ACROSS THE LAND OF THE HUSTLER.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 13586, 7 May 1906, Page 2

ACROSS THE LAND OF THE HUSTLER.

[VI.—SAN FRANCISCO,

Br Wiuiam Hewitsox,

I arrived at Oakland, a suburb of San Frnncisoo, on the opposite side of tho bay, at 3 o'clock one. Saumlay morning in October last. We were 10 hours behind scheduled time—skeduled time, as the Americans pronounce it. Wo lay in our bunks until 6 o'clock, when we got up. performed the ■•imple ablutions that are possible in the hand-basin of a railway carriage, collected the few odds and ends that fre had not committed to the baggage agent, atid made for the ferry. In a short time we were at; the Grand Hotel, which is right, opposite the Palace Hotel, and under the same management. A hot hath, which cost lis 50 cents (?,s) each, a good breakfast, and a large mail (which brought us tho good news from a fur country, which, Solomon says, is like cold waters to a thirsty,foul), and'then we were ready to sec something of tho sights of San Francisco. A LAND OF SUNSHINE. The city stands on hilly ground at the end of a promontory, and is surrounded by water on three sides. Tn the west of it rolls'the Pacific, liot always t-ruo to name; on the cast is the bay, which, }he guidebooks ■ tell you, is ono of the largest, deepest, and safest harbours in the world, and ablo to accommodate all the navies afloat. To tho north of the city is the entrance to the harbour, the famous Golden Gate, a mile and a-lialf wide, California prides itself on being a- land of sunshine, fruit, and (lowers. When wo were t.herc it, certainly was a. land of sunshine, for, although it was the middle of October, the sun ill tl/e middle of tho day was really liot. Tho temperature varies only lOilcg lietween the -seasons, so ono is not surprised at seeing a picture of " Midwinter in Golden Gato Park" in whirli scores of holidaymakers, both men and women, arc sitting or lounging about on tho lawns. GARS AND 'PHONES. The system of electric cars is excellent, and riding in thorn is ono of the cheap pleasures of the city. I'or 2|d yon can ride from the Palaco Hotel in tho city to Cliff ITonso on the ciean. a distance of seven miles. The use cf electricity in tho largo cities of America is very general. The electric light in New York City astonished me, but it was not equal to the display made by San Francisco, especially in advertising devices. I notice that San Francisco claims lo rank first- in tho world in tho use of telephones; and to have one "'phone" for every 16 inhabitants. GROWING AND PROSPEROUS, my first impression oT the city, however, was one of disappointment. There seemed to be a. very l:ir<.'e number of wooden' buildings, duo no doubt to the fear of earthquakes, and the big stone or brick buildings did not much impress one fresh from the sky-scrapers of Now York. The feeling of disappointment passes away after a, while, and gives pliice to an impression of stir, movement, and general progressiveness. The city seems to be conscious of its leading position in the West, and determined to hold it. It grows under the stimulus of success, and tho cablegram a few days ago announcing that- the leading citizens had determined to rebuiltl the city on a larger scale than ever accords with tho 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 havo planned for a big thing in the way of a city, and their Golden Gale Park, of over 1000 acres, with all its varied and beautiful attractions, makes provision for the entertainment, and recreation of a vast, population. Careful judge* told me that they expected soon to reach a population of half a. million. SOCIALISM AND FANCY RELIGIONS. On Saturday night T c-trugg'ed along the main street, which w.-n thronged with a well-dressed, orderly crowd of people. I observed .the passers-by, peeped in at t lie shop window?, and then fell into the stream that, was pouring into one of the large emporia, where I wandered about, bewildered by the many thing* people wanted which I could do very well wit-bout. After a while I fell into the outgoing stream, and was carried into the street- again. On tho way hack to my hotel [ was attracted by tho sound of speaking in a short, quiet street', called Grant, avenue, running otT tho main street. Grant avenue apparently is to San Francisco what (lie Yarra Bank is ,to Melbourne and the Domain to

