SAN FRANCISCO CITY

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXVI, Issue 17, 28 April 1906, Page 41

SAN FRANCISCO CITY

WHAT IT WAS AND HOW IT WAS FOUNDED.

SOME GRAPHIC DESCRIPTIONS.

San Francisco is built on the volcanic line which borders the Pacific on its eastern shore. Thus earthquakes of a minor nature have been by no means uncommon, but only one, which occurred in 1803, has done any considerable damage. ’Frisco, as it is commonly called, is the largest city of the Pacific Coast, its population at the last census numbering 440,000 persons. The city was founded in 1776 by the Spanish padres of Saint Francis, who established a mission there for the conversion of a few Indian souls who alone populated the fertile lands between the Rockies and the sea. From the order of these priests the name of the city was taken, and gradually it has grown from a few adobe (sun-baked brick) huts to a noble city. Its first rise above the limits of a village was in historic 1849. when the population increased ten-fold in the year, from 2000 to 20,000 persons. The discovery of gold in the interior of California was responsible for this rapid advance, an advance which was maintained when, the gold output declining, the producer and the manufacturer built up a solid prosperity for the city. THE COMING OF THE ARGONAUTS. There is something pathetically tragic aibout the discovery of gold in California. For centuries, Spanish adventurers had been the advance guard of the world in finding treasure. El Dorado of song and story was ever before them. But in California they had seen no trace of the precious metal. In January of the very year when the land was wrested from Mexico, 1848, the nows reached San Francisco which ere long set the whole world in a fever of excitement. James W. Marshall, an employee of Captain Sutter, a Swiss settler, had discovered gold in large quantities amid the sand of the American River, a tributary of the ■Sacramento. When the report was confirmed by the shipment of considerable quantities of the coveted dust to San Francisco, a wild scramble to the spot ensued. The news spread in all directions like an epidemic, despite the remoteness of the land. Ships carried it to the four corners of the Pacific. From Chili and Peru came darkeyed mestizos'. Whalers and traders brought their quota of Kanakas and Marquesans. It is said that the Hawaiian Islanders were so stirred by the news of gold in California that by the month of November, 1848, twenty-seven vessels had sailed for San Franciseo, carrying some six hundred people, while four thousand persons arc reported to have gone from Chili that year to work in the mines of the new Dorado. Meanwhile word reached the Eastern seaboard of America, and the great westward wave of migration swept across the plains. Stillman says that never since the Crusades was such a movement known. The host, estimated at from twenty-five to forty thousand pepole, travelled in prairie schooners over that interminable stretch of plain, of desert, and mountain. braving the hardships of himger and thirst, the perils of predatory Indian tribes, the dangers of the road which beset them from start to finish. Women and children shared with the men the. privations of that terrible overland trail. Some were killed by the Indians, some perished of sheer exhaustion, others were storm-hound by the high Sierra snows, and died by inches, resorting to cannibalism in their maddened desperation. At the same time that this multitude was crossing the plains ships were fitted out for the long voyage around Cape Horn, aud old-fashioned side paddle-wheel steamers were put on the run to carry people by way of Pana-

