Within the Golden Gate.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 7707, 9 January 1905, Page 4

Within the Golden Gate.

u IMPRESSIOHS OF SAM FRANCISCO. NO. 11. (By an ex-New I'lymouthilc.) i Since ,uy last communication I g have had time to set down a few i more of my impressions and experic ences. I FRISCO'S PICTURESQUE "LU.NU." t My principal recreation consists in r Igoing out to the Park, live or six juiiles away, at the entrance to the ( harbour, on Sundays, the faro being j only live cents. (2Jd). I usually go ; out early in the morning, 'walk * around the harbour entrance, and I return through the I'ark in time to ' attend the grand band concert in the " | afternoon, iiut how am 1 to describe that l'ark, consisting as it ' does of 1500 acres of laud, and exI tending along six milos of the shores, _ .with its miles of splendid drives 5 | (made of bitumen and smoother Mum ;• New Plymouth's best asphalt), boau- " tifully kept lawns (with no unsightly "Keep oft the tirass" tickets), line conservatories, lovely ilower gardens, Japanese tea gardens, aviaries, large lawn tennis courts—for use without charge—lakes, waterfalls (a hundred feet high), etc., etc? I am continualfy, even now, coming across new ibeauty spots, and altogether 1 must admit, reluctantly, that it '' gives a fine compensation for my loss " of New Plymouth's "Ite'c." A line band of forty pieces—string, reed, and brass—plays every Sunday ami holiday, and the average attendance ;' is about six thousand ; a few Sun- ~_ days ago it reached eighteen thouL " sand/ This is a sufficient indication s of what the music is like. It is a fine sight to see the thousands of 3 the audience stand during the play--9 ing ol "The Star-spangled Banner" —and you want to hear that played by an American band to appreciate ' e it. No charge is made for admis- )" sion, and prografiuues are free, some '" five thousand boing distributed at a every concert. I am told the band a is paid about £SO a week for the r one concert. The baud stand is a magnificent structure—'the gift of ? King Sprcckels—and cost £50,000. '" It would occupy more than the whole e space at the head of the lake in the "Rec." "7 The Park is remarkable as being 4 tho result of an extraordinary vics tory over line sand that lay (and still does in parts) between San II Francisco and the sea. A few years "■ ago tho city was half-blinded every time the wind blew from the ocean, ~ and that is the prevailing wind. * Would that some New ,Tlymouth mil--3 lionairc could see what has been ef- " fected ami take the hint and trans- * form similarly the breakwater sand '* dunes ! 0 WHERE THE PEOPLE DINE, t As, I think, I have already said, _ irregularity of hours at my first _ place of business rendered it conveni- { ent to have my. meals out—as inr deed the greater number of people here do. In the then uncertain state . of my movements, when I entered my B present billet, I did not care to make j another change, so continued to rent . a furnished room with attendance, c and to have my meals out. The rcs- ( taurant at which I have my meals B is admitted to be the best ordinary j in the city. It is situated right on B the main street, and through the full glass fronts one jean cat his dinner and at the same time have an unobstructed view of all the hurryprocession of business traffic along j the main thoroughfare. The place s has the reputation of feeding five c thousand persons a day, and from v 11 a.m. till 2 p.m. the rush of hun- . ery ones is tremendous and continuB ous, keeping two cash register girls going so hard that they have to be relieved every now and then. Curiously enough the walls are adorned " with Scripture texts, and so the only thing lacking is a Methodist parson to say grace and thus make the i whole thing a thorough-going Sunj day School bun fight. Moreover, . out of all the restaurants in tho city, some two or three thousand in nuiu- . bcr, it is the only one which does not 1 supply liquor. STRENUOUS "SOCIETY" LIFE. Corresponding to the Sydncyitc's ) stock question of "What do you l think of our harbour ?" San Fran- [ ciscans press on every visitor to Cali- ; fornia the question "What do you l think of our women ?" But I have 1 Max O'Bell's sentiments : "They are a unique women whom I can admire all the more because I have not the ? honour to be the husband of one. r of them, and therefore have not to - pay her dressmaker's bills nor work ■ by the sweat of my brow to cover ■ her with diamonds." The sex here is certainly unique ; for one thing in its beer-drinking and smoking proi pensitics, habits t 0 which the "smart $ set" is particularly addicted. I will . quote an instance of what "society" life here means. Just as I first arrived here a local dentist committed ; suicide because, with a monthly inj come pf £4O, he could not keep up j the pace his wife set for him. In . most cases, however, suicide is the least evil that results. A TASTE FOK ATHLETICS. : San Francisco is the Coast's Prize * Ring of boxing contests. The city " goes fairly football mad (you know 1 how intense that kind of madness is) 3 over the great contests which are » frequently held. Streets are blocked ! to traffic for several hours by the crowds waiting for admittance, and 1 a "gate" of £SOOO (30,000 dollars) * is considered disappointingly small. t The attendance is generally soine- ' thing like 30,000. SUB ROSA. , For blackest crime the city would j beat the worst Australian ,gold min- . ing centre. Daylight hold-ups in the main business streets are weekly . occurrences, and anything like a secondary street is, at night time, a j robber's paradise. But what can . you expect with a police force such j as we have here, when it is not un- . common for a constable to be arrests ed for robbeiy ! and the best snten'x tentioned members of the "forcc""are ! censured by the judges for raiding a den of vice in the heart of the city ', whose proprietor had secured the written protection of the municipal authorities ! ! Curiously enough, if the driver of a cart has the misfor- , tune to ever so slightly run over a person he is promptly arrested with . as much show as if he were the , worst of criminals. ; Of course, in the category of so \ much crime, murder is only classed third rate. Munipipal corruption , exists to an almost inconceivable ex- , tent, and as the City Fathers control all branches of city government they are responsible for the wickedness of the city* I was astonished . to learn that there were three thou- ' sand saloons in the city, besides ' thousands of restaurants and hotels, at all of which liquor is sold,