FROM STREET NOMENCLATURE TO A CANNON
The Streets of the City--Numbers and Names--Example of Athens--Names
of Men--Names of States and Countries--American Spirit--Flowers
and Trees--Market Street--Pleasantries--Mansions of California
Avenue--Grand Reception--Art in California--Cost of Living in
1849--Hotels and Private Houses now--Restaurants--New City
Hall--Monumental Group--Scenes and Representations--History of a
Cannon--Chance Meeting with General Shafter--Mission of the Republic.
The streets of the city! They are an important feature, and the
traveller naturally observes their direction and studies their
character. In the description of New Jerusalem, St. John noted the
fact that its street was "pure gold." The streets of earthly cities
cannot vie with the celestial, though the gold of commerce may be
found in their warehouses and mansions; but if men were as earnest in
seeking after the treasures of Heaven as were the tens of thousands
who flocked to the gold-fields of California in 1849, they would
surely win the fortune which awaits them within the Golden Gate of the
City on the banks of the Crystal River. San Francisco has her noted
streets, just as the City of Mexico has her San Francisco promenade,
leading from the Alameda to the Plaza de Zocalo; or Rome her famous
Corso, the old Via Flaminia, with its shops and its teeming life; or
Athens her Hodos Hermou, with its old Byzantine church of Kapnikaraea;
or Constantinople her Grande Rue de Pera, with its hotels and theatres
and bazaars; or old Damascus, her "street that is called straight,"
Suk et-Tawileh, the street of the Long Bazaar, with its Oriental life
and colouring; or Cairo her picturesque Muski, where you may find
illustrations of scenes in the Arabian Nights, and gratify your senses
with
"Sabean odours from the spicy shore
Of Araby the Blest."
The streets of the city by the Golden Gate have an interesting
nomenclature, which well deserves one's study for what it teaches.
Some streets in the triangular section of San Francisco, already
spoken of, are numbered. These begin west of Fremont street and run
up to Thirteenth, being bounded by Market street. Then the numbered
streets take a turn to the left hand and go from Fourteenth to
Twenty-Sixth, in the southwestern section of the city, and run due
west. Numbers on the streets of any city are of course a convenience,
but such a nomenclature has nothing else to commend it, and lacks
imagination and sacrifices bits of history which may be interwoven
with municipal life and show progress from small beginnings and
perpetuate pioneers' names and benefactors' memories. Modern Athens
in naming her streets has very wisely called them after some of the
demigods, heroes, generals, statesmen, and poets of Greece; and
grateful too for the work of Lord Byron in behalf of her independence,
she has honoured him who in immortal song spurred on her sons to
arise and cast off the Turkish yoke, with a name on one of her
thorough-fares--Hodos Tou Buronos--which the traveller reads with
emotion, even as he gazes also with admiration on the beautiful
Pentelic monument reared to the memory of her benefactor, near the
Arch of Hadrian, while Athenae is represented as crowning him with the
victorious olive. With feelings and sentiments akin to this the sons
of the Golden West have associated forever with the streets of their
great city the names of men who either benefited California or take
high rank in national life or are otherwise worthy of perpetual
commemoration. Hence we have a Berkeley street, a Buchanan, a Castro,
a Fillmore, a Franklin, a Fremont, a Grant, a Hancock, a Harrison,
a Hawthorne, and a Humboldt street. Juniper street is a memorial of
Father Junipero Serra, founder of Franciscan Missions. Kepler takes
us up to the stars, which shine beautifully over the lofty Sierras,
California's eternal rampart; while Lafayette speaks to us of
friendship and chivalry, still alive in these matter of fact days. As
you walk through the streets you see also the name of Kearney, not
Dennis of "sand-lot" fame, but that of General S.W. Kearney, whose
sword aided in placing the star of California in our Nation's Flag;
you read too the name of the old Indian chief, Marin, and that of
Montezuma takes you across the Rio Grande and back to the days of
Mexican romance and barbaric splendour. Here also Montgomery is
remembered, the patriotic commander of the Portsmouth, who gave orders
to his marines to raise the Stars and Stripes, in place of Spanish
ensigns and the Bear Flag, on the Plaza of Yerba Buena, old San
Francisco, in 1846. We find also such well known names as Scott,
Sherman and Stanford. We have too a St. Francis street and a St.
