USA > California > San Francisco County > San Francisco > San Francisco, a history of the Pacific coast metropolis, Volume II > Part 47
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Chronicie Inaugurates Weather- Warning Service
Meteorolog- ical Phenom- ena of San Francisco
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SAN FRANCISCO
interest in weather extended further than the ascertainment of whether rain might spoil an outing, or to learn if the day before had been one of prostrating heat or benumbing cold. On that score there was no incitement to curiosity. The daily alternations throughout the year in San Francisco are so slight that it is impossible to stimulate interest except by a survey of the few aberrations occur- ring during the course of many years. These were recently epitomized by Pro- fessor McAdie who has been in charge of the service since the opening of the cen- tury, but whose researches have extended over a much longer period. He tells us that in the past forty years the number of days on which snow has fallen in San Francisco can be counted on the ten fingers and that the two heaviest snow storms of that long period were in December, 1882, and in February, 1887, the average depth of the latter being about three inches throughout the greater part of the City, although seven inches were recorded in portions of the Western Addition. From rain- fall tables which covered a period of 62 years it was learned that the greatest precipitation in any one day was on January 28, 1881, when 4.67 inches fell, and the next greatest on September 23, when the weather gauge recorded 3.58 inches. In 1903 there was a rainless period of nearly 200 days in the City. The highest wind velocity observed by the weather bureau was on November 30, 1906, when a north- easter blowing 64 miles an hour was recorded. During December, January and February southeasters sometimes come with a velocity ranging from 50 to 60 miles, but the injury they inflict is usually trifling.
Climatic extremes make a great impression at the time of their occurrence, but they are soon forgotten in a place where the variations are small. The average San Franciscan is no better posted concerning particular weather conditions than the stranger, and not infrequently sets down as extraordinary that which is only exceptional. In September, 1904, on the occasion of the triennial conclave of the Knights Templar, a hot wave visited the City which enjoys the distinction of being a record breaker. Citizens assured the visiting strangers that nothing of the sort had ever occurred before in San Francisco, but they were mistaken. Every year brings one or two hot spells whose duration rarely exceeds two days. The ab- sence of humidity makes them easily endurable, and they are never marked by pros- trations. These brief spells are usually terminated by bracing fogs. On the other hand there is no extreme low temperature, although a cold snap occasionally visits the City which is severe enough to form a thin crust of ice in some situations. Tbe mean temperature for a period of 37 years has been computed by Professor McAdie who reports it to be: January, 50°; February, 52°; March, 54°; April, 55°; May, 57°; June, 59°; July, 59º; August, 59° ; September, 61°; October, 60°; November, 56°, and December, 52°. The same official furnishes data which disposes of the erroneous assumption created by the use of the term "rainy season," which is a misno- mer, the period being best described by the expression "the season when it rains." The period when it does rain corresponds in a general way to the winter of the At- lantic seaboard, and is usually spoken of by San Franciscans as winter, but the uncertainty concerning precipitation causes them to avoid the term rainy season. The mean rainfall for the observed period of 37 years is recorded as follows: Janu- ary, 4.53 inches; February, 3.50; March, 3.05 ; April, 1.85; May, 0.76; June, 0.21; July, 0.02; August, 0.01; September, 0.31; October, 0.31; November, 2.72; De- cember, 4.44. The uncertainties are best illustrated by the statement that in many years no rain has fallen in some winter months, and that the total seasonal
Mistaken Impressions Concerning San Francisco Ciimate
U
LE
TWENTY-FOUR HUNDRED HOUSES ON CITY PARK PROPERTY, ON FOURTEENTH AVENUE BETWEEN FULTON STREET AND THE PRESIDIO, FOR HOMELESS' REFUGEES
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SAN FRANCISCO
fall in some years has been less than 10 inches. The average number of clear days for the 37 years was as follows: January, 11 days; February, 10; March, 11; April, 12; May, 13; June, 14; July, 12; August, 10; September, 14; October, 16; November, 15; December, 12.
