USA > California > San Francisco County > San Francisco > San Francisco, a history of the Pacific coast metropolis, Volume II > Part 18
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HE social life of a people cannot be described by a broad generalization. Bryce in his "American Commonwealth" attempted to picture that of San Francisco during the dec- ade or so prior to his visit in 1881, and has conveyed an impression that was something less than flattering, although his animadversions were interspersed with a fair share of " SEAL OF CC E SAN commendation. He told his readers that "living far away from the steadying influence of the Eastern states the Californians have developed, and are proud of having done so, a sort of Pacific type, which though differing but slightly from the usual Western type, has less of the English element than one discovers in the American living on the Atlantic side of the Rocky Mountains," a statement which he immediately follows with: "Add to this that California is the last place to the west before you come to Japan. That scum which the westward moving wave of emigration carries on its crest is here stopped because it can go no farther. It accumulates in San Francisco and forms a dangerous constituent in the population of that great and growing City-a population more mixed than one finds anywhere else in America, for Frenchmen, Italians, Portuguese, Greeks and the children of Australian convicts abound there side by side with Germans, negroes and Irish."
This summing up has the defect of a half truth. It is true that San Francisco was a cosmopolitan city at the time he wrote, and it is perhaps indisputable that the westward movement carried to the City some of the scum and offscourings of
Bryce's Picture of Society in the Eighties
San Francisco Not Disorderly
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the East, and the other parts of the world; but the assumption it conveys that the product was a disorderly community is absolutely without foundation. Ambassador Bryce is a distinguished writer and bears a high reputation as an investigator, but in this instance he omitted the precaution of ascertaining the facts, and accepted the statements of men who were in the position of trying to conceal the part they had played in an affair the details of which show that they were panic stricken without cause. San Francisco was not a disorderly city, even at the time when the vagaries of the sand lotters were being most dwelt upon by the Eastern press. When a few laundries were being attacked in the City in midsummer 1878, the mobs in Chicago were fighting with the militia and regular soldiery, and there was more violence and bloodshed in the course of a few days than was witnessed in San Francisco during a quarter of a century. The proof of the assertion that San Francisco was not inhabited by a disorderly population at that time is fur- nished by the fact that within a few days after the affair which called the pro- visional police known as the "pick handle brigade" into existence the organization disbanded and gave itself no further concern, which it would have done had its leaders believed that the population was inclined to be turbulent or law defying.
The offensive inclusion of the various nationalities named by Bryce with "the children of Australian convicts," was a gratuitous insult for which he was probably not responsible, because the statement bears the earmarks of an easily recognized source of information, that of the bureau which disbursed the funds provided by the corporation to defeat the "sand lot" constitution. If at that time, or any other time there was a sufficient number of children of Australian convicts in San Fran- cisco to attract attention and cause comment, the fact was utterly unknown to the statistician or the people generally. As for the Frenchmen, the Italians, Portuguese and Greeks, they were as law abiding as any other part of the community, not ex- cluding that which claimed to be the most respectable. As a matter of fact the nationalities named took a smaller part in the agitation than some not named, and had Mr. Bryce investigated he would have learned that the men most prominently identified with Denis Kearney were English socialists who for several years prior to 1877-78 had been preaching the gospel of dissatisfaction to San Franciscans.
The attempt to make it appear that there was something distinctive in the popu- lation of San Francisco that acounted for the troubles of 1877-78 must necessarily prove abortive because after the occurrences of 1851 and 1856 there was nothing to distinguish the actions of the inhabitants of the Pacific coast metropolis from those of other American and European cities which contain nearly homogeneous peoples. After the summary correction of the troubles of the early Fifties there were fewer riots and exhibitions of mob violence in San Francisco than in any other section of the Union. In the most staid communities of the East the lives of negroes were frequently menaced, and on occasions riots occurred in which they were severely handled. There never was even a remote approach in San Francisco to the intol- erance exhibited in the anti Catholic riots in Philadelphia and some other cities during the so called "Know Nothing" excitement, and the City never disgraced itself by squabbling over the merits of rival actors. The persecution of the Chinese, so far as San Francisco was concerned, was a figment of the imagination, and the sum total of the indignities heaped upon the race would appear small by comparison with those to which Africans were subjected in all the big cities of the Atlantic
San Francisco Not Intolerant
Kearney's Associates English Associates
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seaboard, not to speak of those sections of the South where fear of black domina- tion has become ingrained.
