San Francisco Chronicle from San Francisco, California • Page 1

aS 5356 Mf 1 js Situ wiiTswwiwieiriflr in iraviiiwffir mi WWWIJPJW WWfW nffff0 VOL LXI SAN FRANCISCO CAL SUNDAY MAKCH 3 1895 TWENTY SIX PAGES 2ft447s 1 SCHOOL WIRE CEIKI OF ill RiCES HI npHE Star Spangled Banner does I not need to be sung by Ameri mm to mate it inspiring We inc it perfunctorily Tbe words mean little to ui except on special occasions but to hear a I did on day laet wee sung by a polyglot mmWI of chil dren oaichedup from to four quarter of the earth and if it does not make thnllsofenthtuiainiand patriotism run oer you ana tears come to your eyes then you do do dts rve to live in the land of the Red Wh te ard Blue I never beard any heaT er wish than tbeir Long mav it wave a id suddenly I thought how lukewarm and careless and cold blooded we Americans are the children who were singing for me were not of oar blood Not half a dozen of the hun dred singers whose rourjd tbroata tiled and swelled with the notes had the shelter of Old Glory as tneir inherit an The wereonlv adopted chldren of America and they go to school not to learn arithmetic and spelling so much as to learn to speak English and to be American so lhat some da when they are grown up tl ev will not be diuided a ereat breach from the rest of the people among whom ihey have come to live Over in the northern part of the city where stree are so steep that grass grows thick and green between the cobble stones is an old weather worn scboolhouse The only th Tg American about It is its name and the fsithful women teachers who labor ete day within its wa Is on mate rial that is picture que and interesting but soraei mes unyielding and difficult The school was named long ago after Irving It houses as cosmopolitan a crowd of children as could be found between was Fullv half these waifs of nationali ties would make admirable artists models When one Is looking for types the diffi eulty lies in making selections so piquant and quaint are the majority of the facea rounded by a white coma that looked btae by contrast Every oue of them rejoiced in glorious black brows and straight black hair These were the children who might have been running about Madrid dirty naked and happy bad it not been for their distinguished countryman Then the teacher asked for Portugal and three more children slid out into the others places They were dark skinned too but slenderer the Spanish type in the Latin quarter having a tendency to be heavy even in extreme youth When England was called no one responded Scotland too was without representatives bnt when Ireland turn came half a dozen young peop stood up smiling broadly and very ev dently proud of it as ever the grat grandch dren of Erin usually are From their looks it seemed a though a roll call of tbe mothers might have placed these children in a more southern category When Greece was called two lads stood up They had broad faces the charac tenstic of the Greek type here and the straight nose of antiquity seemed lost forever There was one boy who hailed from Austria and one from Pe half a dozen from Mexico and actually two from America Germany had six represents tives ana France three There were two little Swedes with flaxen hair and delicate wild rose complexions Tben Italy was called Instantly there was a nutter ot hands and a noise of many feet and halt the room stood up That little neck ot land furnished more children in this school of all nations than all the Other countries put together The Italian children are interesting every way you take them Most of them are very good to look at They are as pretty as Murlllo Beggar Bov and all ot them no matter how round and jolly have appealing pathetic eyes All and if tbe master of the lateen sail hoped to voyage in his litte craft into the strange region But it all untangled itself very raturally in the end and the small brown eyed Mcolo proved to nave been blessed with two fathers during his fire short years His own father hav ing died a brown fisherman had wooed and won trie mother of IicoIo bat the small boy made the distinction and papa and lather were two to him Tbe children are dressed much aa other small persons not in affluent circnm stances are They wear bright colors in a faded state but there are very few lit tie girls in the school too poor to own a string of gold or silver beads and a pair of earrings They may be sans shoes and a little shy In hair ribbons but there are always tbe beads and the earrings Bright red stock ings are a favorite mode of adding color to their atkire and twinkling red legs go scudding down the hall Some shoes are low and tongueless with drooping and despondent shoe laces but these gay vivacious Italian youngsters cannot stop for that hen they enter the school not more than six children in the big receiving class are able to speak English It is a perfect babel of tongues bnt the youngest recruits are rather shy and keep quiet though listening with all their ears With that subtle sympathy of childhood little Greeks and little Norwegians understand