ma. Thus from every State of the Union aud from various parts of Europe eame adventurous spirits, ail expecting to rock the sands of the Sacremento and make their fortunes. GREW UP IN A DAY. The city of San Francisco grew almost in a day. It was a city of tents and gambling houses—a raw, crude, lawless place, with the most cosmopolitan population the world has ever seen. Here if anywhere was a confusion of tongues that would rival Babel. Bayard Taylor, who came by, steamer in 1849, as correspondent for a New York paper, thus describes the scene: “We scrambled up through piles of luggage, and among the crowd collected to witness our arrival, picked out two Mexicans to carry our trunks to a hotel. The barren side of the hill before us was covered with tents and canvas houses, and nearly in front a largo two-storey building displayed the sign, ‘Fremont Family Hotel.’ ” “As yet. we were only in the subiirbe of the town. Crossing the shoulder of (he hill, the view extended around the curve of the bay, and hundreds of tents and houses appeared, scattered nil over the. heights, and along the shore for more than a mile. A furious wind was blowing down through a gap in the hills, filling the street with clouds of dust. On every side stood buildings of all kinds, begun or half finished, and the greater part of them mere canvas sheds, open in front, and covered with all kinds of signs, in all languages. Great quantities of goods were piled up in the open air, for want of a place to store, them. The streets were full of people hurrying to und fro, and of as diverse and bizarre a character as the houses; Yankees of every possible variety, native Californians in scrapes and sombreros, Chilians, Sonorians, Kanakas from Hawaii, Chinese with long tails, Malays armed with their everlasting ereescs, and otKers in whose embrowned and bearded visages it was impossible to recognise any especial nationality. We came at. last into the plaza, now dignified by the name of Portsmouth Square. It lies on I he slant side of the hill, and from a high pole in front of a long ■one-storey adobe building used as the Custom House, the American flag was flying. On the lower side stood the Parker House, an ordinary frame house of about sixty feet front—and toward its entrance we directed our course.” FABULOUS BENTS. Bayard Taylor tells of a chaotic elute of city streets and of all that goes to the making of a metropolis of canvas and packing boxes. He itemises some of the rents during that, feverish year. Tire Parker House yielded a hundred and ten thousand dollars annually, at least sixty thousand of which was paid by, gamblers who held nearly all the second storey. A canvas tent 15 by 25 feet in size, called El Dorado, •was leased to gamblers for forty thousand dollars a year. Provisions and wages were proportionate; extravagance, profligacy and gaming were the order of the day. The winter of 1849 was the most notable in the history of San Franeiacv. The rains were unprecedentedly heavy and the miserable streets became impassable bogs. Horses were hopelessly mired aud left, fo die. Kegs, boxes and rubbish of nil sorts were thrown into the worst mud-boles to form stepping stones for pedestrians. The lent city was of the most temporary and inadequate description. Men leaving fur the mines were obliged Io travel by sailboat up the bay and Sacramento Diver, a tedious journcj' of days and sometimes weeks. Municipal affairs wore in such a state of chaos that at. one (imc there were three town councils in the eiiy. Ont, of all this hnrly Burly and eon-

