The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1901-11-10
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by decided flavor OF twentieth century
progressiveness.
Chinatown: as every one knows, Is be-
ing put in a sanitary condition.: at least
there are Nstrivings for that result: there
fore Art must betake herself TO other
haunts.
For how could any one with artistic
cravings satisfy them in a room where
every object stands fully revealed In the
radiance of an incandescent lamp. Time
was when that same room was filled with
shadows and with soft light falling Mt
fully here ana there from wonderfully
wrought, incense burning lamp. Then 1t
was that artists were at work.
1t used TO be that chimneys were I'M
known in the precincts of the soft-step-
ping Chinese, and when at successive
hours during the day one Celestial after
another would come to cook his little
meal of rice and pork. there was always
q. pale blue haze from burning wood and
charcoal, to soften the color of a fiaunt-
ing canopy. The curling blue smoke Is
carried away in fumes now, and gaudy
splashes of red and green and yellow
fare distractingly on ones vision.
Fresh. clean planks In the Chinese thea
ter replace the rotting and begrimed
flooring that-was once study in itself.
Walls have been covered over with pa
per in conventional patterns There Is
even a white cnameled iron bedstead in
one little den where less than year ago
ten Chinese used to huddle on bad SMELL
ing but picturesque mats.
Smoke-stained rafters that were delight
fully suggestive of age and primitive liv-
ing have been painted white.
Out on the streetS-even down Fish al
ley but more conspicuously in some of
the wider avenues-evidence can be found
of the passing.
It was good many years ago that
Amedee Joullin painted Fish alley. He
found 1t full Of color. Of rickety balco-
MES and Tapping awnings in varying
shades. Into bamboo baskets were gath
cred bright-coioreG paper scraps. The
baskets have disappeared and a cart daily
gathers all such refuse from receptacles
less antique and more practical.
No wonder that Joullin Is one Of those
to say that Chinatown has had its day.
A stroll through the crooked byways Is
to him like meeting an old friend In whom
some sad change has taken place. Joullin
Of late has been painting Indians. but his
Chinatown pictures are among his best.
In the days when Wores painted in Chi
natown-Yt was Theodore Wores who back
in the early eighties discovered" its pos
abilities. although Jules Tavernier had
worked there before-in desultory fashion.
Wores painted the pictures that brought
him many shekels from people like
Earl Rosebery, Sir Thomas Hesketh
and Mrs. Hopkins Searles and introduced
San Francisco's Chinatown to the art
connoisseurs Of New York. Boston and
London, there was not q vestige Of white
wash. not thought Of renovation. He
was looked upon by the people he painted
- something Of an interloper The story
ID still told how. In order to get the in
terror Of q 1osshouse. he became q paid
up subscriber to the society. Tho piece
Of red paper on which his name II In
scribed In odd hieroglyphics may be seen
any day posted on the wall of the Sacra-
mento-street josshouse In company with
the names Of hundreds OF Chinese pa
irons. That slip Of paper Is an undis-
turbed memorial Of the Ave years Wores
spent among the Chinese. Perhaps more
than any other, he has pictured their lives
and customs, and comparison of his
paintings with the streets and interiors as
seen to-day will quickly reveal in the diff
ference Of scene and color the mutability
Of art subjects.