each other perfectly There is a language of touch and glance which they all know In the receiving class the otner day there were but three children who spoke Eng lish alone and these hung their heads as though regretting keenly their lack of ac coraplishments Another thing that is taught at the Irving School is deportment The chil dren mostly come from tbe polite nations and thev remember more easily two pairs ot the blackest eyes any one ever gazed into and Angelo Delmonte bad the piquant combination of brown eyes and red hair Of tbe girts some of tbe Portuguese types have tbe greatest beauty considered as abstractions The Spanish and Mexican have the giory of the richest and darkest coloring You may call them flat nosed and wide mouthed it you will but it is a picturesque Mexican type and if you care for shining black hair and big black eyes crimson lips and skins that show every tint of yellow and brown you have them in these gypsy faces The Italian children are lighter than the nntraveled American expects They are gray eyed ana creamy skinned witb a color in their cheeks like hat peculiar yellowish pink which shows you which side of an apricot was turned toward the sun The hair of young Italy in America IS golden own and almost always curly Tbey have low foreheads and straight 1HI PEOPLE VERSUS TIK MILLIONAIRE FL1IST 1 ViS Sr IfYTJ EiNV VtS FRCf as MANY TClCsKXySMOi Tsja The Irving School draws its materials trem the Latin quarter Down the steep hills old Montgomery street thev come put bouses that once were desirable and now are in tbe picturesque stages of decay Around the school the Latin element has made itself a new home The names on every sign end in 1 or and the signs themselves with their advertisements are in Italian For blocks one does not tie an American word until the paiser by wonders if this can be an Amen can aty If you look down Broadway vista yon see the bay and the wharves but even this does not help vou much for there are the lateen sailed boats of the Italian fishermen Everything breathes of tbe Mediterranean Old women with mnnrln nf Ihrnut and neck swelling rone 11W 4la nl wxrtH llC UB39 Vt kli KJDJtb UllllUllS Jk nwvu 1 1 thej beads and brilliant handlterchrefs wrapped round head and bust Italian skv was ever bluer than ean Francisco is at some favored imts Lven the buildings have caught the Ital itn infection Ml of the quarter is old San Francisco The houses are piled in Uers up the steep hillsides and many of tbe older ones with ornamental ironwork over doors and windows Lave been plas teredand painted bright bines and reds Numerically the children of ltly predominate bat there is such a ip inkling of all the oods under the un except Asiatic that one feels as though it were a kinde garten congress ot nations in Ittad of a primary school in an American cty To see all those dark foreign faces and hear the murmur of strange tongues brings one with a sudden start to a re aliling sense of what a strange potpourri Ottrflag covers and from what a tangled skein of manv colors we have undertaken to weave our Joseph coat I Tirj much doubt if in any other Sta Francisco school there is a greater vsnety of more interesting materials than tty be found thm the four wal of the old Irving school Other primarv schools there doubtless are equally important but this is a place where young foreigners are molded and bent and trained into Americanism The homes whence they come Into this new influence every day center of old country life Their parent do not speak English do not know or care for our ways but for five fcouri each day little children from tbe north country rub against dark little hodies from sunny southern coaste and tbe cold little Norsemen and horsewomen help to smooth off the angles on impulsive hot blooded Stevanos and Angtllnss and each calns something from tbe other The phlegmatic German children become more impulsive and Mteh something from tbe eager faery na tares ot their Spanish neighbors just over the aisle There are thin lips thit grow WIer la unconscious imitation of more generous curves and hot blooded dark tinned lads learn something of repes too and reserve from these apathetic blondes with their strong mark of tbe Son strain A room fall these children is like a Dservatory where flowers of every poasi bu elimer trora tbeibimmermg ice plants toKowinjr actus bloom tide by side A little German girl with hair like ipau lax and eyes like the flax flower has jTobablv by the Ironv chanrs a mll dark Etruscan maid for a aeatmate The I ir wistful face of the Gretchen dam contrasts TJiqnanty with the skin hading from cream to a rich brown of Italian child jfOne of the teachers did a novel roll call tna other day Bhe said lt A Shall a i VDztdttZTZAi Ctxvxii 4M TW IM fY SU mmrsm WM WmrASjy nss Mil 1 i WIm i Ji THE war on ttie curbstone flower I and thus force the people to pay doable venders threatens one of the most prices for flowers The mote i simply an picturesque downtown features of i other dig at tbe pocketbooks and innocent the city life for thsse