fusion of the mushroom metropolis, matters were presently reduced to at least a semblance of order. Daring nine months of this year, two hundred and thirty-three ships arrived from the Atlantic eoast, and three hundred and sixteen from Pacific ports. As most of these vessels were deserted by their crews, who all rushed for the mines, the fleet of ships anchored in the harbour made au imposing appearance. A line of •steamers was also put on by the Pacific Mail Steamship Company during this year, leaving monthly by way of Panama. Still, the difficulties of crossing the isthmus by row boat and pack train and the dangers of fever there, made many people prefer the longer route around Cape Horn. 4 THE HOUNDS? During this period of excitement and disorder, an organisation of ruffians known as the "Hounds” terrorised the city. They marched through the streets professing io be upholders of the rights of Americans as against the foreigners, and.- with this pretext to shield them, attacked and looted tents, chiefly of the Mexicans and Chilians. Emboldened by success, they established headquarters, changed their name from Hounds to Hegulators. paraded the streets with drum, fife, and banners by day, and robbed and murdered by night. When, in July, 1849, they had become so fierce and desperate as to terrorise the whole city, a public meeting in Portsmouth Square was called by the Alcalde. Those present formed themselves into a voluntary police force to punish the desperados. Many of the worst offenders were speedily arrested and imprisoned on a ship in the harbour. An impartial jury trial followed, which resulted in the conviction of a. number of the ringleaders to imprisonment with hard labour for varying terms. ORDEAL BY FIHE. To add to the terrors of this memorable year, a destructive fire swept the town, fanned by a high wind, licking up the flimsy houses of frame and canvas. It was but the first of a series of disastrous conflagrations which levelled the city, during its early years. Painted cloth interiors furnished excellent fuel for a big blaze, and once started, the hand engines, worked by a host of resolute young fellows, could make little stand against it. During the three years from 1849 to 1851, six fires devastated the city, involving a loss amounting in some cases to several millions, hut with wonderful energy and courage the ruined citizens went to work each time to rebuild, improving with every bitter experience, until they learned to put up brick buildings with iron shutters ou doors and windows to withstand the fearful ravage of the flames. That some of these Gres were of incendiary origin, no doubt was felt. Despite the suppression of the Hounds, lawlessness grew apace. The rush to the latest goldfields had attracted numbers of fearless criminals from various parts of the world, Australia was a ;>enal colony, and thence in particular came a crowd of villains ready- for robberv. murder, arson, and all desperate deeds. They frequented the water-front saloons about Broadway and Pacific street—a quarter of the city which was known as Sydney Town—and this region became a veritable hotbed of crime. The police were too corrupt and inefficient to cope with the evil. Judges and juries failed in their duty, and although over a hundred murders had been committed, not a criminal had been executed. THE FAMOUS VIGILANCE COMMITTEE. So terrible had the demoralisation of Society become that desperate measures were necessary to restore order. In this period of stress and peril a band of citizens formed the world-famous •Vigilance Committee—an association, as they themselves declared, “for the maintenance of the peace and good order of society, and the preservation of the lives and property of the citizens of San Francisco.” They had been organised but a short time when work was found for them to accomplish. John Jenkins, a member of the gang of Sydney Coves, as the criminals from Australia were termed, entered a water front store one evening and carried off a safe. Pursued,

he teak to a boat. Other boats were close upon his traces when lie threw his plunder overboard and submitted to arrest. The safe was recovered, . thus establishing the guilt of the prisoner beyond a shadow of doubt. He was taken to the rooms of the Vigilance Committee on Battery-street, near Pine. Almost immediately the town was aroused by short sharp double clangs of the Monumental Fire Engine Company’s bell. It was the signal for the Vigilantes to assemble. Swiftly they responded. At the door only those who could give tiie pass-word were admitted. Outside waited the excited crowd, knowing that a dramatic moment in the history of tiie city was at hand. From ten to twelve o’clock they stood about, when, at the midnight hour, a thrill went through the assembled multitude. The hell of the California Engine House was toiling a death-knell. It was nearly an hour later when Mr. Brannan, one of the committee, came out and announced to the people that the prisoner had been tried and found guilty. Within another hour the committee, all armed, marched silently forth from their quarters, guarding the prisoner in their midst. Solemnly they proceeded through those dark streets, followed by the multitude, to the Plaza. A rope was hastily tied about Jenkins’ neck and in a trice the other end was tossed over a projecting timber of a low adobe house. The prisoner was speedily hoisted up and the rope, held in the grasp of willing arms, suspended him for some time after he eeased to move. The thousand spectators looked on in silence until the body was lowered when they quietly dispersed to their homes. The effect of this dramatic episode was electrifying. Most of the soberminded of the community justified the violation of the law. All but one of the papers sustained the Vigilance Committee. It was the spirit of the people asserting itself against crime, but in defiance of constituted authority. Other executions followed in rapid succession during 1851. A month later, another notorious criminal, James Stuart, was tried by the committee for a number of offences, and after receiving the death sentence confessed his crimes and admitted the justice of the punishment. He too had been an Australian convict before coming to San Francisco. Two hours of grace were given him after the passing of judgment, and a minister was left alone with him. The whole committee, four hundred in number, kept the death watch in an adjoining room. Silent, resolute, they waited there. Not a whisper, not a murmur disturbed the awful calm of those two hours. Then the prisoner was brought forth and. closely bound and guarded, was marched to the end of the Market-street Wharf, where he was hung up to a derrick. Two more men were subsequently hanged together from beams out of the windows of the Vigilance Committee rooms, a crowd of six thousand people witnessing the execution. This, with the deportation of many other desperate criminals, ended the work of the first committee and brought a state of tolerable security to life and property out of tiie condition of anarchy which had hitherto existed. STRENUOUS MEASURES. Tn 1856 the disordered state of society called a second time for strenuous measures and the Vigilance Committee was revived. Politics were at this period shockingly corrupt, and professional ballot- box staffers plied their vocation with impunity. A champion of the people and of order arose in the person of James King, the popular editor of the “ Bulletin.” When, one day, the “ Bulletin” made a statement, undoubtedly true, that a certain officeholder named Casey had served a term in Sing Sing Prison, the individual cited attempted to clear his reputation by a personal attack on the editor. He therefore shot and fatally wounded. King, who died in a few days. Again the Vigilance Committee formed, larger, stronger and better organised than before. They went to work in the same cool determined way to mete out justice and restore order. The execution, after due trial, of Casey and another desperate criminal, Cora. followed. Dangerous and disagreeable as was the work of the committee, they did not flinch in their attempt to supplant the

