Oakland Tribune from Oakland, California • Page 23

XT 1 HJ EQ)DU(D)DDAL 9 aklanb FEATT CURIE'S tribune VOL CXLIV OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA, SUNDAY, MAY 12, 1946 NO. 132 for cycling, and pages in which to log your travels. The Wilkins Hotel is called the best in Santa Cruz; the St. James in San Jose, and the Estudillo in San Leandro. delivery.

A good Providence I suppose which reserves each blessing to its right season. You were kind enough to request only a short business letter in reply. The slightest possible draft on anything that belongs to humanity. I have written such letters I could write another. I could merely say 'Dr.

Sir, With the assistance which your generosity has afforded me I have the means of paying my way expenses to New York. My 'wardrobe' will furnish me a suit not much more than one year old. I advise therefore that the proposed donation be not sent to Newburyport, and so subscribe myself your obt. sev't But you will excuse me. If ever I write another purely 'business' letter, it will hardly be one to you; and least of all on the present occasion.

You have touched, my heart (a full heart) with 'a conductor'; and you niilst receive the consequences. I do not wish to speak of my misfortunes I need not. They speak for themselves. You have apprehended them. You appreciate them; but my comforts! You must indulge me in making mention of these.

As you wrote to comfort me you must allow me to say to you that I am comforted and to reflect a little of my comfort upon you, in my reply. I needed a friend who could meet me just where I was; who knew my position; who could understand me, in it, and who could therefore, speak to me as one having authority and not as the Scribes. You were all this. I had not been without courage, at least for any long time, at once, and yet I must confess that my courage was not of that self sustaining sort, which required no nourishment or stimulus. I should have fainted, or become desperate, long ago, I believe, if a Kind Providence had not occasionally sent an Angel to strengthen me; And never had I needed more such a ministration as yours, than at the juncture when your letter arrived." decided to send the President a cablegram, very lengthy, and with names of people all were anxious about mentioned that he did not think he would remember it, but he, and 'Teddy' were on the football team at college together (I think Harvard, but forget).

In an incredibly short time he had a very lengthy answer and good news of all the people he was seeking; also that he remembered him very well indeed. As a little girl about 12. I guess, though no date is4 available. I was in San Francisco the day ex-President Grant steamed into the bay from the Orient on his world tour. About 5 o'clock as father and we were nearing the ferry for Oakland boat.

Whistles were to blow for an hour as we had no other way to tell So we rushed into a 'chop house' or whatever we could find for a bite. By then the crowds were thick. I believe the steamers in those days berthed along East Street, just north of the ferries. So we saw San Francisco forming in line up Market Street and Grant in the open carriage, etc. Very tireM children I can assure you and father said he would never forget the dense packing, like sardines, down on the forward lower deck; often said he feared we would not make the slip and past midnight." Early Day Teachers The Knave: Mention has been 'made lately of some of our old-time school teachers.

I wonder how many of your readers will recall the teachers who taught in the Durant School in theSO's? Among those who stand foremost in my memories was a Mrs. Walters, whotaught the fifth grade. She always had us start the day by reciting the Lord's Prayer. Others I recall were Miss Betancue, Miss Tyrell, Miss Larkin, Miss Greenman and Miss Hodgdon. Mr.

Dunbar was the principal. Those days the circus had their tents at 31st and Grove. On the mornings of the circus parade, Mr. Dunbar would always let classes out and we stood on the lot at 29th and Grove and watched the parade go by. Edgar Sanborn, our park forester, was the school drummer boy.

The girls had a baseball tearn and one of our hardest hitters was Ida Adamina. Leon Gray, now our Superior Judge, was our best debater. Good old days were those passed at the SPIRITED exchanges between the two principal gubernatorial candidates marked the "warm up" period, and even more vigorous verbal blasts may be expected, we understand, during the 23 days remaining before the primary election. The current campaign marks one of the first times, to the Knave's knowledge, that the CIO-PAC Democratic coalition candidate, Attorney General Robert W. Kenny, has been in a fight in which anyone was willing to take him on, and the situation is not to his liking.

