The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1895-06-01
CONDUCTORS AMONG THE QUAKERS.
The California Ticket-Punchers in
Philadelphia.
Three Big Institutions, the Railroad
Depot, and Wanamaker's Store,
and Girard College.

Especial Correspondence REcoRD-UNIoN.l
! PHILADELPHIA. May q, 1895 with Cali
fornia o. r. G. excursion).-Justw whether
Philadelphia is built around John Wanna
makers big store or the Pennsylvania
Railroad Company's palatiai depot VIII
ever remain an unsolved problem to
many of our wandering Callfornlans.
Those two establishments were about all
that good many were able TO see OF the
Quaker City. Once in Wanamaker's,
there was no stirring the ladies OF the
party, and their partners staid Loyalty by,
lest recklessness should bring too great
strain on the family purse.
It's great place, is Wanamaker's. 1t
covers block. Is four stories IN hight,
and one may buy there about everything
except coal or pigiron, and there is some
talk of an annex to accommodate those
luxuries. 1t is about six times the size
of Weinstock IL Lubin's Sacramento
store, but modelled on the same broad
gauge plan as that establishments. Boots
and shoes, hats. books, clothing and dry
goods of every conceivable sort can be
had here.
Ii must have been a great convenience
to old William Penn and his broad
brimmed friends to go to place like that
and lay in a winters supply of good
things necessary for the support OF the
colony. 1t Is convenient, too, to lnde-
pendence Hall. and our tourists were
little confused, after all their bewildered
sightseeing, as 10 whether Wanamaker
was one OF the original signers of the
Declaration or whether he came in later
and grew up with the country. Every
Philadelphia who chances to be near
lunches at the big store, for the restau-
rant is one of the best in the city.
One innovation in the line of conven-
fences is a system of chariots, modelled
after printing office turtles. The con-
ductors of our party felt at home imms-
diately on seeing these chariots rolling
about. Any railroad man always feels
by his inglenook when he sees anything
with wheels excepting. of course, the
genus homo. The Wanamaker chariots
are for the transportation of dishes that
need reiuvenating. Walters there do not
go about with pyramids of table debris
piled up neck nigh. They simply serve
and only stand and wait-as John Milton
might have said. The chariot does the
rest.
Another innovation that does credit to
the head of the ex-Postmas ter-General is
the non-check system. When the order
is served the patron, if salts fed, pays the
waiter for it on the spot Then, when the
hungry mans appetite is satisfied, there
Is no wild rushing about for checks or
going up to q desk to wink at pretty
bleached- blonde cashiers and have cash
register snapped up SO that all the world
may learn how much your feast has cost
you. The score is settled at the outset
and there's an end of it. and in my judg-
ment it's a good idea for California res
taurateurs to borrow.
GIRARD COLLEGE,
Unique among educational institutions of
the world, was one of our sights. Girard
is not quoted in the intercollegiate sport
ing pools. 1t has other claims to atten-
ton. 1t is rich, dreadfully rich. Its
trustees have so much money that they
. give much to the city's poor and they
feed the students freq uently on straw
berries and sott-shell crabs.
Stephen Girard, born in Bordeaux.
France, in 1850, pioneer Philadelphia
merchant. left the bulk of his 100000
estate to establish this school for white
TO somewhere near $50, 200, 900 by the in
crease in realty values and last year the
interest on gross revenue that the trus-
tees drew on footed up over s., SOC, 900.
Boys are kept here from the ages of 6 to
16, and there are now oyer 800 there. A
curious OIO philosopher was Olraru. his
will specified among other things that no
clergyman or priest OF any religious de-
nomination should ever set foot in the
doors of the institution, and this rule is
strictly enforced to-day.
Every smooth-faced, solemn-looking
railroader who entered the portal had to
swear that religious teaching was not his
forte. Others simply said California. That
word seemed to be assurance enough.
Features of the college are the grounds
-forty-tive acres of walled park in the
heart of the city-and the main college
building of white MARBLE built after the
exact model of the Parihenon, with huge
double rows of futed marble columns
that cost about $40, 900 each. That injunc-
ton in the will reads:
II enjoin and require that no ecclesias-
tic missionary or member of any sect
whatsoever shall ever hold or exercise
any station or duty whatever in the COL
lege, nor shall any such person ever be
admitted Tor any purpose, or as visitor,
within the premises appropriated to the
purpose of said college,"
The local story told by orthodox folks
is that when the casket containing Gil
rard's remains were opened after many
years. there burst forth smoke and flame,
suggesting to the orthodox mind the
place of his eternal sojourn. c. s. A.