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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/2504-h.zip b/2504-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..798ba47 --- /dev/null +++ b/2504-h.zip diff --git a/2504-h/2504-h.htm b/2504-h/2504-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f3418b9 --- /dev/null +++ b/2504-h/2504-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1445 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="us-ascii"?> + +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" > + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en"> + <head> + <title> + Some Cities and San Francisco And Resurgam, by Hubert Howe Bancroft + </title> + <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve"> + + body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify} + P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; } + hr { width: 50%; text-align: center;} + .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; } + blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + .mynote {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;} + .toc { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;} + .toc2 { margin-left: 20%;} + div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; } + div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; } + .figleft {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;} + .figright {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;} + .pagenum {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal; + margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%; + text-align: right;} + pre { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;} + +</style> + </head> + <body> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Some Cities and San Francisco and Resurgam, by +Hubert Howe Bancroft + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Some Cities and San Francisco and Resurgam + +Author: Hubert Howe Bancroft + +Release Date: January 2, 2009 [EBook #2504] +Last Updated: January 25, 2013 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SOME CITIES *** + + + + +Produced by David A. Schwan, and David Widger + + + + + + +</pre> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h1> + SOME CITIES AND SAN FRANCISCO<br /><br />AND RESURGAM + </h1> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <h2> + By Hubert Howe Bancroft + </h2> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <h3> + Contents + </h3> + <table summary="" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto"> + <tr> + <td> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0001"> SOME CITIES AND SAN FRANCISCO </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0002"> RESURGAM </a> + </p> + </td> + </tr> + </table> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0001" id="link2H_4_0001"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <h2> + SOME CITIES AND SAN FRANCISCO + </h2> + <p> + There had been some discussion as to improving and beautifying the city of + San Francisco prior to the catastrophe of April 18th. Landscape architects + had been consulted, proposals considered, and preliminary plans drawn. + Therefore when on that day the city was swept by fire, obviously it was + the opportune moment for the requisite changes in the rebuilding. For a + brief period enthusiasm waxed warm. It helped to mitigate the blow, this + fencing with fate. Let the earth shake, and fires burn, we will have here + our city, better and more beautiful than ever—and more valuable—an + imperial city of steel it shall be, and thus will we get even with the + misfortunes of this day. + </p> + <p> + Reform in the rebuilding was needed, whatever should be the scale of + beauty or utility decided upon. Fifty years ago the elevating influences + of tasteful environment were not so highly appreciated as now, and all + large cities are fifty years old or more. All large cities, as a rule, had + their beginning with narrow, crooked streets and mean houses. In Europe + and Asia there are aggregations of humanity whose domiciles have remained + unchanged, one might almost say uncleansed, for hundreds or thousands of + years, or ever since their mythical beginning, save only for the covering + of the debris of dead centuries. + </p> + <p> + These ancient towns, mostly offspring of feudalism, begun under castle + walls and continued after walls and castle had crumbled, as their area + enlarged, with some improvement, perhaps, in the suburban parts, still + retained this patch of mediaevalism, until obliterated by war, or fire, or + later by modern progress. Look at Edinburgh, for example. With all its + Scotch thrift and neatness, there yet remains the ill-conditioned and once + filthy quarter, beside which rise the old-time ten-story houses built into + the hillside, while in the modern part of the city in sharp contrast are + broad streets and open squares and fine buildings. + </p> + <p> + In America the birth of towns is quite different. Here are no plantings of + trembling poverty under lordly walls, but bold pioneering, forecasting + agriculture and commerce; no Babel building, with "Go to, let us build + here a Cleveland or a Cincinnati," but rather, "Here for the present we + will abide." If, however, serfdom and mediaevalism were absent in New + World town-planting, so also were aestheticism or any appreciation of the + beautiful apart from the useful. Old cities require reconstruction to make + them what modern taste and intelligence demand; settlements in their + incipiency are dominated by their sturdy founders, who usually have other + things to think about than beauty and adornment. + </p> + <p> + In this day of great wealth and wonderful inventions we realize more and + more the value of the city to mankind, and the quality of the city as a + means of culture. Cities are not merely marts of commerce; they stand for + civility; they are civilization itself. No untried naked Adam in Eden + might ever pass for a civilized man. The city street is the school of + philosophy, of art, of letters; city society is the home of refinement. + When the rustic visits the city he puts on his best clothes and his best + manners. In their reciprocal relations the city is as men make it, while + from the citizen one may determine the quality of the city. The atmosphere + of the city is an eternal force. Therefore as we value the refinement of + the human mind, the enlargement of the human heart, we shall value the + city, and strive so to build, and adorn, and purify, that it may achieve + its ultimate endeavor. + </p> + <p> + Civic betterment has long been in progress among the more civilized + communities through the influence of cultured people capable of + appreciating the commercial as well as the aesthetical value of art. Vast + sums have been spent and great results accomplished, but they are nothing + as compared with the work yet to be done—work which will continue + through the ages and be finished only with the end of time. + </p> + <p> + And not only will larger wealth be yet more freely poured out on artistic + adornment, but such use of money will be regarded as the best to which it + can be applied. For though gold is not beautiful it can make beauty, even + that beauty which elevates and ennobles, which purifies the mind and + inspires the soul. Progress is rapid in this direction as in many others. + A breach of good taste in public works will ere long be adjudged a crime. + For already mediaeval mud has ceased to be fashionable, and the + picturesque in urban ugliness is picturesque no longer. All the capitals + of Europe have had to be made over, Haussmannized, once or several times. + Our own national capital we should scarcely be satisfied with as its + illustrious founder left it. + </p> + <p> + It is a hopeful sign amidst some discouraging ones that wealth as a social + factor and measure of merit is losing something of its prestige; that it + is no longer regarded by the average citizen as the supreme good, or the + pursuit of it the supreme aim in life; there are so many things worth more + than money, so many human aspirations and acquirements worthy of higher + considerations than the inordinate cravings of graft and greed. Hoarded + wealth especially is not so worshipful to-day as it was yesterday, while + the beautiful still grows in grace—the beautiful and the useful, + compelling improvement, always engendered by improved environment. + </p> + <p> + Some cities are born in the purple—rare exceptions to the rule. San + Francisco is not one of these. St. Petersburg, the city of palaces, of + broad avenues and granite-faced quays, whose greatest afflictions are the + occasional overflow of the Neva and the dynamite habit, was spoken into + being by a monarch. Necessity stands sponsor for Venice, the beautiful, + with her streets of water-ways and airs of heavenly harmony; while nature + herself may claim motherhood of Swedish Stockholm, brilliant with + intermingling lakes islands and canals, rocks hills and forests, rendering + escape from the picturesque impossible. + </p> + <p> + Penn planted his Quakers about 1682, long before many of the present large + cities in America were begun, yet Philadelphia was one of the few sketched + in such generous proportions that little change was afterwards necessary + to make it one of the most spacious of urban commonwealths. With this + example before him came in 1791, more than a century later, the father of + his country, who permitted his surveyors so injudiciously to cover the + spot on the Potomac which he had chosen for the capital city of the + republic as to require much expensive remodeling later. Yet what American + can drive about Washington now and say it is not worth the cost? Further, + as an example, the repeated reconstruction and adornment of the national + capital by Congress are priceless to the whole United States, the + government therein bearing witness to the value of the beautiful. And if + of value on the Potomac, is it not equally so at the portal of the + Pacific? + </p> + <p> + A few other cities there have been which have arisen at the command of + man, potentate or pirate, besides those of the quaker Penn and the tzar + Peter—Alexandria, the old and the new, with Constantinople between; + the first by order of the poor world conqueror, at the hand of the + architect Dinocrates, two or three centuries before Caesar, Cleopatra, and + Antony, but made fit for them and their chariots by streets a hundred feet + wide. + </p> + <p> + The Danube is the mother of many cities, directing the destiny of nations, + from the Iron Gate to the Golden Horn. Vienna has been made brilliantly + modern since 1858. Beside the sufferings of Constantinople our little + calamity seems tame. Seven times during the last half century the city has + been swept by fire, not to mention earthquakes, or pestilence, which on + one occasion took with it three hundred thousand lives. Yet all the while + it grows in magnificence faster than the invisible enemies of Mohammed can + destroy it. But for these purifying fires the city would still be one of + narrow, filthy streets and vile smells, reeking with malaria. The Golden + Horn of the Bosporus possesses no greater natural advantages than the + Golden Gate of San Francisco, nor even so great. The industrial + potentialities of the former are not to be compared with those of the + latter, while for healthful airs and charming environment we have all that + earth can give, and therewith should be content. + </p> + <p> + Cities have been made as the marquis of Bute made Cardiff, by constructing + a dock, and ship canal, and converting the ancient castle into a modern + palace. Many towns have been started as railway stations, but few of them + attained importance. Steamboat landings have been more fortunate. Some + cities owe their origin to war, some to commerce, and not a few to + manufactures. Fanaticism has played a part, as in India and parts of + Africa, where are nestings of half-savage humanity with a touch of the + heavenly in the air. Less disciplined are these than zion—towns, but + nearer the happiness of insensibility—the white—marbled and + jeweled Taj Mahal, Agra on the Jumna, and Delhi, making immortal Jehan the + builder, with his pearl mosque and palace housing the + thirty-million-dollar peacock throne; Benares, on the Ganges, a series of + terraces and long stone steps extending upward from the holy water, while + rising yet higher in the background are temples, towers, mosques, and + palaces, all in oriental splendor. Algiers, likewise, an amphitheatre in + form, might give San Francisco lessons in terrace construction, having + hillsides covered with them, the scene made yet more striking by the + dazzling white of the houses. After the place became French, the streets + were widened and arcades established in the lower part. + </p> + <p> + In fact, the French believe in the utility of beauty, and in Paris at + least they make it pay. The entire expenses of the municipal government, + including police and public works, are met by the spendings of visitors. + To their dissolute monarchs were due such creations as the Tuileries, the + Louvre, and Versailles. Have we not dissolute millionaires enough to give + us at least one fine city? + </p> + <p> + London and Paris stand out in bold contrast, the one for utility, the + other for beauty. Both are adepts in their respective arts. The city + proper of London has better buildings and cleaner streets than when St. + Paul was erected; otherwise it is much the same. Elsewhere in London, + however, are spacious parks and imposing palaces, with now and then a fine + bit of something to look out upon, as the bridges of the murky Thames, the + Parliament houses, the Abbey, Somerset house, and Piccadilly, perhaps. + Children may play at the Zoo, while grown-ups sit in hired chairs under + the trees. + </p> + <p> + Three times London was destroyed by the plague, and five times by fire, + that of 1666 lasting four days, and covering thrice the area of the San + Francisco conflagration; yet it was rebuilt better than before in three + and a half years. Always the city is improved in the rebuilding; how much, + depends upon the intelligence and enterprise of the people. + </p> + <p> + Paris is brilliant with everything that takes the eye—palaces, + arches, Bon Marche shops, arcades, colonnades, great open spaces adorned + with statues, forest parks, elysian driveways, and broad boulevards cut + through mediaeval quarters in every direction, as well for air as for + protection from the canaille blockaded in the narrow streets. San + Francisco may have some canaille of her own to boast of one of these days; + canaille engendered from the scum of Europe and Asia, and educated at our + expense for our destruction. Over and over, these two cities, each a world + metropolis, have been renovated and reconstructed, the work in fact going + on continuously. + </p> + <p> + For some of the most effective of our urban elaborations we must go back + to the first of city builders of whom we have knowledge. The Assyrians + made terraces, nature teaching them. On the level plain building ground + was raised forty feet for effect. Like all artists of precivilization, the + Assyrians placed adornment before convenience, as appeared in Nineveh on + the Tigris and Babylon on the Euphrates. At Thebes and Palmyra it was the + same, their palaces of alabaster, if one chooses to believe what is said, + covering, some of them, a hundred acres. The fashion now is to build + upward rather than outward. Besides this alabaster acreage there are to be + taken into account the pyramids, artificial mountains, and endless + towertowns, supposed to be an improvement on whatever existed before their + time. Around the Mediterranean and over India way were once hundreds of + charming places like the Megara suburb of Carthage and the amphitheatre of + Rhodes, prolific in classic art and architecture, precious gifts of the + gods. + </p> + <p> + But before all other gods or gifts comes Athens, where the men were as + gods and the gods very like the men. Encircling the Acropolis hill—most + ancient cities had their central hill—the city owes its grandeur to + the many temples dedicated to the Olympian deities by the men who made + them, made both deities and temples, that long line of philosophers the + sublimity of whose thoughts civilization fed on and found expression in + the genius of now and then a Pericles or a Phidias. + </p> + <p> + Twenty times Rome suffered, each time worse than ever befell an American + city, the debris of destruction overspreading her sacred soil some fathoms + deep, yet all the while mistress of the world. + </p> + <p> + The Moors in Spain reconstructed and embellished many cities, and built + many entire. To them Spain owes her finest specimens of art and + architecture, as Seville, Cordova, and the Alhambra. In Naples the + mediaeval still overshadows the modern. The city needs cleansing, though + she flourishes in her filth and volcanic belchings. Nice, like Paris, + plans to please her guests. Berlin was a little late with her + reconstructive work; the town walls were not removed till 1866. Though + dating from 1190, Glasgow is practically modern, having been several times + renovated by fire. Antwerp, burned in 1871, was quickly rebuilt. The Hague + is charming as the city of peace. Munich, on the Isar, is every day + drifting into the beautiful, not to say aesthetical. + </p> + <p> + Pekin is a city sui generis, with its Kin-Ching, or prohibited city, + sacred to royalty; its Hwang-Ching, or imperial city, exclusively for + court officials; its Tartar division and Chinese division, all completed + according to the grand khan and Confucius. Happy Celestials! There is + nothing more to be done, nothing to reconstruct, nothing to improve; it + stands alone, the only city in all the world that is absolutely finished + and perfect. But of a truth our public works sink into insignificance + beside those of the ancient barbarians, the great wall and canal of China, + the pyramids of Egypt, and the brilliant cities of Assyria and Palmyra. + </p> + <p> + The cities of Australia—Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide—in common + with all those of the British colonies, are laid out along liberal lines, + with broad streets, parks, public squares, and beautiful modern buildings, + requiring little change for many years to come. The English part of + Calcutta is a city of palaces, built from the spoils of subjugation. + Yokohama was a small fishing station when Commodore Perry called there in + 1854. + </p> + <p> + In the New World as in the Old, from John Cotton to Joseph Smith, religion + with cupidity inspires. One William Blaxton in 1630 lived where Boston now + is, and invited thither Winthrop and his colonists. When banished from + Massachusetts, Roger Williams stepped ashore on the bank of the Seekonk, + on a rock where is now Providence. The French built a fort where Marquette + camped in 1673, and there is now Chicago. Buffalo was a military post in + 1812. St. Paul was an Indian trading station prior to 1838. The building + of Fort Washington was followed by settlers and Cincinnati was begun. + Henry Hudson touched at Manhattan island in 1609, and the Dutch following, + New York was the result. Brigham Young, journeying westward, came to the + Great Salt Lake, where, as he told his followers, he was instructed by + divine revelation to plant the City of the Saints. It proved more + permanent than might have been expected, as zion—cities usually are + quite ephemeral affairs. + </p> + <p> + Boston, the beneficial, swept by fires, smallpox, witchcraft, quakerism, + snowstorms, earthquakes, and proslavery riots, still lives to meditate + upon her own superiority and to instruct mankind. Much attention has been + given of late in Boston and suburban towns to artistic effect in street + architecture. Until recently New York has given but little thought to + pleasing effects. Broadway was not broad, and Fifth Avenue was not + striking. Of late, however, the city has become imperial, houses parks and + driveways being among the finest in the world. New Orleans has survived at + least a dozen great yellow-fever crises since 1812, population meanwhile + increasing twentyfold. After the enforced construction of the levee, the + idea came to some one that the top of it would make a fine driveway, which + in due time was extended from the river and bayous to the lake, thus + becoming the most attractive feature of the place. Though not without + natural attractions, Chicago was not made by or for her things of beauty. + Beginning with low wooden houses along dirty streets, transformations were + continued until systems of parks and boulevards with elegant edifices came + into view,—which shows that, however material the beginning of + American towns may be, if prosperity comes the aesthetical is sure to come + with it. A contrast to Chicago may be found in St. Louis, for a long time + trading-post town and city, which would be of more importance now were her + people of a different quality. Even her chronic calamities, tornadoes, + floods, and epidemics, fail to rouse her energies, so that Chicago, + starting later and under more adverse circumstances, outstripped her in + every particular. Cleveland was laid out for a fine city, so that as she + grew little alteration was found necessary. The streets are wide, 80 to + 120 feet—Superior Street 132 feet—and so