The uniformity these figures imply accounts for the claim that outdoor life is possible all the year around in San Francisco, the winter rains only interrupting it temporarily. It also explains the tendency of actors to migrate to the Pacific coast during the usual vacation season when existence is almost unendurable in other parts of the country, for the theatrical talent has learned that business and pleasure may be combined during the summer in San Francisco. San Francisco had scarcely realized the fact, which was becoming more and more apparent to observers, that the possibilities of its becoming a great summer resort were develop- ing rapidly before the fire. Her own people, humanly inconsistent, were intent on evading the monotony of continuous pleasant weather, and did not note that there was a growing disposition on the part of those living in the vast region known as the great valley to escape the ardent summer sun whose heat brought their prod- ucts to perfection, and that they were largely inclined to seek San Francisco where diversion is abundant, and where the weather is always enjoyable during the sea- son that corresponds to the heated term in the interior. Uniform climate, however, has its drawbacks as well as its attractions. It was largely responsible for the excesses to which the horse racing fraternity resorted during the period, and which finally resulted in a popular revolt, and a legislative abridgment of the seasons. Nowhere else in the world was the sport ever degraded into a mere money making business as it was in San Francisco and its vicinity during the late Nineties, and in the early part of the present century. Rain or shine the game went on, and the men who ran the race tracks prospered, and the professional gamblers had uninterrupted opportunities to despoil their victims.
The first continuous racing in California was in the spring of 1892 when Thomas H. Williams announced that there would be a continuous meeting, "rain or shine," under the auspices of what was known as the Blood Horse Association. These races were run on what was known as the Bay District tract opened on October 29, 1892, an event signalized by the purchase of Ormonde by W. O. B. Mc- Donough, a San Franciscan, for $150,000, the highest price paid up to that time for a thoroughbred. In the following year the association was absorbed by the California Jockey Club, practically a private enterprise of Williams, and from that time forward horse racing ceased to have any attraction except for those possessed of the gambling instinct. The old time rather weak defense of the abuses of the track was abandoned, and the races were openly conducted to permit men to bet, In 1895 an Eastern turfman named Corrigan opened the Ingleside track in op- position to the California Jockey Club, and in 1896 Williams leased the fair grounds at Emeryville, in the transbay region. In 1901 Prince Poniatowski, a Polish nobleman who had married a California girl, and had taken up his resi- dence in San Francisco, undertook to run an opposition to Williams, and opened a track on the peninsula known as the Tanforan. The prince had associated with him in this venture Charles Fair, and it was claimed for the new enterprise that its purpose was to impart to the racing game some elements of decency. If this was the object it was never accomplished, for Tanforan speedily fell into the hands of Williams who succeeded in buying off all opposition, and finally monpo-
San Francisco a Summer and Winter Resort
The Racing Game in and About San Francisco
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SAN FRANCISCO
lized the entire business which he prosecuted with great success until the state legislature in 1909, alarmed at the demoralization it was causing, enacted laws which deprived the sport of all its attractiveness for gamblers who had become its principal votaries.
Toleration of Prize Fighting
During the period 1883-1906 racing shared with prize fighting, which masqueraded as boxing, the interest of the "fancy." Frequent exhibitions were given in the City, and permits to do so were unhesitatingly accorded by boards of supervisors, whose members were regarded as faithful public servants. They ac- cepted passes to the ring side, and they, together with other members of the city government, and prominent professional and business men of the community wit- nessed the encounters which were enjoyable in the ratio of the brutality displayed. While the witnesses of these spectacles were largely composed of the worst ele- ments in the City, there was a sufficient number of highly respectable citizens pres- ent at every exhibition to give tone to the meetings, and to support the pretense un- blushingly put forward that they were popularly approved. This condition of affairs endured down to and after the fire, and undoubtedly contributed greatly to the demoralization of the City, and more than anything else contributed to the state of mind which brought about the third election of Schmitz in 1905. Excessive in- dulgence in the sport of racing, the numerous boxing exhibitions, the multiplication of openly conducted gambling devices such as the nickel in the slot machines which were operated in plain view of passersby on the public streets, the toleration of pool rooms and places of resort for the vicious had brought to San Francisco a float- ing population composed of people who preyed on the unwary, and they, together with the thoughtless class in business, who are deceived by appearances, constituted the balance of power which easily won success in a contest with the decent element of the community which insisted on subordinating local to state and national issues.
