The evening Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1918-1920, 1918-10-11
PELLEY LETTERS
PELLEY IN CALIFORNIA

And Getting Out of the Country
Dear Folks:
Honestly, couldn't get myself to
believe we had reached San Fran
cisco at last-the tabled city of Jack
London and the. Panama Exposition
and the Earthquake and and -.
maybe another earthquake again
while we were there! and the
dock of the ship that was to take us
away ovel the briny to still Stranger
sights beyond the seas. In the hrst3
place | had never thought of Frisco
as being Oh the peninsular p0Int5kd
northward with the bay on theszgast
of her, the Pacific on the wgsf and
the Golden Gate on the NORTH uniting
the two. And the fans 1s Market
street l had thoughs of as running
east and west, wherea Il runs. pretty
nearly north and soft
Los Angeles is Beautiful residen-
tial city haEboagg ii its vitals mar
row-streetea disappointing business
section. francisco is an impos-
ing 4bnfI ysss section entirely sur
Rounded by wooden genteel-shabbi-
aaa not going to make these
sort of Stoddard Card
5ataIo cf Foreign Places. You
folks who want to know population
and points Of interest and all the rest
of that bunk which goes with every
American city everywhere can go
look in the encyclopedia. All I'm
trying to do is cover some OF the
salient features of this big junket and
write my impressions of the strange
and unusual which caught my at
tention or will engage it as we go
through. So there is no use in men
tioning San Francisco to enumerate
the streets OF the fine houses or the
public parks, for all cities have these
things. We took a bus around the
place and l got soaked two dollars
and came home and we had water
melon for supper; / remember it all
very distinctly because we got almost
a whole one for quarter. The Sun
day supplement features of. Frisco
have passed out pretty much with the
quake. There is, of course, very
polite and respectable Chinatown and
a very new and modern waterfront
and the big Golden Gate park which
is said to have specimen of every
plant that grows anywhere I'm the
world. Down along the Golden Gate
close 20 the water are the old fair
grounds where the Pacific exposition
was held. But only two buildings
are standing now. The rest is
simply huge field or dumpings or
rubbish. Out along the ocean front
to the west is the beach and the Cliff
House and the seal rocks. The beach
is no different than any other beach,
being very sandy and very wet if
you sit IN one place long enough
The Cliff House is an indoor beer
garden on the edge of the cliffs to
the north of the long beach where
the shore line swings around east
ward into the southern shore of the
Golden Gate. Only the booze is
pretty much cut out from these Cali.
fornia cities nowadays on account o.
the nearby environments. Los An
geles they now call Bevo Junction
and San Francisco is Coca Cola Cor
ners. SO even visitors to the Cliff
House have to get along with little
else than the view. Half a mile ou
to sea, standing in the west windows
of the Cliff House, whittier you have
repaired to drink tea, you note Sea
Rocks-great pyramid pieces of Ledge
against which the perpetual breaker
smash, populated only by the seal
and cormorants The seals are biz
fellows; for ten cents you hire a pal
of field glasses and take mean ad
vantage of them. | spent ten cent
and am therefore prepared to prov
that they are as big as good-size
horses and from their mode of lif
when ! took them in, very much non
essential Industries.
OF course the most important thin
which has happened in Frisco in year