New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1869-12-04
LETTERS FROM NEXT DOOR.
VIII.


sdered an envious jealousy TO the perennial declara
ton, "My lord, the carriage waits" coming on the
stage one night to make known this bit of domestic
intelligence for the five hundredth time, an
nounced, my lord, the carriage waits" and
them feeling that virtue could not longer hide
ITSELF advanced to the footghts, and continued IN
the Ercles vein as he felt the noble sentiment de-
manded-"and permit me to add, ladies and gentle
men, that the man who lays his hand upon woman
save in the way of kindness is q wretch whom
tyere base fattery to call q coward" People
laughed but l think il was serious. 1t is
dreadful 10 be deprived of period. So when the
ruthless editorial scissors shipped my last letter In
two, Just when it was rising to noble con-
elusiOn, / remembered that Thespian hero, and
was moved to emulation. SO, as was
saying, when so suddenly interrupted
The population of San Francisco is Variously estl-
mated by the mathematical citizen at from two
hundred thousand to one million. So will call it one
hundred and eighty thousand persons, who live up and
down the hills and far out on the level, and over at
Oakland, which is charming suburb, and in pretty
villages to the south. These same hills of my jere-
MAD are by no means rocky knobs, sharp, clear
peaks Save one or two, they are sand mounds
blown up by the fierce winds, and still
blowing. Sand is always flying in the sir,
and the pretty greenery of the door-yards is
gray with sand wherever that usung servant
of the esthetic. the hose-pipe, is not always
at work. The area of the town is large, and the
streets look like village roads. The brilliant
light, and the gray sand and the absence of very
long and high blocks, the isolated buildings the
light eolors the gardens make the city cheerful and
attractive, though, as / have limited under my
breath it is not intrinsicay fine. Do you say, dear
fellow citizens here. who may day read this and
think me uncivil that the inside of the houses is
rieh and there are nymphs in the private gardens
At Milan or Turin, forget which. the railway sta
ton is beautiful with pictures of real worth painted
on the walls because il is thought a wise economy
to teach the people love of that which is admirable
and fine, afraid it will be long before there are
frescoes at the Vallejo waiting-rOOms. But pend
ing that time there might be fountain or two here,
and free open-air concerts twice week. and if there
be Square to give them in, why suppose we have
the Square Or do you say you young that You
have not had time for these better thingsf o, GER
family if you put it in that way, but before have
not happened to hear any abatement of that sort
offered And then there is Melbourne, two years
younger and even moro isolated, which, l hear, Is
one of the most beautiful cities of the day. with fine
public buildings, and squares, and gardens and hos
pitfalls, and a free library. and architecture, and
noble theater filed by very critical audiences-and
twenty thirty thousand fewer inhabitants. Still,
that is English colony, and shall We free people,
heed the roaring of the British Lion he never
wiselyf Perish the thought
On Sundays San Francisco goes in its best
clothes, and very fine ones they are, to Church,
Chapel. Westinghouse, and Hall. There is
q forcibeness of church-going as of everything
else here. Two or three preachers attract
large crowds. by reason of O reputation for el0-
unence and originality, but the temples wherein
pious commonplace echo are by no means given
over to the bats and owls There are, indeed, many
more women and children than men in the cOngre-
cations That doubt which seems to prevail in all
cities among the more thoughtful and specula-
tive of the latter as to whether, just
now, church-gOng is the answer to the
need of the spirit crying out for guidance the feel
ing that the Gospel according to To-day and not the
Gospel according to an Oriental Yesterday two
thousand years old, is the essential Gospel and Is
not likely to be preached from any pulpit within
their radius, seems to withhold many men from Sun
day services here as well in Boston, or NewYOrk,
or Cincinnati 1t is just possible, Also that prefer
ence for nap on a couch over nap in pew and
the indifference TO religious forms which always
possesses pioneer community, may have something
TO do with the disproportioned absence of the Rea
BOning Sex doubt whether California will settle
what tO-day's expression of worship and faith must
be to command the hearts of men, but it seems
likely enough that she may very distinctly declare
with energetic breath.
Some of us heard the Gospel according to To-day in
the beautiful room where Starr King used to preach
The Kingdom of heaven is within you" There
was noble music and there was the simple and earn
rst sermon of Mr.. Stebbns and there was the solemn
mystery OF the silence of great thrOng But if there
had been no anthem, and sermon, and cOngrega-
ton, the room would have been filled with gracious
presence and in the hush and vastness we
Ihould more sweetly have satisfied our souls
with the evangel-the assurance that a noble
md fruitful life early spent in the service of HUI
manity which is the highest service of the Divine,
Is immortal here, among us, in imperishable power
and beauty. The greatest work of Starr Kings
helpful life was his mOding and leading the public
opinion that saved California to the Union, and so
made possible, under these favoring skies, finer
tivility than we have anywhere attained We at
the East loyal by the force of geography as well as
by the force of IDEAS hardly realized how Texas and
Missouri fought with Maine and Michigan here on
the soil,-all jewellers on the sOil,-for possession.
Then il was that the Preacher all alame burned up
in the white heat Of his convictions, public doubt,
halfbeartedDess and treason, and with his
clear words showed honor honorable. So l
think il is fit that we should remember
him on Sundays with reverence as on week days with
work In the early tirhe the Greek who had wrought
half so great deed for his fellows would have been
set among the gods, and worshiped in n generation
or So And in the first centuries of the Church the
believer who should have served her with half SO
fine a zeal and wisdom, would have been Santed at
his death, and prayed to- after Our Pantheon is too
narrow for god saint but unless it offers
to enshrine horoism and devotion and purity and