USA > California > San Francisco County > San Francisco > San Francisco and thereabout > Part 6
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is almost certain to appear, sooner or later, and the officer who gets astride a chair or broomstick for a hobby-horse. After he is beheaded he stands up and gravely walks off and the audience looks more serious than ever at his exit. Stage scenery is severely simple. A table will serve for a mountain and a sign for a forest. The play continues for days and weeks, like the Arabian Nights tales, and since our capacity is limited for ap- preciating all its subtleties of wit, and the depths of its tempestuous tragedy, we betake ourselves from the noise of crashing cymbals which sound as if all the pots and pans of a big hotel kitchen were being hurled simultan- eously at the head of some luckless cur, and, after elbowing through the group of actors, and groping along dark lanes, finally emerge upon the street, well satisfied with a cursory view of the dramatic art of this wonderful people.
The joss houses or temples of Chinatown have no external beauty save in the carved panels of their balconies. They are on the upper floors of buildings and are approached by long straight flights of steps. The interiors are characterized by a wealth of gro- tesque and conventional carving. The altars are marvels of intricate relief, generally overlaid with gold leaf. There are big brass bowls upon them, in which sticks of incense burn, and before the images of the josses are offerings of food and lighted lamps. Poles and emblems borne in processions on festive occasions adorn the walls, and there are various fortune-telling appliances about the place. If a man is to undertake a business venture he consults the joss. Two pieces of wood shaped like a mammoth split bean are much in vogue for reading fates. These are thrown violently upon the ground, and according as they fall with the flat or rounded side up is determined the man's fortune. There is also a plan for drawing straws to tell luck. When a man is well advised by the joss, and succeeds in business accordingly, he is apt to remember his spirit- ual counsellor with a handsome present, and thus the
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temple thrives. Thus it becomes possessed of its splendid embroidered altar cloths, its rare old carvings and furniture, and other paraphernalia which makes it a place of wonder.
A Chinese funeral is an event that forces itself upon the attention of every wayfarer. The beating of tom-toms, scattering of imitation paper money to the devil, the express-wagon full of baked hogs and other food, are all matters of note. And then there are the antiquated hacks drawn by raw-boned horses that eminently suit them, the professional mourners, the sallow-visaged friends of the deceased. The train pro- ceeds to the cemetery keeping up its infernal din the while. When the body is interred, a portion of the baked meats and confections are placed over it together with some lighted punks. The remaining viands are then taken back to Chinatown where the whole party unite in a feast in honor of the dead. At a later period the body is exhumed, the bones are scraped, and all that remains of the departed is shipped to his beloved rest- ing place-the Flowery Kingdom.
Chinese New Year is celebrated a month and more after ours. At this time the whole district is bent on merrymaking and hospitality. Every door is open to welcome guests. There is a display of gorgeous cos- tuming that would rival a prize exhibition of cockatoos. Everybody makes presents; nuts and sweetmeats are in every hand. Houses and stores are decked with lanterns; heavy-scented China lilies are stood about in pots and vases; punks burn, firecrackers pop, and the revel lasts for days. The procession in which a hundred-legged dragon a block long writhes through the streets accompanied by priests, soldiers and attend- ants in gorgeous livery, is the crowning event of the celebration.
The Chinese question was for many years one of the live issues in California politics. So large an invasion of the little brown men was occasioned by the discovery of gold that their presence soon grew
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to be a menace to white labor. Thrifty, industri- ous, imitative, bringing nothing with them and carry- ing away all they made, it was soon evident that the tide of immigration must be checked. The watchword, "The Chinese must go," was a stock phrase of the stump politicians. After much sand-lot agitation and some rioting, Congress was prevailed upon to enact legislation prohibiting the entrance of Chinese laborers into the United States. Similar legislation was re- enacted at the last session of Congress, the time limit of the old law having been reached. The Chinese pop- ulation of San Francisco numbers a little under twenty- five thousand at the present time, having declined somewhat since the passing of the restriction laws.