Joaquin street; Sumner, Sutter, Tilden and Webster are remembered
also. Nearly all the states of the Union speak to us by these waters
of the Pacific in the stones of the streets. All the original Thirteen
except Georgia have been honoured. Possibly this will receive
recognition in the future. It is to be noted, however, that the
adjectives are omitted in the Carolinas and New Hampshire. New York is
the exception together with Rhode Island. The other States which have
given their names to streets are Alabama, Arkansas, California, the
Dakotas without the qualifying adjective, Florida, Illinois, Indiana,
Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri,
Nebraska, Nevada, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
The natural inference from this is that San Francisco has drawn
her population from all parts of the land; so that here you have
representatives of our great country, north, south, east and west
gathered together. While there are many who delight to call themselves
Native Sons, yet their fathers have sprung from households in New
England and in the South and in the Middle States and elsewhere and
new peoples are steadily migrating to the Pacific slopes, notably
to this Queen City by the Golden Gate. In my intercourse with San
Franciscans, this or that worthy citizen would say, with no little
pride, I was born in New York, Boston is my birthplace, I am a native
of Albany, or Saratoga, or Philadelphia, or Baltimore, or Savannah or
New Orleans. Sometimes one would say to me, I came from the East. What
part? The answer would be at times, Chicago, or St. Louis, or Omaha,
as the case might be. But one thing was very noticeable, that they
were all loyal Americans. I think it may be truly said that the spirit
of patriotism is even stronger in the Pacific States than at the East.
You could see the Flag of the Union everywhere, and there was abundant
evidence in the life and speech of the people of San Francisco and of
California generally that they were an integral part of the Republic
and as anxious to have it prosperous and great and united as the most
ardent American in any other part of the land.
The cosmopolitan character of San Francisco is further indicated by
the names of foreign countries and places which some of her streets
bear. Here we note in our walks the names of Denmark and Japan,
Honduras and Montenegro, Trinidad, Venezuela and Valencia, and also
the Spanish town De Haro. Certain names also of cities tell us whence
people have come to the City of the Golden Gate. We find an Albany, an
Austin, and a Chattanooga street. There are also streets called Erie,
Hartford, Vicksburg and York, San Jose and Santa Clara, while Fair
Oaks speaks of one of the great battlefields of the Civil War. Some of
the counties of the State have also fixed their names on the streets
as Butte, El Dorado, Mariposa, Napa, Solano and Sonoma. The Potomac
River has a name here also, while Sierra and Shasta represent the
mountains. There are names of streets besides which take us among the
trees and shrubs, such as the Cedar, the Locust, the Linden, the Oak,
the Walnut, the Willow, the Ivy, the Laurel and the Myrtle. Of flowers
there is a profusion in San Francisco. They bloom on every hand; and
wherever there is a bit of ground or lawn in front of a house there
you will see plants or flowers in blossom. Fuschias attain the height
of ten feet in some places and are magnificent in the colour and
beauty of their flowers. The heliotrope climbs up its support with
eagerness and its blossoms vie in hue with the blue skies. You may
also see the pink flowers of the Malva plant in abundance, the chaste
mignonette and the Australian pea-vine. The latter is a favourite and
clothes the bare walls of fence or house or trellis with a robe of
beauty which queens might envy. Roses are rich and fragrant, white and
pink chiefly, and delight the eye, no matter which way you turn. The
Acacia grows here in San Francisco as if it were native to the soil;
and the Monterey Cypress, green and beautiful, makes a handsome hedge,
or, when given room and air, it attains to stately proportions. Here
also you will find the Eucalyptus tree in its perfection, stately in
form with its ivy-green foliage, and you look upon it with an admiring
eye. California may be truly called a land of flowers as well as a
land of fruits; and we err not in judgment when we say that close
association with these beautiful products of the earth has a refining
and an uplifting influence on the human heart. A man who has love for
a flower is brought near to the Lord of the flowers, Who said as He
walked over the meadows of Palestine--"Consider the lilies of the
field, how they grow." So they have their sweet message of love and
gentleness and peace for all, yes, these "stars of the earth," as the
poet calls them. Such thoughts come to you as you gaze on the rich
gardens of San Francisco and note their wealth of bright blossoms,
brightening man's life and filling his soul with poetry and sentiment
and longing for the beautiful and for the good.
