A CITY IN THE MAKING THE NEW SAN FRANCISCO.

Otago Witness, Issue 2902, 27 October 1909, Page 12

A CITY IN THE MAKING THE NEW SAN FRANCISCO.

By W. Farmer White.

»S?n Francisco, destroyed by earthquake mid tire. ->o that it left a licap vl ruins - — 4ieal. gap:ng cracks in the earth wher" the heart o; the city v a>, and millions of dehr!- all loi'nd— has luen again. Phuenixlike, till now in many respects it &ui passes it- iormer self. A world-city, a city of tommeivial activities and a centre of tocial lite — .--'jcli was San Fianc^co early on the morning of Wednesday, Apiil 18, 1906. A moment i'tter, and the earthquake was unon it — and alter that the hre. From a city ot iair st-pect it became a wreck. 15'jioio tit' 1 gi-ei't fiio — for it was more by lire th&n earthquake tliai i lie damage "n a.* duni>— it had a population of a shifting conccurse of sti;>nge peoples, oclour.-s peculiar, and unfamiliar tongues, a medley of the stories of the world. At 5.15 tame the fii\>t shock of the taiUiquake that was tc wntu the d.ite of April IS, 1906. r> the ni'jsl fatal day in ihe history o: S'tn Fianci>co. At 5.16 the big dock on tin: Feiry House tower stopped. It l.ad Ih'ii a gala night in the gay life of whit h-.' l>cen d<_ccribcd as die most cosmopolitan of American cities,, the mo.-t JJohe-iMan oi them all .One of the greatest grdiui opiia o!^ani.-;;tious in die world wa- there. Even when the first shock j-tjuck the city, and many of the buildings tutleie-1 to their fall, some revellers <-\eie in t lie and from them the most toheient stoiy of the great tragedy was obtained. All of ? sudden came the er.d of old San Fianci-co. A series of piolor.ged, siiudilfiing j-jrk = and writhings of the f-vuth, t.'e crash oi tailing wall*, the tearnii; of fi-suie* in the carth — and t nan, fiom up Maiket street, the clamour of the on tho Hie-v iig^ons. The destruction or ,t qie.n city, fir-t badly shaken by earthij ii." '•:■.". \\a? at hard by fuc. The wateri) .uns liaa b.-c-i bioken and twitted, and-tti'-K- \>a- no. hope t,a\e in dynami f e — dvnamiti' t'> "-b'lttnr more hni'dings in f'ldei that the remainder might be saved. 'Ih"" city 1 - d jom had come. O\er four squ'irc miles oi the heart of the citj- were i tten <nd in the three days, dining whicli th'j gtxvt fire ragc*d hundreds of millions of <!o!l ii- worth oi property wan reduced to emiiei*. and neaily 300.000 people were slc>v|.,!!4 m the city pmks mined end San Franci-eo to-day has ri-en from ils him-, a stately, queenly city. What C'hi- < i«n and ]>oston, Charleston, (lalveston, an. l Baltimore ha\e done, the great city of the We-t iia-d done far mcuo quickly and completely. It ha.= not been done in v day, i' l-> tin?, hut when one comes to consider what llio luuldiiig <-t ciiie-! means and the \r.ii- that p;i ,3 in then juakin^. 't is stagU'lii .• to - f ■ v. ha' lias been done heie m tli' >!oit sp ,( . ot a lutle m or t 1 - than thr. j e \er- ' i'hf-e jn. iplo." -aid a citizen of Xi i.- • to !/i'\ \Niih a u.\ j» <». piit](». "are th? lmx (ii 1 la^'Dih in the \>oiH. ' Is thi'i-. <'i!'' «(>n'i<-is. ftiiothci people on fi.ili 1 wli i would ha\f> <l«j.ic- w liat h."- bc-'i djiif lit'io ( fituin it i- th i 1 - in no other I jil of M v-.oil-l could n.oie h«i\e lic-i'ii .ccl ■i.-jpli-li-'.' ! F>] ihife \ea;-> without > <.--oal:oii lia\e thou.-nnri> oi men been \s orkint; to bniM anew the city. aiH when ih.e ni<■ »1 wl>o \\ orked by day j)ut on then (oat.-> thtMf wl'i c otlw-i-s to work by ni o ht. 11 \ •^.in .is .-oo:i a> the pcoji'e recovered the 1 ; se>u-3s after the fimming blow they wotiivt-d. and it was still going on today. 'l'>ere liaii been no stoppage, i'O halt lias 1.-^on cri'd. buck ha* by-en laid uj>on brick, rujrl K/ -king at the new San Franciso on° woiHieis how it has by en done. 'iiK'y ijjinl t.> a large shed on one of the \.h.<ne-. ;i»d tell you thit it id " t/'ir. p iraiy " and wa^ put up after the cata.--tiripl--?. ami they point to :\ han<l-.o«iio b'.ji'k of ferry building.- which would be an oiinmeiit to any city in the world, .'ml ,-.iv it v <1t eiect-eci after the old build in^ ""slipped into"' th* .-e<t ; and in Muikeu stieet, th.tt biir-y thoioughf-ir.