California faces a land with a population of prob- ably five hundred million people. We have demanded free access to that land for all our citizens, but we deny them the same right in return. To permit an unre- stricted immigration of these people would be to court disaster. They huddle together without families, nourished on rice and tea. The readiness with which they learn our arts, coupled with their mode of life, makes competition with them an impossibility. Their women are mainly slaves held for traffic. The police have made little headway against their gambling dens ; fan-tan is played openly behind barred doors; opium is the curse of the race. Highbinders, professional murderers of rival tongs, are hired to assassinate enemies and generally manage to elude pursuit in the mazes of Chinatown.
Despite all this, the Chinese are in many ways useful and perhaps essential factors in the development of California. In the fruit picking and packing in- dustry they are more reliable, more mobile and in every way more dependable than white labor. As market gardeners they have no equal. A good Chinaman is an ideal household servant, neat, thorough, industrious and far better trained than the average white woman servant. In the country districts he will go to places where women are practically unobtainable.
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The solution of the Chinese problem is to be found in a conservative and unimpassioned handling of the question on all sides. Neither the wide open door nor the total exclusion will ultimately prevail, in all prob- ability. But however the question may be decided, Chinatown is today a place of strange and absorbing interest, where much that is both curious and beautiful may be found, and where the oldest of the world's civilizations is religiously treasured in the heart of a big modern American city.
PLEASURE GROUNDS BY THE SEA
D REARY sand dunes, blown about by the fog-laden wind fresh from the ocean, and barren hills that seemed to give no promise of fertility, lay be- tween San Francisco and the sea when in 1870 work was commenced on the Golden Gate Park. The seemingly impossible has been accomplished, and today the park is a great pleasure ground full of beauty and surprise at every turn. Broad avenues wind about through the miles of shrubbery and trees, with footpaths branching in all directions. Spirited horses and elegant carriages speed along the way. Crowds of people enjoy the outing on foot while many bicycles flash by. Exclusive of the Panhandle which is to be extended into the very heart of the city, as far as Van Ness Avenue, there are over a thousand acres in the park with seventeen miles of carriage drives winding through its beautifully diversified groves, lawns and gardens.
In the midst rises Strawberry Hill, commanding a superb view of the surrounding country. Oceanwards the surf is breaking on the sandy beach and a ship looms out of the mist into the golden light of the setting sun. Northwestward lies Tamalpais set in masses of nearer hills, with the whole sweep of the Golden Gate at the foot of it. To the northeast, just over the cross on Lone Mountain, the crest of the Berkeley Hills may be dis- cerned. Due eastward, over the noble dome of the City Hall and way back of the hills on the far shore of the bay, Mount Diablo lifts its two great mounds above the mist. The slopes of Strawberry Hill are clothed in pine and cypress, with glimpses of ponds and lake-
THE QUAINT JAPANESE GARDEN.
FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY LANGE
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lets below. The stone cross in commemoration of Sir Francis Drake stands on an eminence near at hand and the park with its forests and broad winding drive- ways is all about. Flanking this are great smooth windswept piles of sand, softly ribbed and wrinkled here and there as the setting sun falls on its creamy folds. Beyond, on the hills, are the outskirts of the city, with masses of houses huddled in blocks and patches on the heights. Thrushes and white-crowned sparrows are happily singing in the shrubbery, to the accompani- ment of the ocean breeze which sighs through the pine trees.
Encircling Strawberry Hill is Stowe Lake, an artificial waterway with islets and bridges to diversify it. No spot in the park is more fascinating to me than the quaint Japanese garden and tea house, where dwarf trees and evergreen carpets cling amid the rocks bor- dering pools spanned by rustic bridges, where cosy nooks invite you to linger for the refreshing bowl of tea and crisp crinkly little rice cakes.
