The San Francisco call., 1896-10-18
A dumping Bean
and a Furless
Kitten
The BurIy Tramp Who
Failed to Bluff
the Small
Girl

The extent to which San Francisco
streets are devoid of trees cannot well be
realized from any point OF observation less
commanding than the Twin Peaks. Once
up on the Peaks, the City looks nearly all
gray. The business streets are absolutely
devoid of bright color, and if there are oc.
casional trees on such thoroughfares they
are so few and are so much scatter I'd, that
they cut no figure in the landscape.
The great bulk of residence streets
have the same general appearance
of gray, the distance and the average
tone blending them so that any slight
variation of colors is imperceptible.
The only wooded section on the entlre
peninsula, apart from the parks and
Presidio areas, is all west of the Peaks,
and the green tops of the tree plantations
toward the ocean are grateful sight.
San Francisco. as a whole, is garbed in
gray, but in other respects is not particu-
larly suggestive Of the Quakers.
Nothing develops the precocity of chill
dren in certain part of the City more
than TO put them in actual contact with
adults. There are small girl cashiers in
cheap restaurants who are able to bluff
the most burly and threatening rounder
on the Barbary Coast.
Clear above the clstter of the dishes and
the general din of cheap restaurant on
Clay street two voices rang out. One was
bass voice belonging to the genus tramp,
and he was as large and burly man as
could be found in many a day. The other
voice proceeded from the vocal apparatus
of a thin, white-faced child whose age
could not have exceeded IL or IL years.
"I gave yer two bits" said the bass voice,
"and l want me change"
1.-TWO bits nawthin'; yer gave me 10
cents and yer haint got no change COM
in'."
"Gur-rghl" This was growI of much
fierceness.
"Ha, ha ho, ho!" laughed the 11-year-
older. mockingly. "Daps all right, but
yer don't bluff worth nickel"
'I'll have yer pulled"
Around the tables sat groups of listen
ing men who might be waiting to s.try on"
this game themselves. They scraped
hairy chins meditatively and looked on
with an appearance OF a grim sort of
amusement.
Ihe email girl was mistress of the situa-
ton. Now git" she said, ''for won't
have no fuss about here! Now mosey I,
The bluff would not go. The big tramp
went out. The little girl sprunted up like
| bantam chicken as another tramp
offered familiarity on the strength of this
| episode. Business then resumed its
usually dull round.
The craze of jumping beans is appar-
emily large this year. AS means of di-
version they are becoming m ore popular
in families, and thousands are exported
East, where their mysterious motions ex-
cite astonishment among the uninitiated,
who are not aware of the source of their
eccentric powers. They are getting to be
quite fad among the sporting fraternity.
who place couple of beans within small
circle and the one that jumps outside the
boundary first is the declared winner and
takes the stakes. The amusement is an
absorbing one and has supplanted the dice
in several of the Kearny-street resorts, and
the practice is spreading to others.
The beans are imported from Mexico.
and their motions are impaired by small
worm in the interior Thav ara ,,oro