Every time the attorney general has endeavored to create issues where none existed or hurled charges based on misconception or misstatement of the actual facts, Governor Earl Warren has gone directly to the record for the real truth, minced no words, in setting Kenny straight, and taken occasion to point out wherein the attorney general himself has been derelict in related matters. Although there are some who believe that the Governor should indulge in some of the same type of mudslinging that Kenny is practicing and initiate some charges himself, most observers appear to be of the opinion that the Governor is "gaining far more ground by sticking to the real issues, and only unleashing "haymakers" when the opposition gives forth with unfounded statements. The usually glib and wisecracking attorney general, they believe, is being confounded by the fact that the Governor has come out the winner on every exchange thus far and the public is being provided with an excellent view of the political stature of the two men. Kenny is becoming increasingly worried also, we are told, over the CIO-PAC tag on the "package" he hopes to sell the voters, the more so, perhaps, because of the drubbing the PAC took in Ohio elections the past week. Of course, the attorney general cannot come out with a public denial of the fact that the slate he heads was formed at a conference at which the CIO was prominently represented, nor can he deny that the CIO-PAC is backing him, but his cohorts have been striving mightily to give the impression that he is also the candidate of the AFL.

Thus far they have been able to sign up a number of AFL members, as individuals, but no official AFL council has rejected the formal endorsement of Governor Warren voted by the California State Federation of Labor. Now the fact that I've lived in this particular spot for 12 years and, for approximately, 12 years previously I had eagerly sought and recorded every scrap of historical material in this county which I could get and, while doing so, had not learned the Emigrant Road passes within a long rifle shot of my own cabin, is personally amazing. To have overlooked this adjacent historic landmark, while searching farther afield for knowledge of historical data, is disconcerting. I knew about the famous Emigrant Road down through the pass into Placerville. I knew what history has told of other portions of the Road to California and I knew there were portions of it which were relatively unsung.

But I do not recall reading about a portion of the long Emigrant Rgad traversing this particular locality in whih I live. I suppose a vague impression of the '49ers who came to Murphys and its environs, traveled an earthly and not a celestial, trail, sufficed and I forebore looking into the matter. Now, in a conscionable effort to correct an oversight, for my personal satisfaction and, I hope, to the benefit of many who read The Knave and who come this way and who may wish to seek out and look upon portions of the Emigrant Road in this vicinity, I got busy. Kit Carson "I set about locating traces of the trail ground into the earth by the travel worn hooves of plodding oxen and the creaking, rattling wheels of heavy, covered wagons and carts and the often weary and dragging feet of the dauntless men and women and children who came to build an empire in sweat of their brawn; with the gold of their dreams. From my good friend, J.

A. Smith, judge of the Superior Court of Calaveras County and an able and acknowledged historian, I received a kindly and generous response to my request for data on the origin and location of the eastern Sierra end of this section of Emigrant Road. Judge Smith writes in part: It is difficult to get a great amount of information about the old Emigrant Road, now a part of Ebbett's Pass. This road is designated on the official map of Calaveras County as the Old Emigrant Road from West Point to Carson. The road forked at Big Meadows; one fork going into West Point and the other fork going into Murphys.

I have a letter from Mr. T. A. Wilson, a former resident of West Point and a former supervisor of his district, dated Easter Sunday, 1924. In his letter he states: Had it not been for high water in the Middle Fork and South Fork Rivers, the Kit Carson monument would have been placed on our old Emigrant Road between here (West Point) and Markleeville.

Kit Carson, looking for a pass, came via Silver Mountain, Hermit Valley, Blood's Big Meadows (on the present Ebbett's Pass Highway, O.C.T.) and Hunter's Flat to West Point. Caught between two flooded streams, he found the old Indian Trail, which crossed the North Fork at the upper end of Bald Rock, crossed the river on the old Indian grapevine bridge and swam his naked horses over the river. He then went up the ridge now called the Amador Grade and discovered Kit Carson Pass from the west side of the mountains. Carson named this town West Point. It was as far west as he could come.

