Sacramento daily record-union., 1888-12-08
AVENUE NOTES.
SEEING OURSELVES as OTHERS
SEE Us.
Attachment of Sacramentans to the
Capital City-Some Rambling
Notes and Hints.

spirit of daring criticism with some of our
more parvenue cities situated on the wind
swept hills of our coast line, when my
companion, sage, quiet man, who speaks
but little and that carefully, said: But
Sacramentans always return" And then
conviction and memory, the past and pres
ent, clasped hands in free and willing ap-
probation of our beloved old town on the
river side.
"Sacramento's children always return -
like members of one family to the old
homestead-like birds of passage to the
sunny cliffs of their warm spring land;
like storm-beaten vessels gliding into the
familiar port where calm and rest awaits
them; so do the returning wanderers sneed
their steps to the old home-like town.
10 have been one of Sacramentos chill.
dren; to have played through its wide
shady streets in childhood: to have been
trained to aspire to the sweets of learning
IN Its well-known schools; to have learned
to love Its thousands of trees, its gay, flow
erlng parterres, its equable climate its own
peculiar air of repose and quietude; and
then to have lived here and there about
the State, In climates wet, dry, high, cold.
windy, IN scenes sterile, mountainous and
barren, and then to see again the flower
ing, shaded, wind-protected city still un-
changed in all its changes, is to know WHY
Sacramento's children always return"
Changing, yet unchanged, and still as
clear, is the reflection of the pilgrim look
ing out its long avenues, whose interlacing
trees follow the carpenters hammer out on
the rapid march of progress. The pilgrim
who but few years ago went to Sixteenth
street for the suburb, must now go to
twenty sixth street, and the prim garden
and the cottage row is close upon him.
And yet it is still as DEAR" for it is fa-
mlllar even there, wearing the same char
acteristic features Sacramento has a
not unexplainable attraction for its old
residents. Unlike a seaboard town, its
population has had a marked permanency,
founded upon a sure and steady growth.
1t has had no fluctuations in prosperity to
cause the periods of depression to sow
havoc among its cottage-holders. Family
and nelghborhood ties in place of natural
growth become strong bands to hold the
affections OF people to its prosperity and
its institutions. And around these ties in
turn center the affections of a new genera
tlon. Sacramento's children always re-
turn" TO add its scenes of improvement to
the memorie and rime" of other DAYS, to
walk again through the tree-arched av-
enues they call streets, to see the leaf
rifted sunlight on the cool green
laws, to see the golden sunsets over the
tree-tops by the river, to brush the thick
grasses Of winter with vigorous feet, and to
feel the gentle rain misting from skies no.
where else so soft and warm.
If you want to know what is in a coun-
try, interview little boy or girl about lG
years of age. They generally have sharp
eyes for the common comforts of life. AS
l was walking down K street last month
saw ahead of me a man leading a quietly
dressed matronly little girl of, perhaps, il
years. They were gazing about like
strangers, and were from the east of the
Rocky mountains; so anyone would have
said, although no one likes to be asked, for
reasons Of conviction in such cases. He.
however, it seemed to me from the ele-
waited tip of his nose, was one of those men
who can go all over California and see
nothing praiseworthy and wish himself
back East with his eighty acres of oats un-
der the snow. And so he went directly by
one of our luscious-looking fruit stands
without seeing it; not so with the little
girl. Her attention was arrested, and she
stopped, amazed, delighted. She stood be-
fore the tiers of fragrant autumn glories,
while her father went ambling on,
conscious of nothing about him. Her
long, graceful arms went up in the air, and
her ringing young voice broke out in
magnetic exclamation that arrested every
one within hearing, "Oh-h-h, PG-paw 1t
was long drawn and full of wonder. There
were terraces of rosy apples, pink peaches,
pears, figs, purple grapes, Strawberries,
raspberries aud all the fruits and vegeta-
bles of our pliable season that we only see
with plethoric Indifference But this little
girl recognized wonder when she saw it,
and her "Oh-h-h, Papa" spread magnetic
gladness and thankfulness in the air that
appeared in smiles on the faces of the
passers by.
The world has more sympathy with its
elbowing individuals anyway, than gcner-
ally supposed. Mark the air of commits
Grafton and anxiety that will fall upon
the inmates of street car when it stops at
a muddy crossing for a well-dressed woman
and pretty little girl. All sorts of posi-
BILE accidents are imagined in the faces of
those fellow sufferers. She might slip.
might fall the ear is too far from the only
foothold in sight; the dress or the dainty
shoes will be utterly ruined. And thus
the ominous cloud of anxiety darkens,
only to be relieved by the triumphant
entry of the adventurers, when the sym
pathetic strangers settle to their seats,
straighten their twisted necks and return
their averted eyes TO the serious contem-
plation of nothjngness.
No one would suppose that it makes any
difference who drives a street car. But
there are even selections in drivers, and
the crowd are as unconsciously drawn to-
wards a superior spirit on the front end of
bob-car as they are toward a great man
on a rostrum, or in directors chair A
driver has his points. There is one who
smiles and mods at the humble pedestrians
who salute his chariot, las if he was glad he
happened that way. He kindly permits
YOU to get foothold or snatch at a strap
before he unloses his emettled" wheel. He
hands you your change through the cir
cumscribed space with gallant air, as if
quite convinced of your faForitism in rid
ing with him. HE is so even-tempered
with the small boy hanging on behind
that the urchin ceases to find any fun in it.
and passes by the public convenience with
out temptation. He stops his car on the
crossing, and you would think, by his at.
tentive countenance, that he really wished
you a bon-voyage across the sea of mud or
a narrow plank. His smiling countenance
is an ornament TO the dali street. He
makes his mark. Now see people watch
ing for his car, and timing themselves tt
go out with the jolly driver. People re
member the man who makes the best of {
thankless JOB, and the best man in a hare
place sooner or later becomes the best maj
in more congenial place of his own choos
ing