law with a more just and effective tribunal. The spectacle of an organised body of the most respected citizens, formed to act in defiance of law for the establishment of order in the community. has no parallel in history. They assumed full responsibility for their actions, their names were published with their sanction, and they incurred heavy personal expense and the danger of violent retaliation both from the desperate men whom they punished and the law which they defied.

The second t ignanee Committee ended its work amid great enthusiasm on August the eighteenth, 1856. The city was crowded with sightseers from the surrounding country.' Flags and bunting brightened the streets. So strong had the organisation become that over five thousand armed men passed the reviewing stand of the Executive Committee, including infantry, cavalry and artillery, all equipped for action. After the parade the Vigilance Committee disbanded, having done its work so thoroughly that a different moral tone pervaded the community. During this period, and in fact ever since 1852, when the gold output of California culminated in eighty-five million two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, a period of great depression occurred in San Francisco. Although over seventy-four million dollars’ worth of gold were obtained in 1853 people became alarmed at the decline. Miners began to economise, trade fell off, the tide of immigration ceased, and after a year or two even turned the other way. Business houses failed: Meigg.s. the financier and promoter of North Beach, became a defaulter for immense sums, and made his dramatic flight to Tahiti and South America. The whole situation in San Francisco looked ■•blue enough. It was not until the Bonanza days of the Civil War that a revival of prosperity came to the city.

Thus toiled the Argonauts for the golden fleece of El Dorado, and thus out of chaos and the strenuous life of the frontier grew modern San Francisco. THE RAILROAD AND BONANZA' KINGS. After the decline in gold production in 1853, San Francisco passed through a period of comparative quiet and readjustment. In spite of the fact that for a number of years the annual gold output continued above fifty million dollars, public confidence in the boundless nature of the supply declined. Dull times fell upon-San Francisco until the exciting days of the Civil War, when union or secession became a burning issue. During the stirring times before the war, the eagerness to receive news and to communicate with far-away frineds became so great that the pony express was started. Hardy riders carried the mail bags on fast broncos all the long and dangerous way from Sacramento to St. Joseph, Missouri, the western terminus of the railroad. The distance was covered in the surprisingly, short interval of ten and a-half days, making the time from San Francisco to New York only thirteen days. Still the people of California realised the necessity for closer relations with, their kinsmen across the Rocky Mountains. and a railroad was the issue of the day. After the decline of gold in California, speculative interest in the precious metals was revived by the discovery in Nevada of vast deposits of silver. As these mines were largely owned and controlled in San Francisco, the market in silver stocks became a gambling enterprise on a vast scale. Fortunes were made and lost in a day, and the prosperity of San Franciseo was dependent upon the reports of the outlook in Virginia City.