abundant is the + foliage, largely maple, that it is called the Forest city. + </p> + <p> + As an instance of modern aesthetic town construction one might cite + Denver, a western Yankee metropolis of ultrarefined men and women from + down Boston way, breathing a nomenclature never so freely used before + among mid-continent mountains, streets, schoolhouses, parks, and gardens—all + alive with the names of New England poets, philosophers, and statesmen. + Scarcely yet turned the half century in age, few such charming cities as + Denver have been made with fewer mistakes. + </p> + <p> + San Francisco at her birth and christening had for godfather neither + prince nor priest, nor any cultured coterie. The sandy peninsula, on whose + inner edge, at the cove called Yerba Buena, stood some hide and tallow + stores and fur depots which drew to them the stragglers that passed that + way, was about as ill-omened a spot as the one designated by the + snake-devouring eagle perched upon an island cactus as the place where the + wandering Aztecs should rest and build their city of Mexico. San + Francisco's godparents were but common humanity, traders and adventurers, + later gold-seekers and pot politicians, intelligent, bold, and for the + most part honest; few intending long to remain, few dreaming of the great + city to arise here; few caring how the town should be made, if one were + made at all. When was improvised an alcalde after the Mexican fashion, and + two boards of aldermen were established after the New York fashion, and + the high officials saw that they could now and then pick up a + twenty-five-dollar fee for deeding a fifty vara lot, if so be they had on + hand some fifty varas, they forthwith went to work to make them by drawing + lines in front of the cove and intersecting them at right angles by lines + running up over the hills, giving their own names, with a sprinkling of + the names of bear-flag heroes, not forgetting the usual Washington and + Jackson, leaving in the centre a plaza, the cove in front to be filled in + later. The streets were narrow, dusty in summer and miry in winter. + Spanish-American streets are usually thirty-six feet wide. Winding trails + led from the Presidio to the Mission, and from Mission and Presidio to the + cove. This was the beginning of San Francisco, which a merciful providence + has five times burned, the original shacks and their successors, the last + time thoroughly, giving the inhabitants the opportunity to build something + better. + </p> + <p> + All this time the matchless bay and inviting shores awaited the coming of + those who should aid in the accomplishment of their high destiny. Situated + on the Pacific relatively as is New York on the Atlantic, the natural + gateway with its unique portal between the old East and the new West, the + only outlet for the drainage of thousands of square miles of garden lands + and grain fields, a harbor in the world's center of highest development, + with no other to speak of within five hundred miles on either side; + dominator of the greatest of oceans, waters more spacious than those of + Rio, airs of purple haze sweeter than those of Italy, hills islands and + shore lines more sublime than any of Greece—all this time these + benefactions of nature have awaited the appreciation and action of those + who for their own benefit and the benefit of the nation would utilize + them. Are they here now, these new city-builders, or must San Francisco + wait for another generation? + </p> + <p> + They must be men of broad minds, for this is no ordinary problem to be + worked out. It is certain that in the near or distant future there will be + here a very large and very wealthy city, probably the largest and + wealthiest in the world. The whole of the peninsula will be covered, and + as much more space beyond it, and around the bay shores to and beyond + Carquinez strait. Viewed in the light of history and progressional + phenomena, this is the only rational conclusion. + </p> + <p> + Always the march of intellectual development has been from east to west, + the old East dying as the new West bursts into being, until now west is + east, and the final issue must here be met. In the advent and progress of + civilization there was first the Mediterranean, then the Atlantic, and + then the Pacific, the last the greatest of all. What else is possible? + Where else on this planet is man to go for his ultimate achievement? + </p> + <p> + Conviction comes slowly in such cases, and properly so. Yet in forecasting + the future from the light of the past cavilers can scarcely go farther + afield than our worshipful forbears, who less than a century ago, on the + floor of the United States congress, decried as absurd settlement beyond + the Missouri, ridiculed buying half a continent of worthless Northwest + wilderness, thanked God for the Rocky mountain barrier to man's + presumption, scouted at a possible wagon road, not to say railway, across + the continent, lamented the unprofitable theft of California, and cursed + the Alaska purchase as money worse than thrown away. In view of what has + been and is, can anyone call it a Utopian dream to picture the Pacific + bordered by an advanced civilization with cities more brilliant than any + of the ancient East, more opulent than any of the cultured West? + </p> + <p> + Rio de Janeiro! what have the Brazilians been doing these last decades? + Decapitating politically dear Dom Pedro, true patriot, though emperor—he + came to me once in my library, pouring out his soul for his beloved Brazil—they + abolished slavery, formed a republic, and modernized the city. They made + boulevards and water drives, the finest in the world. They cut through the + heart of the old town a new Avenida Central, over a mile in length and one + hundred and ten feet wide, lining it on either side with palatial business + houses and costly residences, paving the thoroughfare with asphalt and + adorning it with artistic fixtures for illumination, the street work being + completed in eighteen months. Strangling in their incipiency graft and + greed, after kindly dismissing Dom Pedro with well-filled pockets for + home, these Portuguese brought out their money and spent hundreds of + millions in improving their city, with hundreds of millions left which + they have yet to spend. Thus did these of the Latin race, whom we regard + as less Bostonian than ourselves. + </p> + <p> + With this brief glance at other cities of present and other times, and + having in view the part played by environment in the trend of refining + influences, and remembering further, following the spirit of the times, + that nothing within the scope of human power to accomplish is too vast, or + too valuable, or too advanced for the purpose, it remains with the people + of San Francisco to determine what they will do. + </p> + <p> + It is not necessary to speak of the city's present or future requirements, + as sea water on the bills, and fresh water with electric power from the + Sierra; sea wall, docks, and water-way drives; widened streets and winding + boulevards; embellished hillsides and hilltops; bay tunnels and union + railway station; bay and ocean boating and bathing; arches and arcades; + park strips or boulevards cutting through slums, and the nests of filthy + foreigners, bordered on either side by structures characteristic of their + country—all this and more will come to those who shall have the + matter in charge. The pressing need now is a general plan for all to work + to; this, and taking the reconstruction of the city out of politics and + placing it in the hands of responsible business men. + </p> + <p> + If the people and government of the United States will consider for a + moment the importance to the nation of a well-fortified and imposing city + and seaport at San Francisco bay; the importance to the army and navy, to + art and science, to commerce and manufactures; of the effect of a city + with its broad surroundings, at once elegant and impressive, upon the + nations round the Pacific and on all the world, there should be little + trouble in its accomplishment. + </p> + <p> + And be it remembered that whatever San Francisco, her citizens and her + lovers, do now or neglect to do in this present regeneration will be felt + for good or ill to remotest ages. Let us build and rebuild accordingly, + bearing in mind that the new San Francisco is to stand forever before the + world as the measure of the civic taste and intelligence of her people. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + RESURGAM + </h2> + <p> + The question has been oftener asked than answered, why Chicago should have + grown in wealth and population so much faster than St. Louis, or New + Orleans, or San Francisco. It is not enough to point to her position on + the lakes, the wide extent of contributory industries, and the convergence + of railways; other cities have at their command as great natural + advantages with like limitless opportunity. As to location, city sites are + seldom chosen by convention, or the fittest spots favored. Chicagoans + assert that a worse place than theirs for a city cannot be found on the + shores of Lake Michigan. New York would be better up the Hudson, London in + Bristol channel, and San Francisco at Carquinez strait. Indeed, it was by + a Yankee trick that the sand-blown peninsula secured the principal city of + the Pacific. + </p> + <p> + It happened in this way. General Vallejo, Mexican comandante residing at + Sonoma, upon the arrival of the new American authorities said to them: + "Let it bear the name of my wife, Francesca, and let it be the commercial + and political metropolis of your Pacific possessions, and I will give you + the finest site in the world for a city, with state-house and residences + built and ready for your free occupation." And so it was agreed, and the + general made ready for the coming of the legislature. + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile, to the American alcalde, who had established his rule at Yerba + Buena, a trading hamlet in the cove opposite the island of that name and + nucleus of the present San Francisco, came Folsom, United States army + captain and quartermaster, to whom had been given certain lots of land in + Yerba Buena, and said: "Why not call the town San Francisco, and bring + hither ships which clear from various ports for San Francisco bay?" And so + it was done; the fine plans of the Mexican general fell to the ground, and + the name Benicia was given to what had been Francesca. A year or two + later, with five hundred ships of the gold-seekers anchored off the cove, + not all the men and money in the country could have moved the town from + its ill-chosen location. + </p> + <p> + Opportunity is much the same in various times and places, whether + fortuitous or forced. More men make opportunity than are made by it, + particularly among those who achieve great success. Land being + unavailable, Venice the beautiful was built upon the water, while the + Hollanders manage to live along the centuries below sea level. + </p> + <p> + The builders of Chicago possessed varied abilities of a high order, not + least among which was the faculty of working together. They realized at an + early date that the citizens and the city are one; whatever of advantage + they might secure to their city would be returned to them by their city + fourfold. + </p> + <p> + "Oh, I do love this old town!" one of them was heard to exclaim as, + returning from the station, his cab paddled through the slushy streets + under a slushy sky. He was quite a young man, yet he had made a large + fortune there. "It's no credit to us making money here," he added, "we + couldn't help it." So citizenized, what should we expect if not unity of + effort, a willingness to efface self when necessary, and with intense + individualism to subordinate individual ideas and feelings to the public + good? In such an atmosphere rises quickly a new city from the ashes of the + old, or a fairy creation like the Columbian Exposition. Imagine the + peninsula of San Francisco covered by a real city equal in beauty and + grandeur to the Chicago sham city of 1893. + </p> + <p> + The typical West-American city builder has money—created, not + inherited, wealth. But possession merely is not enough; he gives. Yet + possessing and giving are not enough; he works, constantly and + intelligently. The power which wealth gives is often employed in retarding + progress when the interests of the individual seem to clash with those of + the commonwealth; it is always lessened by the absence of respect for its + possessor. But when wealth, intelligence, honesty, and enthusiasm join + hands with patriotism there must be progress. + </p> + <p> + Time and place do not account for all of Chicago's phenomenal growth, nor + do the distance from the world's centres of population and industry, the + comparative isolation, and the evil effects of railway domination account + wholly for San Francisco's slow growth toward the end of the century. For, + following the several spasms of development incident to the ages of gold, + of grain, and of fruit, and the advent of the railway incubus, California + for a time betook herself to rest, which indeed was largely paralysis. + Then, too, those who had come first and cleared the ground, laying the + foundations of fortunes, were passing away, and their successors seemed + more ready to enjoy than to create. But with the opening of a new century + all California awoke and made such progress as was never made before. + </p> + <p> + Coming to the late catastrophe, it was well that too much dependence was + not placed on promises regarding rehabilitation made during the first + flush of sympathy; the words were nevertheless pleasant to the ear at the + time. The insurance companies would act promptly and liberally, taking no + advantage of any technicality; congress would remit duties on building + material for a time, and thus protect the city-builders from the + extortions of the material men; the material men roundly asserted that + there should be no extortion, no advance in prices, but, on the contrary, + all other work should be set aside and precedence given to San Francisco + orders; eastern capitalists were to cooperate with the government in + placing at the portal of the Pacific a city which should be a credit to + the nation and a power in the exploitation of the great ocean. + </p> + <p> + None of these things came to pass. Indeed it was too much to expect of + poor human nature until selfishness and greed are yet further eliminated. + Never to be forgotten was the superb benevolence which so promptly and so + liberally showered comforts upon the poor, the sick, the hungry, and the + houseless until it was feared that the people might become pauperized. But + that was charity, whereas "business is business." + </p> + <p> + The insurance companies, themselves stricken nigh unto death, paused in + the generous impulse to pay quickly and in full and let the new steel city + arise at once in all its glory. They began to consider, then to temporize, + and finally, with notable exceptions, to evade by every means in their + power the payment of their obligations. The loss and the annoyance thus + inflicted upon the insured were increased by the uncertainty as to what + they should finally be able to do. Congress likewise paused to consider + the effect the proposed remission of duties would have on certain members + and their lumber and steel friends. Thus a hundred days passed by, and + with some relief half a hundred more. + </p> + <p> + Outside capital was still ready, but San Franciscans seemed to have + sufficient for present needs. Capital is conservative and Californians + independent. Even from the government they never asked much, though well + aware that since the gold discovery California has given a hundredfold + more than she has received. Her people were accustomed to take care of + themselves, and managed on the whole to get along. A general conflagration + was not a new thing. Four times during gold-digging days San Francisco was + destroyed by fire, and each time new houses were going up before the ashes + were cold. True, there was not so much to burn in those days, but it was + all the people had; there was not so much to rebuild, and there were no + insurance companies to keep them back. San Francisco would be grateful, + and it would be a graceful thing for the government to do, to keep away + the sharks until the people should get their heads above water again, not + as charity, but for the general good. The exaction of duties on lumber + from British Columbia was simply taking money from the San Francisco + builders and thrusting it into the plethoric pockets of the Puget Sound + people, who at once advanced their prices so as seriously to retard + building and render it in many cases impossible. Even as I write word + comes of another advance in the price of lumber, owing to the apathy at + Washington and elsewhere, after twice before raising the price to the + highest limit. + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile, in and around the burned district, traffic never ceased. The + inflow of merchandise from all parts continued. Upon the ashes of their + former stores, and scattered about the suburbs, business men established + themselves wherever they could find a house to rent or a lot to build + upon. Shacks were set up in every quarter, and better structures of one or + two stories were permitted, subject to removal by order of the city at any + time they should appear to stand in the way of permanent improvement. Some + business houses were extinguished, but other and larger ones arose in + their stead. Rebuilding was slow because of the debris to be removed and + the more substantial character of the permanent structures to be erected. + </p> + <p> + Around the bay continues the hum of industry. The country teems with + prosperity. Never were the services of the city needed so much as now. + There are no financial disturbances; money is easy, but more will be + required soon; claims are not pressed in the courts. Any San Francisco + bonds thrown upon the market are quickly taken by local capitalists. + Customs receipts are larger than ever before, and there is no shrinkage at + the clearing house. Land values remain much the same; in some quarters + land has depreciated, in other places it has increased in price; buyers + stand ready to take advantage of forced sales. + </p> + <p> + Labor is scarce in both city and country; wages are high and advancing. + Five times the present number of mechanics can find profitable employment + in the city, and it will be so for years to come, as there is much to be + done. + </p> + <p> + With the advance of the labor wage and of lumber, rents are advanced. + Mills and factories are running at their full capacity. Orchards and grain + fields are overflowing, and harvesters are found with difficulty. + Merchants' sales were never so large nor profits so good. Prices of + everything rule high, with an upward tendency, the demand at the shops + being for articles of good quality. Oriental rugs and diamonds are + conspicuously in evidence. Insurers are paying their losses to some + extent, and many people find themselves in possession of more ready money + than they ever had before. They are rich, though they may have no house to + sleep in. It is a momentary return to the flush times of the early + fifties, though upon a broader and more civilized scale, and without their + uncertainty or their romance. + </p> + <p> + In view of the facts it seems superfluous to discuss questions regarding + the future of San Francisco. That is to say, such questions as are + propounded by chronic croakers: Will the city be rebuilt? If so, will it + be a city of fine buildings? Will not the fear of earthquakes drive away + capital and confine reconstruction to insignificance? + </p> + <p> + Let us hasten to assure our friends that the day of doom has not yet come + to this city; that the day of doom never comes to any city for so slight a + cause, or for any cause short of a rain of brimstone and fire, as in the + case of Sodom. Whether of imperial steel or of imperial shacks; whether + calamities come in the form of such temblores as are here met occasionally + in a mild form, or in the far more destructive form of hurricanes, floods, + pestilence, sun—striking, and lightning, so common at the east and + elsewhere, and from which San Francisco is wholly free, there will here + forever be a city, a large, powerful, and wealthy city. + </p> + <p> + Every part of the earth is subject at any time to seismic disturbance, and + no one can truthfully say that California is more liable to another such + occurrence than any other part of the United States. Indeed, it should be + less so, the earth's crust here having settled itself, let us hope, to + some centuries of repose. Never before has anything like this been known + on our Pacific seaboard. Never before, so far as history or tradition or + the physical features of the country can show, has California experienced + a serious earthquake shock—that is to say, one attended by any + considerable loss of life or property. Nor was the earthquake of April + last so terrible as it may seem to some. Apart from the fire there was not + so very much of it, and no great damage was done. The official figures + are: 266 killed by falling walls, 177 by fire, 7 shot, and 2 deaths