mines, and to negro testimony in cases affecting white men, were exhausted by the the change of circumstances, and then leading politi- cians denounced the wrongs, when they could indulge their sympathies without losing votes, or pretend to have sympathies that would add to their popularity. There has always been great zeal for freedom and the common rights of humanity when its exhibition would catch votes.
In no case has the legislature shown any magna- nimity or high devotion to justice; though it has often made loud pretensions when it saw a prospect of profit. It devised plans of oppression which the governor, the state courts, or the federal government frustrated. Not less than fifty times within a quarter of a century it has attempted great frauds upon the people, and has been defeated by the gubernatorial veto or by judicial decree. The governors of California have usually been men without any very high moral or intellectual character, but they were so far above the predominant level of the legislatures, and were held to such a direct
30
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and undivided responsibility by public opinion, that the veto power entrusted to them has been of inesti- mable value in the protection of the community against legislative fraud and recklessness.
SEC. 243. Literature and Art. The elements of literary activity are numerous in San Francisco, and a good foundation has been laid for successful author- ship in the future. The children are well educated; the habit of reading much and in good books is gen- eral; the predominant tone of society is intellectual; much of the original as well as of the extracted matter in the daily journals is well written, so that a good standard of taste has been established in the popular mind; and the public libraries are large, well selected
and well patronized. An academy of sciences, a microscopical society, and various other scientific as- sociations have for years been accumulating knowl- edge, and much study has been given to the geology, botany, zoology and meteorology of the state. The wealth of the city has made a market for pictures, and half a dozen painters of much merit have established their permanent homes here; most of them giving their attention to landscape, for which abundant material is offered by the grand and varied scenery of the state. A few good figure pieces have been pro- duced here, and many have been obtained from Eu- rope. Few American cities are relatively better pro- vided with distinguished modern paintings. The art association gives two exhibitions annually.
Although San Francisco has no native authors, the
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city has produced meritorious works in the depart- ments of history, science, jurisprudence, prose romance, poetry, travels, and humorous essay; but they are not high enough in general merit to deserve special men- tion in a brief historical record like this. As a class the humorous writers have made the most fame, and among these are F. B. Harte, Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain), and G. H. Derby (Phoenix). Harte gained his reputation beyond the limits of California by "The Heathen Chinee," some verses which owed their suc- cess not to their poetical merit, for they had none, but to their satire of the popular prejudice against the celestial immigrants. They called attention to better things that had been allowed to pass without notice, and in a few months he became one of the celebrities of the time and the founder of a new school of slangy fiction.
One of the most meritorious literary works done in California, though not the likely to be appreciated at a distance immediately, or over by general readers, is the codification of the civil, penal and political law of the state. Most of the sections are copied from the codes framed, though not adopted, in New York, but there is enough new matter based on careful researches and original thought to give a genuine Californian character to the legal system, which will probably be copied in many of the other states.
California, and especially San Francisco, where nearly all the authors reside, has made valuable con- tributions to many branches of literature. Among the
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names of the law writers are H. W. Halleck, Gregory Yale, John Proffatt, A. C. Freeman; among the med- ical writers, L. C. Lane and H. H. Toland; among the historical writers, John W. Dwinelle, Franklin Tut- hill, and H. H. Bancroft; among the writers of books of travels and adventure, John F. Swift, C. W. Stod- dard, Dr. Stillman, Theodore H. Hittell, and Josephine Clifford; and among the humorists, Bret Harte, Sam- uel Clemens (Mark Twain), and George H. Derby, who first wrote over the signature of Squibob and afterwards of Phoenix; and among the descriptive writers, B. P. Avery, B. E. Lloyd, and C. B. Turrill. "The Native Races of the Pacific States," by H. H. Bancroft, is an archaeological work upon which a vast amount of research has been expended; and the "Amer- ican Decisions," a compilation of the reports of the supreme courts of all the American states from 1775 to 1869, to fill seventy-five large volumes, edited by John Proffatt, and published in San Francisco, is one of the leading literary enterprises of our time; and H. H. Bancroft is now engaged upon another of still greater magnitude in the amount of literary labor re- quired, an elaborate history of the western slope of our continent.
