ACROSS THE LAND OF THE HUSTLER.

Otago Witness, Issue 2722, 16 May 1906, Page 13

ACROSS THE LAND OF THE HUSTLER.

VL— SAN FKAKCTSCO.

Br Williatt HEwrrsoir.

T arrived 1 at Oakland, a suburb of San Francisco, on the opposite side of the bay, at 3 o'clock one Saturday morning in October last. We were 10 hours behind scheduled time — skeduled time, as the Americans pronounce it. We lay in our bunks until' 6 o'clock, when we got up, performed the 3imple ablutions- that are possible in the hand-basin of a railway carriage, collected the few odds and ends that we had not committed to the baggage agent, and made for the ferry. In a short time we were at the Grand Hotel, which is right opposite the Pfclace Hotel, and under the same management. A hot bath, which cost us 50 cents (2s) each, a good breakfast, and- a\ large -mai-1- (which brought us the good news from a far country, which, Solomon- says, is like cold waters to a thirsty soul), and then- we were ready to see something Of the sights of San Francisco.

A LAND OF SUNSHINE.

The city stands on hilly ground at the «nd' of a- promontory, and is surrounded by water on three sides. To the west of it «olls tbe Pacific, not always true to name ; on the east is the bay, which*, tbe guidebooks tell you, is one of the largest, deepest, and sa-fest harbours- in the world, and able to accommodate all the navies afloat. To- the north, of the city is fche entrance to the harbour, tbe famous Golden Gate, a mile amd.a-half wide. California prides itself on being a land oF sunshine, fruit, and flowers. When we were there it certainly was a land- of sunshine, for, although it was the middle of October, the sun in the middle of the day was- really hot. The temperature varies only Wdeg between the seasons, so one is not surprised at seeing a picture of " Midwinter in. Golden Gate" Park 1 " in which scores of holidaymakers, both men and wom«n, are sitting or lounging about on the lawns.

GABS AN» 'PHONES.

The system, of- electric cans- is excellent, and riding, in them- is one of the cheap pleasures of the city. Feu Ity you can ride from the P»iae» Hot«l" in the city to ClifP House on the ocean, a distance of seven miles. The use of electricity in the large cities of America is very general. The electric Jigh* in Kew York City- aetoniehed me, but? it- was* not equal to the display made by San Franeisoo, especially in advertising' devices; X notice tiiat San Francisco claims to rank first in the world in. the use of telephones; and to have one " 'phone " for every 16- inhabitants.

GROWING A?a> PROSPEROUS, my first impression of the city, however, ■was- one of disappointment. There seemed to be- a very large number of wooden buildings; due no doubt to the fear of earthquakes, and the big stone or brick buildings did not much impress one fresh from the slsy-scrapeis of New York. The feeling of disappointment passes away after a while, and gives place to an impression of stir, movement, and general progressiveness. The city seems to be conscious of its leading position in the West, and determined Ho fiofd it. It grows under the sia'muluH of- success, and the cablegram a few. days' ago* axmouneiufK thai th« leading citizens had determined to rebuild the city on a larger scale than eror accords with the impression made upon one as to the spirit of the people — although, their determination does appear rather like inability to take a hint. The citizens evidently have planned for a big thing in the way of. a city, and their Golden Gate Park, of over 1000 acres, with all its varied and beautiful attractions, makes provision for the entertainment and recreation of a vast population. Careful judges told mo that they expected soon to reach a. population of half a million, SOCIALISM AND FANCY RELIGIONS.