by + ptomaine poisoning—452 in all. The property damage by the earthquake + is scarcely worth speaking of, being no more than happens elsewhere in the + world from other causes nearly every day; it would have been quickly made + good and little thought of it but for the conflagration that followed. + </p> + <p> + Compare San Francisco casualties with those of other cities. Two hundred + and sixty-six deaths as the result of the greatest calamity that ever + happened in California! Not to mention the floods, fires, and cyclones + common to St. Louis, Chicago, Galveston, and all mid-continent America, + the yellow fever at New Orleans and along the southern shore, or the + 25,000 deaths from cholera in New York and Philadelphia in less than + twenty-five years, or the loss of 1,000 ships on the Atlantic coast in the + hurricane of August, 1873-not to mention the many extraordinary displays + of vindictive nature, take some of the more commonplace calamities + incident to most cities except those along the Pacific coast. + </p> + <p> + Every year more people and more property are destroyed by lightning, + floods, and wind-storms on the Atlantic side of the Rocky mountains than + are affected by earthquakes on the Pacific side in a hundred years. Every + year more people drop dead from sunstrokes in New York, Baltimore, + Philadelphia, and other eastern cities than are killed by earthquakes in + San Francisco in a thousand years, so far as we may know. Yet men and + women continue to live and build houses in those cities without thought of + running away. + </p> + <p> + Nor can California claim the whole even of United States earthquakes. In + 1755 all New England was shaken up, and Boston housetops and walls were + set dancing, the horror coming in "with a roaring noise, like that of + thunder," as the record has it, "and then a swell like the roaring sea"; + and yet, and notwithstanding the great fire later, the city still shows + vitality, the people are not afraid, and property is valuable. And so in + regard to New York and London and all cities. In Missouri, in 1811, the + earth shook almost continuously for several months along a stretch of + three hundred miles, throwing up prairies into sand hills and submerging + forests. Chicago and New York, and all the country between, were visited + by earthquakes in 1870. Then there are Virginia and the Carolinas, Alabama + Texas and Colorado—there is not a state in the union that has not + had a touch of well-authenticated earthquakings at some time in its + history. + </p> + <p> + To one who knows the people and the country, the people with their + magnificent energy and ability, their indomitable will and their splendid + courage; the country with its boundless natural wealth and illimitable + potentialities; the city, key to the Golden Gate, which opens the East to + the West and West to East; the bay, mistress primeval, through which flows + the drainage of six hundred miles in length of interior valley, the garden + of the world; to one who has here lived and loved, assisting in this grand + upbuilding, thoughts of relinquishment, of lesser possibilities, of meaner + efforts, do not come. + </p> + <p> + What would you? If there is a spot on earth where life and property are + safer, where men are more enterprising and women more intelligent and + refined, where business is better or fortunes more safely or surely made, + the world should know of it. The earth may tremble now and then, but + houses may be built which cannot be destroyed, fires are liable to occur + wherever material exists that will burn, but fires may be controlled. + </p> + <p> + As for the city, its life and destiny, there is this to be said. The few + square miles of buildings burned were not San Francisco, they were only + buildings. Were every house destroyed and every street obliterated, there + would still remain the city, with its commerce, its manufactures, its + civilization, a spiritual city if you like, yet with material values + incapable of destruction—an atmosphere alive with cheerful industry; + also land values, commercial relations, financial connections, skilled + laborers and professional men, and a hundred other like souls of things. + In a thousand ideas and industries, though the ground is but ashes, the + spirit of progress still hovers over the hills awaiting incarnation. + Dependent on this pile of ashes, or the ghosts thereof, are fleets of + vessels sailing every sea; farms and factories along shore and back to and + beyond the Sierra; merchants and mechanics here and elsewhere; mines and + reclamation systems, and financial relations the world over. + </p> + <p> + The question now is not as to the existence or permanency of a central + city on the shores of San Francisco bay. That fact was established beyond + peradventure with the building of the bay, and nothing short of universal + cataclysm can affect it. It is rather to the quality of that city that the + consideration of the present generation should be directed. The shell has + been injured, but the soul of the city is immortal; and in the restoration + it would be strange if our twentieth-century young men cannot do better in + artistic city building than the sturdy gold-seekers and their successors + of half a century ago. + </p> + <p> + If history and human experiences teach anything; if from the past we may + judge somewhat of the future, we might, if we chose, glance back at the + history of cities, and note how, when the Mediterranean was the greatest + of seas, Carthage and Venice were the greatest of cities; how, when the + Atlantic assumed sway, Ghent, Seville, and London each in turn came to the + front; or how, following the inevitable, as civilization takes possession + of the Pacific, the last, the largest in its native wealth as well as in + its potentialities the richest of all, it is not difficult to see that the + chief city, the mistress of this great ocean, must be mistress of the + world. + </p> + <p> + But this is not all. A great city on this great bay, beside this greatest + of oceans, centrally situated, through whose Golden Gate pass the waters + drained from broad fertile valleys, a harbor without an equal, with some + hundreds of miles of water front ready for a thousand industries, where + ocean vessels may moor beside factories and warehouses, with a climate + temperate, equable, healthful, and brewed for industry; a city here, ugly + or beautiful, fostered or oppressed, given over to the sharks of + speculation or safeguarded as one of the brightest jewels of the nation, + is an inexorable necessity; its destiny is assured; and all the powers of + graft and greed cannot prevail against it. It is a military necessity, for + here will be stationed the chief defenses and defenders of the nation's + western border. It is an industrial necessity, for to this city three + continents and a thousand islands will look for service. As the Spanish + war first revealed to America her greatness, so the possible loss of San + Francisco quickly demonstrates the necessity of her existence to the + nation. It is an educational necessity, whence the dusky peoples around + the Pacific may draw from the higher civilization to the regeneration of + the world. In the University of California, standing opposite the Golden + Gate, with its able and devoted president and professors, this work is + already well established, the results from which will prove too vast and + far-reaching for our minds at present to fathom. + </p> + <p> + And in all the other many byways of progress the results of the last + half-century of effort on our sand-dune peninsula are not lost. + Earthquakes cannot destroy them; fire cannot burn them. San Francisco grew + from the Yerba Buena hamlet in sixty years. In a new and untried field + city-building then was something of an experiment; yet population grew to + half a million, and wealth in proportion; and never was improvement so + marked as just before the fire. With wealth and population but little + impaired, and with the ground cleared for new constructive work, there + would be nothing strange in a city here of three or four millions of + people in another sixty years. Actual progress has scarcely been arrested. + We are rudely hustled and awake to higher and severer effort. No house or + store or factory or business will be rebuilt or established except in a + larger and more efficient way, and that is progress. + </p> + <p> + In and around the city are already more people than were here before the + fire, and soon there will be twice as many, for from every quarter are + coming mechanics and business men, attracted by high wages and the + material requirements of the city. Hundreds of millions of money from the + insurance companies and from local and outside capitalists are finding + safe and profitable investment. And this is only the beginning. + </p> + <p> + San Francisco is already a large manufacturing city; it will be many times + larger. Around its several hundred miles of bay shore and up the Carquinez + strait will be thousands of industries to-day not dreamed of, and all + ministering to the necessities of the thousand cities of the Pacific. + There is no place in the world better adapted for manufacturing. All sorts + of raw material can be gathered here from every quarter of the earth at + small cost, lumber, coal, iron, wool, and cotton for a hundred factories, + and mineral ores for reduction. Likewise labor at a minimum wage, congress + and the lords of labor permitting. Add to these advantages a climate cool + in summer and warm in winter, where work can be comfortably carried on + every day in the year, and a more desirable spot cannot be found. + </p> + <p> + Industrially San Francisco should dominate the Pacific, its firm land and + islands, upon whose borders is to be found more natural wealth, mineral + and agricultural, than upon those of all the other waters of the earth + combined, and the exploitation of which has scarcely begun. Here in + abundance are every mineral and metal, rich and varied soils, all fruits + and native products, fuels and forests, for some of which we may even + thank earthquakes and kindred volcanic forces. Manufactures compel + commerce, and the commerce of the Pacific will rule the world. The + essentials of commerce are here. Intelligence and enterprise are here and + open to enlargement. + </p> + <p> + For the late severe loss the city may find some compensations—as the + cleansing effect of fire; much filth, material and moral, has been + destroyed. Yet one is forced to observe that the precincts of Satan retain + their land values equal to any other locality. The greatest blessing of + the destruction, however, is in the saving from a life of luxury and + idleness our best young men and women, who will in consequence enter + spheres of usefulness, elevating and ennobling, thus exercising a + beneficial influence on future generations. Already work has become the + fashion; snobbism is in disgrace; and some elements or influences of the + simple life thus reestablished will remain. + </p> + <p> + When all has been said that may be regarding the present and the future, + regarding purposes and potentialities, the simple fact remains that the + city of San Francisco will be what people make of it, neither more nor + less. The fruitful interior and the pine-clad Sierra; the great ocean, its + islands and opulent shores, with their fifty thousand miles of littoral + frontage, and every nation thereon awaiting a higher culture than any + which has yet appeared; the Panama canal, the world's highway, linking + east and west, all these will be everything or nothing to those who sit at + the Golden Gate, according as they themselves shall determine. For the + glory of a city is not altogether in its marble palaces and structures of + steel, though these have their value, but in its citizens, its men and + women, its men of ability, of unity, of energy, and public spirit, and its + brave and true women. And has not this city these? Surely, if in the late + catastrophe all that is noble, benevolent, and self-effacing did not + appear in every movement of our people, then no such qualities exist + anywhere. The manner in which they rose to meet the emergency argues well + for the city's future. Before the calamity was fairly upon them they + sprang to grapple it and ward it off so far as possible. It was owing to + them and to the military that the city was saved from starvation, anarchy, + and disease. It also speaks well for men so severely stricken to be the + first to send aid to a similarly stricken city, the metropolis of Pacific + South America. + </p> + <p> + All this leads us to the highest hopes for the future. What we need most + of all is a centralization of mechanical industries around the shores of + this bay. Let everything that is made be made here, and the requirements + of all the peoples facing this ocean here be met. The Panama canal will be + a blessing or a curse to California in proportion as she rises to the + occasion and makes opportunities. Manufactures and commerce tell the whole + story. Let us have the city beautiful by all means—it will pay; + Paris makes it pay; but we must have the useful in any event—this, + and a municipality with its several parts subordinated to a general + scheme. What we can do without is demagogism, with its attendant labor + wrangles, and all the fraud, lying, and hypocrisy incident to a too free + government. We want a city superior to any other in beauty, as well as in + utility, and it will pay these United States well to see that we have it. + If we build no better than before, we gain nothing by this fire which has + cost many a heartache. + </p> + <p> + The game of the gods is in our hands; shall we play it worthily? Two + decades of inaction at this juncture, like those which followed the advent + of the overland railway, would decide the fate of the city adversely for + the century, and the effect of it would last for ten centuries. When the + shores of the Pacific are occupied as the shores of the Atlantic now are, + when all around the vast arena formed by America, Asia, and Australia are + great nations of wealth and culture, with hundreds of Bostons and + Baltimores, of Londons and Liverpools, the great American republic would + scarcely be satisfied with only a porter's lodge at her western gateway. + </p> + <p> + It is not much to say that the new city will be modern and up to date, + with some widened streets and winding boulevards, gardens banging to the + hillside, parks with lakes and cascades, reservoirs of sea water on every + hilltop; public work and public service, street cars telephones and + lighting being of the best. Plans for such changes were prepared before + the fire; they can be extended and carried out with greater facility since + the ground has been cleared from obstructions. All this and more may + easily be done if the government can be made to see where the true + interests of the people lie, to regard a west-coast metropolis with an eye + for something of beauty as well as of utility, an eye which can see + utility in beauty, and withal an eye of pride in possession. A paltry two + or three hundred millions judiciously expended here by the government + would make a city which would ever remain the pride of the whole people + and command the admiration and respect of all the nations around this + great ocean. + </p> + <p> + Of what avail are art and architecture if they may not be employed in a + cause like this? Here is an opportunity which the world has never before + witnessed. With limitless wealth, with genius of as high an order as any + that has gone before, with the stored experiences of all ages and nations—what + better use can be made of it all than to establish at the nation's western + gate a city which shall be the initial point of a new order of + development? Away back in the days of Palmyra and Thebes the rulers of + those cities seemed to understand it, if the people did not—that is + to say, the value of embellishment. And had we now but one American + Nebuchadnezzar we might have a Babylon at our Pacific seaport. For a + six-months' world's fair any considerable city can get from the government + five or ten millions. And why not? There's politics in it. Can we not have + some of "those politics" for a respectable west-coast city? Would it not + be economy to spend some millions on an industrial metropolis which should + be a permanent world's fair for the enlightenment of the Pacific? The + nation has made its capital beautiful, and so established the doctrine + that art, architecture, and beautiful environment have a value above ugly + utility. May we not hope for something a little out of the common for the + nation's chief seaport on the Pacific, a little fresh gilding for our + Golden Gate? + </p> + <p> + THE END <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Some Cities and San Francisco and +Resurgam, by Hubert Howe Bancroft + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SOME CITIES *** + +***** This file should be named 2504-h.htm or 2504-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/5/0/2504/ + +Produced by David A. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Some Cities and San Francisco and Resurgam + +Author: Hubert Howe Bancroft + +Posting Date: January 2, 2009 [EBook #2504] +Release Date: February, 2001 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SOME CITIES *** + + + + +Produced by David A. Schwan + + + + + +SOME CITIES AND SAN FRANCISCO AND RESURGAM + +By Hubert Howe Bancroft + + + + +SOME CITIES AND SAN FRANCISCO + +There had been some discussion as to improving and beautifying the +city of San Francisco prior to the catastrophe of April 18th. Landscape +architects had been consulted, proposals considered, and preliminary +plans drawn. Therefore when on that day the city was swept by fire, +obviously it was the opportune moment for the requisite changes in +the rebuilding. For a brief period enthusiasm waxed warm. It helped +to mitigate the blow, this fencing with fate. Let the earth shake, and +fires burn, we will have here our city, better and more beautiful than +ever--and more valuable--an imperial city of steel it shall be, and thus +will we get even with the misfortunes of this day. + +Reform in the rebuilding was needed, whatever should be the scale of +beauty or utility decided upon. Fifty years ago the elevating influences +of tasteful environment were not so highly appreciated as now, and all +large cities are fifty years old or more. All large cities, as a rule, +had their beginning with narrow, crooked streets and mean houses. In +Europe and Asia there are aggregations of humanity whose domiciles have +remained unchanged, one might almost say uncleansed, for hundreds or +thousands of years, or ever since their mythical beginning, save only +for the covering of the debris of dead centuries. + +These ancient towns, mostly offspring of feudalism, begun under castle +walls and continued after walls and castle had crumbled, as their area +enlarged, with some improvement, perhaps, in the suburban parts, still +retained this patch of mediaevalism, until obliterated by war, or fire, +or later by modern progress. Look at Edinburgh, for example. With all +its Scotch thrift and neatness, there yet remains the ill-conditioned +and once filthy quarter, beside which rise the old-time ten-story houses +built into the hillside, while in the modern part of the city in sharp +contrast are broad streets and open squares and fine buildings. + +In America the birth of towns is quite different. Here are no +plantings of trembling poverty under lordly walls, but bold pioneering, +forecasting agriculture and commerce; no Babel building, with "Go to, +let us build here a Cleveland or a Cincinnati," but rather, "Here for +the present we will abide." If, however, serfdom and mediaevalism were +absent in New World town-planting, so also were aestheticism or any +appreciation of the beautiful apart from the useful. Old cities require +reconstruction to make them what modern taste and intelligence demand; +settlements in their incipiency are dominated by their sturdy founders, +who usually have other things to think about than beauty and adornment. + +In this day of great wealth and wonderful inventions we realize more and +more the value of the city to mankind, and the quality of the city as +a means of culture. Cities are not merely marts of commerce; they stand +for civility; they are civilization itself. No untried naked Adam in +Eden might ever pass for a civilized man. The city street is the +school of philosophy, of art, of letters; city society is the home of +refinement. When the rustic visits the city he puts on his best clothes +and his best manners. In their reciprocal relations the city is as men +make it, while from the citizen one may determine the quality of the +city. The atmosphere of the city is an eternal force. Therefore as we +value the refinement of the human mind, the enlargement of the human +heart, we shall value the city, and strive so to build, and adorn, and +purify, that it may achieve its ultimate endeavor. + +Civic betterment has long been in progress among the more civilized +communities through the influence of cultured people capable of +appreciating the commercial as well as the aesthetical value of art. +Vast sums have been spent and great results accomplished, but they +are nothing as compared with the work yet to be done--work which