Edward Pollock combined vigorous poetic fire with correct taste, and several of his pieces deserve to be counted among the best produced in our state, if not in our continent. Though "Evening " is inferior to many of his other poems, we make an extract from it on account of its local character:
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The air is chill and the day grows late, And the clouds come in through the Golden Gate; Phantom fleets they seem to me, From a shoreless and unsounded sea; Their shadowy spars and misty sails, Unshattered, have weathered a thousand gales; Slow wheeling, lo! in squadrons gray, They part and hasten along the bay, Each to its anchorage finding way. Where the hills of Saucelito swell, Many in gloom may shelter well; And others-behold! unchallenged pass By the silent guns of Alcatraz; No greetings of thunder and flame exchange The armed isle and the cruisers strange. Their meteor flags, so widely blown, Were blazoned in a land unknown; So charmed from war, or wind, or tide, Along the quiet wave they glide.
Frank Soulé, whose name and writings are familiar to Californians, especially the carly residents, has written much that has been received with high favor. " Watching beside Him " is one of his best pieces:
The leaves turn yellow on the mournful willow, November's waves are sighing on the shore; And there's a fading cheek upon the pillow, That shall feel health no more. The leaves are falling and my friend is dying, Comes the destroyer nearer day by day, And like the leaves on Autumn's breezes flying, His poor life flits away. But now the foliage and his life were vernal, How soon their Spring and Summer glow hath fled! I would have had their beauty made eternal- Ah me! but dust instead!
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The leaves have fallen! on the Autumn eddies, The last pale spectres float and disappear, And one poor body-there his quiet bed is- Is all that's left me here. All that is left me of his manly powers, All that is left of life so good and brief, All faded like the first frost-bitten flowers, And Autumn's withered leaf. In night's dark hours his spirit spread her pinions, Left in our clinging arms alone his form, Heaven lighted through the dark's obscure dominions, The starless gloom and storm.
While by his faded form so sad and lonely, I sit, O mighty Monarch, I implore: Tell me, is life but this, this tell me only This and no more ? A few fair hopes, that never can be real, A few joys passing like the fleeting breath ? Is immortality but an ideal That terminates with death ? Of all I loved so much, so dearly treasured, His manly beauty and his comely grace, By this dear faded form may life be measured, And this pale, silent face ?
There comes no answer, though my heart is crying, No message from the spirit gone before, I hear, instead, the yeasty waves replying In sobs upon the shore. I hear the night-winds in the branches toning, Or rustling with the sere and fallen leaf, Their sad responses to my inward moaning, In pity to my grief. And so in loneliness, and doubt, and sorrow, I listen to each night hour's lagging tread, And silent wait the coming of to-morrow, In watch beside the dead.
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Charles Warren Stoddard, who of late years has neglected the muses, has shown in his earlier life de- cided poetical talent, though there is always a promise of more than he has yet accomplished. These lines are his :
When my little love at purple dusk, Trips out upon the lawn among the flowers, The blushing roses quiver in their musk,
Love-smitten through; the feathery fragrant showers Of snow-white blossoms drift upon the grass,
Kissing her whispering footsteps as they pass.
When my little love at evening's hush, Goes dancing down the dell with laugh and song, The slumbering echoes waken and a gush Of silvery voices. greets her, and along The dewy clusters of the trailing vines In music mingles, murmurs and repines.
Among our poets Ina D. Coolbrith has a high place, and various pieces from her pen will probably be pre- served to distant times. The person who can read without being touched her lines entitled " The Moth- er's Grief," is not to be envied:
So fair the sun rose, yester-morn, The mountain cliffs adorning! The golden tassels of the corn Danced in the breath of morning; The cool, clear stream that runs before, Such happy words was saying; And in the open cottage door My pretty babe was playing. Aslant the sill a sunbeam lay- I laughed in careless pleasure, To see his little hand essay To grasp the shining treasure.
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To-day no shafts of golden flame Across the sill are lying; To-day I call my baby's name, And hear no lisped replying; To-day-ah, baby mine, to-day- God holds thee in his keeping! And yet I weep, as one pale ray Breaks in upon thy sleeping; I weep to see its shining bands Reach, with a fond endeavor, To where the little restless hands Are crossed in rest forever!
Many pages of the most distinguished poets are filled with lines inferior in depth of feeling and merit of versification to that little piece.
Josephine Walcott longed in her early youth to visit California, and having now made her home in the state, thus addresses it :
It haunted me amid the sunrise splendor- A golden dream of sunset and of thee; 'Mid dusky woodlands or by shining rivers, On granite hilltops, or by Orient sea. * *
Fair land of sunset, my young dream fulfilling- For I have followed thy sweet thought, O youth! And from thy purple hills and golden heather Shall sing new bards, with grand prophetic truth.
Thy seas shall bear white ships to safest harbor; Thy valleys yield sweet wealth of fruit and grain; Thy regal hillsides glow with purple vintage; Thy tender skies fall Summer sun and rain ..
