Slike strani
PDF
ePub

The sand beach for miles at this point is hard, level, and clean, affording an elegant and romantic drive, with rolling ridges of sand on the east and the broad Pacific on the west. At this point, and seven miles from the city, is the "Cliff House," where the great sea-lions perch upon their sea-beaten rocks, and are objects of admiration and wonder to the new-comer. A fine macadamized road from the city to this point forms the chief drive for the pleasure-seekers of the great metropolis.

The Bay and the present site of San Francisco was first discovered on the 9th of October, 1769, by Governor Portala, the Mexican pioneer, and his associates, who made a journey by land from Monterey northward, planting the cross among the Indians. Seven years later the mission of San Francisco was founded, and in 1836 the first house was built where now stands the magnificent city of San Francisco. The growth and commercial importance of the city has kept on steadily and with astonishing rapidity increasing until, in elegance, it is not surpassed in America. High hills have been levelled down and flung into muddy holes and deep ravines; parks laid out and ornamented, wide and pleasant streets well paved, water and gas conducted everywhere, horse railroads running in every direction, pleasure-gardens, play-grounds, public halls, theatres, churches, schools, libraries, banks, hospitals, colleges,. foundries, factories, and all the appliances of modern civilization maintained upon the broadest principles.

The city of San Francisco is substantially built with brick and wood. Few houses exceed four stories in height: the dread of earthquakes check building to a greater elevation. In the business centres the buildings

are all made of brick or stone, and many elegant structures with iron fronts painted white adorn the city. There is not a city in the United States where so much glass is used in buildings; almost the entire fronts of all the fine stores, hotels, and offices are elegant plate glass running from the ceilings to the street, at once giving an attractive appearance to the city and light and comfort within.

Some idea of the Pacific metropolis may be had from a brief inspection of the leading features of the component parts of the city and its population as demonstrated by the federal census of 1870. At that period the real and personal property in the city was valued at $265,000,000. There were at the same time 25,300 houses in the city, and 36 banks having $25,000,000 on deposit; 50 miles of street railroad; 800 manufacturing establishments, employing $18,000,000 and producing $45,000,000 in value annually; 36 halls, 45 wharves, 8 theatres, 87 apothecaries, 600 lawyers, 70 book stores, 325 shoemakers, 33 brewers, 420 brokers, 370 butchers, 27 cigar importers, 64 cigar factories conducted by whites and 34 Chinese cigar factories, employing 4,500 Chinese and 300 white men, and producing annually 70,000,000 cigars valued at $3,000,000; 450 retail cigar stores, 42 coffee-houses, 71 confectioners, 60 dentists, 200 dressmakers, 30 foundries, 220 fruit dealers, 700 groceries, 13 hospitals, 200 hotels, 200 incorporated companies, 76 insurance companies, 147 jewellers, 68 laundries; 2,100 saloons, which, with the 700 retail groceries, make 2,800 places for the sale of liquors; 450 lodging houses, 750 merchants, 100 Chinese merchants, 88 newspapers, 30 photographic galleries, 450 physicians, 145 restaurants, 37 steamboat lines, 100 music

teachers, 73 churches, 5 Jewish synagogues, 14 Josshouses, 241 benevolent societies, 62 protective unions, 12 literary and historical societies, 40 military companies, and 41 social clubs.

Not the least remarkable in the development of this youngest but most active and progressive American city is the composition of its citizens. Scarcely a spot on earth, from the metropolis of London to Iceland and Fiji, but is represented in San Francisco. Here the strangest physical and mental types of the race are found, each leaving its imprint upon the institutions and rising generation of the country.

To the European or the people of the Atlantic States, where the growth of great cities is the result of centuries, the sudden springing into existence of the great commercial city of San Francisco seems like fiction. Thirty-seven years ago not a sign of human life marked the spot where now stands this proud metropolis. In 1836, the first humble house was built; and during the succeeding eleven years but four hundred and fifty-nine persons had congregated about the shores of the Bay of San Francisco. But potent agents soon awoke the slumbering nations to cross deep seas and arid plains to build up the giant city of the Far West. The starry ensign of the new nation of freedom was hoisted in 1846, and the charmer, gold, was discovered in 1848.

From a population of 459 in 1847, San Francisco had swelled to 34,776 in 1850. In 1860, the city had 56,802 population; and, in 1870, it had reached 149,473—an increase of almost 166 per cent. in ten years; and the increase is still marked by indications of steady and rapid growth.

The population of the city is about one-quarter of

the population of the whole State, and has grown entirely out of proportion to the population of the country chiefly from the fact that it has been the great distributing point of all the merchandise from Mexico to Alaska, on the coast. Now that the continental railroad has opened interior avenues of supply, and the overland railroad building from Lake Superior to Washington Territory will form a short connecting link between the Atlantic seaboard and the finest harbor in America, inviting the commerce of Asia to the new port of the West, Puget sound, some division of San Francisco's protracted monopoly of commerce may reasonably be expected.

The composition of the population of San Francisco presents many features of striking interest: perhaps no other city of importance in the United States or in any other part of the world contains more foreign than native voters. The registered voters of the city in 1870 aggregated 36,410, of whom 16,205 were native and 20,205 were adopted citizens: showing 4,000 more naturalized than native citizen voters in the city. Of the voters at this time 352 were colored, all native.

The total population was composed of 75,824 adult males, 61,577 adult females, 23,722 males under fifteen years of age, and 23,261 females under fifteen years. Of the population, 18,346 males and 18,219 females were born in California; and the Chinese population was 11,810, of whom 9,777 were males and 2,040 were females. Of the males, 877 were under fifteen years of age, and 271 females were under fifteen; of the Chinese residents, 189 males and. 131 females were native-born Californians. The colored population was 1,094, of whom 626 were males and 468 were females;

[graphic]
[ocr errors]

SAN FRANCISCO DESTROYED BY FIRE, DECEMBER 24, 1849; MAY 4, 1850; MAY 4, 1851; JUNE 22, 1851.

[graphic][ocr errors][merged small]
« PrejšnjaNaprej »