The San Francisco call., 1910-09-11

YOUTH will have its fling, and so
will confetti. Both had it last
night on the streets of San Fran
cisco. Devotion to cause or a creed
or state may manifest itself in va
rious forms Devotion to California
was manifested last night in the pro-
found rite of hilarity Wherever you
have belief you will have hilarity, it
has been said, and certainly there was
belief in California last evening, and
the hilarious consequence was that
youth had its merry fling, and so did
confetti If this morning you can not
remember distinctly the details OF what
happened to you last night, you can
at least verify the confetti experience,
Shake out your last nights suit, and
then call the maid to sweep the floor
The last day Of the Admission
frolic gathered strength and size and
speed like a rolling SNOWFALL, and
then sizzled like a SNOWFALL in-the
Auditorium The celebration started
mildly. During the day there were no
pageants to tax the strength OF the
pageanters and TO tax the credulity OF
the people who only can read about It.
The night furnished the moving line
of fun, and many other lines OF plea
sure, too Last night as. the sober
gentleman who wrote Paradise Lost
once penned. had nothing to do with
sleep-last night had better things 10
prove 1t proved all those better
things, while youth and confetti had
their fling and hilarity proved the eX-
istence of a firm belief in California
California a Religion
California has become sort of re-
Hsion during these three days of the
Admission day festival The phenom-
enon might be given name-Call-
fornism. 1t is crude and primitive IN
form. with but one commandment, DO
as thou wilt and but scanty form
of ritual-to dance and parade and
throw varicolored bits of paper into
the air. The paper throwing form
might have been borrowed from the
Chinese. When a Chinese devil is
about to clutch a soul the Chinese,
with a great deal of sanity, throw bits
of red paper into the air and the sea
The bits of paper are punctured and
the devil must crawl through each
little hole before he can arrive at his
prey. This idea was broadly borrowed
bv the new sect Its members believe
that the devil of dull care must pick
I'D every tiny fieek of confetti before
he can assail their happiness The re-
ligion is at present corybantic and will
probably stay so-for dancing TO wild
music. after the delightful manner of
the riotous pagans of the days when
the world was young, seems ever in
digenous to the soil and the spirit OF
California.
70 see California seething down Mar
ket street last night under the golden
canonv of electricity, from the ferry
building far beyond the horizon line. to
see it spread into Kearny street, over
around Union square, in Fillmore street
and Van Ness avenue-to see California
bubble and burst in the exaltation of
its devotion. and dancing its merry feet
off in the masque carnival that reigned
in street and at the Auditorium. was to
see a new form of human expression.
that was as old as the hopes and joys
of Greece and as free and fragrant as
the rites in the groves of Dionysius-
but with less wine and more raiment.
A Curious History
The Native Sons of the Golden West
and the Native Daughters of the Gold
en- west assembled in San Francisco
this year to celebrate the sixtieth an
niversary of the birth of California as a
state. They had curious history TO
perpetuate. Before their progenitors
came California was indolent and care
free and festive, with darkeyed senor-
itas demure behind the firm walls of
the hacienda. Then came the immedf-
ate forebears of the native sons and
native daughters. They came at the
peril of their lives, over the thirsty
sands Of the desert or through the trou-
bled waters of Cape Horn. They toileG
in their mining camps. They
met the travails of the birth of civil