The Portland daily press., 1889-05-21
A PoRTLANoER our WEST.
Men, Women and Art in the Queen
City of the Pacific.
Correspondence of the Press.l

Correspondence of the Press.l
SAN FRANCISCO, May l.
1t was the morning of March 14th that we.
passengers on the Pacific Mail steamer
Acapulco, entered the Golden Gate Morn
ing was just breaking behind the Gate, and
sea and land were rosy with the early light.
We admired the gigantic proportions of har-
Dor and bay; where the fleets of the world
might ride; the high bold banks, almost hills
covered with luXuriant, growing. tall, very
light green grass-the miles of harbOr front
Uncle Sam has wisely reserved to himself.
in the PreSidiO; II company fort with
acreage enough to camp the skeleton army
OF the United States Everything from bay
to wharf is On giant scale.
The hotels Of San Francisco are rather
poor as to the rooms, The much Wanted
Palace Hotel, covering square, is an ugly
brown, wooden imitation of a section of the
| Tuilleries. 1t is built as hollow square.
| The inner tier of rooms, looking into the
| court yard, is darkened by an unnecessarily
wide verandah. Then there is middle tier
| of cells, called rooms, into which the sun
| never shines. 0ne-third OF the rooms only.
therefore, have direct outlook The res
taurant is excellent, the cooking as good or
better than anything in Boston and prices
much more reasonable.
All the other hotels are worse as to rooms
than the Palace. Sun is looked upon as
much less indispensable here than in New
England even and the rooms average all
through the other hotels dark and none too
clean. ! except the Baldwin simply because
did not enter it.
heard much of the restaurants and the
Table note dinners for 81 equalling dinner
costing 70 at Delmonico's. have no doubt
that those who say so believe it and am
| equally sure they are thoroughly mistaken.
L tried the four most celebrated and there
was nothing IN rooms, service or cooking to
warrant any especial mention. The names
OF two the Poodle Dog" and the Pup" are
the only special feature of any of them.
The bar rooms of San Francisco are num-
erous and excellent. 1t is customary at all
the best, to offer free, at noon, a fine lunch
easily worth so cents. The liquors are said
| to average of excellent quality. These bars
are very special feature here. The bust
ness men for the most part frequent them at
| noon, and besides good social half hour a
| great deal OF business is closed at these
lunches, Tor each man of business knows
| where to find at this hour the man he wants
10 meet. was told by many gentlemen who
doubtless believed it, that the paintings in
| the saloons were finer than at the celebrated
Stokes saloon under the Hoffman House, N,
| i. While the paintings are not remarkable
| as WORKS OF art, the subjects are some
times unique and the execution daring. One
nie-slzed blonde lady dressed only in a
| pigeon lowering in her immediate front
may be instanced. Another nude creation
was, was told, a portrait of a lady friend of
eX-G0v. -, procured at enormous expense.
l recognized it as bad copy of Titian's Venus
In the Pitt Gallery in FlOrence-but tine
rooms are comfortable, the liquors good, the
lunch worth double what you pay and these
ii4oh gstheTings are important in the daily
lie OF San Francisco business men,
The cable cars are the admiration of every
one. They run about miles an hour and
can be stopped and started more quickly
imam horse car. The residence portion Of
| the city is now extending over the very steep
terraces called the sand hills. Horse cars
would here be impossible but two of these
cable cars shackled together, the front one
open and the rear one closed, mount ana de-
scend the nils with exactly the same speed
and with such ease it is pleasure to ride on
them. Everything is perfect, service, safety,
| Qualty OF car and promptnesS. There is no
street car service in the world that can equal
| it,
The theaters are sufficient in number and
well enough built The Tivoli where light
| opera is presented fairly well in a small wav
has large roomy seats with little lid OF the
pack OF the seat in front of you and you may
imDlDe ana smoke during the performance.
| able and the serving was so quiet as not to
annoy those who came simply to see and hear
The same proportion of good troups do not
| play mere as In an equally populOus city East
| Tor the reason that there is no other large
city in all that immense area West of the
ROCKIES. The architecture is most noticeably
inferior to that of any city of its size in the
world. Its lnferiority is most striking
teaouhre out lmpresses the stranger no more
| forelbly than it does the more cultivated and
travelled inhabitants. With the whole
Pacihc coast Red wood" takes the place of
pine as building lumber 1t is worth about
$50 thousand. Wages of mechanics aver
age here much the same as in the East. One
Of the most noticeable features here after
the bad architecture is the plumpness and
apparent good health of the women They
look full of life. health and vgor. Their
competitions SO far as they were on exhibit
tion were good ana eorroberate the indica-
ton OF Lealth. Unfortunately the hideous
artificial make up of the face is so common
that one is unable to speak with entire GER
tainty. The women live more out of doors
than IN the East and San Francisco fOgs are
good for the complexion. 1t is also claimed
that these disagreeable fogs driving in carry
away the effects of poor drainage and are to
Ill drained San Francisco a blessing in dis
gulse. Sunday is observed here much as in
Catholic Europe. 1t is picnic for the whole
population every Sunday afternoon. San
Francisco is now so wealthy and prosperous
that 1t does mt care fig about its climate
and abuses it more freely than does the
stranger within its gates. 1t seems, as |
have said, to be thoroughly prosperous. The
retail shops are full of goods and full of
people buying them
The wholesale streets are blocked with
drays loaded with heavy goods. A prompt,
active, hail fellow, well met, atmosphere
eenaracterlses the business intercourse.
There Is absolutely no chatting "What will
you take for such and such commodities ?"
so much," is the anSwere. A moments
thought and the reply comes crisp and clear
III take it,, or 81 don't want it," if the
iatter, the seller never makes lower offer.
Nor have i ever heard a buyer suggest he
would take 1t at less figure.
what theSe inconsistent people would do
today without John Chinaman is a problem
mat strikes every stranger. They wash all
the dirty clothes; perform 4,5 of the, home
service. The beautiful flowers that bloom
all along the house fronts owe their care to
them. 1T certainly is not cheap labor; for
John Cinnamon easily gets from $50 to $40
month and board as a house servant. |
did not visit the Chinese quarter, in the
typical sense. 1t seemed to me disagreeablo
waste OF time and strength. There is Five
points in New York, a Seven dias in London.
aMont-matre In Paris. In the neighborhood
~ eacn OF theSe can be found opium joints,
low houses OF Ill fame, thieves and other
candidates for State Prison. We do not
visit them. Why pick out there yilest
features among the Chinese and take our
wives and daughters there. In the Chinese
quarter there are their churches, their shops
full Of unique, curious and beautiful things
But IL seems to be the fashion for guides to
hang about the hotels offering to take parties
Tor IS through all the filth and crime of
chinatown. Why not through the filth and
crime OF American town? There's quite as
much of it. Is it not about time that the
American tourist ceases to familiarze the
women Of his family with vice whether in
t W Jardin Mabille in Paris, the Spurl in
,rrLLehna or Chinatown in San Francisco.
Then after that he can still take one further
step upward, viz. not go himself.