Contrasts in San Francisco; Difficulties With State Prohibition and Sales Tax Laws This is the fourth and concluding article of Mr. Lesctgohin on his observations—ukes nek dlsitkes of the United States, which he visited chile on log leave. Previous articles wore published ox December 14 thd 28, 1908 and January 4, 1039.
LIKED San Francisco. The ity which rises from the waterside to a high ridge is beautifully situated on a very picturesque bay. Whether walking through the streets on the high [ground, driving across the bridges, or through Oakland and the other towns across the bay, one gets a constant succession of [changing panoramas. The very ancient cable-cars which still craw] groaning and squeaking up its steeply inclined streets give the city-'a touch of old-world atmosphere.
The two great bridges, too, are most imposing sights. Although I got a little tired of the constant enumeration of the millions of dollars spent on, and the thousands of tons of steel used in their construction, it must be admitted that they certainly are a wonder-{ul piece of engineering.
Chinatown, on the other hand, bored me extremely; it was too much like Shanghai for my taste.
San Francisco seemed to be have ing its usual crop of labour troubles when I was there. Outside all the larger stores stood groups of well-dressed young and elderly ladies carrying boards bearing the somewhat contradictory statements, "We do not want to control hiring." and "Seniority is the only fair method." But lack of logic is afler all a prerogative of their.sex. Anyhow, all they appeared to be on strike for was promotion by seniority as against selection. 1 gather that the city was rather in a dither over the activities of these very mild-coking females, for outside each store stood an almost equal number of burly policemen.
During my stay in San Francisco Thad the Sed fortune to see a typical Ameri institution a parade, It was a Columbus Day parade. They were celebrating the discovery of America, the Italian portion of the citizens being particularly to the fore. Bodies of men and women marched in solemn procession through the main streets dressed in the most gorgeous and fantastic costumes, such as one cerdinarily -assoelates with a fancy dress ball or the chorus of a light Jopera. There were ladies in bril-Want" scarlet uniforms wearing chromium-plated trench helmets, others in purple satin breeches, yel-Tow jackets and green shakes, others in white or blue with silver facings. Absolutely fantastic!
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.