The Park Museum, an imitation of an Egyptian temple, is especially rich in archeology and ethnology, although it contains a museum of natural history as well. It has a fine collection of Indian baskets and its Colonial exhibit comprises much of interest and beauty. In the large Crocker conservatory are rare varieties of begonias, orchids and other frail exotics, while the splendid Victoria regia, the giant Guiana water-lily with a pale pink night-opening blossom a foot in diameter, spreads its broad tray-like leaf pads in the central pool. There is a massive stone music stand in the park, the gift of Claus Spreckels, where band concerts may be heard once a week. The children have merry times in their play-ground, and boys play base- ball on an expansive green lawn. There is an aviary where many bright-plumaged birds disport, a bison paddock and deer park. The trees and shrubs of the park have been brought from all over the world-from various parts of North and South America, Siberia,
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China, Japan, Australia and Africa. It is claimed that no other park has so great a variety of trees, the temperate climate of San Francisco supporting the plant forms of all but torrid countries.
To the energy, taste, and enthusiasm of Mr. John McLaren, for many years park superintendent, is largely due the miracle of making the wind-swept sands into a garden of rare beauty.
Beyond the park is the long line of ocean beach with its fine shore drive, and the Cliff House perched defiantly upon the rocks where the breakers thunder. Off shore but a stone's throw are the Seal Rocks where herds of sea lions lie about in the spray, roaring above the dashing surf. The Sutro Baths are situated near the shore here, with their immense salt-water swim- ming tanks surrounded by seats to accommodate over seven thousand people.
I like best to leave the works of man which for the most part mar rather than beautify the coast, and, slipping off into some retreat along the rocky shore at the foot of Point Lobos, watch the great Pacific surf come riding in to spend its might against the weather- worn rocks at the entrance to the Golden Gate. Ships under full sail sweep proudly in with a fair wind. Gulls poise and flutter overhead.
The cry of the surf on the rock-bound strand, stern and lonely, the salt spray and the driving foam, the clanging bell on the buoy that rides on the rim of the channel, the mist overhead hastening in through the Gate, all bear token of that great mother of us all, who calls men forth to alien shores, all speak the Titan language of Ocean, the mighty mistress whence cometh the strength of nations.
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FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY TIBBETS
ON THE RIM OF THE GOLDEN GATE.
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THE AWAKENING OF THE CITY
D URING a good part of the decade immediately preceding the dawn of the new century, a strange lethargy seemed to have settled upon the city by the Golden Gate. To the north- ward, Seattle and Spokane were forg- ing ahead with giant strides. To the southward, Los Angeles had grown from a pueblo to a metropolis. In San Francisco, public spirit was at a perilously low ebb. Of local pride there was but the faintest glimmer. Population was at a standstill; houses were for rent. Merchants took what trade came their way but seldom reached out for more. Staggered by the crash of '93, the city seemed unable to recuperate, or made a recovery so slow that people shook their heads and spoke disparagingly of the place.
What was the matter with San Francisco? Why did it rest supinely upon its many hills and let the world take its own course? The railroad was commonly blamed for all the evils arising from the difference and indifference of public opinion on local questions. The Octopus, as that Quixotic champion of the city's rights, Mayor Sutro, dubbed it, was indeed a power with tentacles far spread over the State, and permeating many branches of civic life. But there were other factors which retarded the growth of San Francisco, chief among which was the lack of public spirit among the citizens.
It is a more agreeable field of speculation to note the forces which have been instrumental in changing all this-for a change has indeed come over the com- munity. One of the earliest symptoms of an awakened
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civic pride was the action of the Merchants Associa- tion in reforming the work of cleaning the streets of the business district. At about this time a ripple of enthusiasm was caused by the completion of the San Joaquin Valley Road and its absorption by the Santa Fe System, which insured a competing overland line to San Francisco. Events for arousing the city crowded thick and fast about the end of the century. The Klon- dike gold excitement stimulated trade and travel with the North.
Years before Dewey's guns thundered at the gates of Manila, far sighted men had predicted that the strife for commercial supremacy was destined to shift ere long from the Atlantic to the Pacific, but their prophecies had fallen upon deaf ears. The Eastern States took little note of Pacific Coast events, save to chronicle a prize fight or a sensational murder. But when regiments of soldiers came pouring into San Francisco on their way to the Philippines, the atten- tion of the nation was centered here. It began to dawn upon men, both at home and abroad, that this was the port of departure not merely for the Spanish Islands of the Pacific but also for the Orient beyond. The strategic importance of San Francisco was impressed upon the dullest minds. Complications in China re- quiring the presence of American troops there, served but to deepen this realization. The moving of an army of seventy thousand men to and from these remote regions, the presence of fleets of transports in the har- bor, the stimulus of trade in new channels, all served to rouse the dormant city.