will +continue through the ages and be finished only with the end of time. + +And not only will larger wealth be yet more freely poured out on +artistic adornment, but such use of money will be regarded as the best +to which it can be applied. For though gold is not beautiful it can make +beauty, even that beauty which elevates and ennobles, which purifies the +mind and inspires the soul. Progress is rapid in this direction as in +many others. A breach of good taste in public works will ere long +be adjudged a crime. For already mediaeval mud has ceased to be +fashionable, and the picturesque in urban ugliness is picturesque +no longer. All the capitals of Europe have had to be made over, +Haussmannized, once or several times. Our own national capital we should +scarcely be satisfied with as its illustrious founder left it. + +It is a hopeful sign amidst some discouraging ones that wealth as a +social factor and measure of merit is losing something of its prestige; +that it is no longer regarded by the average citizen as the supreme +good, or the pursuit of it the supreme aim in life; there are so many +things worth more than money, so many human aspirations and acquirements +worthy of higher considerations than the inordinate cravings of graft +and greed. Hoarded wealth especially is not so worshipful to-day as it +was yesterday, while the beautiful still grows in grace--the beautiful +and the useful, compelling improvement, always engendered by improved +environment. + +Some cities are born in the purple--rare exceptions to the rule. San +Francisco is not one of these. St. Petersburg, the city of palaces, of +broad avenues and granite-faced quays, whose greatest afflictions are +the occasional overflow of the Neva and the dynamite habit, was spoken +into being by a monarch. Necessity stands sponsor for Venice, the +beautiful, with her streets of water-ways and airs of heavenly harmony; +while nature herself may claim motherhood of Swedish Stockholm, +brilliant with intermingling lakes islands and canals, rocks hills and +forests, rendering escape from the picturesque impossible. + +Penn planted his Quakers about 1682, long before many of the present +large cities in America were begun, yet Philadelphia was one of the few +sketched in such generous proportions that little change was afterwards +necessary to make it one of the most spacious of urban commonwealths. +With this example before him came in 1791, more than a century later, +the father of his country, who permitted his surveyors so injudiciously +to cover the spot on the Potomac which he had chosen for the capital +city of the republic as to require much expensive remodeling later. Yet +what American can drive about Washington now and say it is not worth the +cost? Further, as an example, the repeated reconstruction and adornment +of the national capital by Congress are priceless to the whole United +States, the government therein bearing witness to the value of the +beautiful. And if of value on the Potomac, is it not equally so at the +portal of the Pacific? + +A few other cities there have been which have arisen at the command of +man, potentate or pirate, besides those of the quaker Penn and the tzar +Peter--Alexandria, the old and the new, with Constantinople between; the +first by order of the poor world conqueror, at the hand of the architect +Dinocrates, two or three centuries before Caesar, Cleopatra, and Antony, +but made fit for them and their chariots by streets a hundred feet wide. + +The Danube is the mother of many cities, directing the destiny of +nations, from the Iron Gate to the Golden Horn. Vienna has been made +brilliantly modern since 1858. Beside the sufferings of Constantinople +our little calamity seems tame. Seven times during the last half +century the city has been swept by fire, not to mention earthquakes, or +pestilence, which on one occasion took with it three hundred thousand +lives. Yet all the while it grows in magnificence faster than the +invisible enemies of Mohammed can destroy it. But for these purifying +fires the city would still be one of narrow, filthy streets and vile +smells, reeking with malaria. The Golden Horn of the Bosporus possesses +no greater natural advantages than the Golden Gate of San Francisco, nor +even so great. The industrial potentialities of the former are not to be +compared with those of the latter, while for healthful airs and charming +environment we have all that earth can give, and therewith should be +content. + +Cities have been made as the marquis of Bute made Cardiff, by +constructing a dock, and ship canal, and converting the ancient castle +into a modern palace. Many towns have been started as railway stations, +but few of them attained importance. Steamboat landings have been more +fortunate. Some cities owe their origin to war, some to commerce, and +not a few to manufactures. Fanaticism has played a part, as in India and +parts of Africa, where are nestings of half-savage humanity with a touch +of the heavenly in the air. Less disciplined are these than zion--towns, +but nearer the happiness of insensibility--the white--marbled and +jeweled Taj Mahal, Agra on the Jumna, and Delhi, making immortal +Jehan the builder, with his pearl mosque and palace housing the +thirty-million-dollar peacock throne; Benares, on the Ganges, a series +of terraces and long stone steps extending upward from the holy water, +while rising yet higher in the background are temples, towers, +mosques, and palaces, all in oriental splendor. Algiers, likewise, +an amphitheatre in form, might give San Francisco lessons in terrace +construction, having hillsides covered with them, the scene made yet +more striking by the dazzling white of the houses. After the place +became French, the streets were widened and arcades established in the +lower part. + +In fact, the French believe in the utility of beauty, and in Paris at +least they make it pay. The entire expenses of the municipal government, +including police and public works, are met by the spendings of visitors. +To their dissolute monarchs were due such creations as the Tuileries, +the Louvre, and Versailles. Have we not dissolute millionaires enough to +give us at least one fine city? + +London and Paris stand out in bold contrast, the one for utility, the +other for beauty. Both are adepts in their respective arts. The city +proper of London has better buildings and cleaner streets than when St. +Paul was erected; otherwise it is much the same. Elsewhere in London, +however, are spacious parks and imposing palaces, with now and then +a fine bit of something to look out upon, as the bridges of the +murky Thames, the Parliament houses, the Abbey, Somerset house, and +Piccadilly, perhaps. Children may play at the Zoo, while grown-ups sit +in hired chairs under the trees. + +Three times London was destroyed by the plague, and five times by fire, +that of 1666 lasting four days, and covering thrice the area of the San +Francisco conflagration; yet it was rebuilt better than before in three +and a half years. Always the city is improved in the rebuilding; how +much, depends upon the intelligence and enterprise of the people. + +Paris is brilliant with everything that takes the eye--palaces, arches, +Bon Marche shops, arcades, colonnades, great open spaces adorned with +statues, forest parks, elysian driveways, and broad boulevards cut +through mediaeval quarters in every direction, as well for air as +for protection from the canaille blockaded in the narrow streets. San +Francisco may have some canaille of her own to boast of one of these +days; canaille engendered from the scum of Europe and Asia, and educated +at our expense for our destruction. Over and over, these two cities, +each a world metropolis, have been renovated and reconstructed, the work +in fact going on continuously. + +For some of the most effective of our urban elaborations we must go back +to the first of city builders of whom we have knowledge. The Assyrians +made terraces, nature teaching them. On the level plain building ground +was raised forty feet for effect. Like all artists of precivilization, +the Assyrians placed adornment before convenience, as appeared in +Nineveh on the Tigris and Babylon on the Euphrates. At Thebes and +Palmyra it was the same, their palaces of alabaster, if one chooses +to believe what is said, covering, some of them, a hundred acres. +The fashion now is to build upward rather than outward. Besides this +alabaster acreage there are to be taken into account the pyramids, +artificial mountains, and endless towertowns, supposed to be an +improvement on whatever existed before their time. Around the +Mediterranean and over India way were once hundreds of charming places +like the Megara suburb of Carthage and the amphitheatre of Rhodes, +prolific in classic art and architecture, precious gifts of the gods. + +But before all other gods or gifts comes Athens, where the men were as +gods and the gods very like the men. Encircling the Acropolis hill--most +ancient cities had their central hill--the city owes its grandeur to the +many temples dedicated to the Olympian deities by the men who made +them, made both deities and temples, that long line of philosophers the +sublimity of whose thoughts civilization fed on and found expression in +the genius of now and then a Pericles or a Phidias. + +Twenty times Rome suffered, each time worse than ever befell an American +city, the debris of destruction overspreading her sacred soil some +fathoms deep, yet all the while mistress of the world. + +The Moors in Spain reconstructed and embellished many cities, and +built many entire. To them Spain owes her finest specimens of art and +architecture, as Seville, Cordova, and the Alhambra. In Naples the +mediaeval still overshadows the modern. The city needs cleansing, though +she flourishes in her filth and volcanic belchings. Nice, like +Paris, plans to please her guests. Berlin was a little late with her +reconstructive work; the town walls were not removed till 1866. Though +dating from 1190, Glasgow is practically modern, having been several +times renovated by fire. Antwerp, burned in 1871, was quickly rebuilt. +The Hague is charming as the city of peace. Munich, on the Isar, is +every day drifting into the beautiful, not to say aesthetical. + +Pekin is a city sui generis, with its Kin-Ching, or prohibited city, +sacred to royalty; its Hwang-Ching, or imperial city, exclusively for +court officials; its Tartar division and Chinese division, all completed +according to the grand khan and Confucius. Happy Celestials! There is +nothing more to be done, nothing to reconstruct, nothing to improve; it +stands alone, the only city in all the world that is absolutely finished +and perfect. But of a truth our public works sink into insignificance +beside those of the ancient barbarians, the great wall and canal of +China, the pyramids of Egypt, and the brilliant cities of Assyria and +Palmyra. + +The cities of Australia--Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide--in common with all +those of the British colonies, are laid out along liberal lines, with +broad streets, parks, public squares, and beautiful modern buildings, +requiring little change for many years to come. The English part of +Calcutta is a city of palaces, built from the spoils of subjugation. +Yokohama was a small fishing station when Commodore Perry called there +in 1854. + +In the New World as in the Old, from John Cotton to Joseph Smith, +religion with cupidity inspires. One William Blaxton in 1630 lived where +Boston now is, and invited thither Winthrop and his colonists. When +banished from Massachusetts, Roger Williams stepped ashore on the bank +of the Seekonk, on a rock where is now Providence. The French built a +fort where Marquette camped in 1673, and there is now Chicago. Buffalo +was a military post in 1812. St. Paul was an Indian trading station +prior to 1838. The building of Fort Washington was followed by settlers +and Cincinnati was begun. Henry Hudson touched at Manhattan island in +1609, and the Dutch following, New York was the result. Brigham Young, +journeying westward, came to the Great Salt Lake, where, as he told his +followers, he was instructed by divine revelation to plant the City of +the Saints. It proved more permanent than might have been expected, as +zion--cities usually are quite ephemeral affairs. + +Boston, the beneficial, swept by fires, smallpox, witchcraft, quakerism, +snowstorms, earthquakes, and proslavery riots, still lives to meditate +upon her own superiority and to instruct mankind. Much attention has +been given of late in Boston and suburban towns to artistic effect +in street architecture. Until recently New York has given but little +thought to pleasing effects. Broadway was not broad, and Fifth Avenue +was not striking. Of late, however, the city has become imperial, houses +parks and driveways being among the finest in the world. New Orleans +has survived at least a dozen great yellow-fever crises since 1812, +population meanwhile increasing twentyfold. After the enforced +construction of the levee, the idea came to some one that the top of +it would make a fine driveway, which in due time was extended from the +river and bayous to the lake, thus becoming the most attractive feature +of the place. Though not without natural attractions, Chicago was not +made by or for her things of beauty. Beginning with low wooden houses +along dirty streets, transformations were continued until systems of +parks and boulevards with elegant edifices came into view,--which +shows that, however material the beginning of American towns may be, if +prosperity comes the aesthetical is sure to come with it. A contrast to +Chicago may be found in St. Louis, for a long time trading-post town +and city, which would be of more importance now were her people of a +different quality. Even her chronic calamities, tornadoes, floods, and +epidemics, fail to rouse her energies, so that Chicago, starting +later and under more adverse circumstances, outstripped her in every +particular. Cleveland was laid out for a fine city, so that as she grew +little alteration was found necessary. The streets are wide, 80 to 120 +feet--Superior Street 132 feet--and so abundant is the foliage, largely +maple, that it is called the Forest city. + +As an instance of modern aesthetic town construction one might cite +Denver, a western Yankee metropolis of ultrarefined men and women from +down Boston way, breathing a nomenclature never so freely used before +among mid-continent mountains, streets, schoolhouses, parks, and +gardens--all alive with the names of New England poets, philosophers, +and statesmen. Scarcely yet turned the half century in age, few such +charming cities as Denver have been made with fewer mistakes. + +San Francisco at her birth and christening had for godfather neither +prince nor priest, nor any cultured coterie. The sandy peninsula, on +whose inner edge, at the cove called Yerba Buena, stood some hide and +tallow stores and fur depots which drew to them the stragglers that +passed that way, was about as ill-omened a spot as the one designated +by the snake-devouring eagle perched upon an island cactus as the place +where the wandering Aztecs should rest and build their city of Mexico. +San Francisco's godparents were but common humanity, traders and +adventurers, later gold-seekers and pot politicians, intelligent, bold, +and for the most part honest; few intending long to remain, few dreaming +of the great city to arise here; few caring how the town should be +made, if one were made at all. When was improvised an alcalde after the +Mexican fashion, and two boards of aldermen were established after the +New York fashion, and the high officials saw that they could now and +then pick up a twenty-five-dollar fee for deeding a fifty vara lot, if +so be they had on hand some fifty varas, they forthwith went to work to +make them by drawing lines in front of the cove and intersecting them at +right angles by lines running up over the hills, giving their own names, +with a sprinkling of the names of bear-flag heroes, not forgetting the +usual Washington and Jackson, leaving in the centre a plaza, the cove +in front to be filled in later. The streets were narrow, dusty in summer +and miry in winter. Spanish-American streets are usually thirty-six +feet wide. Winding trails led from the Presidio to the Mission, and +from Mission and Presidio to the cove. This was the beginning of San +Francisco, which a merciful providence has five times burned, the +original shacks and their successors, the last time thoroughly, giving +the inhabitants the opportunity to build something better. + +All this time the matchless bay and inviting shores awaited the coming +of those who should aid in the accomplishment of their high destiny. +Situated on the Pacific relatively as is New York on the Atlantic, the +natural gateway with its unique portal between the old East and the new +West, the only outlet for the drainage of thousands of square miles of +garden lands and grain fields, a harbor in the world's center of highest +development, with no other to speak of within five hundred miles on +either side; dominator of the greatest of oceans, waters more spacious +than those of Rio, airs of purple haze sweeter than those of Italy, +hills islands and shore lines more sublime than any of Greece--all this +time these benefactions of nature have awaited the appreciation and +action of those who for their own benefit and the benefit of the nation +would utilize them. Are they here now, these new city-builders, or must +San Francisco wait for another generation? + +They must be men of broad minds, for this is no ordinary problem to be +worked out. It is certain that in the near or distant future there will +be here a very large and very wealthy city, probably the largest and +wealthiest in the world. The whole of the peninsula will be covered, and +as much more space beyond it, and around the bay shores to and beyond +Carquinez strait. Viewed in the light of history and progressional +phenomena, this is the only rational conclusion. + +Always the march of intellectual development has been from east to west, +the old East dying as the new West bursts into being, until now west is +east, and the final issue must here be met. In the advent and progress +of civilization there was first the Mediterranean, then the Atlantic, +and then the Pacific, the last the greatest of all. What else is +possible? Where else on this planet is man to go for his ultimate +achievement? + +Conviction comes slowly in such cases, and properly so. Yet in +forecasting the future from the light of the past cavilers can scarcely +go farther afield than our worshipful forbears, who less than a century +ago, on the floor of the United States congress, decried as absurd +settlement beyond the Missouri, ridiculed buying half a continent of +worthless Northwest wilderness, thanked God for the Rocky mountain +barrier to man's presumption, scouted at a possible wagon road, not to +say railway, across the continent, lamented the unprofitable theft of +California, and cursed the Alaska purchase as money worse than thrown +away. In view of what has been and is, can anyone call it a Utopian +dream to picture the Pacific bordered by an advanced civilization with +cities more brilliant than any of the ancient East, more opulent than +any of the cultured West? + +Rio de Janeiro! what have the Brazilians been doing these last +decades? Decapitating politically dear Dom Pedro, true patriot, though +emperor--he came to me once in my library, pouring out his soul for +his beloved Brazil--they abolished slavery, formed a republic, and +modernized the city. They made boulevards and water drives, the finest +in the world. They cut through the heart of the old town a new Avenida +Central, over a mile in length and one hundred and ten feet wide, lining +it on either side with palatial business houses and costly residences, +paving the thoroughfare with asphalt and adorning it with artistic +fixtures for illumination, the street work being completed in eighteen +months. Strangling in their incipiency graft and greed, after kindly +dismissing Dom Pedro with well-filled pockets for home, these Portuguese +brought out their money and spent hundreds of millions in improving +their city, with hundreds of millions left which they have yet to spend. +Thus did these of the Latin race, whom we regard as less Bostonian than +ourselves. + +With this brief glance at other cities of present and other times, and +having in view the part played by environment in the trend of refining +influences, and remembering further, following the spirit of the times, +that nothing within the scope of human power to accomplish is too vast, +or too valuable, or too advanced for the purpose, it remains with the +people of San Francisco to determine what they will do. + +It is not necessary to speak of the city's present or future +requirements, as sea water on the bills, and fresh water with electric +power from the Sierra; sea wall, docks, and water-way drives; widened +streets and winding boulevards; embellished hillsides and hilltops; bay +tunnels and union railway station; bay and ocean boating and bathing; +arches and arcades; park strips or boulevards cutting through slums, and +the nests of filthy foreigners, bordered on either side by structures +characteristic of their country--all this and more will come to those +who shall have the matter in charge. The pressing need now