As we walk through the city we note that it is rapidly extending
itself towards the south and the slopes of the Pacific, and new homes
are constantly appearing in its suburbs, even climbing up the hills to
the west. Market street, broad and straight, is San Francisco's main
artery of business activity, and the cable cars which run through
it are so numerous that a person who undertakes to cross this great
avenue, especially during the busy hours of the day, must be careful
lest he be run over. It reminds one of Broadway, New York, in this
respect. All streets of the city converge towards Market street.
Crowds of people throng it, and this is true, particularly during
Saturday night, when the labours of the week are ended and the
populace seek recreation. There are many large and attractive
buildings on this street, as for example "The Call Building," "The
Chronicle Building," "The Palace Hotel," and the "Emporium." As you
walk up and down studying life you note many things, and you see good
nature depicted in the faces of the people whom you meet. They all
look bright and intelligent. I think there is something in the
surroundings and in the exhilarating atmosphere which promotes
fellowship and good feeling. There is a keen sense of humour often
manifest. Among many of the things which I saw was an illuminated
sign, with the legend: "Your bosom friend." As I drew near it I
discovered that it was over a shirt store. It was certainly most
suggestive. The women, as you see them going hither and thither, are
the picture of health and many of them can boast of real beauty. Here
are few if any pale faces, sallow complexions, cadaverous cheeks.
There are various types of nationality, but it may be said that there
is a California or San Francisco type, which is the product of climate
and environment. One is struck with the animation manifested in the
faces and movements of the men and women. They are quick too in
reaching conclusions and witty in observation. A young man in one of
the railway offices asked this question: "What," said he to me, "is
the difference in dress between a bishop and any other clergyman," I
replied that some of the bishops wore aprons, and that this was the
only real difference in daily attire--except some special mark on the
coat or the shape of the hat. I hastened to add by way of pleasantry,
that my friend Ashton, who was standing beside me, and I had not an
apron as yet. "Well," he replied promptly, "you have gotten beyond
that."
They take pleasure in telling a good story also. As Ashton and I were
travelling one afternoon to San Rafael we were joined on the Saucelito
ferry boat by a benevolent gentleman, named Ingram, who said he was a
cousin of the Bishop of London. As we talked over various matters he
finally said, "I will tell you a story. An Irishman landed in New York
after a stormy voyage; and as he walked up Broadway he thought that
he would go into the first place he saw, which looked like a Roman
Catholic church, and there offer thanks for his safe journey. When he
came to St. Paul's Chapel, with the statute of the Apostle in view, he
went into it, and kneeling down he began to cross himself. The sexton
seeing his demonstrations said to him, 'This is not a Roman church,
this is a Protestant church.' But said he, 'It is a Catholic church.
Don't you see the cross and the candles on the altar.' 'O no,' said
the sexton in reply, 'It is a Protestant church.' 'No, no,' said the
Irishman, 'you can't convince me that St. Paul turned Protestant when
he came to America!'"
One is impressed with the air of prosperity and thrift on every hand.
