Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-06-19
FOR THE STRANGER.
SOMETHING ABOUT SACRAMENTO,
BUT NOT FOR S4CRAMEAT4N
Home Influences = Our Homes
Streets = Parks = Gardens
Drives-Institntio

being is to surround ltseu Will 'hoae Notii'
forts that contribute to its freedom IN IN
tellectual fields. And this is true, no matter
how untutoled the mind or limited the
capacity. The rustic innocent that ex-
pressed his supremest desire to be SO stu
ated that he would have only to think,
had a glimmering of this ideal state Out
of these conditions grows
THE 10 FOR HOME,
/ Nowhere stronger than i'll Sacramento. In
its true sense it is not mere attachment to
1 place or close relation to environment. 1t
is the qualification of the Unborn desire for
kingship in some spot on earth. Physical
comforts only contribute to this end. The
man or woman loves home because 1t Is
realm where he or she tolerates no rival
the scene of struggles and triumphs; a
| spot where love is the poetry OF existence,
! ard domestic felicity the reward of SOW
ereign ruling by right and with the single
| desire to make his or her realm the COM
| pletest in all that contributes to
intellectual pleasures, which never
can be fully satisfied. And upon
| however homely plane 1t may be mani
| fest, it still is the sum and end OF hui
man endeavor 1t may be that ii does not
| extend beyond the delight the parent feels
! in watching the unfolding flower of off
! spring. 1t may limit itself TO the suffusing
! of the senses with surroundings of beauty.
| 1t may find its working field in the research
! to which a well-supplied library is a con-
slant invitation. 1t may be active only in
| the conquering of the soil; but whatever
| its direction. it constitutes the ambition of
| the man. and is only broader in scheme
and effort when it goes beyond the con-
fines of home and exerts itself tor the bet
terment of neighbor, friend, stranger or
! the world of men. Even where avariee
appears to be the controlling influence, and
the love of money apparently absorbs all
| else, still there is beyond, behind and I'M
DERIVING it the ultimate hope and desire to
make these acquisitions contribute most
| largely to the realm wherein the home
master is king and high priest And this,
we hold is true, if even the case is taken
into account of the man or woman with no
home, but whose kingom is limited to the
mere single place of existence, and that a
narrow room and the property of another.
When, therefore. the stranger who has read
the world to some purpose enters city,
village or mere settlement, he will find it
not at all difficult to read
THE CHARACTER OF THE PEOPLE
OF the place by the impress they have
made upon their home surroundings. He
will readily analyze the purposes, intellect
ual capacity and development, and the
physical achievements of a people, by
study of their architecture, and the orderly
or disorderly administration apparent. He
will read their culture in their very door
yards, and record their moral character at
or ,Ax,n If no 70 lu n IN
evenings cool. He will judge unerringly
by their home life of their ambitions, their
content and their methods of attaining
ends He does not need to visit the bust
ness mart, or dwell upon the wharves of
commerce. to fathom the aims and sue
cesses of their life. He will rather seek
the retired ways where the inner life is
manifested upon the outer walls of dwell
ing places. He will there determine, by
characters of unerring certainty, to just
what extent the influences prevail that are
the motors of human exertion to attain
lofty ideals.
sACRAMENTo's HOMES
Are submitted to this test and judgment by
every thoughtful and rejecting stranger
who visits the place. Are we prepared to
stand by the result of such judgment, for
that we shall be so judged let us assure
ourselves. The Eastern visitor who rides
through our streets, and for few hours
mingles with our people, is dullafd who
does not form correct estimate of our
tastes and ambitions and who does not
correctly weigh and measure our culture,
intellectual capacity, and the sum of our
exertion to live satisfyingly. Would we
declare these to be unvarying rules? As
to communities, aggregations of ho'nes,
yes; as to individuals and individual
homes, no. For it is true that there are
false exteriors, as there are false lives and
masks worn which human vision may not
penetrate But we do say that the sum
and motive of the civilization of people
is unerripgly manifest by their exterior
methods of living, and the trend of the
sum of human endeavor in communities is
written upon the walls and flagstones.
And Sacramento, we judge, has not broad
reason to fear the reading of hers. To con-
vey to the stranger our idea of the char
acter of this population would be but to
give him the testimony of one witness and
that one he would esteem prejudiced. But
if we tell him of the city itself, and its
homes, he will be able, on the basis of the
verify of the statement, to form his own
estimate and to verify it or modify it when
opportunity shall enable him to judge for
himself of this city of but about thirty
years aye
THE CITY is LOCATED
At the confluence of the Sacramento and
American rivers, upon bottom lands of
some miles in extent, behind which rise
table lands to the north and northeast, the
first terrace of the foothills Of the Sierras.
Southwark there are reaches of valley and
low land, until the vision is checked by the
distant ranges of the coast hills. To the
west it is an endless stretch of valley. The
American being a torrential stream, and
pouring into the Sacramento with sudden
ness, has in the past subjected the city TO
floods, against which an indomitable peo-
pie during many successive years have
builded great barriers that encircle the
place with a wall of defense against all
possible assaults of the waters. The city is
thus artifcially land locked. Its streets are
laid out at right angles to each other, and
are really avenues, the narrowest being
eighty feet, and the broadest in excess of
one hundred in width. These highways
are dead levels except where approaches to
the business streets lead up to level
dozen feet above the common plane.
The streets are from A to Y, count
ing from north to south, and
from Front to Thirtyfirst street, count
ing from west to east. The blocks are 800
feet by 800 in exterior bounds, and each is
cut DV a alley, access 10
the rear of all full lots which are uniformly
so ty 100 feet The roadways on the upper
grade, and in few instances upon the
lower grade, are paved, macadamized or
grayeled. Those not so treated are each
spring rounded up. smoothed, and made fit
fol-. driving. The walk-ways are all broad,
and in the majority OF cases are but two
thirds or half paved or planked toward the
curb, the remaining space being seeded to
grass, and forming charming border and
barrier to the sidewalk. All the streets,
some more densely than Others, are planted
with
SHADE TREES,
Which vary from walnut, locust and null
berry to poplar, elm and other ornamental
trees These are all of mature growth, and
afford delightful shade to the drive and
walk ways. In some cases this outrageous
shelter is so generous as to all but meet
overhead from either side of the avenues.
| In the business center of the city is spa
cious park, well shaded, provided with a
| fountain, music pavilion, and ample
promenades. 1t incloses about two acres.
| In the midst of the residence section of the
| more southerly side is Capitol Park. with
| an area OF about twenty acres. Upon the
westerly portion stands
| THE STATE CAPITOL,
4 structure modelled after the same classic
| that .llararffrizpg the