sidewalk mer happiness ot the people for it gives birth chants With their odorous baskets Indus to another combine and that too In tnoos hands and chattering tongues are flowers bince tbe days when palm picturesque lt nothing else branches were flung beneath the feet of And why this attack upon grim faced I the lowly Naianne flowers have never Antone and nervous Fernandez All be been considered a serious obstruction to cause Anone sells his violets for less than the passage of anybody half the price charged by florists whose The trouble has been that there have blossoms are stowed away in refrigerators not been flowers enough Roses never and in store windows and because Fer impeded the progress of the great Caesar nandez tariff on the golden and feathery nor did they ever interfere in the trium cassia is also less than that exacted by I phal demonstrations in Napoleons honor tbe more pretentious merchant who has ai yet these wonderful characters in waxed both fat and rich off the grief and history often walked ankle deep in bios happiness of bis customer sons There Is in fact an organized scheme Have flowers ever blocked the pathway which has for its purpose the sweeping i of br dal couples or disrupted tbe somber away from the busy st eet corners of cortege to the tomb swarthy Antone and Fernandez and the Ii has remained for the Southern Pacific restof the flower merchants of theenrh and the greedy florists to find chains in the The greed of the store merchant must bo simple faces of violets and barricades in satisfied He must forsooth control the the petals of the stately lily sale of blossoms in San Francisco and fix The scheme of licensing curbstone mer an inflexible scale of jr ces for flowers If chants seems to have ongnated in the is his cry that bis business is being ruined minds of florists who confidently expect by tbe low prices of Antone and rer nandez and that it will be swept away altogether if the custom is permitted to continue The curbstone price for a bunch cf dewy violets is 10 cents Tne I store merchant demands 25 cents for the same fower which is often inferior in color and size Prices ot other blossoms show a corresponding disparity And incidentally as Is usually the case when anything arises to affect the necessities and pleasures of the people of the Coast that mighty and white blooded octopus tbe Southern Pacific has stretched one of its tentacles toward Antone and Fernan dez and would strangle them amid their basket of violets and roses The Southern Pacific has clutched the strong and the weax before Its scale has fallen upon the fruit trees of the va leys and has often jeopardized tbe interests of growers It has done a heapot other things quite aa rapacious and cruel and now it has tad denly awakened to tbe fact that flowers real actual flowers are being sold on the curbstones of San Francisco at prices within the reach of the poorest man nd woman Could not this be stopped What right had the streets of San Francisco to be fringed with flowers And pray wasn it carrying things a little too far for tbe people to buy these dewy blossoms and enjoy their perfume Precisely The grievance of the storekeeper must be sustained But how On the plea that Antone and Fernandez are obstructing the streets The Southern Pacific owns or controls nearly alt the Intramural railroads in San Fran Cisco It has a turntable at Geary street 4irfT0Itf tift Chreni4ebuikllns uMHt ia around this contnrance that the curb stone merchant gather early every morning to sell tbeir blossoms Here tnen was an opening for the octopus As the long cars are swung around the table for their return trips the rear end whirls dangerously near tbe curbstone almost over the lowly heads of the violets and the dainty stems of hacinth aid lily But tbe turntable belongs to the Southern Pacific It is scarcely tbe place for such a contrivance for it is a constant menace to pedestrians But it belongs to tbe Southern Pacific and is therefore a sacred cow Were it not for its environ merit of flowers tne unsightliness of the turntable with its damage suit sentinel would be more painfully apparent and unendurable Without regard to tne wishes of property owners upon whose gronnd Antone and Fernandez stand with their baskets fairly bursting with color the Southern Pacific strongly indorsed by high priced flo uts has decreed that blossoms are obstructions and that thev must go With this end in view some of the curbstone merchants have been bundled into patrol wagons their flowers scattered overhe pavements ard a determined efforHnade to stamp out their business by a system of fines and inc dental perse cution day for selling flowers on the street made no resistance although there is reasonto believe that they were Imprisoned with out due process of lawv It evtQ aald that the officers who swooped down tipoa the go called offenders did so on their own responsibility they bavtug Ttceived no such instructions from tbeir superiors But let us have the Doveri at any rata and not at any cost Let Antone and Fernandez stand upon