While the Chinese were regarded as an undesirable element an innate feeling that fair play demanded that those who had been permitted to enter the country should be properly treated prevailed, and even in the one much quoted instance when a mob destroyed Chinese wash houses no violence was committed on their persons. The immigrants from China, while not welcomed enthusiastically, were practically unmolested. The young hoodlum ocasionally tumbled a lannderer's basket of clean linen in the mud, but, as a rule, the Chinese walked the street without inviting notice except from the stranger in the City who discovered in them objects of interest. Their merchants did business on the same terms as their white com- petitors, and, although there has always been a Chinese quarter since the early Fifties, it was no uncommon thing to find enterprising merchants from China planting themselves in the midst of white rivals and on the best streets in the City.
But despite these facts, which senatorial and other investigations disclosed, there is no doubt that the presence of the alien race in disproportionately large numbers created an outside impression as injurious as that which the foreigner de- rived from visiting the slums of New York. The spirit of toleration was largely responsible for the tumble down and unsavory appearance of "Chinatown" of which much account was made against San Francisco by visitors who refused to take into consideration the fact that federal laws, and the unwarranted interference of out- siders had tied the hands of the community, and prevented proper regulation. The overcrowding habit was not forced on the Chinese; their gregarious instincts and ingrained economy promoted herding, but the City was powerless to prevent the practice, for when it attempted to enforce cubic air ordinances it was met with the charge of discrimination, and even its efforts to bring about sanitary reforms en- countered that obstacle. The precaution adopted in all penal institutions to guard against prisoners becoming infested with vermin by causing their heads to be shaved was waived in the case of Chinese because the United States supreme court, through one of its justices had held that the queue had sacred or other associations, and to deprive him of it would be an act of cruelty.
The world has since seen the Chinese divest themselves of their queues because they were a badge of servitude, a fact which the justice was perfectly acquainted with, and which was well understood by San Franciscans whose determination to prevent the invasion of their state by a people regarded by them as impossible of assimilation, a determination which finally prevailed and the consummation of which was hastened by the agitation of 1877-78. Although Kearney's war cry "The Chinese Must Go" did not prevail, because the people, for the reason before stated, did not desire to drive ont those who were here and practically on invitation, it did crystallize the sentiment against their coming. The objection had been strongly urged before Kearney shouted his slogan on the sand lot. There had been inquiries and reports prior to 1877, and the legislature of 1877-78 appointed a senatorial committee of investigation consisting of E. J. Lewis, M. J. Donovan, Frank Mc- Coppin, George H. Rogers, William M. Pierson and George E. Evans, which held repeated sittings in San Francisco during the summer of 1878 and developed such evidence, that its dissemination subsequently turned the tide of sentiment in the East against Chinese immigration. Its recommendations did not produce imme-
The Chinese Fairly Treated
Federal Courts Prevent Regulation
First Chinese Exclusion Bill
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diate fruit, for a compromise measure suggested, which would have permitted the introduction of laborers in small numbers which passed both houses was vetoed by President Hayes.
