Los Angeles herald., 1906-04-29

delicate French cafe downstairs, its
private dining rooms above, ana yet
beyond, what no man talks OF 10
decent woman; Delmonico's, wherein to
be seen-on the lower floor-was fash
ionable, but to drive into and step from
carriage to elevator was damning;
DIRTY Louis" whose place was so
filthy it was called "the fly trap yet
whom epicures loved; the Cliff house,
at once the vaunt and the apology or
the city-all these were part of san
Francisco's hold on humanity. They
represent that odd feature of its gay
life-the borderland tendency-the go
ing to the edge and looking over, yet
drawing back in safety. That was one
of San Franciscos chief charms-its
ability to venture farther than any
other place and yet to maintain its
equilibrium.
Then there was its Chinatown-its
ee-decked Chinatown; the gor-
geously Oriental shops whittier women
went, to be waited on by soft-voiced
celestials and to obtain wondrous
fabrics at astoundingly low prices; the
tourist Chinatown, whence one went
with licensed liars-beg pardon, they
called them guides-who pumped the
poor tenderfoot full of weird yarns at
81 per pump. And there was the real
Chinatown, in tiers above and below
ground where the chattering yellow
faces lived in human hives and smoked
hop and cut throats, and none cared
least of all themselves. This was under
the lee of Mob hill-the incarnation of
the Contrast, which was the Frisco
soul.
And Barbary coast, where the sailors
foregathered. with it's dives and novels
and hell-holes, where for half dollar
black wench would do dance that
would make the Paris can-can seem
a religious ceremonial; where men
were drugged nightly and robbed,
shipped aboard some Windjammer for
the other side Of the world, and never
heard of more Barbary coast, flank
ing the great Wholesale and banking
district. and one more of those con-
trasts which made the city's charm.
More and more L might cite of all
this-much more. But l think you
have caught the scheme. Frisco was
fascinating-the most fascinating place
1 was ever in. 1t was so because of
it's happy, light-hearted, abandoned
wickedness-not vicious, but simply
madly-glad wickedness, fostered by
abundance of gold and glorious ozone.
1t, was Fascinating because of it's tre-
mendous dramatic, aWesome contrasts,
and the way in which they We're set one
opposite and opposite the other. 1t
was fascinating because of its stupend-
ing; the "mind your own business"
feeling; the carefree atmosphere; the
oriental fatalism of it's people; it's very
over -flowering love of existence, and
all that therein lies. And anyone
who knew his San Francisco never
was free of its spell.
This, then, was the charm of the old
San Francisco, now in ashes and
crumbling ruin. Will the new San
Francisco hold it? l wot not. Such
is not the growth of a day or a year,
but of the evolution of a people. The
argonauts,, the forty-niners-they made
the old San Francisco, and their in
fuence yet held sway. But the new
San Francisco will be builded by a
newer generation, and along newer,
more commercial lines. Barbary coast
will be wiped out Chinatown will be
moved away, the Palace is gone with
the palace of Art" and Mob Hill is a
ruin. Market street is a gulch of hot
bricks and cTumbling walls; its only
life the brown-clad soldier keeping
guard.
There will be new San Francisco
but the fascinating charm of the San
Francisco of song and story and actual
life was shaken out of 1t that fatal
Wednesday and burned TO death in Tie
subsequent holocaust.
And God have mercy on its SOUL
--~4SR-
II Won want to go east, c. Iaydock.
Agent Illinois Central Il. r., 23S s.. Spring