is a general +plan for all to work to; this, and taking the reconstruction of the city +out of politics and placing it in the hands of responsible business men. + +If the people and government of the United States will consider for a +moment the importance to the nation of a well-fortified and imposing +city and seaport at San Francisco bay; the importance to the army and +navy, to art and science, to commerce and manufactures; of the effect of +a city with its broad surroundings, at once elegant and impressive, +upon the nations round the Pacific and on all the world, there should be +little trouble in its accomplishment. + +And be it remembered that whatever San Francisco, her citizens and her +lovers, do now or neglect to do in this present regeneration will +be felt for good or ill to remotest ages. Let us build and rebuild +accordingly, bearing in mind that the new San Francisco is to stand +forever before the world as the measure of the civic taste and +intelligence of her people. + + + + +RESURGAM + +The question has been oftener asked than answered, why Chicago should +have grown in wealth and population so much faster than St. Louis, or +New Orleans, or San Francisco. It is not enough to point to her position +on the lakes, the wide extent of contributory industries, and the +convergence of railways; other cities have at their command as great +natural advantages with like limitless opportunity. As to location, city +sites are seldom chosen by convention, or the fittest spots favored. +Chicagoans assert that a worse place than theirs for a city cannot be +found on the shores of Lake Michigan. New York would be better up +the Hudson, London in Bristol channel, and San Francisco at Carquinez +strait. Indeed, it was by a Yankee trick that the sand-blown peninsula +secured the principal city of the Pacific. + +It happened in this way. General Vallejo, Mexican comandante residing at +Sonoma, upon the arrival of the new American authorities said to +them: "Let it bear the name of my wife, Francesca, and let it be the +commercial and political metropolis of your Pacific possessions, and I +will give you the finest site in the world for a city, with state-house +and residences built and ready for your free occupation." And so it was +agreed, and the general made ready for the coming of the legislature. + +Meanwhile, to the American alcalde, who had established his rule at +Yerba Buena, a trading hamlet in the cove opposite the island of that +name and nucleus of the present San Francisco, came Folsom, United +States army captain and quartermaster, to whom had been given certain +lots of land in Yerba Buena, and said: "Why not call the town San +Francisco, and bring hither ships which clear from various ports for +San Francisco bay?" And so it was done; the fine plans of the Mexican +general fell to the ground, and the name Benicia was given to what had +been Francesca. A year or two later, with five hundred ships of the +gold-seekers anchored off the cove, not all the men and money in the +country could have moved the town from its ill-chosen location. + +Opportunity is much the same in various times and places, whether +fortuitous or forced. More men make opportunity than are made by +it, particularly among those who achieve great success. Land being +unavailable, Venice the beautiful was built upon the water, while the +Hollanders manage to live along the centuries below sea level. + +The builders of Chicago possessed varied abilities of a high order, not +least among which was the faculty of working together. They realized +at an early date that the citizens and the city are one; whatever of +advantage they might secure to their city would be returned to them by +their city fourfold. + +"Oh, I do love this old town!" one of them was heard to exclaim as, +returning from the station, his cab paddled through the slushy streets +under a slushy sky. He was quite a young man, yet he had made a large +fortune there. "It's no credit to us making money here," he added, "we +couldn't help it." So citizenized, what should we expect if not unity +of effort, a willingness to efface self when necessary, and with intense +individualism to subordinate individual ideas and feelings to the public +good? In such an atmosphere rises quickly a new city from the ashes of +the old, or a fairy creation like the Columbian Exposition. Imagine the +peninsula of San Francisco covered by a real city equal in beauty and +grandeur to the Chicago sham city of 1893. + +The typical West-American city builder has money--created, not +inherited, wealth. But possession merely is not enough; he gives. +Yet possessing and giving are not enough; he works, constantly and +intelligently. The power which wealth gives is often employed in +retarding progress when the interests of the individual seem to clash +with those of the commonwealth; it is always lessened by the absence of +respect for its possessor. But when wealth, intelligence, honesty, and +enthusiasm join hands with patriotism there must be progress. + +Time and place do not account for all of Chicago's phenomenal growth, +nor do the distance from the world's centres of population and industry, +the comparative isolation, and the evil effects of railway domination +account wholly for San Francisco's slow growth toward the end of the +century. For, following the several spasms of development incident to +the ages of gold, of grain, and of fruit, and the advent of the railway +incubus, California for a time betook herself to rest, which indeed was +largely paralysis. Then, too, those who had come first and cleared the +ground, laying the foundations of fortunes, were passing away, and +their successors seemed more ready to enjoy than to create. But with the +opening of a new century all California awoke and made such progress as +was never made before. + +Coming to the late catastrophe, it was well that too much dependence was +not placed on promises regarding rehabilitation made during the first +flush of sympathy; the words were nevertheless pleasant to the ear at +the time. The insurance companies would act promptly and liberally, +taking no advantage of any technicality; congress would remit duties on +building material for a time, and thus protect the city-builders from +the extortions of the material men; the material men roundly asserted +that there should be no extortion, no advance in prices, but, on the +contrary, all other work should be set aside and precedence given to +San Francisco orders; eastern capitalists were to cooperate with the +government in placing at the portal of the Pacific a city which should +be a credit to the nation and a power in the exploitation of the great +ocean. + +None of these things came to pass. Indeed it was too much to expect +of poor human nature until selfishness and greed are yet further +eliminated. Never to be forgotten was the superb benevolence which so +promptly and so liberally showered comforts upon the poor, the sick, +the hungry, and the houseless until it was feared that the people might +become pauperized. But that was charity, whereas "business is business." + +The insurance companies, themselves stricken nigh unto death, paused in +the generous impulse to pay quickly and in full and let the new steel +city arise at once in all its glory. They began to consider, then to +temporize, and finally, with notable exceptions, to evade by every +means in their power the payment of their obligations. The loss and +the annoyance thus inflicted upon the insured were increased by the +uncertainty as to what they should finally be able to do. Congress +likewise paused to consider the effect the proposed remission of duties +would have on certain members and their lumber and steel friends. Thus a +hundred days passed by, and with some relief half a hundred more. + +Outside capital was still ready, but San Franciscans seemed to have +sufficient for present needs. Capital is conservative and Californians +independent. Even from the government they never asked much, though well +aware that since the gold discovery California has given a hundredfold +more than she has received. Her people were accustomed to take care +of themselves, and managed on the whole to get along. A general +conflagration was not a new thing. Four times during gold-digging days +San Francisco was destroyed by fire, and each time new houses were going +up before the ashes were cold. True, there was not so much to burn in +those days, but it was all the people had; there was not so much to +rebuild, and there were no insurance companies to keep them back. San +Francisco would be grateful, and it would be a graceful thing for the +government to do, to keep away the sharks until the people should get +their heads above water again, not as charity, but for the general good. +The exaction of duties on lumber from British Columbia was simply +taking money from the San Francisco builders and thrusting it into the +plethoric pockets of the Puget Sound people, who at once advanced their +prices so as seriously to retard building and render it in many cases +impossible. Even as I write word comes of another advance in the price +of lumber, owing to the apathy at Washington and elsewhere, after twice +before raising the price to the highest limit. + +Meanwhile, in and around the burned district, traffic never ceased. The +inflow of merchandise from all parts continued. Upon the ashes of their +former stores, and scattered about the suburbs, business men established +themselves wherever they could find a house to rent or a lot to build +upon. Shacks were set up in every quarter, and better structures of one +or two stories were permitted, subject to removal by order of the +city at any time they should appear to stand in the way of permanent +improvement. Some business houses were extinguished, but other and +larger ones arose in their stead. Rebuilding was slow because of the +debris to be removed and the more substantial character of the permanent +structures to be erected. + +Around the bay continues the hum of industry. The country teems with +prosperity. Never were the services of the city needed so much as now. +There are no financial disturbances; money is easy, but more will be +required soon; claims are not pressed in the courts. Any San Francisco +bonds thrown upon the market are quickly taken by local capitalists. +Customs receipts are larger than ever before, and there is no shrinkage +at the clearing house. Land values remain much the same; in some +quarters land has depreciated, in other places it has increased in +price; buyers stand ready to take advantage of forced sales. + +Labor is scarce in both city and country; wages are high and advancing. +Five times the present number of mechanics can find profitable +employment in the city, and it will be so for years to come, as there is +much to be done. + +With the advance of the labor wage and of lumber, rents are advanced. +Mills and factories are running at their full capacity. Orchards and +grain fields are overflowing, and harvesters are found with difficulty. +Merchants' sales were never so large nor profits so good. Prices of +everything rule high, with an upward tendency, the demand at the shops +being for articles of good quality. Oriental rugs and diamonds are +conspicuously in evidence. Insurers are paying their losses to some +extent, and many people find themselves in possession of more ready +money than they ever had before. They are rich, though they may have no +house to sleep in. It is a momentary return to the flush times of the +early fifties, though upon a broader and more civilized scale, and +without their uncertainty or their romance. + +In view of the facts it seems superfluous to discuss questions regarding +the future of San Francisco. That is to say, such questions as are +propounded by chronic croakers: Will the city be rebuilt? If so, will it +be a city of fine buildings? Will not the fear of earthquakes drive away +capital and confine reconstruction to insignificance? + +Let us hasten to assure our friends that the day of doom has not yet +come to this city; that the day of doom never comes to any city for so +slight a cause, or for any cause short of a rain of brimstone and +fire, as in the case of Sodom. Whether of imperial steel or of imperial +shacks; whether calamities come in the form of such temblores as are +here met occasionally in a mild form, or in the far more destructive +form of hurricanes, floods, pestilence, sun--striking, and lightning, so +common at the east and elsewhere, and from which San Francisco is wholly +free, there will here forever be a city, a large, powerful, and wealthy +city. + +Every part of the earth is subject at any time to seismic disturbance, +and no one can truthfully say that California is more liable to another +such occurrence than any other part of the United States. Indeed, it +should be less so, the earth's crust here having settled itself, let us +hope, to some centuries of repose. Never before has anything like this +been known on our Pacific seaboard. Never before, so far as history +or tradition or the physical features of the country can show, has +California experienced a serious earthquake shock--that is to say, +one attended by any considerable loss of life or property. Nor was the +earthquake of April last so terrible as it may seem to some. Apart from +the fire there was not so very much of it, and no great damage was done. +The official figures are: 266 killed by falling walls, 177 by fire, +7 shot, and 2 deaths by ptomaine poisoning--452 in all. The property +damage by the earthquake is scarcely worth speaking of, being no more +than happens elsewhere in the world from other causes nearly every day; +it would have been quickly made good and little thought of it but for +the conflagration that followed. + +Compare San Francisco casualties with those of other cities. Two hundred +and sixty-six deaths as the result of the greatest calamity that ever +happened in California! Not to mention the floods, fires, and cyclones +common to St. Louis, Chicago, Galveston, and all mid-continent America, +the yellow fever at New Orleans and along the southern shore, or the +25,000 deaths from cholera in New York and Philadelphia in less than +twenty-five years, or the loss of 1,000 ships on the Atlantic coast +in the hurricane of August, 1873-not to mention the many extraordinary +displays of vindictive nature, take some of the more commonplace +calamities incident to most cities except those along the Pacific coast. + +Every year more people and more property are destroyed by lightning, +floods, and wind-storms on the Atlantic side of the Rocky mountains +than are affected by earthquakes on the Pacific side in a hundred years. +Every year more people drop dead from sunstrokes in New York, Baltimore, +Philadelphia, and other eastern cities than are killed by earthquakes +in San Francisco in a thousand years, so far as we may know. Yet men and +women continue to live and build houses in those cities without thought +of running away. + +Nor can California claim the whole even of United States earthquakes. In +1755 all New England was shaken up, and Boston housetops and walls were +set dancing, the horror coming in "with a roaring noise, like that of +thunder," as the record has it, "and then a swell like the roaring sea"; +and yet, and notwithstanding the great fire later, the city still shows +vitality, the people are not afraid, and property is valuable. And so in +regard to New York and London and all cities. In Missouri, in 1811, the +earth shook almost continuously for several months along a stretch of +three hundred miles, throwing up prairies into sand hills and submerging +forests. Chicago and New York, and all the country between, were visited +by earthquakes in 1870. Then there are Virginia and the Carolinas, +Alabama Texas and Colorado--there is not a state in the union that has +not had a touch of well-authenticated earthquakings at some time in its +history. + +To one who knows the people and the country, the people with their +magnificent energy and ability, their indomitable will and their +splendid courage; the country with its boundless natural wealth and +illimitable potentialities; the city, key to the Golden Gate, which +opens the East to the West and West to East; the bay, mistress primeval, +through which flows the drainage of six hundred miles in length of +interior valley, the garden of the world; to one who has here lived and +loved, assisting in this grand upbuilding, thoughts of relinquishment, +of lesser possibilities, of meaner efforts, do not come. + +What would you? If there is a spot on earth where life and property are +safer, where men are more enterprising and women more intelligent and +refined, where business is better or fortunes more safely or surely +made, the world should know of it. The earth may tremble now and then, +but houses may be built which cannot be destroyed, fires are liable +to occur wherever material exists that will burn, but fires may be +controlled. + +As for the city, its life and destiny, there is this to be said. The few +square miles of buildings burned were not San Francisco, they were only +buildings. Were every house destroyed and every street obliterated, +there would still remain the city, with its commerce, its manufactures, +its civilization, a spiritual city if you like, yet with material values +incapable of destruction--an atmosphere alive with cheerful industry; +also land values, commercial relations, financial connections, skilled +laborers and professional men, and a hundred other like souls of things. +In a thousand ideas and industries, though the ground is but ashes, the +spirit of progress still hovers over the hills awaiting incarnation. +Dependent on this pile of ashes, or the ghosts thereof, are fleets of +vessels sailing every sea; farms and factories along shore and back to +and beyond the Sierra; merchants and mechanics here and elsewhere; mines +and reclamation systems, and financial relations the world over. + +The question now is not as to the existence or permanency of a central +city on the shores of San Francisco bay. That fact was established +beyond peradventure with the building of the bay, and nothing short of +universal cataclysm can affect it. It is rather to the quality of +that city that the consideration of the present generation should +be directed. The shell has been injured, but the soul of the city +is immortal; and in the restoration it would be strange if our +twentieth-century young men cannot do better in artistic city building +than the sturdy gold-seekers and their successors of half a century ago. + +If history and human experiences teach anything; if from the past we may +judge somewhat of the future, we might, if we chose, glance back at the +history of cities, and note how, when the Mediterranean was the greatest +of seas, Carthage and Venice were the greatest of cities; how, when the +Atlantic assumed sway, Ghent, Seville, and London each in turn came +to the front; or how, following the inevitable, as civilization takes +possession of the Pacific, the last, the largest in its native wealth as +well as in its potentialities the richest of all, it is not difficult +to see that the chief city, the mistress of this great ocean, must be +mistress of the world. + +But this is not all. A great city on this great bay, beside this +greatest of oceans, centrally situated, through whose Golden Gate pass +the waters drained from broad fertile valleys, a harbor without an +equal, with some hundreds of miles of water front ready for a +thousand industries, where ocean vessels may moor beside factories and +warehouses, with a climate temperate, equable, healthful, and brewed for +industry; a city here, ugly or beautiful, fostered or oppressed, given +over to the sharks of speculation or safeguarded as one of the brightest +jewels of the nation, is an inexorable necessity; its destiny is +assured; and all the powers of graft and greed cannot prevail against +it. It is a military necessity, for here will be stationed the chief +defenses and defenders of the nation's western border. It is an +industrial necessity, for to this city three continents and a thousand +islands will look for service. As the Spanish war first revealed to +America her greatness, so the possible loss of San Francisco quickly +demonstrates the necessity of her existence to the nation. It is an +educational necessity, whence the dusky peoples around the Pacific may +draw from the higher civilization to the regeneration of the world. In +the University of California, standing opposite the Golden Gate, with +its able and devoted president and professors, this work is already well +established, the results from which will prove too vast and far-reaching +for our minds at present to fathom. + +And in all the other many byways of progress the results of the +last half-century of effort on our sand-dune peninsula are not lost. +Earthquakes cannot destroy them; fire cannot burn them. San Francisco +grew from the Yerba Buena hamlet in sixty years. In a new and untried +field city-building then was something of an experiment; yet population +grew to half a million, and wealth in proportion; and never was +improvement so marked as just before the fire. With wealth and +population but little impaired, and with the ground cleared for new +constructive work, there would be nothing strange in a city here of +three or four millions of people in another sixty years. Actual progress +has scarcely been