On Saturday night I struggled along the main street, which was thronged with a ■well-dressed, orderly crowd of people. I observed the. passers-by, geeped in at the shop windows, and then, fell into the streamthat was pouring into- one of the large emporia, where I "wandered about, bewildered by the many things people wanted ■whieb IT could do very, well without. After a while I 'fell- into the outgoing stream, and was carried' info the street again. On the way back to my hotel I was attracted by the sound o£ speaking- in a short, quiet street, called Grant avenue, running off the main street. Grant avenue apparently is to San Francisco what the Yarra Bank is to EEelbourne and the Domain to Sydney. To me it was more interesting than millionaire*' residences, 15-storey buildings, or beautiful parks. I- went night after nighfe to hear the orators, and was sometimes much amused, but always deeply interested. Some of the speakers were exceedingly effective in talking to a crowd": on© man, a real Yankee, had a touch of the genuine orator, as. he wemt off like a meteor coruscating" in perorations that $ere ovidentfy «Sempore. He was furiously in earnest. One- *rghl my attention was attracted by as rery taJl- man, well over 6ffc ia height. He' was dressed in a long gown reaching to his feet, and tied round hie waist with a gjrdle. He wore a- big wide-swake hat, the removal of which allowed a mass of long flaxen hair to fall

about his shoulders. He solemnly unfolded a map on which there was a picture of the two hemispheres, of a man, and of the signs of the Zodiac. He fixed *xj* tis ma.p> on a. stand, and then began his speech by quoting- a passage out of the Old Testament and another out of what he called the " Revelations " in the New. He set out to explain some con- j neclion between the world, the man, and the Zodiac. After listening to him for a ' while I concluded he was either the pro- , foundest speaker I had ever heard or the most inconsequential, and as I could not make head or tail of his discourse I moved on to another speaker. Wfien I came back to my tall, flaxen-haired friend he was dealing with Socialism and the middle- ( man. Several of the Socialistic orators spoke with a German accent, one was an Irishman, and others were native Americans. Their teachings were not food for i babes- Labour unions and trades unions they condemned in unmeasured terms as ( divisive in their influences; they kept the j workers apart. The capitalist will asso- i ciatc with any man, be he Japanese or Hindu, to protect the interests of his class and keep the workers under; but the workers Fall off into more or less hostile _ camps— the Irishman calls the German . '•Sour Kraut." and the German retorts , with " Irish Mick." SOCIALISM AND JESUS CHRIST. Jesus Christ and His apostles were pronounced by some of the Socialists to *>c well-meaning persons but really enemies of the race-, because their teachings led men to look for Paradise in another world instead of leading them to try and get as much good as possible out of this world —the only world of which we can be sure. One man to whom a speaker had been addressing himsel? directly, interjected. "But lam a worker." "If you are a worker, you are all right." was the reply. " but if you are a worker who is also a Christian, then you are a worker that is out of date." , SOCIALIST AND ARTIST. One of the Socialist speakers was a bit. of an artist, and drew sketches to illustrate his remarks as he proceeded with his speech. One of his pictures was a State coach dra"wn b> labourers and tradesmen. On the front seat the artist sketched in Rockefeller, Carnegie, and Morgan. As he drew the figure to represent Rockefeller he turned to his audience and said, " The good old Book, my friends, says that God ' said ' Let there be light,' but John Rockefeller has put himself in the place of the , Almighty and- says you' cannot have light j without consulting him. If you strike oil on jour farm, old Rockefeller