the corners and sell their pansies no matter if they were grown in fields cultivated by Chinese and Portuguese Let the teat the flower sellers and as many of their friends whryant to go into the business wave aloft their bnnches of yellow cauta and thrust into button bole and cordage fragrant violet and drooping trembtlqelily of tbe railey Let tbe good people of San Francisco keep right on buying Blossoms ephemeral tokens of natures Intense regard for California and let them continue to promenade the streets Jn purple loveliness and in an atmosphere laden with Intoxicating perfome Never was there a crusade so cruelly planned this contemplated charge upon theTIolet and nq 1 sl CURBSTONE MERCHANT AND PATKOH the girls might poe for Mignon and the boys with big limpid eyes that look all soul are handsome fellows Tbey are bright too and remarkably quick All of tbem take to music and drawing by nature It is an inheritance that runs in tbeir veins Some of them are clever in other things but even the lazy ones who dream all day in Their seats and cannot be roused into anything like energy brighten up suddenly when the hour to sing or draw comes around matter how many children are siujing at one time there is not a shade of a false tone and not a childish voice too slow or too last A musical ear a correct nana ana SOalful faces are the three jrood gifts God has given to these little wayfarers in a far country The litUe Italians have quaint foreign ways and charming manners They are ta polite as ttie typical Italian guide and ia tbeir roundabout way of expressing themselves in the clumsy English they swim fratTol thers came I say fonny things Oneotthem told me ii picase rise fwiratood They were all brown Boned with larg brown eyea snr that his pap was dead and bla father was a fisherman and I wondered what sort ot a hereafter the Italian heaven might be than Uds from more northerly climes not to drag ibeir feet One pleasing little habit thev have that is delightful when you are accustomed to it but startling on a first introduction I bad been there be fore and when the principal said 1 dren this is Miss Rouse I was prepared I to hare thim all rise as one child and say Good morning Miss Rouse But the knight of the pencil was unpre paed and he was busy drinking in im pressions when the principal said quietly Children this is Mr Artist He was forcibly recalled to his surround ings from whatever dreams of far coun tries he had indulged when all the chil drea said in that clear uncompromising voice peculiar to childhood and which gives you no place for escape Good morning Mr Artist And Montienr the artist looked as thongh any escape would be welcome just tben But lt Is a very good way tomake Italian and Swedish and French palates learn to form our harsh syl ablea and the red tongues from far away count ies coil clumsily around the uncouth names of visitors ifneir own names are perfectly charm Ing Ind all the teachers take the greatest care to learn them in full notwithstand ing their wealth of ornamental syllables hoa of the names is ever translated and a very small child is apt to start up at tbe sonorous summons to GroClana Yentun There are two Delmonte boys in the school and tbe Devincinzi family have contributed six members to one class to say nothing of some half dozen older ones scattered in the rooms above stairs The roll calls Alone consume considerable time bat the teachers very wisely conclude that between Teter and Pietro Joseph and Giuseppe there is no possibility of a moments hesitation The names that divide the blackboard into little portions and show the strong trend of tbe human animal toward individual rights are not Francis and James and Ella exit liquid Amenia Angela Carmenita gae will De Carmen when she is grown lsolina Irene Simi and Clo iVtllda Yhio The boys are not a wbtt be hind in euphonious cognomens Stefano fiat a heavy impost will sweep tbe trade from the corners Some them it is claimed have been shrewd enough to employ agents to sell flowers on the streets bat a majority of them are heart in hand in the plan to gobble tbe trade and force tbe penple to come to their scale ot prices The plea of ob struction at the Geary and Market street corner emanated it is more than likely from tbeSoufoern Pacific whose whirling turntab at that point would lose little of its daDgers were the flower men to be removed It there that the torrents of city traffic meet in a nois turbulent whirlpool and the lone row of merchants standing like a company of Infantry along the curbstone would seem to be a barricade of safety rather than an element ot peril to the pedestrian who must be i keenly alert to escape tbe whirling end of a car on tbe table There is merit in a city ordinance rten too it has been suggested that which seeks to prevent the obstruction these corner dealers be made to pay a 1 0f streets but it is do ibtful if the license almost prohibitive in its hgures framers of the one embraced stn the for tbe privilege of sellinz tbeir stocks nnniMui ttnto nt sn rnnrinAr eyebrows an