Vote on Chinese Exclusion in 1879
The misrepresentations concerning the state of sentiment in California influ- enced Hayes to this course. In vetoing the "fifteen passenger bill," the compromise measure referred to, he imagined that there was no general apprehension of evil consequences resulting from the presence of an unassimilable element, but all ex- cuses of this sort were swept away by the action of the people in the election of September 3, 1879, when the electorate of California, with a secret ballot, out of a total vote of 161,405, cast 154,638 against Chinese immigration, and only 833 in favor of their admission. Subsequently a measure passed congress which effectually put an end to the agitation against the Chinese. Although the legislation adopted has not wholly excluded the undesirable element, and has occasionally given rise to scandals growing out of attempted evasions of the law with the connivance of those entrusted with its administration, on the whole it has worked effectively.
Sentiment Changed Regarding Immigration
In 1881 Governor Perkins sent a message to the legislature in which he stated that immigration into the state during the preceding five years had almost ceased, and recommended that publications should be made under authority of the state of its resources, prices and locations of lands available for settlement, the object being to attract a desirable population. This recommendation presented a marked contrast to the attitude assumed in 1876 when the legislature was dominated by men who were convinced that California could not be benefited by representation at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. Although the exclusion legislation de- sired had not been secured at the time when Perkins made his recommendation, the men to whom he made it saw the handwriting on the wall, and if there were any who still believed that the best interests of California demanded the introduction of an abundant supply of cheap Oriental labor they had ceased to have any influ- ence. It was now recognized that the development of California, and the future of San Francisco, depended upon making the state a home for a homogeneous people who would build up its fortunes by developing its manifold resources.
Home Life and Chinese Servants
These were experiences which the discovery of gold and California's position facing the Orient imposed upon her people, and they greatly affected social condi- tions, but not always in the manner which adverse criticism suggested. It is pos- sible, however, to trace a connection between the slow growth of home life in San Francisco, and the servant difficulty which became acute at an early day because of the presence of Chinese. While the latter were good servants, and far more acceptable than whites, to many if not most employers, their presence in the kitchen, and their employment in other household occupations, tended to degrade those pursuits in the eyes of those who might otherwise have resorted to them for a live- lihood. The loose talk about Chinese cheap labor has in a measure disguised the fact that Orientals never gave their services too cheaply to their white employers. At no time, even during the period prior to the comparatively effective operation of the exclusion law, were the rewards of Chinese servants low. The demand for capable help was always abreast of the supply, because the domestic class of workers could not be recruited from the source available to the Eastern people. Although wages were high, being easily more than double or even triple the rates paid on the other side of the Rocky Mountains, good servants were difficult to obtain, hence the resort to lodgings and restaurants, hotels and boarding houses.
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Much was said in praise of the hotels of San Francisco by travelers and other visitors during the Seventies, owing to the enterprise displayed in the erection of the Palace, which called particular attention to them. They enjoyed a reputation not surpassed by those of any other city in the country, but occasionally they were adversely criticized. During this period the "American plan" was general in the larger hostelries, and it had the defect common to all hotels of the United States of presenting an abundance of viands badly cooked and illy served. An actress visiting San Francisco in 1878 writing her experiences several years later re- marked: "I alighted at the Palace hotel, at that time the richest and most com- fortable one in California. The service was bad, and just those menus (much praised) insupportable to the spoilt palate of a European. The cuisine of America is awful. I shudder when I think of it." As the critic was a princess, as well as an actress, her verdict is entitled to respectful consideration as representing the best opinion attainable on a subject which occupied the superior mind more fully a quarter of a century ago than it does at present.
While this slighting estimate based on the highest standards cannot be lightly set aside, it may be asserted that the Palace, the Cosmopolitan and the Occidental at that particular time compared more than favorably, so far as ministrations to the inner man were concerned, with the very best in the East. The variety and pro- fusion of the viands served on their tables testified to the abundance of the resources of the neighboring country, and those who partook of them, when they were not too completely dominated by the idea that perfection in cooking depends on having things prepared in the way one is told they should be by the gastronomic authorities there was satisfaction. Visitors were often inspired to visit the markets which supplied these tables so bountifully. The disciples of Brillat Savarin, however, when they dropped into San Francisco were not compelled to live on the American plan, which by the way, was regarded by many as not much worse than the European table d'hote. It was possible for them to resort to restaurants where the cooking was unexceptional, and the prices reasonable, and in which the patrons were accus- tomed to balancing the merits of a dish, and to asking for a particular vintage with which to wash it down. Indeed no less an authority than George Augustus Sala, who spent a few days in the City in the early Eighties, told the readers of his letters published in a London paper, that the people of San Francisco knew better what was good to eat than any other Americans, and that its people got more enjoy- ment out of the table than most others he had met on this side of the water.