will get , rebates and concessions and soon squeeze"! you out." More men spoke on Socialism than on any other subject, and they com- f niandcd the largest numbec of auditors. Some of these men- were in- the street every night. Socialism is said to be making groat progress in the States. The secre- j tary of the- Department of the Church and Laboutr of the Presbyterian Church in the United States told' me that if the Socialists j increase in the future in the same proportion as they have done in recent years they will elect their own President in eight years' time. The best speaker 1 ■ heard in Grant avenue was a lady wearing { a black university gown and trencher. ■ Her subject was phrenology, but she digressed to subjects bearing generally upon life. She spoke well and in a, thoroughly wholesome and womanly way ! to a crowd of men who listened in perfect silence. One night, in the course of her remarks, she referred to the time when she j was a teacher in Australia, and, on another occasion, to her experience when j lecturing in a town in Gippsland, Victoria. , ; CHRISTIAN STREET PREACHERS, j The only representatives of Christianity that I heard in the streets— and they were I there only one evening, and then did not hold their audiences — was a loud, harshvoiced woman who ba-wled her. message as she gazed upwards without ever looking at the people she was addressing; a mild ■ young man who discoursed to a few persons on th© being of God ; and a negro who was thankful that he could say he was saved. I estimated that there must have been a thousand men listening to the various speakers. They listened quietly, and then, when the addresses were over, they fell into small groups and' discussed vigorously some topic which usually had a bearing on the teaching of the Bible concerning some social or religious subject. In all these discussions I heard only one man who seemed well informed in the teachings of Christianity, and he was easily too much for his opponent. IN A CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH. On Sunday morning I went to a Congregational Church to which I had been ' recommended. There was the usual quartet partj' one hears in American churches, and this on© I thought the best I had heard. The music, however, struck me as being too florid and not sufficiently liturgical. The whole service was marked by devoutness, but without any special power or impressiveness. The sermon was based on " Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven," and it was illustrated by some account of George Macdonald, who had recently died. I came away without knowing who the poor in spirit were or why George Macdonald had been chosen to illustrate poverty in spirit rather than purity in heart, or any other of the beatitudes. The church was a large one, but the size of the congregation was meagre. IN A PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. At night f went to a Tresbyterian Church, .the congregation of which was said to be wealthy. The whole floor space of the church* as well . aa the aisles* was richly carpeted, and lie seats beautifully upholstered. The congregation, relatively to the building,, was the sjtnaUest I saw anywhere on my travels. The sermon, by its title, . " The Plea of Evil," and by its text, " Let us alone," reminded me of W. JLr Watkinson's " Transfigured Sackcloth ;" but it was quite independent in its treatment, and contained a demand for national and civic righteousness. The delivery, was marked by vigour, but with a certain touch of harshness, which minimised the effectiveness of the sermon, t' THE* UNHEEDING GOD. During the week I had the good fortune^ ,to meet with Dr Guthrie, a minister of another Presbyterian Church, and a grandson of Dr Thomas Guthrie, one- of the most eloquent of Disruption ministers. Dr Guthrie has not the- inches of his famous : grandfather, but he is a man of big frame. In conversation he gave me the impression of being * well-read man, thoroughly

