The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1903-10-15
Editorial correspondence.


gust day, we arrived at Oakland. across
from san Francisco, the destination OF
our pilgrimage of over o,UuU very ioHE
miles. With what interest we looked
across the miles of bright water, dancing
o. beneath the eareSses of the light Zephyrs,
TO the hlly amphi-theater on which the
zenith City OF the Shutdown west slts
proudly by the Golden Gate, m stress OF
the world of commerce with the stored
Orient, straight away across the hfoau
Pacific The glorious bay, one OF the
very finest in the world, stretches far
off to the right aud left, surrounded by
towering tawny hills. the long. dry sum
mer turning their heritage I, the coioi
of n lions name. Rocky isards dot II
here and there, and on the shore rises
the tall chimneyS Of smelterS, rehilefies
and mills. Stately ships, floating every
flag in the world, lie at anchor. ana busy
little tugs, snortng with Their own I'm
portance. hustle hither and yon. towing
the big ships or rushing about III search
of jobs.
San Francisco Bay is small sea in
itself, about as big as the Dead Sea H.
Palestine 1t is 40 miles long-?o miles
miles if San Pablo Bay is inc.uded-and
from seven to II miles wide. 1t is deep
enough to allow the biggest ships to move
freely Into it pour the swift waters OF
the great Sacramento and San Joaquin
Rivers, which drain a territory as large
as some European Kingdoms. and on Il
is done an extensive local commerce with
the fertile country adjacent, to which it
furnishes good and cheap transportation.
One of the picturesque sights of the
BAY are the hundreds of brown sailed
little fishing boats. They are all manned
by Greeks, who wear the costumes III
which they worked at their calling on the
blue Egean and the tideless Aediterri-
mean.
They cast their nets and draw them
in the way made familiar to US by pic
lures and descriptions and the sight OF
them at their labors gives a flavor OF
far-away countries in which history was
born. -,
San Francisco Bay is connected with
the Pacific by a strait. THE Golden
Gate"-fve miles long and one nile wide
with San francisco sitting in secure she
ter behind the hills ut the inner mouth.
The sides of the Golden Gate are s"
to make it secure against all the navies o!
the world. On the north the hills rise
sharp and abrupt, in some places nearly
2,0e0 feet, while on the south they are
from 800 to 400 feet high, with Alcatraz
Island in the channel. about four niles
from the entrance, and other Islands
nearer the city. No great seaport IN the
world can be made SO secure as this from
an enemy's attacks. A comparatively
small expenditure would make it abso
-IHfely imrregnable to even such daring
spirits as Farragut and Nelson, no matter
if they had the navies of the world at
their back, while the high. precipitOus
shores of the Pacific would make it al
most impossible for an army to land
and invest the place, in the face of the
opposition which could be made. All the
ships in the Pacific could gather inside
In perfect security.
San Francisco sits on narrow PENN
suIa, abont six miles wide and 30 mites
long. which separates the Bay from the
Pacific Ocean. All around il r.ses lofty
hills. and originally those within the city
limits We're SO steep and so cut up with
gullies as to be most ,unpronising bHl'ding
sites. But the enterprising real estate
agents have cunning ways, and soon the
ridges filed up the gullies, and made
beautiful and commodious terrain for
great city, with the best drainage. So
steep and abrupt are the shores that there
and the largest ships in the world can
lay directly at their piers to load and un-
load.
The growth of San Francisco has been
one Of the wonders of the marvellous ad-
vancement of this country. In 1916 the
population of Yerba Buena, ms the place
was then called. was about 600; but six
years later the State census found 34,S7o
people there, which at the beginning Of
the war had increased to 10000. In an
other 10 years the population more than
doubled, and the census Of 1870 showed
saw 233. 959. and that of 1890 an increase
to 29S.997; while the census of 1900 gives
S43. 1S2, and makes San Francisco the
Goth city in the world. In the United
States the cities rank in the following
way: New York. Chicago, Philadelphia.
and San Francisco Outside of the United
States, in the North Americas the only
cities which surpass her in population are
Buenos Ayres, Rio Janerio and Mexico
City.
LIKE ALL OTHER AMERICAN CITIES.
Looking at San Francisco across the
Bay, studying her with interest as we
cross on one Of the gigantic ferry!,oa.s
which carry enough people to populate
q ward, inspecting her closely as We lard,
and go up on the street to the hotel. the
first feeling is one of astoniskment that
this far-away metropolis on another
ocean, with a history so different. with
nearly half Of her population Of foreign
birth, to which China and Japan have
contributed so much, should prove to be
so entirely like the cities from which we
came. The buildings are exactly the same
es those we have in New York, Washing
ton, Baltimore, Chicago and other places;
the street cars are of the same pattern.
tuu lue coHuuCtOfS duO HOtOTIleH wear
the same uniforms; the signs read as IA
miliar as those at home, the people wear
the same clothes the same way, and go
about their business or lack of business ex-
ectly similarly. The same books, the
same newspapers, the same goods and
wares are displayed precisely the same in
the identical shop windows, and one has
to hunt for points of difference.
A good many Chinese are seen on The
streets, but not so many as one would i'm
agine, and they are less Chincsy in loOL
than those in our own cities. Even their
unchangiDg nature, the growth of count
less centuries, seems to have succumbed
and been modified by the universal in
tense Americanism Of the United States
They wear their distinctive costumes IL
something like the American way, ant
their eyes have bright, alert look, n,
though they had gotten the spirit of the
new world.
The sameness of San Francisco's an
pearance to that of other American cite.
was striking because Of her remotenes.
from the great centers, and emphasize
the thought that comes to every Ameri
can who travels over his country Her,
we have taken a journey which in Europ,
would have carried us from London int,
the heart Of Russia. far beyond st. Peters
burg. We should have traversed a dozeI
different countries, with scores of differen
people each speaking its own language O
dialect, each with its local customs an,
pecularities, each with its own costume
and special products
We would have gone from grimy reeis
Ing London, with its cockney population
and their customs, together with tn
costumes and manners Of old England u