But the crowning glory of San Francisco was not its big hotels and its "first class restaurants." It really rested on its "three for twos." By this expression the San Franciscan designated those restaurants in which three dishes were served for a quarter of a dollar, or for "two bits," and on a still cheaper class where a tolerably filling meal could be obtained for even less than twenty-five cents. The latter, however, were not nearly so much in evidence as the "three for twos" which, owing to their popularity were prosperous concerns and able to pay high rents, which permitted them to establish themselves on prominent streets and display their attractions through plate glass windows. There were restaurants of this sort that served five or six thousand meals daily. The service was not distinguished by the leisurely movements of the waiters, but responded to the hurry-up demands of the guests. But the viands put before the patron were abundant and wholesome if they were not served on eggshell china. The meats were especially good, and the
Hotei Cooking Criticized
Epicurean Resorts
"Three for Two" Restaurants
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portion of beef or mutton was large enough to satisfy a vigorous appetite. There were no "kick shaws," and the cooking came in the category of plain; but there was a variety to choose from. The diner at these restaurants usually ordered soup, a portion of meat and a dessert. The meat was always accompanied with potatoes which were included in the portion. Or the soup might be cut out and a vegetable ordered in its place, or the combination of three dishes could be formed in any manner desired by selecting from the long list of soups, meats, vegetables and desserts, which were priced at 10 cents a dish. Bread and butter were supplied with the three dishes without extra charge; coffee, tea, chocolate, beer or wine appeared on the list at the uniform price of ten cents and were often substituted for the soup or the dessert.
Hotel and Restaurant Appointments
The appointments of these restaurants while not expressing luxury were not repelling. The napery was clean, the tables always being covered with white cloth at the beginning of the meal; the glass glittered even if it was heavy and not ele- gantly shaped, and the dishes were substantial white granite able to stand hard knocks. It may be said in passing that the refinements of the public table did not make themselves noticeable at an early period in San Francisco. Marchand's and the Poodle Dog served their epicurean patrons on dishes no better than those found in the United States or Popular, two "three for two" restaurants well known during the Seventies, and the big hotels did not disdain taking precautions against the destructiveness of waiters and dishwashers.
Another class of restaurants occupying an intermediate place between the two bit establishment and the more expensive French places served a good dinner, ac- companied with a pint of wine, for fifty cents. The cooking in these places was usually French, although specialties suggestive of Italy figured in many of them. One of the striking peculiarities of these restaurants was the invariability of the bill of fare. Their successors still exist in the City, and patrons who visited them thirty or more years ago may to-day order dishes, which were specialties in the early Eighties, without glancing at the menu, in the full assurance that they will be forthcoming. It should be added that at all these restaurants wine was served. At the "three for two" places the portion was a good sized glass of white or red wine, at the fifty cent and the dollar establishments a pint accompanied the meal. During the Seventies considerable quantities of French claret in the wood were imported and sold at the restaurants, but they were almost wholly displaced before the eighty decade had grown old by California products, the superiority of which over the ordinary wines of France was conceded by a people who from habitual use had learned to distinguish between a good and bad beverage.
