The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-08-11
BY tHARLE)WARREN 5TOObkRD.

We were all boys in those days and it was
great fun being boy. This was before the
advent Of the middle-aged, when the gray
beard was as seldom seen as Santa Clans
himself. In those days we boys diligently
harvested the empty tincans that were
heaped behind the kitchen and smelted
the solder on sunny Saturdays among the
goats along the heights of Telegraph Hill.
Thus early did the spirit of speculation en-
ter into the heart of young California.
Dupont street. in the Chinese quarter
was an arrangement in scarlet and gold
that beggared description. Day unto day
uttered speech highly unintelligible,
though so familiar, to US all, and night
unto night showed knowledge of a life
that went merrily enough TO the Jingle of
the cash OF the players of fan-tan. There
were no facades to the halls of chance in
those days. 1t was as if the curtain had
been run up upon stage where the game
of destiny was being PLAYED with an earn
estness that gave sphinx-like aspect to the
too often expressionless face of the Mongol.
When the play was ended the portcullis fell
and all the distinguishing features were
washed out Of the faces of the players.
The Plaza was the center and the soul
VI Things Will ~ d41llOilS bllht were on the
lips of every one, and perhaps by reason
of the as yet undeveloped architectural
impulses the old cathedral at the north
east corner of California and Dupont
streets was vainly thoughta temple and
tower Of beauty. The town-so young, SO
lusty-was filled with weird eyries hang
ing upon the almost inaccessible hill
slopes; without they were not always at
tractive, but within the eye frequently
Toasted upon such furnishings as only the
Far East affords, and often in those DAYS
did l creep under peristyle of robust
roses to find myself among carved ebony
and marbles and velvets hanging in heavy
folds; yet to-day the roof that sheltered
these would be despised by the lowest
salaried clerk in the land.
Surprises were not surprising then. The
planked streets bristled with slivers as big
as lavelins and warped themselves like
cradles. with fringes of spring-boards on
either side; or, perchance, the day after
one looked in vain for them. since they
had discreetly buried themselves out of
sight under avalanches of gray sand and
were no longer a stumbling block TO the
feet OF the wayfarer. Sand, long stretches
of gray sand, under a steel-gray sky, with
q gray sea fog deluging it at intervals-this
IS my dream OF the past A great desert
our Sahara-lay between US and the coast
line; we fellows used to make long pill
grlmages into that desert lying between
the sunrise and the sea.
Lone Mountain was the sweetly solemn
landmark by whose aid we crossed and re-
crossed our Sahara, and Lone Mountain,
as / remember it, was the one greenish-
brown towering height that seemed to be
always more or less in shadow. We all
had kind of superstitious love for it,
gentle reverence that found expression IN
occasional piigrimages to the foot of the
cross that so long sanctifed its summit.
If we found it wearisome retracing our
steps across the sand dunes we could re-
turn by that boys ideal highway, the
Benchley hume-a primitive aqueduct
shore and afforded a safe, though at times
q dizzy, footing, and nearing town we
could board the stranded hulk that so long
made semi-marine picture of itself at the
foot of huge sandhill this side of Black
Point.
Yonder in the desert were the ever-lean-
ing liveoaks, pressed almost to the earth,
their backs clipped clean as an italian
hedge by the keen-edged gales. These
made an oasis at long intervals, and at
longer intervals there were travelling creep
ers with green fleshly leaves enameling the
sandy waste. How it peppered us-the
gritty wind that swept in from the west
ern sea: how it wrinkled and ribbed the
long swells that flowed Slowly but surely
across the wilderness lying between the
breakers and the bay. l family recall one
hollow where the brackish water lodged
all the year round, but for the most part
all that region, now transformed by magic