curled dewy mouths that Were this done it i needless tosayuat rontemnlated the abolition of the flower are decidedly kissable Thev view on gln Francisco would ose ne of its most trade from the curbstones It is distinct curiously and stand back for a long time charming and picturesque features Away iveiy a feature of lile in this city and but when tbey have made up their minds tek in the East California has alwars i while nlrnnr it miht efrtd re be as to whether you are worth knowing or beeD related with flowers and fruits and I the point of annoyance it has not op to Cull not the rapture of their embrace wahes th melody of birds To the stranger the the present time interfered with locomo tu a nower fringed streets have been a source uon or traffic Obstruction of the Thebo vs wear hair closely cropped and 0j nevr ceasing wonder To him the streets in the common acceptance look turfy Thev have bort stout legs long rowg of T10leti wd ghostly lilies 0f the terra brings to ones mind ea legs as the sons of fthermen who hle never tn tn obstruction And to the choking ot sidewalks with something will one day inherit the picturesque nl Je tnerugu5m of WMrlng flowers so more dl Scult to handle or evade than a brown smacks should have Tbey ire ntri ln un Vrineutn has tan nn of i mij i the pleasures of an afternoon stroll I or pansies on the exteme edge of the It Is now proposed by tbe railroad and i curbstone In any nnusual crush or dells floral allies to purge tbe streets of I mand for greaer space these obstruct cheap flowers to drive Vn tone and Fer I tions could be removed In a twinkling nandez and their baskets from the corners The men who were arrested tbe other clean enongh to be healthy and not so clean as to be commonplace Of course you must not look at their nails If you are so particular wby there are schools on the other side of town where you will find pink and white prettiness clothes without a hint of picturesque tatters Tbe girls in this cosmopolitan school have the most glorious hair I have ever seen All the luxuriant growth of the Gaiety girls does not eclipse it Tbe Spanish girls have heavy black locks partially coiled on top of tbeir heads with the rest hanging down in a braid as thick as yonr arm The little Alcisaa and Iso linas have curly brown hair and some of tbem wear it in two small braids that stand straight up on top of their heads like chimneys Others wear their hair parted down the middle and plaited in two braids as tbeir mothers and grand mothers when they were peasants in the plains ot Tuscany did before them A back view of one of these girls with peasant plaits is fascinating There is a bewitching bit of an ear wffb dead gcU earrings a string of beads that nestles close in the folds of the throat and one expects to see a red embroidered apron and abort peasant skirt when she tarns about But alas it is not so It will take many generations to rob tbem of tbeir luminous eyes and straight Italian brows bnt in onr domineering Saxon way we have impressed tbem with oar gait and they imitate as In speech manners and attire Bat on this steep hill within view of the bay that reminds the father of Naples they bare kept a good deal of their native land etd anyone who wants to see a little Italy has only to make friends with these dark skinned children who lire leas and Maria were great friends ot mine than twenty squares front the heart of a cassia brigade of tbe curb Let ris bare flowers and more of tbem and let tbe prices remain where they are ao thattfae lowliest maiden worn by her work In the Shop may brighten her eyea aatlend color to her cheeks as she trips home at night Bring forth the pansies and th marigolds and stretch a hem of Color along these longr cheerless stojie walkjk It is far more sightly than rows of anew banks and heaps of sticky mud New York and Chicago would a wap street obstructions witb 8an Francisco to day anil toss a boulevard or two into tbe bargain besides Shall Antone and Fernandez be permitted to remain where they are or shall tbeir baskets be upset and tbe jrrtr Streets robbed of all their color What sayyoa good decorators of coat and gown THEATtBS IS KCEOPJt Italy Leads With On io Eves 980O Inhabitants In Pans there is a theater to every 22000 inbabltanis in Berlin one to 8 1003 In Bordeanx one to 84000 in Budapesoae to 63 000 in Hamburg one to 113000frn ienha one to 138000 and in London one to 145 000 Th proportion of theaters to population is greatest in Italy however where there is one for every BSQQat Catania Eicily 15000 at FlorenceOt ooo at Bologna 24000 at Venice 30000 at Milan and Turin and 31000 at Rome Practicing Economy My dear 1 thought we were going Jo practice economy for a timet Wile So we are dear I went down and countermanded the order yooT gafe your tailor for a suit and bought a bonnet that cost only halt the amount CAfaifl Infer Ocean Baptista Tosai andPeitroGaida possessed rustling Western town Mies Rousx fc XHS nJWEB MARKET 03 THE CHfiONICXE COBUEB fr nv rrtTii firfo A Vfctjsgsglifa tj fr 4uS6 tfHsHJftSJefr ssw3f Lae i.