arrested. We are rudely hustled and awake to higher +and severer effort. No house or store or factory or business will be +rebuilt or established except in a larger and more efficient way, and +that is progress. + +In and around the city are already more people than were here before the +fire, and soon there will be twice as many, for from every quarter +are coming mechanics and business men, attracted by high wages and the +material requirements of the city. Hundreds of millions of money from +the insurance companies and from local and outside capitalists are +finding safe and profitable investment. And this is only the beginning. + +San Francisco is already a large manufacturing city; it will be many +times larger. Around its several hundred miles of bay shore and up the +Carquinez strait will be thousands of industries to-day not dreamed of, +and all ministering to the necessities of the thousand cities of +the Pacific. There is no place in the world better adapted for +manufacturing. All sorts of raw material can be gathered here from every +quarter of the earth at small cost, lumber, coal, iron, wool, and cotton +for a hundred factories, and mineral ores for reduction. Likewise labor +at a minimum wage, congress and the lords of labor permitting. Add to +these advantages a climate cool in summer and warm in winter, where +work can be comfortably carried on every day in the year, and a more +desirable spot cannot be found. + +Industrially San Francisco should dominate the Pacific, its firm land +and islands, upon whose borders is to be found more natural wealth, +mineral and agricultural, than upon those of all the other waters of the +earth combined, and the exploitation of which has scarcely begun. Here +in abundance are every mineral and metal, rich and varied soils, all +fruits and native products, fuels and forests, for some of which we may +even thank earthquakes and kindred volcanic forces. Manufactures compel +commerce, and the commerce of the Pacific will rule the world. The +essentials of commerce are here. Intelligence and enterprise are here +and open to enlargement. + +For the late severe loss the city may find some compensations--as the +cleansing effect of fire; much filth, material and moral, has been +destroyed. Yet one is forced to observe that the precincts of Satan +retain their land values equal to any other locality. The greatest +blessing of the destruction, however, is in the saving from a life +of luxury and idleness our best young men and women, who will in +consequence enter spheres of usefulness, elevating and ennobling, thus +exercising a beneficial influence on future generations. Already work +has become the fashion; snobbism is in disgrace; and some elements or +influences of the simple life thus reestablished will remain. + +When all has been said that may be regarding the present and the future, +regarding purposes and potentialities, the simple fact remains that the +city of San Francisco will be what people make of it, neither more nor +less. The fruitful interior and the pine-clad Sierra; the great ocean, +its islands and opulent shores, with their fifty thousand miles of +littoral frontage, and every nation thereon awaiting a higher culture +than any which has yet appeared; the Panama canal, the world's highway, +linking east and west, all these will be everything or nothing to +those who sit at the Golden Gate, according as they themselves shall +determine. For the glory of a city is not altogether in its marble +palaces and structures of steel, though these have their value, but +in its citizens, its men and women, its men of ability, of unity, of +energy, and public spirit, and its brave and true women. And has not +this city these? Surely, if in the late catastrophe all that is noble, +benevolent, and self-effacing did not appear in every movement of our +people, then no such qualities exist anywhere. The manner in which they +rose to meet the emergency argues well for the city's future. Before the +calamity was fairly upon them they sprang to grapple it and ward it off +so far as possible. It was owing to them and to the military that the +city was saved from starvation, anarchy, and disease. It also speaks +well for men so severely stricken to be the first to send aid to a +similarly stricken city, the metropolis of Pacific South America. + +All this leads us to the highest hopes for the future. What we need most +of all is a centralization of mechanical industries around the shores of +this bay. Let everything that is made be made here, and the requirements +of all the peoples facing this ocean here be met. The Panama canal will +be a blessing or a curse to California in proportion as she rises to +the occasion and makes opportunities. Manufactures and commerce tell the +whole story. Let us have the city beautiful by all means--it will pay; +Paris makes it pay; but we must have the useful in any event--this, and +a municipality with its several parts subordinated to a general scheme. +What we can do without is demagogism, with its attendant labor +wrangles, and all the fraud, lying, and hypocrisy incident to a too free +government. We want a city superior to any other in beauty, as well as +in utility, and it will pay these United States well to see that we +have it. If we build no better than before, we gain nothing by this fire +which has cost many a heartache. + +The game of the gods is in our hands; shall we play it worthily? Two +decades of inaction at this juncture, like those which followed the +advent of the overland railway, would decide the fate of the city +adversely for the century, and the effect of it would last for ten +centuries. When the shores of the Pacific are occupied as the shores of +the Atlantic now are, when all around the vast arena formed by America, +Asia, and Australia are great nations of wealth and culture, with +hundreds of Bostons and Baltimores, of Londons and Liverpools, the great +American republic would scarcely be satisfied with only a porter's lodge +at her western gateway. + +It is not much to say that the new city will be modern and up to date, +with some widened streets and winding boulevards, gardens banging to +the hillside, parks with lakes and cascades, reservoirs of sea water on +every hilltop; public work and public service, street cars telephones +and lighting being of the best. Plans for such changes were prepared +before the fire; they can be extended and carried out with greater +facility since the ground has been cleared from obstructions. All this +and more may easily be done if the government can be made to see where +the true interests of the people lie, to regard a west-coast metropolis +with an eye for something of beauty as well as of utility, an eye which +can see utility in beauty, and withal an eye of pride in possession. A +paltry two or three hundred millions judiciously expended here by the +government would make a city which would ever remain the pride of the +whole people and command the admiration and respect of all the nations +around this great ocean. + +Of what avail are art and architecture if they may not be employed in a +cause like this? Here is an opportunity which the world has never before +witnessed. With limitless wealth, with genius of as high an order as +any that has gone before, with the stored experiences of all ages and +nations--what better use can be made of it all than to establish at the +nation's western gate a city which shall be the initial point of a new +order of development? Away back in the days of Palmyra and Thebes +the rulers of those cities seemed to understand it, if the people did +not--that is to say, the value of embellishment. And had we now but one +American Nebuchadnezzar we might have a Babylon at our Pacific seaport. +For a six-months' world's fair any considerable city can get from the +government five or ten millions. And why not? There's politics in it. +Can we not have some of "those politics" for a respectable west-coast +city? Would it not be economy to spend some millions on an industrial +metropolis which should be a permanent world's fair for the +enlightenment of the Pacific? The nation has made its capital beautiful, +and so established the doctrine that art, architecture, and beautiful +environment have a value above ugly utility. May we not hope for +something a little out of the common for the nation's chief seaport on +the Pacific, a little fresh gilding for our Golden Gate? + + +THE END + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Some Cities and San Francisco and +Resurgam, by Hubert Howe Bancroft + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SOME CITIES *** + +***** This file should be named 2504.txt or 2504.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/5/0/2504/ + +Produced by David A. Schwan + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + + +Some Cities and San Francisco and Resurgam + +By Hubert Howe Bancroft + + +Some Cities and San Francisco + +There had been some discussion as to improving and beautifying the city +of San Francisco prior to the catastrophe of April 18th. Landscape +architects had been consulted, proposals considered, and preliminary +plans drawn. Therefore when on that day the city was swept by fire, +obviously it was the opportune moment for the requisite changes in the +rebuilding. For a brief period enthusiasm waxed warm. It helped to +mitigate the blow, this fencing with fate. Let the earth shake, and +fires burn, we will have here our city, better and more beautiful than +ever-and more valuable-an imperial city of steel it shall be, and thus +will we get even with the misfortunes of this day. + +Reform in the rebuilding was needed, whatever should be the scale of +beauty or utility decided upon. Fifty years ago the elevating influences +of tasteful environment were not so highly appreciated as now, and all +large cities are fifty years old or more. All large cities, as a rule, +had their beginning with narrow, crooked streets and mean houses. In +Europe and Asia there are aggregations of humanity whose domiciles have +remained unchanged, one might almost say uncleansed, for hundreds or +thousands of years, or ever since their mythical beginning, save only +for the covering of the debris of dead centuries. + +These ancient towns, mostly offspring of feudalism, begun under castle +walls and continued after walls and castle had crumbled, as their area +enlarged, with some improvement, perhaps, in the suburban parts, still +retained this patch of mediaevalism, until obliterated by war, or fire, +or later by modern progress. Look at Edinburgh, for example. With all +its Scotch thrift and neatness, there yet remains the ill-conditioned +and once filthy quarter, beside which rise the old-time ten-story +houses built into the hillside, while in the modern part of the city in +sharp contrast are broad streets and open squares and fine buildings. + +In America the birth of towns is quite different. Here are no plantings +of trembling poverty under lordly walls, but bold pioneering, +forecasting agriculture and commerce; no Babel building, with "Go to, +let us build here a Cleveland or a Cincinnati," but rather, "Here for +the present we will abide." If, however, serfdom and mediaevalism were +absent in New World town-planting, so also were aestheticism or any +appreciation of the beautiful apart from the useful. Old cities require +reconstruction to make them what modern taste and intelligence demand; +settlements in their incipiency are dominated by their sturdy founders, +who usually have other things to think about than beauty and adornment. + +In this day of great wealth and wonderful inventions we realize more and +more the value of the city to mankind, and the quality of the city as a +means of culture. Cities are not merely marts of commerce; they stand +for civility; they are civilization itself. No untried naked Adam in +Eden might ever pass for a civilized man. The city street is the school +of philosophy, of art, of letters; city society is the home of +refinement. When the rustic visits the city he puts on his best clothes +and his best manners. In their reciprocal relations the city is as men +make it, while from the citizen one may determine the quality of the +city. The atmosphere of the city is an eternal force. Therefore as we +value the refinement of the human mind, the enlargement of the human +heart, we shall value the city, and strive so to build, and adorn, and +purify, that it may achieve its ultimate endeavor. + +Civic betterment has long been in progress among the more civilized +communities through the influence of cultured people capable of +appreciating the commercial as well as the aesthetical value of art. +Vast sums have been spent and great results accomplished, but they are +nothing as compared with the work yet to be done-work which will +continue through the ages and be finished only with the end of time. + +And not only will larger wealth be yet more freely poured out on +artistic adornment, but such use of money will be regarded as the best +to which it can be applied. For though gold is not beautiful it can make +beauty, even that beauty which elevates and ennobles, which purifies the +mind and inspires the soul. Progress is rapid in this direction as in +many others. A breach of good taste in public works will ere long be +adjudged a crime. For already mediaeval mud has ceased to be +fashionable, and the picturesque in urban ugliness is picturesque no +longer. All the capitals of Europe have had to be made over, +Haussmannized, once or several times. Our own national capital we should +scarcely be satisfied with as its illustrious founder left it. + +It is a hopeful sign amidst some discouraging ones that wealth as a +social factor and measure of merit is losing something of its prestige; +that it is no longer regarded by the average citizen as the supreme +good, or the pursuit of it the supreme aim in life; there are so many +things worth more than money, so many human aspirations and acquirements +worthy of higher considerations than the inordinate cravings of graft +and greed. Hoarded wealth especially is not so worshipful to-day as it +was yesterday, while the beautiful still grows in grace-the beautiful +and the useful, compelling improvement, always engendered by improved +environment. + +Some cities are born in the purple-rare exceptions to the rule. San +Francisco is not one of these. St. Petersburg, the city of palaces, of +broad avenues and granite-faced quays, whose greatest afflictions are +the occasional overflow of the Neva and the dynamite habit, was spoken +into being by a monarch. Necessity stands sponsor for Venice, the +beautiful, with her streets of water-ways and airs of heavenly harmony; +while nature herself may claim motherhood of Swedish Stockholm, +brilliant with intermingling lakes islands and canals, rocks hills and +forests, rendering escape from the picturesque impossible. + +Penn planted his Quakers about 1682, long before many of the present +large cities in America were begun, yet Philadelphia was one of the few +sketched in such generous proportions that little change was afterwards +necessary to make it one of the most spacious of urban commonwealths. +With this example before him came in 1791, more than a century later, +the father of his country, who permitted his surveyors so injudiciously +to cover the spot on the Potomac which he had chosen for the capital +city of the republic as to require much expensive remodeling later. Yet +what American can drive about Washington now and say it is not worth the +cost? Further, as an example, the repeated reconstruction and adornment +of the national capital by Congress are priceless to the whole United +States, the government therein bearing witness to the value of the +beautiful. And if of value on the Potomac, is it not equally so at the +portal of the Pacific? + +A few other cities there have been which have arisen at the command of +man, potentate or pirate, besides those of the quaker Penn and the tzar +Peter-Alexandria, the old and the new, with Constantinople between; the +first by order of the poor world conqueror, at the hand of the architect +Dinocrates, two or three centuries before Caesar, Cleopatra, and Antony, +but made fit for them and their chariots by streets a hundred feet wide. + +The Danube is the mother of many cities, directing the destiny of +nations, from the Iron Gate to the Golden Horn. Vienna has been made +brilliantly modern since 1858. Beside the sufferings of Constantinople +our little calamity seems tame. Seven times during the last half century +the city has been swept by fire, not to mention earthquakes, or +pestilence, which on one occasion took with it three hundred thousand +lives. Yet all the while it grows in magnificence faster than the +invisible enemies of Mohammed can destroy it. But for these purifying +fires the city would still be one of narrow, filthy streets and vile +smells, reeking with malaria. The Golden Horn of the Bosporus possesses +no greater natural advantages than the Golden Gate of San Francisco, nor +even so great. The industrial potentialities of the former are not to be +compared with those of the latter, while for healthful airs and charming +environment we have all that earth can give, and therewith should be +content. + +Cities have been made as the marquis of Bute made Cardiff, by +constructing a dock, and ship canal, and converting the ancient castle +into a modern palace. Many towns have been started as railway stations, +but few of them attained importance. Steamboat landings have been more +fortunate. Some cities owe their origin to war, some to commerce, and +not a few to manufactures. Fanaticism has played a part, as in India and +parts of Africa, where are nestings of half-savage humanity with a touch +of the heavenly in the air. Less disciplined are these than zion-towns, +but nearer the happiness of insensibility-the white-marbled and jeweled +Taj Mahal, Agra on the Jumna, and Delhi, making immortal Jehan the +builder, with his pearl mosque and palace housing the thirty-million-dollar +peacock throne; Benares, on the Ganges, a series of terraces and long stone +steps extending upward from the holy water, while rising yet higher in the +background are temples, towers, mosques, and palaces, all in oriental +splendor. Algiers, likewise, an amphitheatre in form, might give San +Francisco lessons in terrace construction, having hillsides covered with +them, the scene made yet more striking by the dazzling white of the houses. +After the place became French, the streets were widened and arcades +established in the lower part. + +In fact, the French believe in the utility of beauty, and in Paris at +least they make it pay. The entire expenses of the municipal government, +including police and public works, are met by the spendings of visitors. +To their dissolute monarchs were due such creations as the Tuileries, +the Louvre, and Versailles. Have we not dissolute millionaires enough to +give us at least one fine city? + +London and Paris stand out in bold contrast, the one for utility, the +other for beauty. Both are adepts in their respective arts. The city +proper of London has better buildings and cleaner streets than when St. +Paul was erected; otherwise it is much the same. Elsewhere in London, +however, are spacious parks and imposing palaces, with now and then a +fine bit of something to look out upon, as the bridges of the murky +Thames, the Parliament houses, the Abbey, Somerset house, and +Piccadilly, perhaps. Children may play at the Zoo, while grown-ups sit +in hired chairs under the trees. + +Three times London was destroyed by the plague, and five times by fire, +that of 1666 lasting four days, and covering thrice the area of the San +Francisco conflagration; yet it was rebuilt better than before in three +and a half years. Always the city is improved in the rebuilding; how +much, depends upon the intelligence and enterprise of the people. + +Paris is brilliant with everything that takes the eye-palaces, arches, +Bon Marche shops, arcades, colonnades, great open spaces adorned with +statues, forest parks, elysian driveways, and broad boulevards cut +through mediaeval quarters in every direction, as well for air as for +protection from the canaille blockaded in the narrow streets. San +Francisco may have some canaille of her own to boast of one of these +days; canaille engendered from the scum of Europe and Asia, and educated +at our expense for our destruction. Over and over, these two cities, +each a world metropolis, have been renovated and reconstructed, the work +in fact going on continuously. + +For some of the most effective of our urban elaborations we must go back +to the first of city builders of whom we have knowledge. The Assyrians +made terraces, nature teaching them. On the level plain building ground +was raised forty feet for effect. Like all artists of precivilization, +the Assyrians placed adornment before convenience, as appeared in +Nineveh on the Tigris and Babylon on the Euphrates. At Thebes and +Palmyra it was the same, their palaces of alabaster, if one chooses to +believe what is said, covering, some of them, a hundred acres. The +fashion now is to build upward rather than outward. Besides this +alabaster acreage there are to be taken into account the pyramids, +artificial mountains, and endless towertowns, supposed to be an +improvement on whatever existed before their time. Around the +Mediterranean and over India way were once hundreds of charming places +like