The almost universal use of wine by the frequenters of restaurants never failed to make an impression on the visitor to San Francisco who came from parts where the custom of drinking at meals had not obtained. Undoubtedly it contributed to an opinion which was generally entertained by Americans that the people of the - Pacific coast metropolis were free livers. But the practice warranted no such as- sumption. It was no more suggestive of indulgence in the luxuries of the table than the drinking of coffee. The chances are that not one in twenty who partook of wine with their meals ever drank any other sort of liquor, and perhaps not one in fifty ever knew the sensation of getting drunk. To the unaccustomed stranger public drinking suggested dissipation, but an injurious opinion of this kind was no more warranted than that which was probably conveyed to Sandy's relations in
The Wine- Drinking Habit
Wine Generally Served at Restaurants
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Dumfrashire, or some other place in Scotland, when he wrote home that he had not been more than a day in London before "bang went a sax pence." Estimates of morals and manners are largely a matter of environment, and it is necessary to get well acquainted with a people in order to determine the effects of their idio- syncrasies, or to decide whether their way is better or worse than the one to which you have been accustomed.
It sometimes happens, however, that a community may earn an undeserved repu- tation by indulgence in pride over possessions or accomplishments which are not regarded as especially admirable by those who lack them. San Francisco was afflicted with this drawback in the Seventies, for many of its citizens at that time were under the impression that a distinction was conferred upon their City by certain bar rooms which were asserted to surpass in elegance those of any other city in the country. One of these was described as having "chaste oil paintings, water colors and fine engravings in rich frames." Its furniture was "real and handsome," and the "large mirrors behind the bar reflected back the rich cut glass and silver." As a matter of fact it was not exceptionally fine, nor were any of the others for which that distinction was claimed, but there was one feature about these establishments and all the others where drinks were dispensed which for a long time really challenged attention, and that was the free lunch counter, an institution not unknown to the rest of the country, but which in San Francsico was developed to a degree unheard of elsewhere. Stale crackers and hardened bologna sausage did not satisfy the habitué's of the bars of San Francisco; the list of good things dispensed to their patrons was a long one and embraced the best the market afforded, and not infrequently the lunch counter proved a genuine rival of the restaurant.
The spirit that led San Franciscans to boast of their barrooms was by no means indicative of the true character of the people. Bryce's intimation that there were many millionaires in California who made a vulgar display of their wealth at this particular period is not borne out by the facts. The disposition towards ex- travagant display in public did not extend to private life. Indeed much of the notoriety achieved by Ralston in connection with his life at Belmont was due to the exaggerated regard of a large part of the community for the virtue of thrift. He dispensed hospitality on a scale unusual in California at that time, but it would not have been deemed exceptional in European countries, nor in the neighborhood of the wealthier Eastern cities. The tally-ho in which he tooled his guests to the beautiful country seat in San Mateo county, and the fanfare of the trumpeter were a challenge to the frugal ideas of men, who although they had acquired com- petencies still retained the opinion that a public conveyance for a long distance or a "one horse shay" in town was plenty good enough for anybody.
Ralston's mode of entertainment, even though it may have been regarded as ostentatious was no more typical of San Francisco than the dressing of a man named Budd, who as caller of the board was a great favorite of the brokers of the City, and a well known character in the community. It was said of Budd that he had a suit of clothes for every day in the year. Whether an inventory would have dis- closed that number it would be difficult to state, but that he was a conspicuous dresser, and delighted in making a display of his clothes, every San Franciscan could testify; but the very fact that Budd was an object of comment because of his sartorial habits indicates that the men generally were not addicted to elaborate
Bar Rooms and the Free Lunch Counter
Not Given to Display
Dressing and High Living
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dressing. As in all communities given over to speculation the brokers made their impress, and in San Francisco during the period when stocks were booming they were extravagant livers. Many of them drove their own teams, and were often seen on the road to the Cliff house putting their horses through their paces. There was some "high living" in those days but there was no serious complaint about its high cost. We are told by a eulogist of the brokers that if one of them "could get through the month with his personal expenses for less than $1,000 a month he was fortunate" and did not make a fuss.
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