The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-10-20
when at the very extreme it can be only of
the hell or Harlem kind?

riverside to build their houses on so mar
row and com monplace a street as Fifth
avenue simply because it is nearer to the
shops and give up the prospect of the Pail
sades Tor the prospect of getting five min
utes sooner downtown they disclose lack
OF some of the best elements of culture
but even more disgracefui to the COM
munity than the mistreatment of River
side avenue is the abuse of the Bowery.
No community is morally responsible for
It's mllllonalres, since they are never an
outgrowth of public morals, but it is re-
sponslble for its bohemians; and in
making the beautiful bright Bowery jest
and byword instead of a toast and a
classic the New Workers prove themselves
to be the veriest Philistine pigs that ever
turned away from jewels to root in the
&c luck heaps of life.
In city where the kings of Philistia
build palaces on the midtown thorough
fare of traffic instead OF on superb heights
far removed from trade, and where the
princes of Bohemia turn away from the
freedom OF one of the broadcast and bravest
streets in all the big, wide world, there
may be taste in poetry, music and art, but
II so the taste is imported. 1t is not wine
only that New Workers Judge by the label
and give preference to European brands.
Their tongues are too woolly for tasting
home sweets, their ears are too hairy for
hearing home music, and they consider
nothing elevated unless the cost is high.
Out of the talk and the writing caused
by Trilby there has been made public an
odd bit OF information from the history OF
music that is interesting. We are told
that the old French song 'Malbrouc sen
va-t-en guerre,' which runs through the
story, is sung to the tune of 1--WE Won't
Go Home Till Morning" and moreover,
that the tune is of great age. 1t can be
traced as far back as the middle ages,
when 1t served as a war chant of the Cru
saders. 1t would be interesting to know
exactly how far the tune has changed and
through what transformations it has
passed in coming down the centuries and
descending from the dignity of a holy
battle-song on the plains of Palestine to be
bowling drinking chorus in American
barrooms. Music itself, it seems, can lose
its high estate, and perhaps if primeval
man had started out lowered with the
music of the spheres the sublime harmony
would by this time have dwindled down
to jingle, fit only to set the pace of boys
and girls doing round dance.
of being the subject of scientific discus
sion. She has been considered under that
aspect by the Social Culture Society OF
New York, Tor it seems they have a So
ciety, even if they haven't got culture,
and learned scientist read a paper there
which proved that TriIby never could
have been as Du Maurier pictured her,
because such TriIby could not have had
her throat filed with music by the most
potent and most expert Svengali that ever
lived. That settles it. Science has spoken;
let art be dumb.
The only defect in California culture is a
lack OF a community consciousness of it.
individually we may feel the confidence Of
perfect poise on all things elevated, and
be calm in the assurance OF well-balanced
equilibrium amid the oscillations of taste,
but We have not as yet sufficient common
understanding and mutual agreement to
be sure that our neighbors re right. Con-
seque.-tly when some fellow citizen pro-
nounces Judgment we hesitate to indorse
>Ail4i' LII tIlC pICscllb luStaIlCt LOT e,
not few well-meaning, but uncertain
people have been inclined to look askance
| at Mr.. Harrison and doubt whether New
York may not have some culture after all.
1t is time this defect should be remedied,
| and the occasion is propitious for begin
ming the remedial task. The issue is
simple. Is not our culture sufficiently
higher than that of New York to permit us
| to look down upon those who dwell there
Is not California Hill more elevated than
Murray Hill? Has not a city on the shore
| of the Pacific broader outlook than one
on Spuyten DuyveI Creek? Is it too late
to seek to avoid the conflict? The East is
blowing her trumpets and we must take
our trumpets and blow also. San Fran
cisco has a right to expect that all her
critics will come forward with brave words
| to justify their trade. He that doubts is
damned, and he that dallies is bastard -
If there be any truth in the universe
| higher and broader than that which lies
| low and confined at the bottom of a well.
then the culture of San Francisco is as
much superior to that of New York as the
! view from California Hill is superior to
that from the corner of Fifth avenue and
some other brownstone street. The New
Yorker sees nothing bigger than a hotel,
nothing brighter than gaslamp, nothing
| sweeter than a candy-store. But from our
hilltops all the infinite is ours. Noun
tains, waves ana fogs; sunshine and star
light above, and around about us or be-
meath us the glow of innumerable lights,
the coming and going of ships, the bloom
of sempiternal flowers, the vigor OF ocean
winds. the sweetness of the odors Of roses
| and lilies, the influences of men gathered
from all quarters of the globe, the mighty
| impulses that throb forever in the great
heart of the West-from these sources we
draw fair passions, bountiful pities and
loves without stain, deriving therefrom a
culture so fine, free and fluent and full
that we could go on higher and higher in
elevated joys unwearyingly if it were not
that we are occasionally rendered con-
sclous OF the existence OF New York in our
beloved country and are thus made tired.
| 1t is not often that musical recitals are
N ade interesting to non-musical people,
but the task, though difficult, can be &C
compllshed, and that without putting too
much of strain on the non-musical
! audience. An excellent instance OF the