The San Francisco call., 1909-04-18
The Soul of San Francisco

wealth.. beauty and endless promise OF
the state. You are not state, said
he. bat country truth to which
every heart responded. The distin-
guiShed visitor, who had felt the
pulses of all the peoples of the earth.
said much more, eminently pleasing to
his hearers and concluded with a
tribute to her triumphs in the arts
and prophecy of greater things to
come. But, what to me seemed of su-
preme Importance in his address was
the unmistakable evidence that the
aged historian awoke to the old slim
ulus. the old agic. enthusiasm and
soul he had found here so long ago.
I felt that he saw backward and for
ward beyond the disorderly, blatant,
inevitable crudenesses OF city built
where it burned. beyond the hugger-
mugger and anarchy of crime threaten
ing the collapse of the helpless law.
beyond the haste. blindness and greed
OF A people who look upon a city as
upon 4 speculation. The better and the
greater things were TO revive the soul
was TO return. just tho buildings
had returned. The buildings were new.
but the soul was that of Alta Cali
fornis. crystallized and concentered In
San Francisco. His audience was evil
dence enough that the soul still ex-
listed.
To many San Franciscans the fact
that buildings now stand where they
stood before, that owners of valuable
land were wise enough not 10 let it
remain idle, that there was not a uni
versai exodus after the fire. and that
three years effaced all the Signs of
ruin where il paid 10 efface them. are
miraculous and ineXplfcable things.
SO, in the sum. it truly seems, and yet
it was inevitable. 1t was inevitable
hePansn Hrtfr nd
The ant rebuilds her broken tunnels.
the spider his torn web. On Vesuvius.
before the lava was cool over the
vineya rds. the peasants were raising
new cottages Of stone. 1t would be
more wonderful today TO see the ruins
OF burnt Chicago than il is to see her
groWth-more wonderful because more
improbable. The sites Of stately and
established modern cities are never
given back to nature
There are few, I may say, who have
written more frequently or ferveutly
OF our posttemblor achievements than
myself. particularly in publications
abroad, and Yet. ] feel constrained to
say: Let US not plume ourselves too
proudly. for as surely as the sun shines
and human hope and endeavor survive
fire and earthquake. old and poverty
stricken Messina with half her popula-
tion dead viii in her turn do all that
young and wealthy San Francisco has
already done And if she do not ac-
compiish it in three years she will
in seven. and If with less haste. then
with infinite more order.
Prosperity" that fat and gIutted
joss, is a pernicious and poisonous idol
for a peoples worship. and Progress
is a questionable term And "Popula-
ton" likewise when. with mad de-
sire to ape New York or London. we
stretch out greedy hands across wide
bays and over mountains to snatch
every village orsrival city within reach
of boat rail. Is our city to be an
octopus, half on land and half on water,
with a hamlet IN each tentacle?
1t is with no desire to belittle our
tall and elegant edifces-very respect
able monuments Of enterprise-that I
say I look upon them without rapture
and without illusion. I know too well
what they are made Of, having in my