Simultaneously with these stirring events came the reorganization of the Southern Pacific Railroad. As a part of the great Harriman System, a policy of co-operation with the people in the building up of the State has been vigorously pushed. It is now apparent on every hand that the interests of the railroad and of the people are one. If the arteries of commerce are obstructed, will not the tissues of the State wither?
A BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF THE BUSINESS DISTRICT.
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THE AWAKENING OF THE CITY
Or conversely, if the body politic be not sound and strong, will it not inevitably impair the circulation of trade? To grasp this fundamental proposition of the organic connection between the people and the ave- nues of commerce, and to work to make this relation- ship a just and harmonious one on both sides, is the first essential to the prosperity of a country. Espec- ially is this so of a region which from its vast isola- tion is dependent upon commercial relations with remote parts of the land. The importance of this new spirit cannot be overestimated in an analysis of the factors which are now at work in rejuvenating San Francisco. The withered staff of Tannhauser has burst into leaf, and the dead past shall bury its dead.
The new charter of San Francisco is constructed on the most advanced ideas of municipal government, and already great benefits are coming to the city from its operation. Since its adoption, large sums of money have been appropriated for extending the park sys- tem and for much needed additional school buildings. San Francisco occupies the proud position of a munic- ipality practically without civic debt.
In the prosperity which has come with the new century, San Francisco has shared to the fullest meas- ure. Capital has been attracted from various parts of the country. The street railways were purchased by a Baltimore corporation and their relationship with the Southern Pacific Railroad terminated. New buildings were commenced in various parts of the city -great substantial steel-frame structures of stone and terra cotta. Whole blocks of these dignified, well proportioned buildings are going up on Mission Street, replacing shabby rookeries; the splendid new Mutual Bank Building of gray stone and steep red tile roof, towers up with the other fine structures at the corner of Market and Geary Streets. Facing Union Square, a block away from the big modern building of the Spring Valley Water Company, the steel frame of the new Saint Francis Hotel is climbing higher and higher,
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and the stonework follows with wonderful celerity. Over on Market Street at the corner of Powell, on the site of the old Baldwin Hotel, and opposite the great stone Emporium, one of the largest and costliest build- ings of the city is now being erected for store and office purposes.
Just in the nick of time, the magnificent new mar- ble postoffice is being completed up on Mission Street to replace the miserable structure down on Washington Street which for so many years has served as a make- shift. A magnificent hotel is to be built immediately by the Fair Estate on the California Street heights. These are but a few of the more striking business buildings now being pushed to completion. In one week, according to statistics compiled, six millions dollars' worth of buildings were commenced in the city. A gratifying feature of the work is the sim- plicity of design followed in nearly every instance. Costly materials and the most perfect of modern work- manship, combined with good proportions on broad lines, are bound to make the new San Francisco an eminently satisfying city architecturally. In former days the fear of earthquakes, together with the cheap- ness of wood, made people, as a rule, construct low frame buildings. Now that the matter has been tested and the earthquakes found to be far less destructive than the thunder storms of the East, tall stone build- ings are no longer tabooed.
All this building is not the result of a speculative boom but the response to a real demand for more accommodation. People are coming to San Fran- cisco from hither and yon, to settle in the community. New business enterprises are being started, old ones enlarged. Vast sums are being expended upon rail- road improvement of lines centering here, and im- mense steamships are built or building for trade with this port. Since the days of '49 such an impetus of growth has not visited San Francisco.
That the city, and indeed all California, has
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THE AWAKENING OF THE CITY
awakened to the opportunities now arising, is shown by the recent organization of a Promotion Committee composed of representatives of the various commercial organizations of the city and State. Strangers are made welcome at their comfortable headquarters on New Montgomery Street, and information relative to the resources of California is given to all who are interested.