-» which ii tliroiig'Pd with people liy day anJ rjitfei- with a myriad ■electric light* v>v ni^ht. they will show you ivk'ie th<? pait'i s-ank in and building.- fell lint for tl'f most pa--L a new caipct ha« bt^n spread ov?r the floor, and but little lc-mains to t-."ll the story of one of the greate-t t::<^e(!iPs of modern time« It the 10.-t ground «•« not beinj recoveied in one senho. it is in anothei — and ir.iiii.' than lecuvere-d. for tlie San Fianci-co that is and is )o be was nsver equalled in splendour by tire one that has passed away. The foim-.r gieutiw.-» vi the city will be nothing compared to that of the city of the future. I liaie nientioned Maiket street. In ths lower part of that fine stieet. down tovir.uli the waterfront, you walk 10-day o?#r footpaths of tell-tale plank=. The cirtli just slipped down and away. There i< still mv.eh to be done ; the .-übsidonce that took place here has yet to be filled in. And on the western side you may yet see where the earth fell in and houses built by men crumbled in the arms of the Titan. In all. something like £70,000,000 worth of property disappeared ; but to-day £100 000,000 stands in its place. It was

' a situation to stagger any people, and it staggered the men of 'Frisco ; but they rose from the ruins with the determination to rebuild their city. Standing there, pale and aghast and heart-broken, they said one to the other : "We shall build a great city yet, a city of palaces and glittering streets that shall be a new wonder to the world!" They are doing it. Those who flocked out of the city flocked back again, and they put their shoulders to the wheel, these men of iron heart and dogged resolution. No one entering San Francisco to-day can help admii'ing the indomitable pluck and perseverance of its citizens. Wlv.Te a fivestorey building stood before a i 0 has gone up; where a 10-storej- stru'eure was a a2O is. It is the grandest object lesson in the building of a city that there ever was. Palaces truly are some of the new buildings. Woods's building and the Emporium in the heart of the city are things of beauty, architecturally superb. The new Palace Hotel, in Market street, now n-earing completion, is magnificent. ' The whole city, indeed, is being rebuilt m a scale of magnificence such as the old city could not boa.=t. xNever was there a city of the size with more generous hotels and restaurants than San Francisco can show. The St. Francis and the Fairmont compare svith anything in the world almost. The great marble post office, which the earthquake cracked, is exquisite. Its banks, its newspaper offices, are ornate. There is something grand behind it all, something to marvel at. But San Francisco is a city of rich nTen, a city with its millionaires, and the rich men bent to their work like patriots a^ the poor men did, and spent their gold in a common cause. The people of this city have, a great admiration one for th-e other, and one can understand it. This great disaster which overwhelmed them seemed to level all* class-ss, and all were brought to_ r ei"'ier in the effort to recover from the calamity which all had suffered. Many great buildings had risen anew, and many more are in the building, though here and there you still may ?ee traces of fire and earthquake — piles of old bricks and twisted wood and iron where once fine etructui'^s stood. And now 'Frisco has almost forgotten its evil day, and is fast returning to its old ways. It was a " swi f t " city of old ; it is a "swift" city still. Swift in many ways — its streets, its business, its social life. It used to be known as the wickedest city in America, a.nd there were even those who said that the earthquake and fire were a. visitation on tlie people for their sins. Thei'e is eertr.iply some wickedness sLill 'eft. Life in San Francisco does not begi'i till midnight, and the ordinary travel!. 1 .", who goes out sight-Feeing all .lay and goes to bed early in order that he may g^t up early in he morning to see more sights, knows nothing of it. Yet, if he is wakeful, he will hear th<> rattle of cab? and motor cars as they rush up and down past his hotel at midnight and long after that hour — ;ukl this way lies wickedness. 