THE OLD SAN FRANCISCO.

 

            SOMETIMES it is a relief, or at least a rest, to turn away from men and have a visit with nature. If it is some spot that we love, it is not difficult to believe that there is a subconscious affinity between us.

            The first time I looked out upon San Francisco, it was from the deck of a battered steamship that had been in a fierce fight with winds and waves for thirty hours; which had been so nearly lost just inside "The Heads" that a passenger, an old shipmaster, turned to a man beside him and in a low voice quietly said : 'This ship and these six hundred lives are not worth a straw."

            But the steamer finally righted up and limped on into port, though the gale was so fierce in the bay that the ship could not pull into the pier until the next day. Through that afternoon I watched the little city, and during that afternoon I built more than one city, in imagination, on her site. I remember that one was a new Venice, for the bay was an inland sea as beautiful as the Adriatic, a marvelous place as it looked, for sailing gondolas.

            But a new Rome suited best, for I could look forward to a time, not far away, when "from her throne of beauty" she was "to rule the world."

            Why should she not? Behind her was the wonderful state, which in everyone's thought was ribbed with gold ; beyond was "the East" from which the argosies of the Orient, in ceaseless procession, were to come and go until the new empire should eclipse all that had been accomplished in all the rolling ages since man began to build his landmarks on the ocean's shores.

            Though but a boy, I knew that from the first our country had been crippled for want of money ; but now a golden stream had started to flow through that gate of gold, and its volume was steadily increasing- -why should not ours be the richest of all lands?

76 AS I REMEMBER THEM.

            When next day we went ashore, the prospect lost some of its charm. There were no fine structures there then; the little old American Exchange was the fine hotel. And how was a great city to ever grow out of those sand dunes? But even then I stopped at a little place where a few flowers were offered for sale, and I caught for the first time the fragrance of San Francisco flowers. The memory of that clings to me still. I think, with my eyes bandaged, were half a dozen bouquets from different points submitted to me I could, just by the fragrance, select the one from San Francisco.

            Among the first things to notice was the absence of old men, but the presence of a multitude of young men, and every state had its representatives. It was there that north and south and east and west met, and from there started out for the conquest of the wilderness.

            Never before did any army so splendid take up its march to drive a wilderness back ; to build the first temples to Indus- try, to Order, to Progress, to Peace. A new civilization was to be founded, a new order, where all the narrowness, all the provincialism, all the little envies and jealousies of the older states were never to secure a foothold.

            The most experienced and careful comers were the ones to remain there ; the alert and exultant ones sought the hills, to turn the rivers and to leach the sands of their gold.

            When, after a little, the men from the diggings came with their dust and from the proceeds began the fashion of painting the town red, then the "honest miner" acquired a name. He was of a new species never seen before, and, praise God, he has kept the species distinct and pure ever since.

            The city never had a setback until, upon the killing of James King of William, the vigilance committee sprang to life in a night and caused it to stand still for a year and more.

            As the placers began to fail the marvelous fertility of the soil began to cause men to look forward to a time when the gold yield might fall, but to be succeeded by a more rational wealth.

            Then came the Fraser river excitement, which further crippled the revenues from the mines, but the city continued to

THE OLD SAN FRANCISCO. 77

grow. It had become a settled fact that among all the cities of the world not one was more superbly located, not one had superior natural advantages around and behind it.

            All this time there was another band of men gathered there whose thoughts and lives were not disturbed by the rush and roar, but rather their purpose was to magnify the welfare of their fellow men. Such men as the Rev. Stebbins, the Rev. Dr. Scott, a little later Thomas Starr King, Professor Joseph LeConte, and others a royal band. The learned professions were filled with eminent men. A wonderful array of bright writers were calling out the laughter and the tears. Lieut. Derby -- "John Phoenix" -- was making San Diego famous; Tecumseh Sherman was in a bank in the city ; over at Mare Island, the great Farragut was listening for the call which should give him immortality, and, later, out at Alcatraz Albert Sidney Johnston was waiting for his summons to "glory and the grave."

            At that time, too, the homes of San Francisco were the most delightful in the world. No one was very rich, none exceedingly poor, and there was a cordiality in the hospitalities extended to guests which was something to remember always.

            But when the call from the desert was heard, when the story of the Comstock was first told, then a transformation began. When a man made a stake his first thought was to have a house in San Francisco. It had been the Mecca to which they had all gravitated when they made a stake: now r as many as could, wanted a palace of his own. From the mines of the desert a new city grew up on the site of San Francisco ; grew and flourished. New public temples, new private mansions grew into form and place ; with them increased wealth came and increased hospitality, and all in all the city was the most delicious place to live in on all this world, from the opening of the first bonanza on the Comstock to the time when the jealous earthquake and the devouring fire came to challenge that brave people to gird on their armor and build a new city.

            It is said the new city is fairer and stronger than was the old, and it may be, but it cannot be the same. The echoes of the old voices have grown still. The men of affairs are new

78 AS I REMEMBER THEM.

men. The old industrial kings long ago laid down their sceptres ; there may be new ones as gallant, and strong, and brave, but they are for the new generation.

            When the command was given for the United States to "Forward march!" it was in San Francisco that the march began. It was there that a new race assumed control; the blending of all that was good in all the states, made a distinct race there, and if it did spoil women and children, it was of itself the best ever. It made possible a new order of manhood ; it made the city that it built a hallowed spot, and it will continue to be such to those who watched its first growth, as long as they remain on this side ; and to those who anticipate a haven of rest, in their deeper thoughts picture it as something such as the early San Francisco was, only with fewer saloons and more flowers.