Happily for California the day fas peer when her prosperity is dependent ■pon lucky mining strikes. The mineral output of the State for 1900 was ever thirty-two million dollars, no inconsiderable sum even in comparison jwith the great yields of the past, but to-day the State relies upon such a diversity of products that the vicissitudes of mining eannot shake her. In 1900 the vahie of the cured fruit crop .was eleven million dollars, only four million less than the gold output for the same year, and this is but an Index pf the productiveness in other horticultural and pastoral lines. Wheat, wool, oil, borax, beet-sugar, lumber, and building stone are among the manv products which contribute to the wealth of California. A BEAUTIFUL CITY. Coining back to the city as it stood last week. Occupying as it does the end of a peninsula flanked by ocean and bay, San Francisco is built in a large part upon the hills, which look one way towards the ocean and the other towards the glorious bay of San Francisco, an almost land locked stretch of water averaging 100 ft deep with a bar having a depth of about 30ft. Mud flats formerly ran out from the shifting sand bills, which occupied the water front. The sand hills were cut down and dumped upon the mud flats, and on this made ground the wholesale section of the city has been built. Ships were dismantled, hauled ashore and used as foundations for huge buildings. It is not improbable that it was this section which suffered most severely, since buildings on made ground are always less stable than those built on a natural foundation. In architecture the city is iu a transition period, the evolution from canvas to brick and steel through wood still going on. The tents of ’49 reluctantly gave place to wood, and the wood has been sl»w to make way for brick, steel and ■tone. Wood being plentiful, and the

climate mild, a large number of residences and business places were constructed of timber. FEAR OF EARTHQUAKES. After the earthquake of 1863, and the minor succeeding shocks, fear of earthquakes was delevoped, and many lowwooden structures were built as being best suited to withstand the shocks. Consequently, San Francisco is of a squat order of architecture with the exception of a number of recently-con-structed buildings of wood, brick, steel and stone. The earthquake fear was beginning to die out as the result of the 40 years’ immunity from accident. It was noted that in all the city's history the casualties from earthquakes had not been as many as the deaths from sunstroke in a single hour iu a city of similar size in other States, and the damage to buildings was not great. A “little jiggle,” as the inhabitants were wont to term it, set the nerves tingling at times, but San Franciscans grew to regard these little disturbances with a mild complacency, “We’ll keep our earthquakes and let other cities have their sunstrokes and thunderbolts,'’ was the satisfied comment of the citizens; and just when the sense of security was firmly established, it has been uprooted by this severest of all shocks. Consequent on the dissipation of the earthquake fear a marked betterment has been noticeable in the character of the architecture. A MANUFACTURING CENTRE. San Francisco is the financial, trade, and educational centre of the entire Pacific Coast, its business being 78 per eent. of the imports and 55 of the exports of the Coast. It is the third port in commercial importance in the States. Its taxable property amounts to four hundred million dollars, and its factories produced 134 million dollars worth of material every year. Wheat forms one of the largest items of export, about a million tons being exported annually. San Francisco’s "life as a city is but a little more than 50

years, but the growth has l>ceu steady and remarkably rapid, enormous increases in population being noted at every census. THE WATER-FRONT. There was no more cosmopolitan water-front in the world than that of San Francisco. Schooners with live masts all of a size, and with scanty upper rigging, discharged pine from Puget Sound alongside English' steel ships deep-laden with coal. Itakish brigs from the South Seas were wont to crowd beside stumpy green flat-bottom sloops which plied in the bay. Clumsy old stern paddle river steamers crossed the tracks of the most up-to-date ferry steamers in the world. Huge wharves and docks run out from the ends of a score and a-half of streets, and the great ferry building, with its many jetties, fdls up no small portion of the water line. The most picturesque spot on the harbour is Fishermen’s Wharf, where the (.’reek fishers moor their little decked boats, rigged with graceful lateen sails. Their brown three-cornered sails dot the bay at all hours, returning at sundown like a fleet of seabirds scudding before the wind to their roost, throwing a spell of the Mediterranean over this far haen. The bigger shipping companies have their accustomed wharves, while the usual shipping ofliees and stores line the harbour front. SAN FRANCISCO BUILDINGS. During the course of a conversation with a “Post” representative. Mr. Frank Coffee, of Sydney, who is at present on a visit to Wellington, and who was a resident of San Francisco for several years, said that San hraneiscc ha I fewer skyscraping bull lings than any other city in the United States. It was only of late that the many-storied edifice was being erected in California’s capital. The Palaee Hotel, which is also amongst the buildings destroyed, was the favourite place of residence of