From this letter (Judge Smith continues in his letter to me) it appears that Kit Carson came over Ebbett's Pass long before the discovery of gold in California. Had he come down the north side of the Stanislaus River, instead of the south side of the Mokelumne, the Ebbett's Pass road would have been used long before it was used, extensively. The Stanislaus slope on the north side is unbroken; the Mokelumne slope of the north side is badly broken." Recalls Cycling Days A friend has shown The Knave a copy of The League of American Wheelmen's Road and Hand Book of California, a pocket-sized volume printed in 1888. Revived are memories of the days of cycling clubs, cycling paths and authorized and informal excursions. Remember the "scorchers" whose noses all but scraped the front tires and the editorial criticisms they evoked? And there were century medals for brave souls who rode 100 miles in one day; races in which contestants wore suits something like swimming togs and stocking caps like small boys wear to the snowlands.

But, to get to the hand book: It tells us Alameda is a "struggling little town" and that "except for the attractions around the baths there are no inducements for visiting the place." We learn that San Franciscans may reach Oakland by taking the ferry. The corner of Oak and Eighth Street, the book says, is a great rendezvous for cyclists and from the foot of Broadway, good macadamized streets lead to all parts of the city. Going to Berkeley on a cycle is a venture because the road is very dusty in Summer but beyond to San Pablo the soil is a reddish clay and keeps in good condition all the year around. The road to Piedmont Springs is entirely upgrade and rather a stiff climb but is entirely worth the effort There are 1 lot of other1, good tips in the book, if you are A Typical Trip In a little pocket in this cycling hand book, our friend had inserted a clipping from The Tribune of the 80's. It carries the story of a typical trip and ought to be of interest to many: "The century run of the California Division, League of American Wheelmen, postponed from May 18th, was held on Sunday.

The run was largely attended and was a success in every particular except to the few who broke down on the way. The wheelmen left San Francisco at 5:20 o'clock, stopping at Menlo Park for breakfast. At Redwood City, the wheelmen were joined by a delegation of 10 Garden City wheelmen who had ridden up from San Jose that morning. At San Jose the crowd stopped for dinner. They then pushed on to Hollister, which was reached shortly after 6 o'clock in the evening, after a run of 13 hours.

The distance covered was 101 miles. After taking dinner, which was in waiting, and getting some much desired rest, the weary wheelmen took the train for home. The train left Hollister at 9 p.m. and arrived at San Francisco at 1:45 a.m. On the way up a number of wheelmen were picked up at San Jose who had dropped off at that point on the run down.

One very sick rider was picked up at Gilroy, completely worn out and prostrated from the long ride. Aside from the few who wore out, all enjoyed the trip, though the roads to San Jose were dusty, and from there to Hollister rather rocky. One wheelman fell into a ditch, but was not hurt beyond a soaking. Sixty-five of the wheelmen reached Hollister, of which number two were from Oakland, Louis Lamory and G. E.

Watchers (who owns the hand book) The last mile of the run was a spurt, Capt. W. W. Meeker of the Bay City Wheelmen leading. Lamory arrived ninth and Watchers 13th.

Both Oakland men held out well and did not feel the effects of the long run aside from the usual tiredness that follows a long vide. Lamory and Watchers met the delegation from the city at San Jose, riding down on this side of the bay. They left here at 5 a.m. and arrived in San Jose' at 10, one hour and 20 minutes ahead of the crowd. They spent the night in San Francisco, upon the arrival of the special at 2 o'clock.

The Old Golden Gate It has remained for Bill Reuter to bring to light an Oakland theater that most old-timers have either overlooked or forgotten in, the passing of the years. It is the Golden Ge Theater that flourished in 1884 on Eighth Street between Washington and Broadway under the ownership of the Messrs. Sanner and Kohler with Fred Mackley as manager, Charles Muller as musical director and F. H. Schwabe as solo pianist.

