The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-07-11
SAN FRANCISCO FAST ASLEEP.
No Fine Business Blocks, Residences
Sfreafa or Seyxers N That Ci4x

Streets or Sewers In That City.
Do Californians become Mexicanized?
This is question which has already be-
gun to present itself to many thinking
people along the golden coast. Does the
GLORIOUS climate" tend to enervate the
race? Is the Gland where it is always
afternoon" producing a race of lotus
eaters? There are certainly many indica-
tions which impress themselves upon the
most casual observer, tending to prompt an
answer in the affirmative.
Picking up an old, battered and forlorn
guide-book or railroad gazetteer the other
day, read under the heading "San Fran
CISCO city famous for its wonderful
growth and fine buildings" This might
have held true at the time the battered old
tome was published. but it is as far from
the truth now as the heavens are high
above Chicago. Where are the fine build
ings? The most ardent lover of the city
by the western sea has to stretch his men,
tally to fill his fingers in counting them.
Compared with the cities of the vigorous
frost-bitten East, or the hurrah hamlets of
the bustling, snappy Middle West, San
Francisco is woefully disreputable in the
matter Of its buildings. The San Fran
ciscan who has dotted on the dwellings of
his pet mushroom millionaires on Mob
Hill, finds on the boulevards of Chicago,
the Back Bay of Boston. or in any favored
district of lake city, river city, or sea-
board city of the ''effete East" Everything
being EAST" to the Californian) houses
which make him feel that he has lived in q
village of dry-goods boxes.
San Francisco has one noble building
- lno r. s. - II
/ refer to the city hall. Built of stone and
given a proper site, this would be one of
the notable buildings of the earth. But
municipal rascality and the thievery of the
bosses have made it cost more than if it
had been built of stone, while it is nothing
but mud-beplastered brick. AS for site, it
has q good one, being upon the city's
principal thoroughfare, but jobbery sold
off its frontage and left it to linger uncon-
sidered on back alley.
As for business blocks, the city has
nothing of Importance except q few re-
Gently erected buildings, which are rather
unsatisfactory limitations of the better
class of structures in other cities. In much
of the quarter where the wholesale bust
ness is carried on, the wonder is that the
shanties of 40 do not fall about the ears of
their unprogressive owners and easily sat-
listed occupants.
Though no American city except Wash
ington has yet achieved much of a reputa-
ton for its streets, and though New York
strikes European as the worst paved
city in the world, San Francisco is back in
the ruck even when classed with the cities
of America. The prehistoric cobblestone
still holds its sway on many i'm
portant thoroughfares, in the sub
urhs rotten red macadam is
used-mud in the winter and dust in
summer-and the best the city has to offer,
with the exception of chickens teeth spots
OF smooth and satisfactory bituminous
rock, is pavement of basalt blocks I'M
evenly laid on foundation of sand. Any
proposition to better the condition of the
streets is fought tooth and claw by the old
California element which clings to the ira
dltlons of the rough pioneer DAYS. Is this
not Mexicanized condition. content
with that which is poor because it is
cheap?
The sewers of San Francisco are far from
being what they should be: the fire de-
partment does not compare in equipment
with any OF the Eastern cities of similar
pretense and population. and the parks
are tawdry and neglected, with the excep-
ton Of the great Golden Gate park. which
is the city's glory. And with it all the
situation OF the city, on its hills and be-
side bay which is delight, in every way
is wonderfully advantageous. But the
Mexicanlzed Californian or 'Silurian"
neglects the opportunities of location and
moons along. waiting to be forced into i'm
movement against his will
The California business man of pioneer
days presented his name as a SYNONYM
for daring activity. and the world accept
ed IT. But today he sits beside his sea and
behoids Germany, France and England
take the trade OF the islands of that sea
from before his eyes without lifting 3
finger TO protest. He may grumble a little
IN his sleeve, but he organizes no company
and sends no feet of ships 10
take advantage of his maritime oppor-
tunitles. he permits the gold of Mexico
and Peru, the nitrate of Chile and the
coffee of Guatemala TO be handled by more
energetic and aspiring people, apparently
needless that nature intended all this trade
as his heritage. He thought the tea and
silk frelghts of China were bound TO come
through the Golden Gate for transship-
ment upon his wharves. He thought thi.
SO diligently that he went to sleep over the
idea, and when he awoke the tea and silk
trade had slipped away from him and was
pouring through Victoria on its way east
ward.
No, the San Francisco business man is
not now Offering bis name As q synonym