Many of the houses are artistic in construction and elegant in their
furnishings. Some of them are stately mansions, notably the Stanford,
Huntington, Hopkins and Crocker residences on California avenue, in
its most conspicuous section. The homes of these California kings are
adorned with costly works of art, choice paintings, and beautifully
chiselled marbles. During the sessions of the General Convention the
Crocker mansions on the north side of the avenue were the centre
of attraction in the liberal hospitality dispensed there and the
courtesies shown to many of the Bishops and other Clergy. On the
evening of Wednesday, October the ninth, Bishop Nichols held a
reception for the Bishops, other Clergy, the Lay Deputies, and their
friends, in the Hopkins' mansion, on the south side of California
avenue. This is now used as an Art Institute, and it is admirably
adapted to its purpose. The building was thronged all the evening by
the members of the Convention and the representatives of San Francisco
society. Five thousand people high in the councils of the Church
and the Nation and in social walks were in attendance; and it was
impossible to accommodate all who came. It is said that hundreds
were turned away. The writer and his friends considered themselves
fortunate to be able to thread their way through the crowd without
being crushed or having their garments torn. It was the grandest
function of a social character which ever took place on the Pacific
coast. The costly paintings adorning chambers, galleries and reception
rooms, the splendid specimens of statuary, the numerous pictures,
the brilliant lights, the strains of joyous music, but above all the
moving throng of handsome women beautifully arrayed, and the noble
bearing of Bishop, Priest and layman, with the fine intellectual faces
seen on all sides, made this reception a scene never to be forgotten.
Who, in the days of forty-nine, would have dreamed that, a little over
a half a century later, there would be such a magnificent gathering
of intellect and beauty,--men and women with lofty aims and noted for
their achievements in letters and art, and their prominence in Church
and State, and excelling in virtuous deeds, on a hill which was then a
barren waste of shifting sands?
While I am speaking of the reception in the Hopkins' Art Institute, I
may note that Californians have a great love for art. Their own grand
scenery of mountain and valley and ocean fosters the love for the
beautiful; and to-day they can point with pride to the works of such
men as Julian Rix, Charles Dickman, H.J. Bloomer, J.M. Gamble, and
H. Breuer, whose landscapes are eagerly sought for, and command high
prices. The frequent sales of paintings are the best evidence that the
people of San Francisco equal the citizens of the oldest cities of the
land in refinement and the elevation of the mind and heart above the
mere desire to make money. There is also a goodly array of female
artists who deserve praise and honour. Eastern cities must look well
to their laurels in the matter of art as well as in many other things.
The contrast between 1849 and 1901 in the prices paid for articles
of consumption and service rendered is quite remarkable. When Bayard
Taylor visited San Francisco in 1849 he paid the sum of two dollars
to a Mexican porter to carry his trunk from the ship to the Plaza or
Portsmouth Square. Here in an adobe building, he tells us, he had his
lodging. His bed, in a loft, and his three meals per day, consisting
of beefsteak, bread and coffee, cost him thirty-five dollars a week.
From other sources we learn that, if you kept house, you had to pay
fifty cents per pound for potatoes,--one might weigh a pound. Apples
were sold at fifty cents a piece, dried apples at seventy-five cents a
pound. Fresh beef cost fifty cents a pound, milk was a dollar a quart,
hens brought six dollars a piece, eggs nine dollars a dozen, and
butter brought down from Oregon, was sold at the rate of two dollars
and fifty cents per pound. Flour was in demand at fifty dollars a
barrel, and a basket of greens would readily bring eight dollars. A
cow cost two hundred dollars. A tin coffee pot was worth five dollars,
and a small cooking stove was valued at one hundred dollars. A cook
commanded three hundred dollars a month, a clerk two hundred dollars a
month, and a carpenter received twelve dollars a day. Lumber sold for
four hundred dollars per thousand feet, and for a small dwelling house
you had to pay a rental of five hundred dollars per month. It must be
remembered that people were pouring into San Francisco from all parts
of the world in search of gold, that there were few if any persons to
till the ground, and that many of the articles in demand for life's
necessities were brought either across the Isthmus of Panama or around
by Cape Horn. In consequence the cost of living was necessarily high.
To-day you can live as cheaply in San Francisco or any other city of
California, as Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, or San Diego, as in any
eastern city or town. Rooms with board can be secured at the Palace
Hotel, corner of Market street and New Montgomery, at the rate of
three dollars and a half per day up to five dollars. Without board you
can obtain a room for the sum of one dollar and a half up to three
dollars. The Grand Hotel, the annex to the Palace, and just across
the street, offers the same rates as the Palace. The Lick House, the
corner of Montgomery and Sutler streets, will take you for three
dollars up to five per day. The Occidental, corner of Montgomery and
Bush streets charges also from three dollars up to five per day for
board and room. The California Hotel, an imposing structure, on Bush
street, supplies rooms at the rate of one dollar per day and upwards.