the Megara suburb of Carthage and the amphitheatre of Rhodes, +prolific in classic art and architecture, precious gifts of the gods. + +But before all other gods or gifts comes Athens, where the men were as +gods and the gods very like the men. Encircling the Acropolis hill-most +ancient cities had their central hill-the city owes its grandeur to the +many temples dedicated to the Olympian deities by the men who made them, +made both deities and temples, that long line of philosophers the +sublimity of whose thoughts civilization fed on and found expression in +the genius of now and then a Pericles or a Phidias. + +Twenty times Rome suffered, each time worse than ever befell an American +city, the debris of destruction overspreading her sacred soil some +fathoms deep, yet all the while mistress of the world. + +The Moors in Spain reconstructed and embellished many cities, and built +many entire. To them Spain owes her finest specimens of art and +architecture, as Seville, Cordova, and the Alhambra. In Naples the +mediaeval still overshadows the modern. The city needs cleansing, though +she flourishes in her filth and volcanic belchings. Nice, like Paris, +plans to please her guests. Berlin was a little late with her +reconstructive work; the town walls were not removed till 1866. +Though dating from 1190, Glasgow is practically modern, having been +several times renovated by fire. Antwerp, burned in 1871, was quickly +rebuilt. The Hague is charming as the city of peace. Munich, on the +Isar, is every day drifting into the beautiful, not to say aesthetical. + +Pekin is a city sui generis, with its Kin-Ching, or prohibited city, +sacred to royalty; its Hwang-Ching, or imperial city, exclusively for +court officials; its Tartar division and Chinese division, all completed +according to the grand khan and Confucius. Happy Celestials! There is +nothing more to be done, nothing to reconstruct, nothing to improve; it +stands alone, the only city in all the world that is absolutely finished +and perfect. But of a truth our public works sink into insignificance +beside those of the ancient barbarians, the great wall and canal of +China, the pyramids of Egypt, and the brilliant cities of Assyria and +Palmyra. + +The cities of Australia-Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide-in common with all +those of the British colonies, are laid out along liberal lines, with +broad streets, parks, public squares, and beautiful modern buildings, +requiring little change for many years to come. The English part of +Calcutta is a city of palaces, built from the spoils of subjugation. +Yokohama was a small fishing station when Commodore Perry called there +in 1854. + +In the New World as in the Old, from John Cotton to Joseph Smith, +religion with cupidity inspires. One William Blaxton in 1630 lived where +Boston now is, and invited thither Winthrop and his colonists. When +banished from Massachusetts, Roger Williams stepped ashore on the bank +of the Seekonk, on a rock where is now Providence. The French built a fort +where Marquette camped in 1673, and there is now Chicago. Buffalo was a +military post in 1812. St. Paul was an Indian trading station prior to +1838. The building of Fort Washington was followed by settlers and +Cincinnati was begun. Henry Hudson touched at Manhattan island in 1609, +and the Dutch following, New York was the result. Brigham Young, +journeying westward, came to the Great Salt Lake, where, as he told his +followers, he was instructed by divine revelation to plant the City of +the Saints. It proved more permanent than might have been expected, as +zion-cities usually are quite ephemeral affairs. + +Boston, the beneficial, swept by fires, smallpox, witchcraft, quakerism, +snowstorms, earthquakes, and proslavery riots, still lives to meditate +upon her own superiority and to instruct mankind. Much attention has +been given of late in Boston and suburban towns to artistic effect in +street architecture. Until recently New York has given but little +thought to pleasing effects. Broadway was not broad, and Fifth Avenue +was not striking. Of late, however, the city has become imperial, houses +parks and driveways being among the finest in the world. New Orleans has +survived at least a dozen great yellow-fever crises since 1812, +population meanwhile increasing twentyfold. After the enforced +construction of the levee, the idea came to some one that the top of it +would make a fine driveway, which in due time was extended from the +river and bayous to the lake, thus becoming the most attractive feature +of the place. Though not without natural attractions, Chicago was not +made by or for her things of beauty. Beginning with low wooden houses +along dirty streets, transformations were continued until systems of +parks and boulevards with elegant edifices came into view,-which shows +that, however material the beginning of American towns may be, if +prosperity comes the aesthetical is sure to come with it. A contrast +to Chicago may be found in St. Louis, for a long time trading-post town +and city, which would be of more importance now were her people of a +different quality. Even her chronic calamities, tornadoes, floods, and +epidemics, fail to rouse her energies, so that Chicago, starting later +and under more adverse circumstances, outstripped her in every particular. +Cleveland was laid out for a fine city, so that as she grew little +alteration was found necessary. The streets are wide, 80 to 120 +feet-Superior Street 132 feet-and so abundant is the foliage, largely +maple, that it is called the Forest city. + +As an instance of modern aesthetic town construction one might cite +Denver, a western Yankee metropolis of ultrarefined men and women from +down Boston way, breathing a nomenclature never so freely used before +among mid-continent mountains, streets, schoolhouses, parks, and +gardens-all alive with the names of New England poets, philosophers, and +statesmen. Scarcely yet turned the half century in age, few such +charming cities as Denver have been made with fewer mistakes. + +San Francisco at her birth and christening had for godfather neither +prince nor priest, nor any cultured coterie. The sandy peninsula, on +whose inner edge, at the cove called Yerba Buena, stood some hide and +tallow stores and fur depots which drew to them the stragglers that +passed that way, was about as ill-omened a spot as the one designated by +the snake-devouring eagle perched upon an island cactus as the place +where the wandering Aztecs should rest and build their city of Mexico. +San Francisco's godparents were but common humanity, traders and +adventurers, later gold-seekers and pot politicians, intelligent, bold, +and for the most part honest; few intending long to remain, few dreaming +of the great city to arise here; few caring how the town should be made, +if one were made at all. When was improvised an alcalde after the +Mexican fashion, and two boards of aldermen were established after the +New York fashion, and the high officials saw that they could now and +then pick up a twenty-five-dollar fee for deeding a fifty vara lot, if +so be they had on hand some fifty varas, they forthwith went to work to +make them by drawing lines in front of the cove and intersecting them at +right angles by lines running up over the hills, giving their own names, +with a sprinkling of the names of bear-flag heroes, not forgetting the +usual Washington and Jackson, leaving in the centre a plaza, the cove in +front to be filled in later. The streets were narrow, dusty in summer +and miry in winter. Spanish-American streets are usually thirty-six feet +wide. Winding trails led from the Presidio to the Mission, and from +Mission and Presidio to the cove. This was the beginning of San +Francisco, which a merciful providence has five times burned, the +original shacks and their successors, the last time thoroughly, giving +the inhabitants the opportunity to build something better. + +All this time the matchless bay and inviting shores awaited the coming +of those who should aid in the accomplishment of their high destiny. +Situated on the Pacific relatively as is New York on the Atlantic, the +natural gateway with its unique portal between the old East and the new +West, the only outlet for the drainage of thousands of square miles of +garden lands and grain fields, a harbor in the world's center of highest +development, with no other to speak of within five hundred miles on +either side; dominator of the greatest of oceans, waters more spacious +than those of Rio, airs of purple haze sweeter than those of Italy, +hills islands and shore lines more sublime than any of Greece-all this +time these benefactions of nature have awaited the appreciation and +action of those who for their own benefit and the benefit of the nation +would utilize them. Are they here now, these new city-builders, or must +San Francisco wait for another generation? + +They must be men of broad minds, for this is no ordinary problem to be +worked out. It is certain that in the near or distant future there will +be here a very large and very wealthy city, probably the largest and +wealthiest in the world. The whole of the peninsula will be covered, and +as much more space beyond it, and around the bay shores to and beyond +Carquinez strait. Viewed in the light of history and progressional +phenomena, this is the only rational conclusion. + +Always the march of intellectual development has been from east to west, +the old East dying as the new West bursts into being, until now west is +east, and the final issue must here be met. In the advent and progress +of civilization there was first the Mediterranean, then the Atlantic, +and then the Pacific, the last the greatest of all. What else is +possible? Where else on this planet is man to go for his ultimate +achievement? + +Conviction comes slowly in such cases, and properly so. Yet in +forecasting the future from the light of the past cavilers can scarcely +go farther afield than our worshipful forbears, who less than a century +ago, on the floor of the United States congress, decried as absurd +settlement beyond the Missouri, ridiculed buying half a continent of +worthless Northwest wilderness, thanked God for the Rocky mountain +barrier to man's presumption, scouted at a possible wagon road, not to +say railway, across the continent, lamented the unprofitable theft of +California, and cursed the Alaska purchase as money worse than thrown +away. In view of what has been and is, can anyone call it a Utopian +dream to picture the Pacific bordered by an advanced civilization with +cities more brilliant than any of the ancient East, more opulent than +any of the cultured West? + +Rio de Janeiro! what have the Brazilians been doing these last decades? +Decapitating politically dear Dom Pedro, true patriot, though emperor-he +came to me once in my library, pouring out his soul for his beloved +Brazil-they abolished slavery, formed a republic, and modernized the +city. They made boulevards and water drives, the finest in the world. +They cut through the heart of the old town a new Avenida Central, over a +mile in length and one hundred and ten feet wide, lining it on either +side with palatial business houses and costly residences, paving the +thoroughfare with asphalt and adorning it with artistic fixtures for +illumination, the street work being completed in eighteen months. +Strangling in their incipiency graft and greed, after kindly dismissing +Dom Pedro with well-filled pockets for home, these Portuguese brought +out their money and spent hundreds of millions in improving their city, +with hundreds of millions left which they have yet to spend. Thus did +these of the Latin race, whom we regard as less Bostonian than +ourselves. + +With this brief glance at other cities of present and other times, and +having in view the part played by environment in the trend of refining +influences, and remembering further, following the spirit of the times, +that nothing within the scope of human power to accomplish is too vast, +or too valuable, or too advanced for the purpose, it remains with the +people of San Francisco to determine what they will do. + +It is not necessary to speak of the city's present or future +requirements, as sea water on the bills, and fresh water with electric +power from the Sierra; sea wall, docks, and water-way drives; widened +streets and winding boulevards; embellished hillsides and hilltops; bay +tunnels and union railway station; bay and ocean boating and bathing; +arches and arcades; park strips or boulevards cutting through slums, and +the nests of filthy foreigners, bordered on either side by structures +characteristic of their country-all this and more will come to those who +shall have the matter in charge. The pressing need now is a general plan +for all to work to; this, and taking the reconstruction of the city out +of politics and placing it in the hands of responsible business men. + +If the people and government of the United States will consider for a +moment the importance to the nation of a well-fortified and imposing +city and seaport at San Francisco bay; the importance to the army and +navy, to art and science, to commerce and manufactures; of the effect of +a city with its broad surroundings, at once elegant and impressive, upon +the nations round the Pacific and on all the world, there should be +little trouble in its accomplishment. + +And be it remembered that whatever San Francisco, her citizens and her +lovers, do now or neglect to do in this present regeneration will be +felt for good or ill to remotest ages. Let us build and rebuild +accordingly, bearing in mind that the new San Francisco is to stand +forever before the world as the measure of the civic taste and +intelligence of her people. + + +Resurgam + +The question has been oftener asked than answered, why Chicago should +have grown in wealth and population so much faster than St. Louis, or +New Orleans, or San Francisco. It is not enough to point to her position +on the lakes, the wide extent of contributory industries, and the +convergence of railways; other cities have at their command as great +natural advantages with like limitless opportunity. As to location, city +sites are seldom chosen by convention, or the fittest spots favored. +Chicagoans assert that a worse place than theirs for a city cannot be +found on the shores of Lake Michigan. New York would be better up the +Hudson, London in Bristol channel, and San Francisco at Carquinez +strait. Indeed, it was by a Yankee trick that the sand-blown peninsula +secured the principal city of the Pacific. + +It happened in this way. General Vallejo, Mexican comandante residing at +Sonoma, upon the arrival of the new American authorities said to them: +"Let it bear the name of my wife, Francesca, and let it be the +commercial and political metropolis of your Pacific possessions, and I +will give you the finest site in the world for a city, with state-house +and residences built and ready for your free occupation." And so it was +agreed, and the general made ready for the coming of the legislature. + +Meanwhile, to the American alcalde, who had established his rule at +Yerba Buena, a trading hamlet in the cove opposite the island of that +name and nucleus of the present San Francisco, came Folsom, United +States army captain and quartermaster, to whom had been given certain +lots of land in Yerba Buena, and said: "Why not call the town San +Francisco, and bring hither ships which clear from various ports for San +Francisco bay?" And so it was done; the fine plans of the Mexican +general fell to the ground, and the name Benicia was given to what had +been Francesca. A year or two later, with five hundred ships of the +gold-seekers anchored off the cove, not all the men and money in the +country could have moved the town from its ill-chosen location. + +Opportunity is much the same in various times and places, whether +fortuitous or forced. More men make opportunity than are made by it, +particularly among those who achieve great success. Land being +unavailable, Venice the beautiful was built upon the water, while the +Hollanders manage to live along the centuries below sea level. + +The builders of Chicago possessed varied abilities of a high order, not +least among which was the faculty of working together. They realized at +an early date that the citizens and the city are one; whatever of +advantage they might secure to their city would be returned to them by +their city fourfold. + +"Oh, I do love this old town!" one of them was heard to exclaim as, +returning from the station, his cab paddled through the slushy streets +under a slushy sky. He was quite a young man, yet he had made a large +fortune there. "It's no credit to us making money here," he added, "we +couldn't help it." So citizenized, what should we expect if not unity of +effort, a willingness to efface self when necessary, and with intense +individualism to subordinate individual ideas and feelings to the public +good? In such an atmosphere rises quickly a new city from the ashes of +the old, or a fairy creation like the Columbian Exposition. Imagine the +peninsula of San Francisco covered by a real city equal in beauty and +grandeur to the Chicago sham city of 1893. + +The typical West-American city builder has money-created, not inherited, +wealth. But possession merely is not enough; he gives. Yet possessing +and giving are not enough; he works, constantly and intelligently. The +power which wealth gives is often employed in retarding progress when +the interests of the individual seem to clash with those of the +commonwealth; it is always lessened by the absence of respect for its +possessor. But when wealth, intelligence, honesty, and enthusiasm join +hands with patriotism there must be progress. + +Time and place do not account for all of Chicago's phenomenal growth, +nor do the distance from the world's centres of population and industry, +the comparative isolation, and the evil effects of railway domination +account wholly for San Francisco's slow growth toward the end of the +century. For, following the several spasms of development incident to +the ages of gold, of grain, and of fruit, and the advent of the railway +incubus, California for a time betook herself to rest, which indeed was +largely paralysis. Then, too, those who had come first and cleared the +ground, laying the foundations of fortunes, were passing away, and their +successors seemed more ready to enjoy than to create. But with the +opening of a new century all California awoke and made such progress as +was never made before. + +Coming to the late catastrophe, it was well that too much dependence was +not placed on promises regarding rehabilitation made during the first +flush of sympathy; the words were nevertheless pleasant to the ear at +the time. The insurance companies would act promptly and liberally, +taking no advantage of any technicality; congress would remit duties on +building material for a time, and thus protect the city-builders from +the extortions of the material men; the material men roundly asserted +that there should be no extortion, no advance in prices, but, on the +contrary, all other work should be set aside and precedence given to San +Francisco orders; eastern capitalists were to cooperate with the +government in placing at the portal of the Pacific a city which should +be a credit to the nation and a power in the exploitation of the great +ocean. + +None of these things came to pass. Indeed it was too much to expect of +poor human nature until selfishness and greed are yet further +eliminated. Never to be forgotten was the superb benevolence which so +promptly and so liberally showered comforts upon the poor, the sick, the +hungry, and the houseless until it was feared that the people might +become pauperized. But that was charity, whereas "business is business." + +The insurance companies, themselves stricken nigh unto death, paused in +the generous impulse to pay quickly and in full and let the new steel +city arise at once in all its glory. They began to consider, then to +temporize, and finally, with notable exceptions, to evade by every means +in their power the payment of their obligations. The loss and the +annoyance thus inflicted upon the insured were increased by the +uncertainty as to what they should finally be able to do. Congress +likewise paused to consider the effect the proposed remission of duties +would have on certain members and their lumber and steel friends. Thus a +hundred days passed by, and with some relief half a hundred more. + +Outside capital was still ready, but San Franciscans seemed to have +sufficient for present needs. Capital is conservative and Californians +independent. Even from the government they never asked much, though well +aware that since the gold discovery California has given a hundredfold +more than she has received. Her people were accustomed to take care of +themselves, and managed on the whole to get along. A general +conflagration was not a new thing. Four times during gold-digging days +San Francisco was destroyed by fire, and each time new houses were going +up before the ashes were cold. True, there was not so much to burn in +those days, but it was all the people had; there was not so much to +rebuild, and there were no insurance companies to keep them back. San +Francisco would be grateful, and it would be a graceful thing for the +government to do, to keep away the sharks until the people should get +their heads