It is almost an axiom of civic life that the perma- nent well-being of a city depends upon the prosperity of its adjacent country. Never did any land have more to offer the home seeker than has California. The orange grows to perfection in valleys a hundred miles north of San Francisco, where it ripens by November, a month earlier than in any other part of the United States. Figs thrive over an even wider area than the citrus fruits, and experiments recently made in shipping them fresh to Chicago and New York have proven a success. California olive oil commands a high price on account of its freedom from adultera- tion, and ripe olives are becoming a much relished food. The prunes of San Jose and the raisins of Fresno have acquired world-wide fame, while California wines compete successfully at international expositions with their French predecessors and rivals. The im- proved railroad facilities have made it possible of late to ship early fresh vegetables, as well as all of the fresh fruits to the Eastern market. Indeed shipments to Europe of fresh California fruit are now regularly made. With the railroad back of the people a limitless market will await the horticulturist, and his returns will be proportionate to his labor and skill.
Many inexperienced people have imagined that fruit growing in California was all attended to by nature. Young Englishmen have come here, lured by tales of prodigal fertility, and have smoked their pipes while their ranches went to perdition. Horticulture in California requires knowledge and hard work, much as anything does in this world that is worth doing. The
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best results are to be had on irrigated land, and small holdings are now proving more successful than the large ranches of the past, but patience, skill and grit are needed for the work. The passage by the Ameri- can Congress of the Newlands Act has called the at- tention of the whole country to the possibilities of development in the West through irrigation. The lakes and streams of the Sierra Nevada Mountains contain enough water to make fertile all the cultivata- ble valleys of the State, and it is now only a question of years before this will be done. The great wheat fields of the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys, cul- tivated with gang plows and harvested with machines that do the whole process of cutting, threshing and sacking, are rivaled only by the vast prairies of the Mississippi. Another industry that is assuming large proportion is the manufacture of beet sugar, which is carried on in parts of California on an immense scale .*
The old-fashioned placer mining-the washing of gold out of the sand of river beds with a rude wooden cradle-is no longer profitable as in the days of '49, but during the past five years over fifteen million dollars annually has been mined by the improved methods now in vogue, and there seems to be no dimin- ution of the supply. The great stamps of the Placer and Nevada County mines are thundering away at the ore, while dredgers scoop up the sand of river bot- toms and sift out the gold as it passes through.
In manufacturing lines, San Francisco has been greatly hampered by the lack of coal mines within convenient distance, although a firm like the Union
*Mr. Charles F. Lummis in his brilliant serial, "The Right Hand of the Continent," in Out West for October, gives the following summary of California's production of sugar:
"It sends out 40,000 tons of beet sugar, an increase of fortyfold in seventeen years. Leaving out Louisiana, California produces more sugar by ten per cent than all the rest of the Union combined-more than the other beet-growers, the Texas and Florida cane, the Kansas sorghum, the maple sweets of New England, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, Ohio, Iowa, Michigan and Minnesota."
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Iron Works, which can build such battleships as the Oregon and the Ohio, need not take second place to any builders in the world. Up to the present time coal has been king; but in this as in other matters an era of change is at hand, and Old King Coal seems destined to take a back seat. His rival to the throne is none other than that modern Zeus, the wielder of thunderbolts, which we call the electric motor. For many years the use of water as a motive power has been out of date, but the present cycle of progress brings it once more to the front. Over the valleys and hills of California march silent processions of poles carrying heavy wires upon large insulators. The lightning is being harnessed to the waterfalls of the mountains, and the mysterious currents generated in the far away heights by the singing streams which pour their cur- rent down the rocky slopes, are flashed in a trice to populous centers, there to light houses and highways, to speed cars over city streets, and to turn the humming wheels of industry. In the days to come, manufactur- ing supremacy shall be determined not by coal mines but by waterfalls. California, with its glorious Sierra battlement where the snows pile high all win- ter long, melting in never-failing streams that swiftly course to the valleys, is above all other lands supplied with this natural motive power. The mountain streams shall labor now for man, and sing at their toil. Even into the great city shall penetrate their power, and the smoke and grime of coal shall be re- placed by a mightier and cleanlier force.
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