The Baldwin, corner of Market and Powell streets, charges for board
and room at the rate of two dollars and a half up to five per day; and
the Russ House receives guests, giving room and board at the rate of
one dollar and a half up to two dollars and a half per day--this hotel
is situated on the corner of Montgomery and Pine streets. There are
many other hotels where the traveller can be made comfortable at a
moderate cost. It is the same with many private houses which are open
for guests. In the latter a parlor and bedroom with the luxury of a
bath may be had for two dollars per day. A single room can be secured
for a dollar a day. In such a case you can obtain your meals at one of
the numerous restaurants for which San Francisco is noted. There are
the restaurants at the Palace, the California and other prominent
hotels, the Maison Dorée in Kearney street, Westerfeldt's in Market
street, and the Café in the Call Building on the top floor of the
tower, from which you have a commanding view of the city in all
directions. Good servants can be had at the rate of thirty dollars per
month, especially the much abused Chinese, who cook and do the laundry
work, and wait on the table, and render a willing service. I recall
the faithfulness of the Chinaman "Fred," who tried to please his
employer, and also the fidelity and zeal of "Max," the Dane, or Mads
Christensen. Max was an ideal waiter. He had been only nine months in
the United States, and yet he had learned sufficient of the English
language to understand what was said to him and to express himself
clearly. It is an example of persistence; and Max had the qualities
which, in a young man, are bound to lead to success.
In addition to the other great buildings you cannot fail to notice the
New City Hall, a magnificent pile including the Hall of Records to the
east of the main structure. The location is somewhat central, being
opposite Eighth street, just north of Market street, and bounded by
Park avenue, Larkin and McAllister streets. The plot of ground on
which it is erected has an area of six and three-quarters acres and is
triangular in shape. The front is eight hundred feet in length, the
Larkin street side five hundred and fifty feet, and the McAllister
side six hundred and fifty feet long. While the architecture is
difficult to describe, as being of any particular order, yet it may be
said that it is partly classical, partly of the renaissance style and
that it has a suggestion of the Byzantine period, which is seen in so
many buildings of a public character. Nothing, however, could be more
dignified than this great and imposing structure, which is traversed
by a main corridor crossed by a central one with two others, one in
the east and the other in the west. These corridors which give you a
sense of amplitude, are paved with Vermont marble. It has one chief
dome, three hundred feet above the base, which is surmounted by a
colossal figure with a torch in the uplifted right hand, a goddess of
liberty. On another section of the Hall is a small tower with a flag
staff, then a lower dome with a flag staff, the dome being supported
by pillars with Corinthian capitals. Flowers were in bloom in the
court-yards the day when I visited the building, and they gave an
artistic appearance to the granite-foundations. The upper courses of
the Hall are made of stucco in imitation of granite. The building,
which was begun in 1870, was completed in 1895. What it cost is hard
to tell. I questioned several persons in regard to it, but received
different answers, ranging all the way from five millions of dollars
up to thirteen millions. San Francisco, however, may well be proud of
the white edifice, in which are located most of the offices relating
to the business of the city. But we must not depart from these
precincts until we have examined the monumental group in the New City
Hall Square on the south side or front. The monument is circular in
form and is crowned with a figure of a woman, representing California,
in bronze. She wears a chaplet made of olive leaves, and holds a wand
in her right hand, and in her left a large disk bordered with stars,
while a bear is seen standing on her right side. No doubt Bruin has
reference to the famous bear flag which had been raised on the Plaza
in 1846, when California declared herself independent of Mexico, and
which in the same year gave place to the Stars and Stripes. Around the
monumental figure of California are subjects in bronze. First of all
there is an overland wagon drawn by oxen, with pioneers accompanying
it. Secondly an Indian wigwam with hunters and Indians representing
the year 1850. In the third scene we have a buffalo hunt, the hunter
holding a lasso in his hand, and then there is the dying buffalo.
