Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1906-04-27

city of New York. Many millions OF
dollars go every year into structures of
the most permanent sort, from sky
scrapers, with skeletons of steel, to
flats and dwellings of the humber
kind. The city is without trees except
here and there in its remote suburbs.
but the absence Of shade trees is one
of the least Of the worries here, be-
cause sunshine is always such a well
come thing to San Franciscan.
San Francisco is in every essential
"a metropolis. 1t is so far from the
greater cities of the east that it is COM
PEELED perforce to take upon itself met
ropolitan qualities. Here are shops of
every possible kind to supply every
commodity known to commerce; here
are men skilled in every craft to pro-
duce any article of modern need; here
are all the grades of society, all the
denominations of religion, all the peO-
piles of the so called civilized world,
mingling in cosmopolitan medley; here
are buildings of every sort - wood,
brick, stone, cement and steel framed.
from the architectural masterpieces of
geniuses of wonderful skill in artistic
OoLIpOSilIOh, lhC SIColOLo VI ~ ilpiiO
mics in stone and marble, to the miser-
able hodgepodge lacking in comeliness
or the least of artistic merit. Hither
come the ships of the world to tie at
the great wharfs or to ride at anchor
dn the sheltered bay. Here are unload
ed the treasures of the orient and of all
zones. From this port go the multitude
of things produced upon the Pacific
slope or other products shipped by rail
from their places of origin east of the
Rocky divide, here to be transshipped
to ports five to eight thousand miles
across the blue Pacific. Importers and
exporters vie with one another to sur
pass former records of q prodigiouS
business. and there are brokers in ev-
erything. combining to swell the vol
ume of the city's commercial transac-
tons from year to year.
You feel that you are in a land of
progress. The leaven of enterprise is
active in every line of effort. The
city's streets become avenues of traffic
before daylight and continue thus
ceaselessly all day, as in other great
marts. Only in the small hours Of the
night Is there a lull in the activities
of the great population. When one
relay of workers, with their ponderous
teams and vehicles, retire TO rest, 9TH
ers seemingly step in to take their
places, and hhe laundering traffic goes
ON and on. Year in and year out the
deafening lroar of heavy wheels upon
the rocky floors of the streets abides
with theHwellers in the downtown dis
tricts. The clang of the car bells is
heard everyw with scarcely more
thanfa slight cessation when traffic is
At midday the streets are
g;Nest. This is a city OF boundless
wealth. Many millionaires are here
and many more are in the making, and
wealth without display is contrary TO
the modern view. One form of eX-
preston quite the vogue in San Fran
cisco, as elsewhere, is in the automo-
bile that costs like steam yacht to
build or maintain. Here it scoots
about the busy streets in all the forms
Of its extravaganza development or runs
TO suburban places, scattering terror
TO every living thing whether gifted
with two feet or four.
You wonder how it happens that
San Francisco was built on the end of
a peninsula that isolates it almost as
as if it We're on an island.
The natural place for a city, accord
ing to the notion of practically all who
consider the subject, is on the east
side of the bay, where stand the lesser
towns Of Oakland, Berkeley and Ala
media. The question of present ex-
pediency and not future needs on the
part of those who first dropped anchor |
In San Francisco bay determined the
location of the city. The water was
deep around the peninsula. |
making a safe anchorage, and the |
shores were easy of approach.