> Sydney. To mo it was more interesting < than millionaires' residences, 15-storey 1 building's, or beautiful parks. I went night ■ after night, lo hear 1 lie orators, and was ' sometimes much amused, but, always deeply interested. Some of the speakers were ' exceedingly efrVcnve in talking to a [ crowd: one man, a real Yankee, had a . touch of the genuine orator, as he went i off like a meteor coruscating in perora--3 tions' that were evidently extempore. lie > was furiously in' earnest. One night my 1 attention was attracted- by a -very - fa.ll man, well . over . 6ft in height. '' He was dressed in a long gown reaclil, ing to his feet, and tied round his i waist willi a girdle. 110 wore a big wide-awake hat, I ho removal of which ' allowed a mass of long llaxcn hair to fall • about his shoulders. IJo solemnly uns folded a map on which there was a pie--1 lure of the two hemispheres, of a man. • and of the signs of the Zodiac. lie fixed up his map on a stand, and then beganliis speech by quoting a passage out of the Old Testament and another out of what he called the Revelations" in the New. Ho set our. lo explain some .con- ] nection Iwtwoon the world, the man. and the Zodiac. After listening to him for a while t concluded he was either the profoundest speaker I litid ever ,heard or Hie most inconsequential, and as I could not make head or tail of his discourse I moved on to another speaker. When I came hack to my tall, flaxen-haired friend he was dealing with Socialism and the middleman. Several of tile Socialistic orators spoke with a German accent.;, one was an Irishman, and others were native Anieri- ' cans. 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 workers apart. The capitalist will associate with any man, bo he Japanese or • Hindu, to protect the interests of his class . and keep the workers under; hut the workers fall off into more or less hostile camps—the Irishman calls tho German 1 " Sour Tvraut," and tho German retorts ' with "Irish Mick." . ■ : • i SOCIALISM AND JESUS CHRIST. ' Jesus Christ and His apostles were pro- ' nounced bv some of the Socialists to be , well-meaning persons', hut, 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- or .this world > —tho only world of which we can bo sure. , One man to whom a speaker had been addressing himself directly, interjected, "But, I am 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. Ono of tho Socialist speakers wa's a bit of an artist, and drew sketches to illustrate his remarks as ho proceeded with his specch. One of his pictures was a State coach drawn by labourers and tradesmen. On the front seat the. artist sketched in Rockefeller, Carnegie,, and Morgan. .As lie drew the figure to represent Rockefeller lie turned lo his audience and said, "The good old Book, my friends, says that God said ' Let there bo light,' but John Rockefeller has put himself in the place of the Almighty and says you 'cannot have light without consulting him. If you strike oil on your farm, old Rockefeller will get rebates and concessions and soon squeeze you out." More men spoke oil Socialism than on any other subject,- and they com- - manded the largest number of auditors. Some of these mcn.wcrfe'-'in the street every night. Socialism is said to be making great progress in the States. .The secretary of the Department of the Church and Labour of the Presbyterian Church in the United States told me that if tho Socialists increase in the future in tho same proportion as they havo done in recent, years tliey will elect their own President in eight- years' time. The best speaker I 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. Ono night, in the course of her remarks, she referred to the time when she was a teacher in Australia, and, on another occasion, to her experience when lecturing, in. a town in Gippsland, Victoria. CHRISTIAN STREET PREACHERS. The only representatives of Christianity that I heard in tho streets—and they were > there only one evening, and then did not 1 hold their audiences—was a loud, harsh- „ voiced woman who bawled her message as , she gazed upwards without ever looking at the people she was addressing; a mild ; young ma'h who discoursed to a few peri sons on the being of God; and a negro 3 who was thankful that he could say ho was saved. I estimated that there must r have been a thousand men listening to 1 the various speakers. They listened • quietly, and then, when tho addresses were f over, they fell into small groups and discussed vigorously somo topic which usually had a bearing on the teaching of the Bible 3 concerning somo social or religious subject. i In all these discussions I heard only ono r man who scorned well informed in the teachings of Christianity, and ho was easily ' too much for his opponent. 3 IN A CONGRECATIONAL CHURCH. On Sunday morning I went to a Congregational Church to which I had been r recommended. There was tho usual quarP tot party one hears in American churches, ir and this ono I thought the best, I had [ heard. The music, however, struck me , as being ton florid and not sufficiently liturgical. The whole sorvico was marked '' by (isvoutneis, but. without- any special t. power or imprcssivencss. The sermon t, was based on ' "Blessed are the ,j poor in spirit, for theirs is tho kingdom of heaven." and it was illustrated by some account of George Maci donald. who had recently died. -I came away without, knowing who tho poor in a spirit: were or why George Macdonald had :i been chosen to illustrate poverty in spirit I rather than purity in heart, or any other of the beatitude?. The church was a large one, but the size of the congregation was II meagre. f IN A PRESBYTERIAN CIIURCII. At night I went to a Presbyterian Church, the congregation of which was said to be r wealthy. The whole floor space of the i, church, as well as the aisles, was. richly carpeted, aud tho seals .beautifully uphol- '! stored. The congregation, relatively to tho E building, was tho smallest I saw anywhere t on my travels. The sermon, by its title, (f "The"Plea of Evil," and by its text. "Let. us alone." reminded mo of W. L. Watkinj son's "Transfigured Sackcloth;" but it was ' c finite independent in its treatment., and o contained a demand for national and civio