' capable as an administrator, a hard worker, and deeply in earnest. Be has been 14 years in the States. I told him my experiences on the previous Sunday, and that I was surprised that, the congregations were so small. H« said that, speaking generally, all the services in San Francisco are poorly attended. The people are j not hostile to the churches, but they are ' thoroughly * indifferent, and for the most 1 part regard the Church as a negligible quantity. Many of the San Franciscans would appear to have reached the position of the Jew 3 who were settled on their lees, and said in their heart, '" The Lord will not do good, neither will He do evil." As an illustration of the indifference of the people to religious movements, Dr ' Guthrie told me that Dr Campbell Morgan, who draws crowds in the Eastern States, and has built up an enormous congregai tion in London, came to San Francisco for some special meetings. He began with a handful of people, and closed his mission without getting the church full. i The city owes the beginning of its prosperity to gold, and the spirit of early days stfii "dominates the life of the people. The rich often spend their Sundays playing polo or watching their sons play it. j 1 CHINESE GIRLS. I met Dr Guthrie' in the Chinese mission premises of the Presbyterian Church, where I saw some pretty, little Chinese girls from six to 10 years of age in their quaint, picturesque Chinese dress. These little creatures had been rescued from a future life of vice and degradation. The importation of Chinese girls, I was told, has been almost stopped owing to the vigilance ofthe civic and eoclesiastic authorities. Dr Guthrie pointed out in connection with the practice, which is so revolting to our sense of humanity and morals, that the ethical standard of the Chinese in these matters fs entirely different from our own. Little girls in China do not call out the tenderness and affection, even in the hearts of mothers, that they do in our land, and 1 under pressure of poverty many of them , are exposed. It is only a few days ago that I heard one, who has had 12 or 13 years' experience of work in China, say that his wife had scarcely met a mother of girls who did not confess, when she became friendly with the missionary, that she had exposed one or more of her baby girls to be, if I may use the words of ' another old Hebrew prophet, " meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of ' the earth." I had a. walk through some of the streets of Chinatown, and 1 found it ! as exciting as a, turn 1 down our own Walker I street. I rather suspect that the Ameri1 can law, which, prohibits entirely the «nl trance of Chinese into the States, does "' not allow the Chinese- already in the eounr try to turn their quarter into> the sink of iniquity and corruption it is sometimes represented' su* being. To> giw a place a; reputation for great wickedness and adver- • tise a trip to it at night for a dollar a I head may not be without somef commercial I™ I"*'1 "*' " GRAFT. j During our sojourn in San> Francieco th©city was in the" excitement of"" a mayoral election. The newsoapers were full of the subject and meetings were being held by> the rival candidates. In the middle of some of the quieter streets small yiles of wood were burned. A ooliceman told me that these small w«re kindled at the expense of one of the candidates for i the amusement of the- cifciaens and to attract attention to the election meetings. It struck me as a strange and rather senseless proceeding, but I am no specialist in electioneering. I attended a meeting of the retiring Mayor, who was seeking reelection. Th© hall was- crowded by men and • a fair proportion of women who all gave i the speakers a. good hearing and listened j with pleasure- to' the- recital of the candidate's virtue^ and services. He had been freely accused of " graft " in the press. This word in the senee in which it is used in America is unknown to Webster and j to the Century Dictionary, but wEen you j see a candidate for municipal honours ' bluntly charged in the press with deriving 1 his sinews of wax from the keepers of 1 immoral hou?e3 and dives you are not left lin much doubt aa to what graft is. All through the States I heard a good deal about the subject, and there seemed to bea very earnest desire in many quarters to purge public life of men who practise corruption President Butler, of the Columbia University, one of the largest ! universities- in America, in his address of j welcome to the students referred to " some | painful lessons in practical ethics " that the American people had been receiving. "Put bluntly," the President said, "the situation which confronts Americans to-day is due to lack of moral principle. New statutes may be needed, but statutes will not put moral principle where it does not exist. The greed for gain and the greed j for power have blinded men to the oldi time distinctions between right and wrong." "TAINTED MONEY." In crossing the continent one read constantly of "tainted money" and in the Congregational Churches Dv Washington Gladden moved for the refusal of a donation that had been made to the funds of the i American Congregational Board of Foreign Missions by Rockefeller. A leading Western paper, in commenting on the subject, refrained from expressing 1 any opinion concerning the merits or demerits of Mr Rockefeller or others who had been mentioned in connection, with him, and then proceeded to say: "The men whom we have the most "reason to fear are those who would debauch our consciences with gifts. This is the reason why church and other ethical organisations should ' boycott benevolence * if this benevolence be found to have a tainted source, or if the money given has come from the illegitimate exeroi«e of human faculties." Dr Clark, the founder of the Christian Endeavour Move- | ment, who ia a member of the Congrega- | tkmal Mission Board, and voted for the acceptance of Mr Rockefeller's gift, told me that be beljeved there was a distinct ethical revival in American life. Things tha.fi wou.d have passed unnoticed 1Q or even five years ago now raised an outcry. Dr Clark knows his own country well, and hi« opinion should carry weight. I heard the same opinion uttered by another public ina-a in the East. If one is to judge by fefngs said and written during the San Francisco mayoral contest, there ia some need of an ethical revival " but Weet." I j do not think however, that thos«/o'B whom tie buildings fell a few days- ago were sinners' aboVe all that dwell in the States, or even in New Zealand. That tragic occurrence may have certain moral and other lessons, but I judge that the conclusion, that San Francisco has been punished' as a great and wicked city is not one of them. One who has seen th« young and proud city can only think with

great sorrow of ite people who have been passing through the terrors of earthquake and fire and the' threatened horrors of famine and pestilenoe.