Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1910-10-04
PROLOGUE.
The city.

PhOlOSOE.
The City.
The city Is always gray. Even IN
March, the greenest month OF all,
when the Presidio, and the Mission
Hills, and the islands in the bay are
beautiful with spring. there's only
such little bit Of green gets into the
city. It lies In the lap Of five hills,
climbing upward toward their crests
where the trees are all doubled and
bent by the trade-wind. It seems 10
give its own color to the 4 growing
things in it. The cypress hedges are
dusty black; the eucalyptus trees are
gray as the house fronts they knock
against, and even the plaza grass looks
dark and old, as If it had been the
same grass always, and never came
UP new in the spring.
But for the most part there are no
trees, and only the finest places have
gardens. There are only rows and
rows of houses painted gray, with here
and there white one, or a glass con-
servatory front. But the fog and dust
all summer gray these, too. and when
the trade-winds blow hard it takes the
smoke out over the east bay, and
makes that as gray as the city.
And yet the city doesn't look SAD
The sky is too blue and the bay is too
blue around it; and the flying fog, ana
the wind, and the strong tide flowing III
and out Of the bay are like restless.
eager creatures that never sleep OF
grow tired. When was very little
child the flerceness of 1t frightened
me. All the noises of the city made
one harsh, threatening voice to my
ears: and the perilous water encom-
passing far as eye could reach; anu
the high hills running up into the SKY
now blinded by dust, now buried ~
fog, now drenched in rain, were over,
towering and terrifying to me. Beyond
that general seeming OF terror tnere
is little L remember of the early CITY,
except the glimmer Of white tent tops
against gray fog or blue, water, the
loud voices in the streets, and vague,
general impression Of rapid and v1o-
lent changes Of place and clrcum-
stance. Through their confusion three
figures only move with any clearness
my tall, teasing father, my grim
nurse Abby, and my pale-haired
mother. Indeed. the first distinct incl
dent that stands forth from that am
background is the death Of my mother.
It was puzzle for a child. One day
she was there, Ill in bed, but visible,
palpable. able to,,speak, to smile, 70
kiss-the next, she had disappeared.
They said She. had gone. away, bH y
knew that was nonsense; Tor Wnen
people went away it was in the day.
fine with bags and umbrellas, and
everyone knew they were going, anu
where they went, but with my motner
81 was different. One day she was there
the next she was not, nor IN any Oh
the rooms of the house could she pc
found. 1t was long before ! ceased 70
expect her back; long before ceased,
hv some process Of child's reasoning,
to blame her departure on the gray
unaccountable city.
For as early rs + can recall 9 coner-
ent sequence of impression the CITY
appeared to me strange ana unac,
countable. There was q secret snu.
away from me behind every closed
house front; the eucalyptus trees
seemed to whisper mystery above
my head; and at night, when the fog
came heaping in, thicker than feather
beds. across the Mission, and stream
ing down the long hills on the heels
of the wind, 1t brought an army OF
ghosts to inhabit the dark places be-
yond the safety Of the lighted window
name. Though had lived among the
seven hills almost all my life; and
though in ways it had grown familiar,
and even dear to me, yet never
seemed to grow quite used to the city.
It had strange tricks of deception that
were enough to unsettle the finest
faith. For when 1 looked at 1t from
the windows of my room under the
roof it was as fiat as a plate, visible
IN its entirety from end to end, and 1t
was as easy to find Telegraph Hill
or the Plaza upon it as 1t was to pick
up a block from the carpet. But, when
went abroad In it, it hid away from
me. It would never show me more than
one street at time, and never by
anychance would 1t reveal to me,
through the tall houses, in what part
Of it was walking.
But by the time was old enough
to play in the garden by myself, and
make friends through the hedge with
Halle Ferguson, who lived block be-
low us, / had come to accept this trick
of the city as somewhat less extra
ordinary. 1t was developing other
characteristics not so fearful to my
mind and Of far greater fascination;
and spent hours, when could not be
out Of doors, watching 1t from the win
dows of my room Father had built
what was at the time one of the finest
houses in San Francisco. 1t had a glass
conservatory at the side, and garden
with a lawn and palm in the corner;
and on rainy nights when the wind
was high, and the house was shaking,
| could hear the long palm fingers tap
tapping on my window glass. The
house stood half way up Washington
street hill, on what was then the west
ern skirts Of the city, and from MY
window under the roof could look
down over the whole city to the east
water front, with Rincon hill misty on
the south. and Telegraph bold on the
north of 1t. BY leaning far out Of the
window, as Halle and i sometimes did
when ship was coming In, we could
see northward as far as North Beach,
and Alcatraz Island: and from. Abby's
room across the hall we could continue