In other lines of sport there was an extraordinary increase of interest which was reflected in the expanding accounts given in the newspapers of events of all kinds. It would be difficult to distinguish between cause and effect in considering the enlarged space devoted to sports and amusements in the newspapers during and after the Eighties. Until quite late in the eighty decade the daily papers of the City found a column or two devoted to sporting events sufficient for the require- ments of their readers. An examination of these accounts discloses that there would have been difficulty in printing much more without a resort to deliberate padding, for the sporting propensity until late in the Nineties had not become highly devel- oped, and was much less varied than it became later. All the sports of the present day were more or less known and indulged in, but some of them in which consider- able interest is now taken by large numbers were caviar to the general. Lawn tennis and golf came in this category. There were few courts or links in Cali- fornia prior to 1895, but after that date tennis was counted as a popular sport, and the army of golfers though small gradually, by its enthusiasm, attracted attention to itself. The game of base ball which had suffered a relapse in the Seventies, ex- perienced a revival in 1881, and in 1887 its promotion reached the proportions of a boom. In that year the Calfornia League was formed, and in 1889 the state was able to contribute its quota to the list of celebrities of the diamond field, who share ephemeral fame with great statesmen. In the early Nineties there was a relaxation of interest in base ball, but it lasted for a short time only. San Fran- cisco has for many years enjoyed the distinction of having more baseball than any
Interest in all Forms of Sport
TWELVE HUNDRED TWO-ROOM APARTMENTS BUILT BY THE CITY AT THE OLD SPEEDWAY IN GOLDEN GATE PARK, TO SHELTER OLD PEOPLE HOMELESS AFTER THE FIRE
799
SAN FRANCISCO
other city in the country, having continuous games during seven months in the year, and in the spring the Eastern leagues turn to the coast as the only suitable . place for training quarters.
Yachting, wrestling, mounted sword combats, bicycling and automobiling were among the diversions of San Franciscans during this period. The San Francisco Yacht Club, formed in 1868, was the first organized on the coast. Previous to that year there had been a lively interest in sailing, and there was considerable in- formal racing, but the first real cruise was under the auspices of the new yacht club in 1869, and the first race was over a course around Mission Rock to Hunter's Point, to the Oakland pier, to a stake boat off Fort Point and back to the start- ing line. In 1870 the San Francisco Yacht Club was obliged to give up its haven at Long Bridge, and there was a temporary subsidence of zeal, but in 1877 quarters were secured at Sausalito, and that move was soon followed by the creation of the Pacific Yacht Club, and in 1886 the Corinthian Yacht Club, an offshoot of the Pacific Club, was started. Since that date a half dozen or more clubs have been formed and the fleets now are composed of better boats than in the old days, and yachting easily holds a high place in the sporting history of San Fran- cisco.
The game of football, as might naturally be supposed, because of the proximity of two great universities to the City, became fashionable almost as early in San Francisco as in the cities near eastern centers of learning. During many years California and Stanford contested for supremacy on a field within the city limits, in the presence of immense concourses of people, the attendance on occasions being close to 20,000. After the fire the annual games were kicked out alternately on the grounds of the two universities without any considerable diminution of the numbers present. These affairs in the closing years of the Nineties became society rather than sporting events, and everybody aspiring to shine socially, made it a point to attend them.
Perhaps the most interesting development of outdoor pleasures in San Fran- cisco was the bicycle craze which began to take hold of old and young during the Nineties, and required several years to run its course. It became a fashionable fad and few in the social swim resisted its lure. For a time the amusement was so general that most observers imagined it was a diversion that had come to stay, and few believed that the interest taken in it would almost wholly subside and that the wheel would ultimately be devoted by adults to strictly utiliarian purposes few believed. While the furore was on in San Francisco women and girls were as zealous devotees of wheeling as men and boys, and their costumes added greatly to the picturesqueness of the streets leading to the park, which was the favorite resort, of most riders. Bloomers were affected by many of the women who adopted that mode of dress to overcome the difficulties presented by swishing skirts. Numerous clubs were formed and long excursions into the country were made, and the sport was pronounced unsurpassable. But its attractiveness diminished almost as speed- ily as it arose, and the once numerous bicycle was relegated to the messenger and the small boy.