This information is revealed on an advertising sheet discovered by Reuter announcing an "Entire Change of Venue," as well as a "Change of Management." In token of the new regime the Messrs. Sanner and Kohler had extended to all their patrons, old and new, a cordial invitation FREE OF CHARGE to wit ness the following inaugural performances." Apparently the show was to be composed of seven acts of vaudeville, one contributed by the manager, Fred Mackley who was a "comedian, vocalist and dancer," as well as a performance by the Golden Gate Minstrels and a pantomime entitled "Frolics of a Clown." The performers included Scott and Lamondue. the "wondrous acrobatic marvels of the age" making their first California appearance in horizontal bar work, aerial flights and wire walking; Conchita, who promised "new and interesting Signor Munis Leo "who will illustrate the beautiful and classical historical statues of ancient and modern sculptors and his original a reappearance of Katie Zanfretta, "the artistic vocalist, dancer and the re-engagement of Miss Lena Deere who was a "serio-comic vocalist, sketch artist and dancer," and J. P. Carroll, "the cftver exponent of Irish" and Negro comedy who will annoy you with something funny." Performances started at 8 p.m.

and the management wanted to make it clear that children (sic) over 50 not admitted after 9 o'clock." The poster was printed by Dan W. Gelwicks whose place of business was at 459 Ninth Street. A T.R. Incident To the long memory of Mrs. Laura M.

Bassett, Oakland pioneer who has been kind enough to tell us" of older days, The Knave is indebted for the following: "A year of two after San Francisco's 1906 disaster, a prominent San Francisco surgeon told me of another incident of President Theodore Roosevelt. Dr. John Gall-wey and his wife were in Paris together with a great number of San Franciscans at the American Hotel, all frantic at the reports, and no chance to get or send any news but 'tidal wave' reports, had them frantic. As a last effort, though he had no hope for answer, he Bitter Cogitations The letter by Henry Durant, which with some others to appear later and through the kindness of Reva Scott, The Knave is privileged to print, continues: "Many humble schemes, and some magnificent ones, which I had cogitated in bitter days, and towards which I had been looking with more or less purpose, and expectation;" I had laid aside, buried as one buries his dead, with the sad difference, however, against me, of no hope that some future day would raise them to a brighter existence. Thanks to your letter, for 'the light of hope' which it casts over their graves.

I had never quite made up my mind that I would not try again. I have now about made it up that I will. I had told my neighbors that I was going to N. York, and so to New York I was going, I suppose. Boxes were being filled with relics rooms were being vacated of furniture final settlement with debtors and creditors were coming off.

The Moon which was to light our way, was nightly rising and increasing in the Western Sky. I WAS' GOING TO N. YORK! But, how? When? Wherefore? Quave? Quomodo? Quoeum? were so many enigmas which I could not resolve of so' many Sphinxes which, if I resolved them not, were found to eat me up! Your letter gives me the key and I can see the way clear of leaving Byfield, with whole limbs, in the course of ten days. I shall make it a first point to visit you in Brooklyn and avail myself of your counsel, and perhaps of our 'kind and able friends as the case may be, for the offer of both which you will please receive this first installment of my thanks. We have received a letter from our friends the Rev.

Mr. and Mrs, Noyes, of your place inviting me to their home. The worst I fear to tell you the plain truth, is that I am too deficient in executive ability to bring any thing to pass which shall answer to the outlay of kindness which you are making to re-establish me. With God's blessing I shall Use whatever ability I have and hope for the best. I am of your opinion that 'any virtuous employment is better than inaction' and I mean to be doing 'something virtuous' immediately.

With great Esteem I remain your Friend, Henry Durant. P.S. Mrs. Durant charges me with an especial acknowledgement of your regards to her, and her thanks, with all the rest of her heart for the cordial friendship, and characteristic generosity of your whole letter, while she claims a property also in whatever I have said expressive of gratitude, which I consent to, so long as it shall rob you of nothing, and leave me in your regards, as I am. Yours most affectionately, H.

D. Emigrant Road My friend, O. C. Treleaven, a writer who lives in the hills of Calaveras County and who occasionally sends in a bit of Mother Lode history, writes of the old Emigrant Road in his vicinity: "Recently while hunting historical data to use in connection with the forthcoming annual Jumping Frog Jubilee and Fair which is to be held at Angels Camp on May 17, 18 and 19, in case you're interested; and who isn't? I learned that plainly visible traces of the old Emigrant Road lie within seven-tenths of a mile from and my cabin, near Hathaway Pines. old Durant School in the 90's.

Mrs. George N. Foley. Oldtime Mills 7 The Knave: Your article of last Sunday took me back to the years I was in Mills Seminary in the early 80's. By that time we did not wear bloomers but on school days wore woolen dresses and white aprons.

