The San Francisco call., 1896-03-29


apt to forget At least I think it
must be forgetfulness that makes so many
of US speak slightingly of this wonderfully
picturesque city. comparing it with the
more conventional loveliness of others,
famous for their beauty. 1t is a misfor-
tune when we allow the things of every
day life to become commonplace. 1t is
Just this tendency of the human mind that
is at the root of SO much carelessness and
bad citizenship. We ought to take seri-
ously the dignity and beauty of our City,
and bring our standards of life and build
ing up to it.
There are many approaches to San
Francisco, but none without its peculiar
charm, unless one excerpts the mosaic
entrance of the Menlo Park railroad by
way of the south. But it is the lay OF the
road rather than the surrounding country
that is at fault. 1t creeps through cuts
and devious ways and one gets but
meager glimpse. here and there, of the
City. One does better from the cars OF the
San Mateo electric road, where. from many
a commanding height, the City is seen
spread out in what might be called its
working garments. 1t Is the horny hand
Of toll that is here extended to greet you.
The City along this side is thing of
high towers and chimnevs, lines OF
tall masts and raking smokestacks along
the water front, stockyards and factories,
docks and warehouses, grim and sug-
gestive of toll, yet suggestive, too, OF the
strange picturesque, halfforeign flavor
that is a part of all San Francisco. 1t is
grimy and smoky. Most OF the buildings
are old and weatherbeaten; many are
mossgrown and falling into premature de-
cav They were never intended as busi-
ness buildings, and even in their old age
they seem unable to recover their aston
ishment at the surroundings in which
they find themselves.
There is a deep and pathetic interest,
too, in the once fine old homes along this
route, in the vicinity of Harrison, Bryant
and Second streets, survivals Of the days,
not vet score of years ago, when Rincon
Hill was the most desirable site in the
City, and South Fark the Pacific heights
OF to-day in aristocratic exclusiveness.
There is no more significant comment
than tfsse old homes uI on the wonderful
growth of our City. They have far more
of an air of peTmanency than have nine
tenths of our more fashionable, modern
houses, yet they have for the most part
fallen into the neglect and decay of tran
sient and frequently changing tenancy.
Coming in from the park or the Cliff
House one gets a wholly different yet
equally picturesque view of the City.
Here again what at hrst seems stretch of
dull gray houses hemming IN dull gray
streets resolves itself, as the panorama
unfolds, into an interesting study in color.
There has been, on the whole, wisdom in
the apparent stupidity that has painted
our houses what a sarcastic observer
recently termed, "a uniform mud tint
Whether by accident or design our painters
have produced a thoroughly democratic
effect of 1.-The greatest good to the greatest
number" 1t is a general effect OF restful
neutrality, pleasingly broken here and
there, and more frequently than the casual
observer would suspect, by bits of bright
ness. Were there greater diversity of
color wooden city, such as ours, spread
out to view from hundreds of eminences, as
San Francisco must always be, would
present the appearance of an unspeakable
crazy-quilt with every patch the result of
separate and individual selection.
Perhaps of all the park routes the
Haight-street line presents the most won
derful view of the City as the descent is
made into its business center. From this
line, on the downward trip, one looks
across to the dark, smoky south, with its
teeming life, eastward, down Market
street, the great artery of the City, with
its hurrying multitude running to and fro
on the countless small errands that make
up human existence, and then northward,
where row upon row rise, beautiful homes
crowning the hills and resting in the val
,leys between. Across the bay CLEAN the
three sister cities, Oakland, Berkeley and
Alameda and far on the left the Marin
shore shows purple in the mists that pre-
vail at this season.
Or, If one desires an impression of San
Francisco's great extent, such an impress
sion as cannot really be obtained from a
height, with eyes sweeping the whole City
at a glance, the drive in along the San
Bruno road will afford this, and is very
likely to cure an imaginative mind of any
lingering prediction for a level town.
But choose your day for this drive. 1t is
a thing to be Stunned and feared when
the trades are blowing.
But If. viewed from the land ways, San
Francisco is beautiful, seen from the water
she has become famous. Where are our
poets that they have not long since sung,
our artists that they have not painted,
over and over again, the fair city on her
matchless bay? Whether one sails through
the Golden Gate and up the channel, past
her sloping beaches and bold bluffs, or
watches her come nearer and nearer
rising higher and higher as the San
Rafael and Sausalito ferries round the
point to their slips, or whether the more
direct trip is made from the Oakland
moles, the picture is beautiful and COM
plete; the majestic city is ever the same,
smiling upon all comers from her count
less hills, waiting only the loving human
effort to make her the wonderful thing she
shall yet be.
love to insist upon this view of San
francisco. 1t cannot be urged too strenu-
ously There is no other city in America
so rOValfv aothro,od Tbora ;e ga