Succeeding this we have a domestic scene--fruits and wheat--and a
reaper in 1848. We then note bronze-medallions of Sutter, James Lick,
Fremont, Drake, the American Flag, and Serra. Moreover on this central
monument we have the names of Stockton, Castro, Vallejo, Marshall,
Sloat, Larkin, Cabrillo-Portalo. Then the date, "Erected A.D. 1894.
Dedicated to the City of San Francisco by James Lick."
The scenes on the four monuments around the central one are--First,
the finding of gold in "'49"--three miners. Second, a figure with an
oar. Third, Early Days. Indian with bow and arrow. Pioneer with saddle
and lasso. A Franciscan preaching. Fourth, a figure crowned with
wheat, apples in right hand, and the Horn of plenty with various
fruits in the left hand. The monument bears this inscription, near the
base--Whyte and De Rome, Founders. Frank Appersberger, Sculptor.
In front of this most interesting monument is a cannon that has a
history. Near the head of this instrument of destruction is the
legend, _Pluribus nec Impar_. On the body of the cannon we read Le
Prince De Conde. _Ultima Ratio Regum_. Louis Charles De Bourbon--Comte
D'Eu., Due D'Aumale. A Douay--Par T. Berenger. Commissionaire. Des
Fontes Le 23 Mars, 1754.
The cannon is made of bronze, has a coat of arms, and is otherwise
ornamented. It has two handles in the shape of dragons. It is twelve
feet long. But it has another inscription in which we are deeply
interested. This is in English, and reads as follows:
"Captured at Santiago De Cuba, July 17, 1898, by the Fifth Army
Corps, U.S. Army, Commanded by Major General William R. Shafter, and
presented by him to the City of San Francisco, California, in trust
for the Native Sons of the Golden West, and accepted as a token of the
valor and patriotism of the Army of the United States."
While I was reading the inscriptions and making measurements an open
two-seated carriage was driven up to the curbstone, about four o'clock
in the afternoon. From this a gentleman in a business suit, about
sixty years of age, alighted and approached me. He was a man of
pleasing address. He said to me, "You seem to be interested in this
cannon." "I am," was the reply. Then he began to pace it and to
examine it, and said, "It is just twelve feet long." He thought that
possibly it came into the hands of the Spaniards during the Napoleonic
wars, and that it at length found its way over to Cuba to help
in enslaving the people of that island. As I was attracted to
my informant, I ventured to ask him whom I had the pleasure of
addressing. Imagine my astonishment and delight when he said
modestly--"I am General Shafter." I said to him, "I am glad to meet
one so brave and who has helped to add new lustre to our Flag." He
replied that "he considered it a privilege to have had a share in the
liberation of Cuba, and that our beloved nation was on the march to
still greater glory." Finding out where I came from, and that I lived
near Ballston Spa, he said, "You must know my son-in-law, William H.
McKittrick." I replied that I did, that I knew him when he was a boy,
and that he and his family were my parishioners, when I was Rector of
Christ Church, Ballston Spa, twenty-eight years ago. Said he, "William
distinguished himself in the Cuban War. He is now a Captain and
Assistant Adjutant-General, and it was he who was the first to hoist
the Flag over Santiago." The General having courteously invited me to
call on him, soon after bade me good-bye. It was a chance meeting, but
full of interest, especially under the circumstances. Here was the
hero who had captured the cannon and who had won laurels for himself
and for his country. McKittrick also comes of a patriotic family, his
father having laid his life on the altar of his country in the Civil
War; and after the elder McKittrick is named the Grand Army Post of
Ballston Spa, N.Y.--Post McKittrick. General Shafter was as modest
on the day when I met him by the cannon as he was brave at Santiago.
While the Republic has such worthy sons she has nothing to fear.
Her mission is one of peace to her own people in all the States and
Territories of the Union, and in all our Colonial possessions; and the
motto of every citizen should be _Non sibi sed Patriae_. For every
churchman it ought to be _Non sibi sed Ecclesiae_.