'Frisco never- r>leet>s. Its hotels are open all night : there are restaurants that never close. Here there is no early-closing law. You can get wine as early and as late as you like. Fashion is astir at midnight. It is the witching hour. Society goes to the theatres in its motor «;n", and after I the play goes to dine. If , there is one thing moic than another that your Sfin Fianciscan takes seriously it is his dinner. He may hurry over anything else, but he will not hurry over that ; may postpone a business engagement involving thousands of dollars, but will not postpone his dinner. It' he says ha has an important appointment, he does not necessarily mean that he has to attend a board meeting — may be, noi liing more than his dinner. There is no home life in 'Frisco as we know it in the colonies, or none worth spevk'ng of. Everybody dines out. They ha»G ' ioo:n.-, ' and they get their meals out. Neaily c-ve>y other establishment m ihe city i." a iu-tainant You can take your choice ar< oidmg to your mcins, but if you want to do things cheaply you should cu^ San "Fiancisco out of your itineiary. Liv n&- there is a luxury. You cm spend a clnllat on jour dinner almost as quickly a-s jca can tpend a shilling in Sydney or MHbotmi' . You will -lili lii:d -onip tplk of "graft" in "l''ii-ro I f-ju.id many traces of it. , You cannot c-'ean out an Augean ptable in .a. day. I met a policeman, who formerly did his beat in Sydney, and afterwards in Wellington and Auckland, and he assured jne that it was "a? bad as ever." In the li'id-t oc all the glamour and glitter of the < ity th"ie ;^ a something in the atmo.spheiv ol the place that fine does not like. It is thi" atmosphere iA " graft." And whfie con.mPicial morality i-. at a low ebb ono is not suipii-cd to iind it retlect^d in the soua 1 Hie of th" community. 'Frw-o ' goe> the p.ue."' It i« a city of hotels and > ettauiant-. of banks and motor cars— and cigar.-. It i- a place w litre money is easily made and eps'h .-pent. A dollar is nothing, it iW-. noi count. One would think liify n-.-i^ piiAcd up in the streets to see how tney ore flung away. Gold juat s-ein.s to pour into this city. 'Frisco is. the ;>re;.i meoting-p!jt c of the W<-st, and fio'.n Se it tie f>nd Uom distant Alaska the ciowds gather hero to -ppml their doll.i»«?. Fiom a thousand p'ne-e? in the great We-l.jin lonntiy of Am<rioa thr> money flow- down into ehi* .-outhein city of O-olden Ca'ifouiii. In Amci'a Kast they aie not unmindful of the \aluo of a cent, but in the West they i-coin them. As a rule, theie is 'lotiiinq lov.-pi- in value thnn a nick«l (a live-cert piece, a'-jout ( quivalent to 2jd) in S.'ii Francisco. •' UV don't like the jx-nnies,"' they tcil yon. '• they're a nuisance, and we g.'b ml o! liieni by putting a bit on the jh-Icp or taking a bit off You can't ev- n buy a paper for less than a nickel — and <-n\n<- of the daily papers of 'Fiiz-co are rubbish, and would not bring a cent, in Austialia or Ntw Zealand. Theie are a few good paper* there, it is tme, but there is not one that doee not pander to the insatiable craving for the sensational — a demand which the papers

themselves have probably created.. In American there are sensations every d^y, murders and railway accidents, and oil the rest, and the papers see that you get it all. If proof \rere tvanted of the presence of money in San Francisco it is furnished jby its banks. Their number is legion. Ther are monuments of arhcitectural beaUy. The Hunsboit Savings Bank, for insi tnee, is the tallest in the city, standing 12 storeys high, two more than the handsome, dome-capped Call building. The new offices of the First National BaDl- ; could hardly be surpassed for elegant wj>pointnients; its ceiling alone is a veritable wokr of art. Then there are the Bank of California, the Bank of San Francisco, wbrce you can do business up to 8 p.m. ; I the Canadian Bank of Commerce, and ! many others. It is a great financial centre. I There was supposed to be a slight de- | pression there recently, but it seems to j have entirely disappeared. There was no i