Thy sons shall be as gods of classic story; Thy regal daughters noble, fair and strong. From thy new world shall rise immortal heroes, O golden land of labor, art and song!
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Emilie Lawson is another sweet singer of whom California may be proud. She writes with an even inspiration, when she does write, but, like many oth- ers, finds little leisure for the indulgence of poetic fancy. The following, entitled " What Does it Mat- ter ?" is from her pen:
What does it matter, dear, though I go soon, Before the golden cups are gathered all; Before the burning heat of Summer noon, Or the cold storm of Autumn-time shall fall; What does it matter ? If I sooner go, Wearing unfaded violets on my breast-
With loaded wains, the reapers, tired and slow, Will sighing pass the grasses o'er my rest, And sighing, drop a tear- What will it matter, dear ?
What will it matter, sweet, if I grow old, And Summer's pleasant fields grow bleak and bare, A few brief days of sunshine or of cold, A few short hours of pleasure or of care ? What will it matter if I wearier stay To reap the fruitage of the sober Fall,
To put the carlier gathered flowers away; What is the gain or loss if, after all, A little longer stay my feet- What will it matter, sweet ? What matters it, dear heart, if far or near Waits the Death Angel-noiselessly and dumb; For, if I stay, love-fetters bind me here, And, if I go, dear voices whisper, Come! Though dark and thick the shadows intervene, The clouds are sometimes rifted, and I see The beautiful dim vale that lies between
The world that is and that which is to be- Only a step apart- What matters it, dear heart ?
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Joaquin Miller shows in many passages that he has strong poetical talent; but his works are uneven, and most of them are published prematurely, without the patient polish. We have not at hand any of the pas- sages that have seemed to us to be his best, and for a quotation we must be content with the following trib- ute to the local pride of our state:
Dared I but say a prophecy, As sung the holy men of old, Of rock-built cities yet to be Along those shining shores of gold, Crowding athirst into the sea, What wondrous marvels might be told!
Enough to know that empire here Shall burn her loftiest brightest star;
Here art and eloquence shall reign, As o'er the wolf-reared realm of old; Here learned and famous from afar, To pay their noble court shall come, And shall not seek or see in vain, But look on all with wonder dumb.
Bret Harte has, in a high degree, some of the qual- ities required for the successful poet, but most of his verses are seriously defective in some material point.
About twenty years ago, when flumes (wooden aqueducts carrying the water of mining ditches over ravines sometimes two hundred feet deep) were prom- inent features in the scenery and contributed much to the wealth of the state, Mrs. Thomas Fitch (as her name is now), wrote "The Song of the Flume," the
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best effort to throw the charm of poetry upon any branch of Californian mining industry. It says :
I sought the shore of the sounding sea From the far Sierra's height,
With a starry breast and a snow-capped crest, I foamed in a path of light;
But they bore me thence in a winding way- They fettered me like a slave,
And as serfs of old were sold for gold, So they bartered my soil-stained wave.
* * X
Lift me aloft to the mountain brow! Fathom the deep blue vein!
And I'll sift the soil for the shining toil, As I sink to the valley again;
The swell of my swarthy breast shall bear Pebble and rock away,
Though they brave my strength, they shall yield at length, And the glittering gold shall stay.
Many others have written verses in California, at least as good as some here quoted, but copies of their best pieces are not within convenient reach. Among the poets who are dismissed with a mere mention of the name, are James F. Bowman, Daniel O'Connell, F. H. Gassaway, Mrs. E. A. Simonton Page and Ly- man Goodman.
SEC. 244. Condition in 1878. The business of San Francisco is very active. In 1877 the clearing- house transactions amounted to $500,000,000; the stock sales (for which it was a dull year) to $120,- 000,000; the exports (including $73,000,000 of treas- ure, and $41,000,000 of merchandise) to $114,000,000;
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the coinage to $46,000,000; the real estate sales to $18,000,000; and the taxes collected to $13,771,000, including $6,700,000 of duties on imports, $1,900,000 of federal internal revenue, $3,423,000 for the support of the municipal government and $1,754,000 con- tributed to the state government. The street work (grading, sewering, paving, etc.) cost $1,860,000, and most of this sum paid by the owners of lots fronting on the streets improved is not counted in the $3,423,- 000 of city revenue previously mentioned. One fourth of the revenue of the city, and more than a fourth of that of the state, is spent in maintaining free schools. The city has a debt of $3,500,000, relatively one of the smallest city debts in the United States.
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