Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1907-02-01
LETTER FROM SAN FRANCISCO.

TCorr spondence Of the Alexandria Gazetie.l
San Francisco. Cal, Ian. "a. Matter
that comes to you from distant points
NAV perhaps attraC more attention than
items published of every day occurrences
nearer home; therefore an occasional
letter may no: be unwtlcome to readers
of daily paper, however poorly the
letter may be written.
suppose that sll the newspaper read
ers in every section OF the ~trl', have ere
this been treated to some kind OF ness
about conditions on the Pacific coast,
and more especially the city of San
Francisco and the State of California
generally. Conditions ss they exist to-
day in this city are simply appalling 1t
is still vast area Of ruins, and 1t Is
mad rush of labor and capital that you
see on every hand, hurrying up the
walls of buildings in order to get back
again into the whirl OF commercial lite.
Mud and slime everywhere, streets torD
up, sewers open, no sidewalks in mans
places. vacant lots filed with water, olo
IRON, DflChb huu uOihoAI NANHoN6
walls, aud chimneys tall aud shsky.
As to the street railway service, it Is
simply farce and deceit. You may
board car, pay yodr fare. aud hang
Oh, thinking perhaps that sou might
get to where you are bound, perhaps IN
an hour, when the usual schedule time
would be fifteen minutes, snd you are
fortunate il you succeed in riding hall
dozen blocks without an accident, ana
then only have to walk half mile TO
reach yOur destipatiOD, ss most OF the
time we have to walk the best part of the
way. or wait for hours "for the next car. "
The situation is criminal for the United
Railroad Company, as many persons have
been killed and many ruined Tor lie
| since April last. Aside from all this,
the affairs of the city as administered by
it's officials are as bad as ever. 1t Is
''grafl" in every department; and as the
different sections ofthe city are rising up
| again from the ashes, where so much
that was vile was covered over, destroy
ed. and rs it was thought and hoped,
purified by fire, nov again the walls
have been rooted over, the TRAININGS
have been added on The inside, and the
hives are alive again as if they had never
been smothered by fire and earthquake.
Graft and vice are the two evils, that
have been the ruin Of San Francisco.
They have ruu the city for yesrs, hand
10 hand, and will continue TO do 80 IN
til "tidal wave" browns them out.
What kind of tidal wave it will be, no
one knows but it,may be ''salt water, }"
sure enough, and if that happens, it will
make a clean sweep, aud there will be
uothing left, even to graft new city
| upon.
Politics in the State is bad enough,
and Judging from all We hear and read
about it the State is in the hands OF a
"bad set, and the people will suffer by
their acts The season has been cold
and wei. January has beat the record
for snow and rain, in fact one might
suppose that the late submarine dis
| turbances have had such an effect upon
| the "Japan current" that 1t has been
swept farther off the coast, and that we
have lost the warm waves which we have
hitherto had the benefit of. By the
way, the "Jspan current" on the shore
the one that VAS blown here all the way
from Washington, d. c., was a cold
breeze for California, but the return
waves have been warm enough, dare
say, at Washington, ID. @.
Fine climatic sttractiveness certainly
has not been the vogue here this winter,
| and if the bad weather continues much
longer, California will be left out in the
cold. We still have an occasional jerk
or two to remind us that the earth is
still under us, but that conditions are
unsettled" " Yours truly,
+. A. w.