The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-08-18
RANDOM NOTES.
BY John MnNAuGHT.


are sufficient reasons why the social leaders
OF San Francisco should give at least
holiday consideration to the idea OF max
ing this City the scene of some OF the most
gorgeous and gayest artistic revels known
to the Western world. The popularity OF
the carnivals elsewhere proves that the
people are ready to furnish fit actors and
spectators for the fetes, the glory OF the
Venetian night at Belvedere attests the
wealth and the taste equal to the best ac-
complishment, while the force inherent III
such an organization as the Half-mllllon
Club assures the energy necessary TO carry
out any plan that may be devised. What
more do we need then than the will to
make our City theater where the comedy
of life can be presented at times in its most
joyous form, amid its fairest surroundings
and under its brightest aspects?
The subject is referred to the social
leaders of the City because they have had
sufficient training and experience In the
management of festal affairs on large
scale to lift the proposed fete to the height
of true festival. The carnival which we
hold should be no mere gaudy show de-
vised to draw crowds and bring money to
town. 1t should be designed on that high
plane where life becomes a fine art and
where art commands money because it
does not surrender to it. We should make
joyous season social in every aspect, not
regardless of cost, of course, but certainly
regardless of pecuniary profit.
Whether we have q carnival or not, it
may be possible for San Francisco next
year to present a spectacle that will en-
gage the attention of the whole Nation
and largely increase our fame. If, as now
seems probable, we succeed in obtaining
the Republican National Convention we
would enrapture every delegate and fill
every visitor with admiration by locating
the convention in the magnificent amphi-
theater of the Sutro baths. 1t would be
by far the most beautiful, the grandest and
the most inspiring hall in which Presi-
Dental convention ever ASSENT led, and
the scene presented by such gathering in
such place would be at once brilliant to
the eye and filled with suggestions both
patriotic and poetic.
With the exception of its remoteness
from the center of the City, which in some
important respects would be an advantage,
the fitness of the Sutro baths for Presi
dental convention is beyond question. A
flooring over the swimming-pool would
afford ample room for seating all the dele
gates and alternates, while in the spacious
amphitheater which rises with tier above
tier of seats around it, there would be space
for many thousands of spectators. These
conveniences for the accommodation of
great crowds, however, are but a small
part of the fitness of the place for such an
assembly. Those features which render it
most fit are the stately dignity of the
building itself, the romantic beauty OF the
surroundings and the fact that the Pacific
Ocean is not only visible from its windows
and audible in It's corridors, but is, in fact,
an essential part of it, flowing up into it
and furnishing the water for its baths.
What an inspiration for the orators of
the convention would be found in the
nomination on the very shores of the
Pacific of President who is to reside on
the coast of the Atlantic. The scene would
bring home to the imagination Of every
spectator all the grandeur embodied in the
phrase, 1.-The ocean-girt Republic" An
orator and an audience equally impressed
by sentiment so capable of awakening
the enthusiasm of an exalted patriotism
could hardly fail to produce an eloquence
that would be forever memorable in our
history. The greatness of the occasion,
the splendor of the scene, the magnifcence
of the surroundings. the geographical re-
lation of the site of the convention to that
of the capital of the Nation, the conscious
ness of the approaching end of the century
with all that the closing age implies, be-
ing borne in the minds of spectators whose
eyes overlook the far-reaching Pacific, and
in whose ears the mysterious music of that
mighty sea pulsated always, would surely
furnish to the ablest orators and statesmen
of the Union the inspiration that would
rouse them to the expression of the noblest
thoughts in the noblest language.
In the Legend of the Cypress Trees"
J. e. Richards furnishes to THE CALL this
morning poem that will be delight to
all who are susceptible to the fine inf1u
ences of poesy, but it's highest charm and
truest meaning will be for those only who
have stood beneath those mysterious old
cypress trees on the promontory'at Mon
terey and who. while admiring the grace
of their rugged forms and hoary age, have
been sufficiently moved by them to wonder
whence they came, and in the absence of
any sufficient knowledge on the subject
to seek the solution in the vague realms of
legends and guesses and dreams.
In all great immemorial trees there is al
ways more or less suggestion of mystery
and hint of wonderful historical past.
These in the grove at Cypress Point, of
which Mr.. Richards writes, however, are
more than suggestions or hints. They are
dominant and dominating influences. No
man or woman knowing anything of the
trees can escape the influence. In all the
wide confines of the United States there
are no cypress trees OF this variety save
these only, that stand on the furthermost
ledge of the Monterey peninsula. They
are alone, and seem conscious OF it, hold
ing aloof as if of higher caste than the
other trees of the forest. No Brahmin
among Pariahs is more lordly than they
among the common pines among them.
They crowd out to the very edges OF the
rocks as If eager to escape from the land