fiign of any depression while I was there ; indeed, San Francisco, in common with all Amsrica, is at present sharing in a wave of prosperity — " boom " times are passing over the whole of the United States. San Frdncisco's future is assured — barring another catastrophe like that of 1906. It has lost many of its old landmarks, but it still retains most of the features for which it wa.s formerly noted. Chinatown, squalid by day and overcast by an Oriental, mystical glamour at night, has practically been rebuilt, and there are the «me quaint, grotesque characteristics in the new Chinatown that made the old one famous, though' the authorities have taken 6teps to see that the underground passages are less - extensivo than they were at the time of the earthquake and in the old time before it. The continuous burrow^s; by the Chinese, like so many rats, had resulted in a strange labyrinth of tortuous underground passages, which passed under many buildings in the neighboaihood, and by many people they were considered to be a menace to the etructures overhead, to say nothing of depriving the 'Frisco landlord of some tenants above ground, who, if undesirable, nevertheless had dollars to pay for rent. It is said that there were located in some of the darkest, most distant corners of these tunnels some Chinese who had not f.?en the light of day for year?. The old world of Clubdom in San Fiancisco, the multitudinous restaurants, the theatres, all passed away, but ne.v and more attractive ones have been built. The old-time churches, art ga-lleries, and libraries, or many of them, have passed beyond recall, but there are " things in the making "' which will make the city more beautiful and more brilliant than before. Many- of the old hotels have resumed busi ness ; many new ones have been, or are being, erected. The new Fairmont, one of the finest hotels in the world, standing on the crest of Nobs' Hill, was thrown open to the public la^t cummer. The residence district — and San Francisco boasts some very fine residences—was left practically intact, but some splendid new places have gone up. The new city is marching on space. Nature has endowed her wonderfully. She has a harbour spacious and beautiful — a picture which all who enter through the Golden Gate revel in, and in Golden Gate Park, which became a vast ■ camp where thousands of people gathered in tents after the great fire, the citizens have a park which they claim is impossibleof duplication and beyond compare. It is said to be the largest artificial park in the world 'Fri«co U not as big as Sydney or Melbourne, but it has twice as many motor cars in its streets, and what with thec-e and the trarrcars and vehicles of all descriptions one needs to be wary in crossing lights. The air is electric. Market street and thy other main thoroughfares are a bla/e of light, lit up by a thousand <iifforent signs, rnostlv of an advertisement nature. do*i2 in electric light." One knows before landing in America what a country it is for advertising, and one fully realises on arrival. Great hoardings are on every corner, telling of somebody's wares, the streets are a wonderful tight with their pictorial advertisements. And at night it is all done o/er again in electric light. The names of tho hotels, the big restaurant?, are pirkod out in elect! ieity. The big newspaper and other buildings flash out their thousand lights. It is unique, si and, bizarre. Every corner almost is in a blaze. And if there is not a hotel on the coiner in 'Frisco you will find a cigar shop. I imagine there are more cigars sold in 'Fii>=.co to thf square ii.oh than in any other portion of the globe. They are a 'Zre;>t smokfhg nation, the Americans, but the pipe— tho humble, i.eace-giving pipe of the colonies, is an outcast. Some of the Anv-iicans, it is true, smoke a pipe at home in the evening, but the man who smokes one i*n the street is something of a curiosity. If you would do as America does when you are in America you rr../sfc leave your pipe in your pocket and smoke '•i'jarp-. whether you like them or not. When vo-u visit America you have to alter your mode of living in a good many ways.