As we flirnished our own garments, they were not exactly alike, but all wearing white aprons had the effect of a uniform. Saturday and Sunday we wore our "good clothes." I knew Dn and Mrs. Mills, although Dr. Mills did not come in contact with the girls much. He looked after the business and I believe taught some of the senior classes.

Mrs. Mills was a little thin nervous woman. very quick and a very strict disciplinarian. I always liked her as she was just, and any girl could go to her and she would listen and if the complaint was real, she would do what she could to correct it. When I was there the eucalyptus, were splendid trees and I enjoyed the required walks under them.

M'aud W. Bell. I 'California Yankee' Sixty years ago, William R. Staats, son of a Connecticut minister, arrived in California after a trip over the Isthmus. He was a young man seeking health in the "Land of Sunshine' and when he died in 1928 he was known as the founder of many of the institutions and organizations of which the southern part of the State is particularly proud.

Staats, in short, was one of a number who found Los Angeles in the days when it was a sleepy pueblo and had part in awakening it to frenzied and aniazing performance. Carol Green Wilson, graduate of Stanford and now a resident of San Francisco, has written the story of this builder of institutions, social, civic and financial, in a way to provide invaluable material to those who knew him and the interests which were But the story goes beyond the man, as inevitably a story mitst when the man is one of; many activities and friends. To be sure there is much of water companies, land syndicates, financial concerns, hotels and other utilitarian things for which he was responsible, but there; are also adventures into stories of the Huntington Library, the Mount Wilson Observatory' and excursions into out of the way places where out of the run persons are met. John Muir steps into the work when men were taking jhe telescope up Mt. Wilson and.

of course, the stalwarts in early business life are there. There are fine paragraphs on the early hunt and gun clubs but the greatest interest, The Knaye believes, will be in the acceptance of the story of Staats as that also of other men in his time who looked ahead and envisioned such thipgs as the great California Institute of Technology, Mt. Wilson Observatory, 'Southern California Edison and Union Oil and still had time? for projects In science and the fme arts. -THE KNAVE 9 Senatorial Race The past week saw renewed activity on the part of Rep, Ellis E. Patterson, Democratic candidate for election to the U.S.

Senate, and many believe the CIO-PAC was staging an intensive behind-the-scenes campaign in his behalf. Persons expert in such matters reported evidence of exceedingly heavy expenditures for advertising and radio time in his campaign. Patterson's stock took a decided boost when the L6s Angeles News, the only large Democratic paper in the State, came out for him and the consensus from all parts of the State seemed to be that Patterson was gaining considerable ground at the expense of Will Rogers whorrf Kenny has backed as much as he dared. Rogers also has the support of the AFL. Rivalry between the two men and their supporters has been intense since Patterson originally opened up on Rogers as the "handpicked candidate of party bosses' and it is expected that during the next three weeks the air will be filled with charges emanating from one or both camps.

When party rulers muzzled Patterson after his first few blasts at Rogers, his backers indicated that while their candidate might submit to such handling for a time, the closing days of the campaign would undoubtedly see him return to his usual, virile type of campaigning. They figure that Rogers is no match for their man in any sort of a contest in which restraints are not imposed by party chieftains, and that if Rogers needs such coddling protection he would have little to offer in the finals in November. Meanwhile, the incumbent, U.S. Senator William F. Knowland, having no party opposition, is able to conduct a more statesmanlike campaign.

The Senator himself is remaining in Washington, but supporters throughout the State are putting on an all-out drive in his behalf during the closing weeks -of the campaign. A Henry Durant Letter Manning Cleaveland of Oakland (a distant relative of Grover Cleveland whose family changed the spelMrtg of the name) has an invaluable collection oi family letters among which Reva Scott has found three letters dealing with the Rev. Henry Durant, written shortly before he came to California and founded the little school in Oakland which eventually became the University of California. The story pieces together this way: On the 13th of 1852, N. Cleaveland (Manning's greatgrandfather), a Congregational minister who lived in Brooklyn and had formerly been in charge of the Boys' Academy at Byfield, Connecticut, wrote to Henry Durant.

Henry Durant answered him as follows: "Byfield, December 18, 1852: Yours of the 13th is this moment received. Something interrupted its due.