righteousness. Tho delivery was marked by vigour, but with a certain touch of harshness, which minimised the effectiveness of tho sermon. 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 mo tho impression of being a well-read man, thoroughly capable as an administraior, a hard worker, and deeply in earnest. 110 has been 14 years in tho States. I told him mv experiences on the previous Sunday, anil that I was surprised that the congregations were so small. He said that, speaking generally, all tho services in Francisco ale poorly attended. The people are not hostilo to Iho chureh.es, but they are thoroughly indifferent,, and for tho most part regard tho Church as a negligible quantity. Many of the San Franciscans would appear to have reached the position of tho Jews 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 tho indifference of the people to religious movements, Dr Guthrio iold me that Dr Campbell Morgan, who draws crowds in the Eastern States, and has built up an enormous congregation in London, camo to Kan Francisco for Rome special meetings. Ho began wiili a handful or people, and closed his mission without getting tho church full. The oily owes the beginning of its prosperity to gold, and tho spirit,of early days sii'l dominates the life of the people. The rich often spend their Sundays playing polo or watching their sons play it. CHINESE GIRLS. I met Dr Gulhrie in the Chinese mission premises of the Presbyterian Church, where I saw somo pretty lif tin Chinese girls from six. lo 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 lold, has been almost stopped owing to the vigilance of tho civic and ecclesiastic authorities. Dr Guthrio pointed out in connection with the practice, which is so revolting to our sense, of humanity and morals, that tho ethical standard of the Chinese in these matters is entirely different from our own. Ljttlo girls in China do not rail out the tenderness and affection, even in the hearts of mothers, that they do in our land, and under pressure of poverty many of them aro exposed. It is only a few dnys ago that I hoard one, who -has had 12 or i 3 years' experience of work in China, say that his wife had scarcely met a mother of girls who did not confess, when slio bccamo friendly with Iho missionary, that she had exposed ono or moro of her baby girls to be, if I may use tho .words of anolhor old Hebrew prophet, " meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the leasts of tho earth." I had a walk through some of the streets of Chinatown, and found it as exciting as a turn down our own Walker street:. I rather suspect that the American law, which prohibits entirely the entrance of Chinese into the States, does not allow the Chinese already in the country to turn their quarter into the sink of iniquity and corruption it is sometimes represented as hoing. To give a place a reputation for great wickedness and advertise a trip to it at night for a dollar, a lie,id may not bo without some commorcial value. GRAFT. During our sojourn in San Francisco tho city was in the excitement of a mayoral election. Tho newspapers were full of the subject and mertings were being held by the rival candidates. In tho middle of somo of the quieter 6treets small piles of wood were burned. A nolioeman told mo that these small bonfires were kindled at tho expense of ono of the candidates for tho amusement of the citizens and to attract attention to the election It struck mo a? a strange aJid rathor senseless proceeding, but I am no specialist in electioneering. I attended a meeting of tho retiring -Mayor, who was seeking reelection. Tte hall was crowded by men and a fair proportion of women who all gave the speakers a good hearing and listened with plea?uro lo tho recital of the candidate's virtues and services. He had been freely accused 1 of " graft" in the press. This word in the sense in which it is used in America is unknown to Webster and to tho Century Dictionary, but when you wo a candidate for municipal honours bluntly charged in the press with deriving his sinews of war from the keepers of immoral houses and dives vou are not left in much doubt as to what graft is. All through the States I heard a good deal about the subject, and there seemed to bo a 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, ill his address of welcome to the students referred to "some {gainful lessons in practical ethics" that the American people had been' receiving. "Put bluntly." I lie President said, "the. situation which confronts Americans to-day is duo to lack of moral principle. New statutes may be needed, but statutes will not put moral principle where it dees not exist. The greed for gain and tho greed for power have blinded men to the oldtimo distinctions between right and wrong." " TAINTED MONEY." In crossing the continent ono read constantly of "tainted money" and in tho Congregational Churches Dr Washington Gladden moved for tho refusal of a donation | that had teen made to the funds of the America.!) Congregational Board or Foreign Missions by Rockefeller. A leading Western paper, in commenting oil tho subject, refrained from expressing 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 tho reason why church and other ethical organisations should ' boycott benovolenec' if this benevolence .lie found to have a tainted source, or if the money given has come from the illegitimate exercisc of human faculties." Dr Cl.irk. the founder of the Christian Endeavour Move- . ment. who is a member of the Congregational Mission Board, and voted for tho acceptance of Mr Rockefeller's gift, told me that lie believed there was a distinct ethical revival in American life. Things that would have parsed unnoticed 10 or even five years ago now raised an outcry. Dr Clark knows his own country well, and hip opinion should carry weight. I hoard tho same opinion uttered by another public man in "the East. If one is to judge by things said and written during th<? San Francisco mayoral contest, there is some need of an ethical revival "out West." I do not think, however, that Hio;e on whom tho buildings fell a few davs ago were sinners above all thai <Utcll in the States, or even in New Zealand. That tragic occurrence ma.y have certain moral and other les.-ons, but I judge that tho conclusion that San Francisco has Iweti punished as a great and wicked city is not one of them. Ono who has seen tho young and proud city can only think with great, sorrow of ils people who have been passing through the terrors of earthquake and fire p.net the threatened horrors of famine and pestilence.