The San Francisco call., 1899-03-05

Ohm SEBASTIAN, age 9S years,
birthplace Montreal, Canada,
Just a tiny white card of identi-
fcation pasted above a cot at the
~ City and County Hospital.
And the man who gasps for breath
on the cot and in pain and poverty counts
of his years that are so close TO the CEN
tury mark-this man, who is now eat
ing the crust Of charity and quaffing the
cup Of bitterness that falls to the lot of
the sick and destitute, was once monarch
OF all he surveyed. For John Sebastian
came to San Francisco long before the
days of old, the days Of gold. While the
forty-niner was yet plowing the fields
on a New England farm, or measuring
out sugar at a grocer's, John Sebastian
was breaking bread with the good padres,
who counted their beads and said
their prisons in the Mission Dolores.
The holy padres and a half a dozen
MexiCans were then then the only
dents of Yerba Buena. That was in 1872.
For John Sebastian claims that during
the year that America was fighting Eng
land in 1912 and while most people were
still unaware Of the existence of Califor-
MIA he first saw the stretch of sand dunes
that is now covered by the thriving city
Of San Francisco. From that day he has
never been out of California.
For the eighty-seven years that John
Sebastian has lived here he has reaped
ru; a harvest of barren regrets. He lived
and euioved the life of the Californian
ranC heros. and the sorrows and misfor-
tunes that have been theirs since the
.-Cr--co. came" have likewise darkened
That is why John Sebastian does not
l.e-crr 70 the Pioneer Society.
There is not an oldest inhabitant"
calm that does not bear modern ear
1-arl5s COMPARED with John Sebastian's.
I-ve? the 1893 opposite John A. Suffers
y,-ar~e seems of late date when lined up
with the 1912 which John Sebastian writes
after his name.
JOHN Sebastian loved the NIexicans and
Aecame one of them. He was bound to
ttCm bv closer ties than kinship-affection
?rd protection. They taught this little
lad from the far-off country to sit in the
ietirrj:p. throw the lasso, eat frijoles and
..sinC Soy Purita Mexicana-"
In time he forgot that he was not
'.Purito Mexicano." And when other
white people began to come to California
they. too. regarded young Sebastian as a
native. So latter-day biographers and his
torians have not had clew to this "old-
est pioneer and have bestowed the honor
where it does not belong.
It was not until sick and well-nigh dy-
ing Sebastian came up here to the hos
pital that his story became known. He
had travelled in a wagon, peddHng by the
way, from monterey 10 dotnSleI' A4iSi .
his asthma became so bad that he turned
his horse loose, sold the broken-down
wagon, and with the proceeds came to
the city to seek relief in the hospital
Because he was almost centenarian
he attracted the attention of the officials
at the hospital. For, despite the fact that
he is almost SO, his eye is bright and his
brain clear. But his speech is impeded by
the dreadful asthmatic attacks and his
tongue does not lend itself as easily to
English as to Spanish.
Bit by bit, however, his story unfolded
itself as day by day he became stronger
and more inclined to talk. On the cot
next to him lies man who came to Cali
fornia in 49, Though he is but three
score years and ten, his hair is whittier
and he is far less active than John Sc
-bastian. For Sebastian, like the old peo-
pie of his adopted race, does not show
his age.