Australians and . New Zealanders, aod was a fine structure. St. Frances’ Hotel comprises tiro buildings each thirteen stories high, one of which has just been completed. There are 3’25.000 peoplo residing inside the city limits, cud of these not a few are Italians, Portuguese and Chinese. NEWSPAPER ANGLE.’’ Just where the busiest life of San Francisco centres, in Market-street, at the corner of Third Kearny-street and Geary-street, the holocaust has been awful in its completeness. Here were clustered the three morning papers, the “Call.” the “Chronicle,” and the “Examiner,’ and close beside stood the Palace Hotel, while the Grand Opera House was within striking distance of the “Call” tower. Al) these buildings, the costliest and most striking in San Francisco, lie in one confused general ruin, and “Newspaper Angle,” the finest architectural feature of the business district, after being levelled by earthquake, has gone up in smoke. The ‘’Chronicle” building was a fine structure of red sandstone and brick, surmounted by a high clock tower. It was ten storeys high, and formed a well-known city landmark. It occupied a - commanding, corner position, overlapping its nearest neighbours by many storeys. The “Examiner” building, owned by Mr Wm. Hearst, was built in the Spanish style with simple plaster walls, and deep-recessed portico at the top. It was nine storeys high, and was fitted up in the most up-to-date manner possible. The “Call” building was described yesterday. It stood It) storeys high, the height to the top of the dome being 310 ft, while the main cornice was 210 ft above the street level. Its daily population was about 500 souls. THE MINT. The U.S. Branch Mint, at Fifth and Mission streets, in the business quarter, was a substantial three, storeyed building, its architecture being a combination

of Dorie aud louie. Its portico, flanked by six fluted columns, wu approached by a flight of granite steps. The basement was of granite, and the two upper storeys of a bluish grey sandstone, the building occupying the whole of the end of one block, thus fronting three streets. It was the largest mint in America, by reason of the large gold output of California, the annual value of coin turned out being twenty-five to thirty-five million dollars. The coinage was nearly nil silver and gold, copper having but a limited use for the purchase of postage Ftainps. Very little paper money is in circulation in California, al! business being conducted in gold and silver coins. ST. IGNATIUS CHURCH. The Church of St. Ignatius, which stood on the corner of Van Ness Avenue and Hayes-street, was tiie largest and most imposing of all the sacred, edifices of San Francisco. It reared itself to a height of four huge storeys, with a double spire in the main front, and a second wing at the rear for college and general instruction purposes. The spires were 275 ft. high, and the organ, the second largest in the United States, contained 5350 pipes. It was a Roman Catholic edifice, and exceeded in size and beauty the Cathedral St. Mary’s. SPRECKELS BUILDING. usually known as the “Call" office, Mr Spreckels being proprietor of that daily, was the tallest building in San Francisco, having eighteen storeys. It was built of steel and stone, ihe huge framework being of steel and the intervening spaces being of stone. It was situated in Market-street, the great street which practically bisects San Francisco, and overtopped all the structures in its neighbourhood, its dome being one of the most striking features in the panorama of the city. The building forms the finest architectural feature of the business district. KearnyBtreet, adjacent to the “Call” building, opened un during one of the previous earthquake shocks. ROST OFFICE. The Post Office is a new building, having been erected during the last few years, at the corner of Seventh and .Mission streets. Il was a strikingly handsome building, built in stone to an elaborate design. PALACE HOTEL. The Palace Hotel was the largest and most noted of all the San Franciscan Hotels, being a splendid building and elaborately furnished. It had accommodation for over 1000 guests, and ran to a height of about ten storeys, practically filling a block. The building has for years been one of the landmarks of San Francisco. It was big and hulging. but its interior design made it stand alone among Western American hotels. The great central court opened to the sky. light, with a balcony bordering each floor. In the midst was an immense palm, and the spacious court was mar-ble-paved. Behind a screen of palms and glass were dining tables, where one might have a meal instead of going to the restaurant or grill room. A cosmopolitan crowd was daily seen at the office of the hotel, where one might find endless typos of humanity to delight and interest the student of mankind. J GRAND OPERA HOUSE. The Grand Opera House was near the "Call” buildings, between Third and fourth streets. and was a very fine and well arranged building. It would hold about 4000 people, and was an up-to-date building of recent design. Light opera wx.< produced all the year round, with Occasional seasons of grand opera. OAKLAND. Oakland is the largest city in the near neighbourhood of San Francisco, its population being about 80.000. It lies across the great Bay of San Francisxt, six miles by boat, and a like distance by train separating the two cities. Every 15 minutes during the daylight a great ferry boat leaves the San Franciscan shore, passing a return vessel each trip. These boats accommodate up to 2000 people, and every day 40,000 people cross the bay, while on special occasions tha travel has been as great as 100,000 a

