The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-04-12


travel stained. My hair was stringing
and my boots muddy and 1 carried a
tacky umbrella, purchased that morn
Ing at small price for California use
exclusively. Nevertheless. I stopped at
the first flower stand and bought a
lunch of violets ana pinned them on
my muff and went on under my cheap
umbrella feeling absolutely radiant and
Jay"
Still I learned that the wearing of
mowers does not mark the tourist I'M
mistakably in California, for everyone
here loves flowers, wears them and
decorates with them profusely. Moth
ing In California has been more of
JOY than the fresh violets have had
every day since have been here. One
can buy big bunch for ten cents and
for twenty-five, a bouquet for which a
girl at home would love any man a
whole week.
One must come to San Francisco
for the characteristic California spirit
OF Bohemianism, good fellowship, hos
pltality and cordially. Here the peo-
pie accept the STRANGER without ques-
ton and in perfect faith. Nobody
wants to know ones credentials nor
who ones grandfather might have
been. Los Angeles is more like the
east because it is so largely made up
The San Franciscans are the children
of the fearless Argonauts of 40, whose
picturesque history is interviewer in
extricably in the citv's very life, and
they have no more gracious inherit
ance from those hardy pioneers than
their easy hospitality. their warmth Of
welcome and their simple friendliness.
One meets in Frisco none of the
invalfds who flock in numbers to the
southern resorts. Southern Cali
ciscan I met the other day, "of lung
ers.' retired business men and their
families, tourists and the people who
cater to them And the tourists. it
has been my observation. are prin-
cipally widows. spending Husbands
life insurance.
Why does Kansan ever go east to
be snubbed when he can come west
and be respected? A noticeable thing
put ones address on the hotel register
without apologizir for the fact that
one is from Topeka. Kansas. The
Kansan who ooes least. no farther
mixture of pity and contempt. And
as for the attitude toward Kansans Of
New York and Boston, it is simply
unbearable. You have perhaps heard
the story of a Leavenworth girl. well
known in Topeka. who met an
who asked her the customary ques-
ton, "Where are you from?' The
Leavenworth girl is unusually tall and
perfectly stunning and she looked
piled: From Kansas! Now. damn
you. laugh!'
Nothing like that in San Francisco,
nor indeed any place in California.
One acknowledges ones, legal resi-
dence without blush and is treated
with respect in spite of being from
Kansas, and if one previously travelled
only in the east. it is relief which
amounts almost to a shock.
Even fasteners 'Tnbend in this gra-
woman who lives off Fifth avenue and
has two country places actually offered
to button my waist in the dressing
room of the sleeping car the other
day. And she didn't fuss bit because
she hadn't been able to get drawing
room, although, of course. she let me
know she was accustomed to the
drawing room. We became exceed
ingly chunmy and she was distressed
because she couldn't remember the
name of one of her ~irlhood friends
who lived in Topeka and whose hus-
band is banker and who used to be
a Miss Haywood. Never did I expect
to get SO thick with a real New York
woman to whom had not been intro
duced. After this nothing will sur
prise me, not even if somebody from
Brookline, Mass. begs my pardon and
asks if I'd mind having the window
raised
Heretofore have refrained at some
pains from Dragging about Kansas,
although no matter how much YOU
may knock on your home town and
state when you are there, the tempta-
ton is strong to boast about them
this: That California has no bluer
sky nor more brilliant sunshine than
Kansas, and l have always doubted if
any place could Guido the Sunfower
state in this respect. The sunny
ITALY, tradition was handed down to
us with many another literary heri-
tage from fog-wrapped mist-enshroud-
ed England. If a Kansan goes away
from home expecting to be astounded
by brighter sky and more dazzling
sunlight than we have at home he is
sure to be disappointed. Most of the
things we read about sunny Califor-
MIA have been written by people used
to fog and smoke and who never lived
in an air as clear and under skies SO
cloudlessly blue as our own. L am not
going SO far as to say that Kansas is
all or always equally beautiful, but I
will back the picture of a Kansas cot
tonwood. say in June with a back
ground of stainless azure Kansas sky,
against the world.
Also: the most beautiful woman I
saw in San Francisco, and beautiful
women faultlessly gowned throng the
tea rooms and the cafes every after
MON anu evening, III tAiS toWI, Wds,
before her marriage a Topeka girl.
She is now Mrs. c. r. Krauthoff, and
her husband is Major Krauthoff, pur-
chasing commissary on the general
staff of the army. Mrs. Krauthoff
was formerly Miss Blanche Dienst and
a Kansas beauty of state wide fame.
In the cafe of the Francis the other
day, which was crowded for the
luncheon hour. Mrs. Krauthof was
the cynosure of all eyes. lis that the
right expression?) and I saw no one
who could compare with her for beau
ty or. elegance. The Krauthoffs have
lived in San Francisco for six years,
but will leave in June for Manila and
will be in the island two years.
Because Los Angeles has the warm
err and drier climate and because it