The Eureka sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1902-current, 1913-03-01

In March, the greenest month
of all. when the Preside N
the Mission hills and the is
lands in the bay are beautiful with
spring, there's only such n little bit of
green gets into the city, 1t lies in the
lap of five hills, climbing upward to-
ward their crests, where the trees are
all doubled and ben 10y the trade wind.
II seems to give its own color to the
growing things i'm II. The cypress
hedges are dusty black, the eucalyptus
trees are gray rs the house fronts they
knock against, and even the plaza grass
looks dark and old. as IL 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 a white one or n glass con-
servatory front. But the fog and dust
all summer gray these. too. and when
the trade winds blow hard 1t takes the
smoke out over the east bay and makes
that ms gray rs the city.
And yet the city doesn't look sad
The sky is too blue and h bay Is too
blue around it. and the flying fog and
the wind and the strong tide flowing
I'm and out of the bay are like restless,
eager creatures that never sleep or
grow tired. When | was a very little
child the fierceness of 1t frightened me.
All the noises Of the city made n
~ .A.....saa. Ill. - - n -
and the p~erilous water encompassing
far ms eye could reach, and the high
hills running up into the sky now blind
ed by dust, now buried In a fog, now
drenchcd In rain, were overpowering
and terrifying TO me. Beyond that gen
eral seeming of terror there Is little |
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 n vague, general i'm
preston of rapid and violent changes
of place and circumstance. Through
their confusion three figures only move
with any c!earuess-my tall, teasing
father. my grim nurse Abby and my
pale haired mother. Indeed, the first
distinct incident that stands forth from
that dim background is the death of
my mother.
Ii was a puzzle for a child. One day
she was there, Ill in bed, but visible,
palpable, able to speak, to smile, to
kiss-the next she had disappeared.
They said she had gone away, but l
knew that was nonsense, for when
people went away 1t was in the day
time with bags and umbrellas. and
every one knew they were going and
where they went.
1t was long before | ceased TO expect
her back, long before / ceased, by
some process of child's reasoning, to
blame her departure on the gray III
accountable city.
For as early as I can recall a CO.
herent sequence of impressions the
city appeared to me strange and I'M
accountable. There was a secret shut
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 it brought an army of ghosts
to tnhabit the dark places beyond the
safety OF the lighted window pane.
Though I had. lived among the five
hills almost all my life and though in
ways 1t had grown familiar and even
dear to me. yet l never seemed to
grow quite used to the city. 1t had
strange tricks of deception that were
enough to unsettle the finest faith, for
when I looked at it from the windows
of my room under the roof it was as
nat as a plate, visible in it's entirety
from end to end, and 1t was as easy
to find Telegraph hill or the Plaza
upon 1t as 1t was to pick up a block
from the carpet. But when I went
abroad in 1t 1t hid away from me. 1t
would never show me more than one
street at a time, and never by any
chance would 1t reveal to me through
the tall houses in what part of 1t I
was walking.
But by the time I was old enough to
play IN the garden by myself and make
friends through the hedge with Halle
Ferguson, who lived a block below us,
! had come to accept this trick Of the
city as somewhat less extraordinary.
1t was developing other characteristics
not so fearful to my mind and of far
greater fascination, and I spent hours
when / could not be out of doors watch
ing II from the windows of nv room.