day. Oakland is to a large extent a manufacturing town, and with its estuary for deep water shipping, with shipyards for the building and repairing of vessels, and every facility for loading and unloading ships, it is peculiarly well located for a commercial centre. It is the metropolis of Alameda County, one of the most productive districts of a remarkably productive State. BERKELEY AND THE STATE UNIVERSITY. Berkeley, the suburb reported to have escaped, lies on the hills opposite the Golden Gate. A suburb of striking beauty, it contained some of the most artistic homes in California. It commands a glorious prospect of rolling mountains and far spread bays, and its growth has been remarkable, new residences springing up on every hand with wonderful rapidity. It has a climate softer even than that, of San Frajoeisco, the most truly temperate climate imaginable. Entirely a residential quarter, its beauty of view and climate have attracted people from all parts of the United States, many of whom have made their home where they' intended to pay but a brief visit. Just where a beautiful canon in the Berkeley Bills descends to the plain, upon the gently rising slope which leads up from the Bay shore, two miles distant, a tract of 285 acres was set apart for the University of California. This university was. with the sole exception of Harvard, the largest in point of numbers of students in the United States. In the past twelve years it has grown sixfold, with the result that in point of population California had more students within her confines than any state of the union. Mrs Hearst, wife of millionaire Win. Hearst, the proprietor of numerous American “yellow” journals, has been a generous friend to the institution, several hundreds of thousands of dollars having been placed at the disposal of the governors of the university by her. The year before last the Hearst Alining Building, the first of a new group of magnificent buildings designed to replace the many temporary buildings perforce erected, was erected, and work on other sections of the great series of structures was iu hand. Three Auckland boys. Messrs. Rhodes. Northcroft, and Arnold, are at present undergoing a graduate’s course at ths University of California. A TOWN IN RUINS. Santa Rosa was a town of 11,000 inhabitants in the Sacramento Valley, near Napa. It lay in the middle of a great vine, fruit and grain district. It lies towards Petaluma, about 160 miles from San Franeisco. Practically the whole town has been laid in ruins, since the cable reports that ten thousand people are homeless. CLIFF HOUSE. Cliff House, as its name implies, stood on the cliffs outside the Golden Gate, overlooking the ocean, its immense pile forming a landmark visible for many miles at sea. Its western windows overhung the Pacific, whose huge breakers thundered at its base rt was a wellknown pleasure resort, and was daily visited by large numbers of holidaymakers.