above water again, not as charity, but for the general good. +The exaction of duties on lumber from British Columbia was simply taking +money from the San Francisco builders and thrusting it into the +plethoric pockets of the Puget Sound people, who at once advanced their +prices so as seriously to retard building and render it in many cases +impossible. Even as I write word comes of another advance in the price +of lumber, owing to the apathy at Washington and elsewhere, after twice +before raising the price to the highest limit. + +Meanwhile, in and around the burned district, traffic never ceased. The +inflow of merchandise from all parts continued. Upon the ashes of their +former stores, and scattered about the suburbs, business men established +themselves wherever they could find a house to rent or a lot to build +upon. Shacks were set up in every quarter, and better structures of one +or two stories were permitted, subject to removal by order of the city +at any time they should appear to stand in the way of permanent +improvement. Some business houses were extinguished, but other and +larger ones arose in their stead. Rebuilding was slow because of the +debris to be removed and the more substantial character of the permanent +structures to be erected. + +Around the bay continues the hum of industry. The country teems with +prosperity. Never were the services of the city needed so much as now. +There are no financial disturbances; money is easy, but more will be +required soon; claims are not pressed in the courts. Any San Francisco +bonds thrown upon the market are quickly taken by local capitalists. +Customs receipts are larger than ever before, and there is no shrinkage +at the clearing house. Land values remain much the same; in some +quarters land has depreciated, in other places it has increased in +price; buyers stand ready to take advantage of forced sales. + +Labor is scarce in both city and country; wages are high and advancing. +Five times the present number of mechanics can find profitable +employment in the city, and it will be so for years to come, as there is +much to be done. + +With the advance of the labor wage and of lumber, rents are advanced. +Mills and factories are running at their full capacity. Orchards and +grain fields are overflowing, and harvesters are found with difficulty. +Merchants' sales were never so large nor profits so good. Prices of +everything rule high, with an upward tendency, the demand at the shops +being for articles of good quality. Oriental rugs and diamonds are +conspicuously in evidence. Insurers are paying their losses to some +extent, and many people find themselves in possession of more ready +money than they ever had before. They are rich, though they may have no +house to sleep in. It is a momentary return to the flush times of the +early fifties, though upon a broader and more civilized scale, and +without their uncertainty or their romance. + +In view of the facts it seems superfluous to discuss questions regarding +the future of San Francisco. That is to say, such questions as are +propounded by chronic croakers: Will the city be rebuilt? If so, will it +be a city of fine buildings? Will not the fear of earthquakes drive away +capital and confine reconstruction to insignificance? + +Let us hasten to assure our friends that the day of doom has not yet +come to this city; that the day of doom never comes to any city for so +slight a cause, or for any cause short of a rain of brimstone and fire, +as in the case of Sodom. Whether of imperial steel or of imperial +shacks; whether calamities come in the form of such temblores as are +here met occasionally in a mild form, or in the far more destructive +form of hurricanes, floods, pestilence, sun-striking, and lightning, so +common at the east and elsewhere, and from which San Francisco is wholly +free, there will here forever be a city, a large, powerful, and wealthy +city. + +Every part of the earth is subject at any time to seismic disturbance , +and no one can truthfully say that California is more liable to another +such occurrence than any other part of the United States. Indeed, it +should be less so, the earth's crust here having settled itself, let us +hope, to some centuries of repose. Never before has anything like this +been known on our Pacific seaboard. Never before, so far as history or +tradition or the physical features of the country can show, has +California experienced a serious earthquake shock-that is to say, one +attended by any considerable loss of life or property. Nor was the +earthquake of April last so terrible as it may seem to some. Apart from +the fire there was not so very much of it, and no great damage was done. +The official figures are: 266 killed by falling walls, 177 by fire, 7 +shot, and 2 deaths by ptomaine poisoning-452 in all. The property damage +by the earthquake is scarcely worth speaking of, being no more than +happens elsewhere in the world from other causes nearly every day; it +would have been quickly made good and little thought of it but for the +conflagration that followed. + +Compare San Francisco casualties with those of other cities. Two hundred +and sixty-six deaths as the result of the greatest calamity that ever +happened in California! Not to mention the floods, fires, and cyclones +common to St. Louis, Chicago, Galveston, and all mid-continent America, +the yellow fever at New Orleans and along the southern shore, or the +25,000 deaths from cholera in New York and Philadelphia in less than +twenty-five years, or the loss of 1,000 ships on the Atlantic coast in +the hurricane of August, 1873-not to mention the many extraordinary +displays of vindictive nature, take some of the more commonplace +calamities incident to most cities except those along the Pacific coast. + +Every year more people and more property are destroyed by lightning, +floods, and wind-storms on the Atlantic side of the Rocky mountains than +are affected by earthquakes on the Pacific side in a hundred years. +Every year more people drop dead from sunstrokes in New York, Baltimore, +Philadelphia, and other eastern cities than are killed by earthquakes in +San Francisco in a thousand years, so far as we may know. Yet men and +women continue to live and build houses in those cities without thought +of running away. + +Nor can California claim the whole even of United States earthquakes. In +1755 all New England was shaken up, and Boston housetops and walls were +set dancing, the horror coming in "with a roaring noise, like that of +thunder," as the record has it, "and then a swell like the roaring sea"; +and yet, and notwithstanding the great fire later, the city still shows +vitality, the people are not afraid, and property is valuable. And so in +regard to New York and London and all cities. In Missouri, in 1811, the +earth shook almost continuously for several months along a stretch of +three hundred miles, throwing up prairies into sand hills and submerging +forests. Chicago and New York, and all the country between, were visited +by earthquakes in 1870. Then there are Virginia and the Carolinas, +Alabama Texas and Colorado-there is not a state in the union that has +not had a touch of well-authenticated earthquakings at some time in its +history. + +To one who knows the people and the country, the people with their +magnificent energy and ability, their indomitable will and their +splendid courage; the country with its boundless natural wealth and +illimitable potentialities; the city, key to the Golden Gate, which +opens the East to the West and West to East; the bay, mistress primeval, +through which flows the drainage of six hundred miles in length of +interior valley, the garden of the world; to one who has here lived and +loved, assisting in this grand upbuilding, thoughts of relinquishment, +of lesser possibilities, of meaner efforts, do not come. + +What would you? If there is a spot on earth where life and property are +safer, where men are more enterprising and women more intelligent and +refined, where business is better or fortunes more safely or surely +made, the world should know of it. The earth may tremble now and then, +but houses may be built which cannot be destroyed, fires are liable to +occur wherever material exists that will burn, but fires may be +controlled. + +As for the city, its life and destiny, there is this to be said. The few +square miles of buildings burned were not San Francisco, they were only +buildings. Were every house destroyed and every street obliterated, +there would still remain the city, with its commerce, its manufactures, +its civilization, a spiritual city if you like, yet with material values +incapable of destruction-an atmosphere alive with cheerful industry; +also land values, commercial relations, financial connections, skilled +laborers and professional men, and a hundred other like souls of things. +In a thousand ideas and industries, though the ground is but ashes, the +spirit of progress still hovers over the hills awaiting incarnation. +Dependent on this pile of ashes, or the ghosts thereof, are fleets of +vessels sailing every sea; farms and factories along shore and back to +and beyond the Sierra; merchants and mechanics here and elsewhere; mines +and reclamation systems, and financial relations the world over. + +The question now is not as to the existence or permanency of a central +city on the shores of San Francisco bay. That fact was established +beyond peradventure with the building of the bay, and nothing short of +universal cataclysm can affect it. It is rather to the quality of that +city that the consideration of the present generation should be +directed. The shell has been injured, but the soul of the city is +immortal; and in the restoration it would be strange if our +twentieth-century young men cannot do better in artistic city building +than the sturdy gold-seekers and their successors of half a century ago. + +If history and human experiences teach anything; if from the past we may +judge somewhat of the future, we might, if we chose, glance back at the +history of cities, and note how, when the Mediterranean was the greatest +of seas, Carthage and Venice were the greatest of cities; how, when the +Atlantic assumed sway, Ghent, Seville, and London each in turn came to +the front; or how, following the inevitable, as civilization takes +possession of the Pacific, the last, the largest in its native wealth as +well as in its potentialities the richest of all, it is not difficult to +see that the chief city, the mistress of this great ocean, must be +mistress of the world. + +But this is not all. A great city on this great bay, beside this +greatest of oceans, centrally situated, through whose Golden Gate pass +the waters drained from broad fertile valleys, a harbor without an +equal, with some hundreds of miles of water front ready for a thousand +industries, where ocean vessels may moor beside factories and +warehouses, with a climate temperate, equable, healthful, and brewed for +industry; a city here, ugly or beautiful, fostered or oppressed, given +over to the sharks of speculation or safeguarded as one of the brightest +jewels of the nation, is an inexorable necessity; its destiny is +assured; and all the powers of graft and greed cannot prevail against +it. It is a military necessity, for here will be stationed the chief +defenses and defenders of the nation's western border. It is an +industrial necessity, for to this city three continents and a thousand +islands will look for service. As the Spanish war first revealed to +America her greatness, so the possible loss of San Francisco quickly +demonstrates the necessity of her existence to the nation. It is an +educational necessity, whence the dusky peoples around the Pacific may +draw from the higher civilization to the regeneration of the world. In +the University of California, standing opposite the Golden Gate, with +its able and devoted president and professors, this work is already well +established, the results from which will prove too vast and far-reaching +for our minds at present to fathom. + +And in all the other many byways of progress the results of the last +half-century of effort on our sand-dune peninsula are not lost. +Earthquakes cannot destroy them; fire cannot burn them. San Francisco +grew from the Yerba Buena hamlet in sixty years. In a new and untried +field city-building then was something of an experiment; yet population +grew to half a million, and wealth in proportion; and never was +improvement so marked as just before the fire. With wealth and +population but little impaired, and with the ground cleared for new +constructive work, there would be nothing strange in a city here of +three or four millions of people in another sixty years. Actual progress +has scarcely been arrested. We are rudely hustled and awake to higher +and severer effort. No house or store or factory or business will be +rebuilt or established except in a larger and more efficient way, and +that is progress. + +In and around the city are already more people than were here before the +fire, and soon there will be twice as many, for from every quarter are +coming mechanics and business men, attracted by high wages and the +material requirements of the city. Hundreds of millions of money from +the insurance companies and from local and outside capitalists are +finding safe and profitable investment. And this is only the beginning. + +San Francisco is already a large manufacturing city; it will be many +times larger. Around its several hundred miles of bay shore and up the +Carquinez strait will be thousands of industries to-day not dreamed of, +and all ministering to the necessities of the thousand cities of the +Pacific. There is no place in the world better adapted for +manufacturing. All sorts of raw material can be gathered here from every +quarter of the earth at small cost, lumber, coal, iron, wool, and cotton +for a hundred factories, and mineral ores for reduction. Likewise labor +at a minimum wage, congress and the lords of labor permitting. Add to +these advantages a climate cool in summer and warm in winter, where work +can be comfortably carried on every day in the year, and a more +desirable spot cannot be found. + +Industrially San Francisco should dominate the Pacific, its firm land +and islands, upon whose borders is to be found more natural wealth, +mineral and agricultural, than upon those of all the other waters of the +earth combined, and the exploitation of which has scarcely begun. Here +in abundance are every mineral and metal, rich and varied soils, all +fruits and native products, fuels and forests, for some of which we may +even thank earthquakes and kindred volcanic forces. Manufactures compel +commerce, and the commerce of the Pacific will rule the world. The +essentials of commerce are here. Intelligence and enterprise are here +and open to enlargement. + +For the late severe loss the city may find some compensations-as the +cleansing effect of fire; much filth, material and moral, has been +destroyed. Yet one is forced to observe that the precincts of Satan +retain their land values equal to any other locality. The greatest +blessing of the destruction, however, is in the saving from a life of +luxury and idleness our best young men and women, who will in +consequence enter spheres of usefulness, elevating and ennobling, thus +exercising a beneficial influence on future generations. Already work +has become the fashion; snobbism is in disgrace; and some elements or +influences of the simple life thus reestablished will remain. + +When all has been said that may be regarding the present and the future, +regarding purposes and potentialities, the simple fact remains that the +city of San Francisco will be what people make of it, neither more nor +less. The fruitful interior and the pine-clad Sierra; the great ocean, +its islands and opulent shores, with their fifty thousand miles of +littoral frontage, and every nation thereon awaiting a higher culture +than any which has yet appeared; the Panama canal, the world's highway, +linking east and west, all these will be everything or nothing to those +who sit at the Golden Gate, according as they themselves shall +determine. For the glory of a city is not altogether in its marble +palaces and structures of steel, though these have their value, but in +its citizens, its men and women, its men of ability, of unity, of +energy, and public spirit, and its brave and true women. And has not +this city these? Surely, if in the late catastrophe all that is noble, +benevolent, and self-effacing did not appear in every movement of our +people, then no such qualities exist any-where. The manner in which they +rose to meet the emergency argues well for the city's future. Before the +calamity was fairly upon them they sprang to grapple it and ward it off +so far as possible. It was owing to them and to the military that the +city was saved from starvation, anarchy, and disease. It also speaks +well for men so severely stricken to be the first to send aid to a +similarly stricken city, the metropolis of Pacific South America. + +All this leads us to the highest hopes for the future. What we need most +of all is a centralization of mechanical industries around the shores of +this bay. Let everything that is made be made here, and the requirements +of all the peoples facing this ocean here be met. The Panama canal will +be a blessing or a curse to California in proportion as she rises to the +occasion and makes opportunities. Manufactures and commerce tell the +whole story. Let us have the city beautiful by all means-it will pay; +Paris makes it pay; but we must have the useful in any event-this, and a +municipality with its several parts subordinated to a general scheme. +What we can do without is demagogism, with its attendant labor wrangles, +and all the fraud, lying, and hypocrisy incident to a too free +government. We want a city superior to any other in beauty, as well as +in utility, and it will pay these United States well to see that we have +it. If we build no better than before, we gain nothing by this fire +which has cost many a heartache. + +The game of the gods is in our hands; shall we play it worthily? Two +decades of inaction at this juncture, like those which followed the +advent of the overland railway, would decide the fate of the city +adversely for the century, and the effect of it would last for ten +centuries. When the shores of the Pacific are occupied as the shores of +the Atlantic now are, when all around the vast arena formed by America, +Asia, and Australia are great nations of wealth and culture, with +hundreds of Bostons and Baltimores, of Londons and Liverpools, the great +American republic would scarcely be satisfied with only a porter's lodge +at her western gateway. + +It is not much to say that the new city will be modern and up to date, +with some widened streets and winding boulevards, gardens banging to the +hillside, parks with lakes and cascades, reservoirs of sea water on +every hilltop; public work and public service, street cars telephones +and lighting being of the best. Plans for such changes were prepared +before the fire; they can be extended and carried out with greater +facility since the ground has been cleared from obstructions. All this +and more may easily be done if the government can be made to see where +the true interests of the people lie, to regard a west-coast metropolis +with an eye for something of beauty as well as of utility, an eye which +can see utility in beauty, and withal an eye of pride in possession. A +paltry two or three hundred millions judiciously expended here by the +government would make a city which would ever remain the pride of the +whole people and command the admiration and respect of all the nations +around this great ocean. + +Of what avail are art and architecture if they may not be employed in a +cause like this? Here is an opportunity which the world has never before +witnessed. With limitless wealth, with genius of as high an order as any +that has gone before, with the stored experiences of all ages and +nations-what better use can be made of it all than to establish at the +nation's western gate a city which shall be the initial point of a new +order of development? Away back in the days of Palmyra and Thebes the +rulers of those cities seemed to understand it, if the people did +not-that is to say, the value of embellishment. And had we now but one +American Nebuchadnezzar we might have a Babylon at our Pacific seaport. +For a six-months' world's fair any considerable city can get from the +government five or ten millions. And why not? There's politics in it. +Can we not have some of "those politics" for a respectable west-coast +city? Would it not be economy to spend some millions on an industrial +metropolis which should be a permanent world's fair for the +enlightenment of the Pacific? The nation has made its capital beautiful, +and so established the doctrine that art, architecture, and beautiful +environment have a value above ugly utility. May we not hope for +something a little out of the common for the nation's chief seaport on +the Pacific, a little fresh gilding for our Golden Gate? + +THE END + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg Etext of Some Cities and San Francisco and +Resurgam by Hubert Howe Bancroft diff --git a/old/sfres10.zip b/old/sfres10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9939250 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/sfres10.zip |