The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1890-09-09
THE CELEBRATION.


10 O'clock a procession Of Native Sons and
Others which is expected to present not less
than u 0U0 men in Inc, will form upon the
streets leading into Market, below First and
will march through the lea1lng thorough
fares-Market Montgomery, kearny, Mar
kct again, Van Mes avenue, and Market
once more to Fourth, where it will disband.
Each society or organized body will be ac-
companied by brass band, which will dis
cours stirring music as long as the breath
OF the mus iCians holds out. The air will be
studded with flags, borne By the procession
isis, and at every block their spirits will be
encouraged by cheers from the byStanders.
II is estimated that the procession will take
four hours in passing a given point, so that
il is to be hoped that no unnecessary delays
will occur. Ii they DO, Chief Marshal Iilden
will come in for some left-handed comph
nffnts No such demonstration has ever
taken ! lace before in this city. 1t will be
remembered for years TO come.
t. co rs dera;e men, the turnout and the
event which it celebrates furnish material
for thought. The admission Of California,
with free constitution, Was one Of the mo-
mentaus incidents in American history. IL
b Ike the unwritten rule that slave and Tree
States should be admitted alternately into
the [ Exon. W lSEtliSih nav 4lE OCtll aAAAAAs-
ted in 1915. it was the turn Of slave State
to come in. But the shareholders had no
territory ready to knock at the NATIONAL
d or and. in moment of bewilderment and
despair, they could make but little opposi-
ton to the admission of California. As it
was. the admission " as delayed for season,
but the feeling was 50 overwhelming in Call
fornia and elsewhere that admission as
fre st te could not long be delayed The
event which will be celebrated to-day pos
sesses rational as well as State significance.
The commemoration of that event may be
said t. link the eighteenth with the twen-
ii til century. Many citizens who read the
message If Mayor Geary, dated October Is,
1850. announcing the admission Of the State,
first saw the light in the eighteenth century,
when Washington was President; wien
King George reigned in England; when
France was controlled by Jacobins and
Girondists; when Louisiana was French
territory; when Illinois was a bowling will
derness; aud prob bly, a majority of those
who march in to-day's procession will live to
see the tW eniietli century, with such changes
and such maryels as 1t may bring forth. In
tleI procession Today will be seen the still
active figure of one who was born IN the first
year OF the century, and who may-such Is the
yiEor OF the man-live to see the year 1900
That is Colonel Jonathan ID. Stevenson.
1t may be that some boys who VIII stand On
the sidewalks to-day aud mingle their shrill
trebies with the cheers for the Native Sons
will live 10 celebrate the centennial ami
versary Of Admission day sixty years hence.
1t is interesting TO note what the men OF
1850 furesaw in the future for California,
what they discerned of its coming destiny,
and wherein they were mistaken. At the
grand celebration which was held on Octo-
Der 20. 1850, Judge Nathaniel Bennett under
took 10 forecast the future, and said:
1t nerds not the gift Of prophecy to predict
that The course OF the worlds Trade Is destined
soon 10 be changed. But few years can elapse
lefore The commerce Of Asia and The islands OF
the Pacific, instead Of pursuing the ocean track
by the way Of Cape Horn or the Cape of Good
Hone OF even taking the shorter route OF the
Istbmus Of Darien, OF the Isthmus OF Tehuan-
tepec, VIII enter he Golden Gate Of California
aud deposit us riches In the lap Of our own city
Hence on bars OF mon, and propelled by steam,
1t Will ascend the mountains, and traverse the
DESERT ana. having again reached the confines
OF civilization, will be distributed through
thousand channels TO every portion of the Union
and of Europe. New York will then become
what London EOw Is, The great central point of
exehauge-the heart OF trade-the force whose
contraction aud expansion Will be felt throughout
every artery oil The commercial NOfiu, and
Francisco VIII stand then the second city of
America. Is this visionary? twenty years Will
determine.
The Judge was a trife previous; not
twenty but forty years have elapsed since
then, ana the course of the worlds trade
has not yet been changed. The Judge
could not foresee the building of the Suez
Canal. We have lines of steamers between
this port and the ports of Asia; but the
bulk OF the commerce of that populOus COD
-tnent SUI adheres to the old channel,
though it no longer rounds the capes The
Judge, too, evidently never dreamed of the
settlement of the desert which in his minds
eye ne probably bonndsd by taise asi5s 0url on
the East and the Sierra on the West. He
never imagined that within the memory of
men who heard him the desert would be
confined to the siugle State of Nevada and
narrow strip at the eastern base of the
Rockies Persons who hear to-day's Grafton
may live to seeirrigatiOu convert tbat L.,
likewise into fertile FARMS as thew almost
surely, If they reach the natural term Of
time, will witness the Grade OF China and
Japan wrested from the English and their
canal, and restored to its natural channel
on the broad Pacific