The automobile can hardly be said to have superseded the bicycle, nor did it become popularized in San Francisco as rapidly as in some of the older sections of the Union, but its use had an astonishing development when once its merits began to be appreciated. As late as 1898 a bold experimenter who had equipped
Yachting on San Francisco Bay
Football Draws Big Crowds
The Bicycle Craze
Advent of the Automobile
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SAN FRANCISCO
a light running buggy with a steam motor was able to attract attention when he ran his curious machine along Golden Gate avenue towards the park, and when he met with disaster by having his vehicle overturned on Divisadero street there were many who ventured the opinion that there was not much to the new fangled idea. This incredulous attitude disappeared very rapidly after the perfection of the gaso- line propelled motor, and produced a noteworthy change in the habits of a large section of San Francisco society. Notwithstanding the reputation bestowed upon San Francisco as a place in which expensive habits had been developed the number of people who maintained carriages in the City was comparatively small. Men in particular refrained from their use except for utilitarian purposes. There were some who owned good horses and fine equipages, but they scarcely thought of using them to drive to and from their places of business. In short, "keeping your own carriage" in San Francisco up to about 1902, had a significance, and implied something wholly different from the statement than "Jones has an auto- mobile." Keeping a carriage and using it conferred something like social dis- tinction, before the date mentioned, which the advent of the horseless wagon completely removed. In ancient Rome it is related that the wearing of the iron ring ceased to be the badge of a favored class, because the growth of wealth, which practically carried with it the privilege, became so great that the number of wearers was as large as that of the unadorned. Something of the kind occurred in San Francisco with the advent of the automobile, the use of which expanded so rapidly that in a short time there were more agencies for the sale of motors in the City than there were private carriages before the fire.
It is easy to convey an impression that a people has surrendered itself to gayety. San Francisco has suffered in this regard. The prominence given to sports and the devotion to amusement has caused the outside world to believe that more serious things are neglected, but the steady expansion of the City's public schools, and the attention given to the development of educational facil- ities displays the fallacy of the assumption. In 1885 the number of public schools in the City was sixty-five with 734 teachers; five years later there were seventy-two schools and 859 teachers; in 1895 there were seventy-five schools but the number of teachers had increased in a greater ratio than school houses, there being 904. Ten years later there were 85 schools and 1,181 teachers. The figures of enrollment of pupils, and average attendance during the period, exhibit some fluctuations which are partly accounted for by the variations in business prosperity, and the growth of private schools and of the Catholic paro- chial school system which in the early part of 1903 counted some 13,000 scholars distributed in schools established in the archdiocese of San Francisco. The method adopted for ascertaining the number of school children resulted in unreliable sta- tistics and was the subject of much criticism, and between 1884 and 1887 a great scandal grew out of the fraudulent practices of the enumerators whose appointments were governed more by political expediency than consideration for the welfare of the schools.
Increase in Public School Attendance
In 1888 the school superintendent was compelled to discharge the census marshal for defective work, and a re-enumeration showed that there were but 59,517 children of school age found, whereas in the previous year 78,246 had been reported. The increase after 1888 was normal, averaging from 21/2 to 3 per cent. a year until 1902. In 1903 and the two years preceding the fire there
Growth of Educational Facilities
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SAN FRANCISCO
were fresh suspicions of padding the census, but it is possible that these werc suggested by the general feeling that the administration was acting improperly in every field, and that the figures returned truly represented the number of school age children. But concerning the pupils enrolled and the average attend- ance there was no question and these showed steady increases during the years between 1883 and 1905. In 1885 the enrolled pupils numbered 43,265; in 1890 there were 42,926; in 1895 the number was 44,822; in 1900, 48,058; and in 1905, 55,067. The daily attendance rose from 32,812 in 1885 to 40,920 in 1905. It was lower in 1890 than five years earlier, and in 1895 it was only about seven hundred greater than in 1885. If San Francisco's school facilities were con- fined to its public system these figures might prove valuable in determining the effects of trade vicissitudes on education but they represent incomplete data which must be supplemented by embracing the parochial and private schools.
