Page 4 Advertisements Column 1

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5701, 19 August 1886, Page 4

San Francisco is bewildering. Land at any wharf of the bay, and you expect to be in America among Americans. Wharves anywhere are composite, as far as populations are concerned, and there is nothing surprising to hear Italian or Chinese at the | outset. It is surprising, however, in San Francisco, to go through a town of Italians, then to arrive at a town of Chinamen, and, amid much Swedish and German, to hear only an occasional word of the tongue of the country. Until the whole region of the wharves is left no American is spoken. An indescribable foreignness reigns everywhere. It in as if the Continent of Europe had been thrust into epitome, into a pocket edition, and you had only to turn one corner to get Holland, another to find France^ and a third to catch Germany, a fonrth to hit Russia, a fifth Italy— or, indeed anywhere. They are all "in it," and preserve the individuality of Europe rather ■• moreaggresßively than Europeans. — Home Chimes.