The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-04-21

the city was built, Spanish fashion, mad
seen many things. There in the first
burst OF the early days the vigilance COM
mittee used to hold it's hangings. There in
the time Of the sand lot riots Dennis Kearney,
who nearly pulled the town down about his
ears, used to make his o~rations which yet the
unruly to rioting. In these later years
Chinatown lies on one side of 1t and the
Latin quarter and the "Barbary Coast
on the other.
On this square men used to lie all day
ong and tell strange yarns. Stevenson
lay there with them in his time and learned
the things which he gov into The
Wreoker' and his South Sea stories, and
now in the centre of the square there stands
the beautiful Stevenson monument; stands
or ~Btood-one finds his lenses queerly
mixed In writing OF this city which Ia and
yet is ne more. In later years tbs au-
thorities put up municipal building on one
side OF this square and prevented the
loungers, for decency's sake, from lying
on the grass. Since then some of the Pc
ouliar character Of the old plaza has gone,
The Barbary Coast was a loud bit OF
hell. No one knows who coined the name.
The place was simply three blocks OF solid
dance halls, there for the delight OF the
sailors Of the world. On a fine busy night
every door blared loud dance music from
orchestras, steam pianos and g~ramaphones
and the cumulative effect Of the sound
which reached the street was at least
strange. Almost anything might be hap
pening behind the swinging doors. Fol
a fine and picturesque bundle OF names
characteristic of the place, a police story
Of three or four years ago is typical, Hell
broke out in the Eye Wink Dance Hall.
The trouble was started by a sailor known
as Kanaka Pete, who lived in the What
Cheer House. over a woman known as
Iodoform Kate. Kanaka Pete chased the
man he had marked to the Little Silver
Dollar, where he turned and punctured
him. The by-product OF his gun made
some holes in the front OF the Eye Wink,
which were proudly kept as souvenirs.
and were probably there until it went out
in the fire. This was low life, the lowest OF
the low.
Until the last decade almost anything
except the commonplace and the expected
might happen to a man ON the waterfront.
The cheerful industry of shanghaing was
reduced to a science. A stranger taking
a drink in one of the saloons which hung
out over the water might he dropped
through the floor into a boat. or he might
drink with u stranger and wake in the fore
castle of a whaler bound for the Arctic.
Such an incident is the basis OF Frank
Norris's novel, Moran Of the Lady Lefty
and although the novel draws it pretty
strong, it is not exaggerated. Ten years
ago the police and the foreign consuls,
working together, stopped this.
Kearney street, a wilder and stranger
Bowery, was the main thoroughfare OF these
people. An exiled Californian, mourning
over the city of his heart, said yesterday:
"In a half an hour Of Kearney street l
could raise a dozen men for any wild ad-
venture, from pulling down a statue to
searching for the Cocos Island treasure"
This Is hardly an exaggeration.
These are a few Of the elements which
madet the city strange and gaveitthe glamour
of romano which has so strongly attracted
such men as Stevenson, Frank Norris and
Kipling. This lay apart from the regular
life OF the city, which was distinctive In
itself.
The Californian Ia the second generation
Of a picked and mixed stock, The merry,
the adventurous. often the desperate, al
ways the brave, deserted the South and
New England in 1s49 to rush around the
Horn or to try the perils Of the plains.
They found there already grown old in the
hands Of the Spaniards younger SONS Of
hildalgos and many of them Of the proud
est blood Of Spain. To a great extent the
pioneers intermarried with Spanish women;
in fact, except for a proud little colony here
and there, the old Spanish blood is sunk
in that of the oonquering race. Then there
was an influx Of intellectual French people,
largely overlooked in the histories OF the
early days; and this Latin leaven has had
it's influence.
Brought up in a bountiful country, whore
no one really has to work very hard to live,
nurtured on adventure, scion of a free and
merry stock, the real, native Californian
is a distinctive type; as far from the
fastener in psychology as the extreme
Southerner is from the Yankee. He is
| easy going, witty, h~ospitable. lovable,
| inclined to be Immoral rather than immoral
| In his personal habits, and above all easy
to meet and TO know.
Above all there is an art sense all through
the ~populace which sets it of from any
other part OF the country. This sense is
| almost Latin in its strength, and the Cali
| fornian owes 1t to the leaven of Latin blood.
The true Californian fingers in the north;
for southern California has been built up
by "lungers' from the East and middle
| West and is Eastern in character and
feeling,
GAY LIFE or TIE PEOPLE.
With such a people life was always gay.
II they did not show it on the streets. as
| do the people OF Paris, 1t was because the
winds made open cafes disagreeable at
| all seasons OF the year. The gayety went
on indoors or out on the hundreds OF estates
that fringed the city. 1t was noted for
it's restaurants. Perhaps the very best
for people who care not how they spend
their money could not be had there, but
for a dollar, rs cents, so cents, a quarter
or even is cents the restaurants Afforded
the best fare on earth at the price.
II one should tell exotly what could
be had at Coppa's for so cents or at the
Fashion for, say, IS. no New Yorker who
has not been thers would believe it. This
| San Francisco French dinner and the San
Francisco free lunch were q 8 the Public
Library to Boston or the took yards to