Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-11-05
CALIFORNIA; QUEER DISEASE.
Rest of Country Viewed Through the
Wrong End of Telescope.
San rancisco Argonaut.

From the San rancisco Argonaut.
When my wife and | came to San Fran
cisco from New York we expected to settle,
il not permanently, at least for long
time, but we have since changed our plans;
why the public might be interested to
know, as our case is a typical one. We
discovered that this part of the country Is
infected with its own peculiar affiiction,
which is of endemic form-a .'native-born"
product of the state.
Californianitis Is principally a defective
sense of proportion. We have no doubt
that California Is big state. and that Cal
ifornians are called to big things, but the
native of the golden west might do
we'll to remember that there is something
else besides their state, and that there are
some other people, and good for something
besides serving as trinkets in their hands.
1t had never occurred to us that we were
"easterners'' until we found ourselves
chained to the triumphal car of some native
daughter of California as she passed to her
drawing rooms showing us as the vlctors
spoils. We found ourselves declared for
elgners, and called upon for daily largesse
of dutiful homage.
We look IN vain for Qualifications of dis
tinctively American pride or developed Cal
ifornan originalties; in fact, the chief
things held out to us as the glories of Cali
fornia are the missions (Which are SPANISH.
the Chinese quarters (Which are orientaD,
breed, and the Kaleidoscope scenery (Which
was here some years before Californians).
The Californian refuses for his state the
modest place claimed for itself by every
other in the Union, abreast OF its sister
states. but. on the contrary, insists upon
for Ii an isolation. golden haloed, though at
times he himself be conscious that the
golden halo is only plated wire.
In a recent issue of a San Francisco
daily paper read an editorial on the
yacht races for the America cup In which
the editor mildly suggested that San Fran
cisco might be a better place for the races
than New York-there is certainly wind
enough to swamp the yachts but what
about the fog?
This is funny enough: but irresistible is
the idea of the chief objection he foresaw
New Workers would make. the loss of trade
brought by visiting enthusiasts-which. by
the way, might number 10000. Isn't this
sizing things too much by local units, when
IL takes Dewey parade with 100000
visitors actually to crowd New York, and
an extra lVo.oVo IS there wonted influx
OF ordinary travellers?
Some time ago California writer. de-
scribing the mission period of Californian
history. declared that the Spanish monks
had given TO TIE world a new style OF
architecture ana new form of art, the
mission furniture. The facts are, the mis-
sion architecture Is nothing but the bar
Deco" style of ecclesiastical constructions
used widely in Spain and Italy in the seven
teenth century; and the mission furniture
Is easily to be found in all the medieval
castles of Europe. with only this difference.
that the former Is made uglier and the lat
ter cruder because of the want OF suitable
materials and good artisans
Living in San Francisco would be par
ticularly pleasant IL 1t were normal but
since there Is a bacillus here too, and We
must choose between the pains of Califor-
nianitis and the pangs of New Yorkitis, we
prefer the latter every time.