It would be impossible to detect lessened labors or activities in the school de- partment from a study of its finances which show a constantly increasing expend- iture, rising from $840,367 in 1885 to $983,014 in 1890, to $1,043,067 in 1895, to $1,274,696 in 1900 and to $1,403,349 in the year before the fire. These figures display the liberal disposition of the community which was sometimes abused, as was the case in 1896-1899, when debts in excess of the appropriations made for maintenance were incurred to the amount of over $200,000. This resulted in the then Superintendent Webster refusing to audit demands of teachers ag- gregating $115,000 on the ground that they were incurred in violation of the state law, and the city charter which forbade the incurrence of unauthorized in- debtedness, and the exceeding of the apportionment under the one-twelfth pro- vision relating to expenditures of moneys appropriated for school or other pur- poses. Subsequently the teachers in conjunction with certain merchants who had claims against the City, also incurred in violation of the one-twelfth provisions of the state law and charter, secured an amendment to the constitution authoriz- ing the payment of the illegally incurred debts which totalled $235,000. Dur- ing the period under review the cost per capita of children educated, based on daily attendance, rose constantly. It was $25.80 in 1885, $31.35 in 1890, $36.41 in 1900 and $34.29 in 1905. The necessity of broadening the curriculum and the construction of new school houses were largely responsible for this expansion. The growing value of school property during the period kept pace with expendi- tures, and to some extent these values explain the increasing cost per capita of school education, reflecting as they do the constantly increasing demand for more buildings as well as teachers. In 1885 the value of school property was $3,137,000; in 1890 it rose to $4,757,724; in 1895 to $5,140,258; in 1900 to $5,514,200, and in 1905 to $5,800,000. A part of this increased valuation was due to the enhancement of the value of real estate purchased or acquired in previ- ous years, but the major part may be set down to additions and the construction of buildings. In 1903-04 bonds to the amount of $3,592,000 were authorized for the purpose of providing additional school buildings, and replacing some of the older schools with structures of a modern type. Of this authorized issue of bonds, $1,077,088 were sold in 1904-5, and the new plans were being put into effect when the disaster of 1906 occurred.
After 1883 San Francisco experienced the desire which exhibited itself in some of the American cities of greatly broadening the field of public school ac-
Expenditures for School Purposes
802
SAN FRANCISCO
Normal School Established
Selection and Efficiency of Teachers
tivities. In 1886 in response to an insistent demand girls were permitted to enroll in the boys' high school in order that they might be enabled to learn Latin and Greek, and in 1887 there were twenty of them on the rolls and the name of the school was changed to Lowell high, and for a few years afterward coeducation was a feature of that school. In 1896 the high school facilities of the City were increased by the construction at Eighteenth and Dolores streets of a commodious building which received the name of Mission high. A girls' high school, and a normal class were also added in the Nineties. The establish- ment of the normal class met with some opposition at first, it being claimed that two universities and three state normal schools should meet the demands for normal teaching. The agitation resulted in the abolition of the class by the board of education in 1899, but the legislature was soon after induced to make the necessary appropriation and a normal school was established in the City on the block at Buchanan and Waller streets, with a faculty of 18 teachers. The school maintains a model department wherein from 600 to 800 pupils are taught by normal students who thus acquire practical experience as teachers.
It is interesting to note in this connection that the long protracted struggle over the question of the number of pupils that might be properly cared for was finally settled in 1900 when Superintendent Webster's recommendation that not to exceed 45 in the primary and grammar classes, and 40 in the first and eighth grades was adopted by the board of education. Another important innovation connected with the welfare of the teacher, and designed to increase the efficiency of the system was the passage by the legislature in 1895 of a teachers' annuity and retirement bill. It was amended at two successive sessions. It requires every teacher to pay into the annuity fund $1 per month for the purpose of cre- ating a sum equal to $50,000, the interest of which shall be devoted to the pay- ment of pensions. The amount produced under the provisions of the act did not suffice to carry out the purposes of the projectors of the annuity plan and another bill was introduced in the legislature of 1911 which was passed by a large ma- jority but was vetoed by Governor Johnson on the ground that it would make too heavy a draft on the taxpayer. It provided a minimum pension of $360 and a maximum of $960 per annum, the sum to be determined by length of service, the amount to be paid to be one and one-half per cent of the annual average salary received during the first ten years of service being allowed for each year of service, no teacher to be retired unless 60 years of age except in case of physical disability. The question of the selection of teachers, for many years a vexed one in San Fran- cisco, was finally settled in 1900 by the adoption of a civil service plan. Exam- inations under it are held when the necessities of the department demand, and all certified persons are put on the list of eligibles and are awarded positions when vacancies occur.
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