San Francisco Chronicle from San Francisco, California • Page 12

IMsWrvi i mk Mr jgj S2f ltBdBCOCOKlcE BUini FJEBBTJABX 7 18971 RteWJlSClHS QRRDUftLW i 3 raw 5 I Jr Ml 1ST I A NV 1 i ft Ik JP 1 Jfr er ws ilf fe THERE are evidently people who believe 4a the future of San Francijv and among these are some who have established a claim to aagadtyby the acquisition of wealth ImprovementajttfrlapWreM whlchwlIFlaTgeIy add to th habitable area of thecitjr and which will supply what It fcaa sorely needed ad addition whfch shalTbe desirable and yet in which rentals Shall be so loWthat It will be popular wifh persons of moderate lncdmesrVhat has been wanted Is a suburb north of Market street in which four room xottages bunt with taste and supplied with the modern improvements shall be offered for rent at something lik tis so that persons of limited incdmes derived from salary or from Che profits ot business shall not need to expend one fourth of their earnings for house rent Such suburbs are in course of evolution on the North Beach and on the sit of the old Bay District race track 00 Lobos avenue beyond the Odd Fellows Cemetery It was the dream of the late Senator Pair to complete the former the latter is the work of Mrs Stanford and the Crocker heirs Before the end of the century both tracts now barren expanses of sand and mud will probably be covered by homes The Bay District track marked on some of thevmaps as the Golden Gate race course was laid out in 1874 twenty three years ago It was built by the Bay District Fair Grounds Association a corporation organized by Horace Covey a Chase 3 Kllhp and Colonel Mackay each of whom took 10 000 worth of stock Besides these 200 subscribers comprising such men as Governor Stanford Baldwin Flood Mackay Fair Crocker Phelan and OBrien contributed 500 apiece so the concern started with a capital of 140000 and the stockholders had every reason to expect that they wuld fulfill their undertaking to supply San Francisco with the finest race course and trotting park this side of the mountains Whatever they might not have they certainly had plenty of money The first race on the new track came off on November 12 1874 but the race which first made the course famous was the match in harness in 1675 between Defiance a celebrated trotter with a pacing record and a green horse named Edginton of the Belmont stock The race was decided in five heats of a mlle ani the new horse won the best time made being 228 remarkable speed for those days The main stake was 20 009 and there were 60000 in the pools It was then that the eyes of the sporting fraternity turned to California In the following year there was a great running race for a 25000 purse heats of four miles It was won by an unknown horse entered as Foster and said to be from Oregon but really an Eastern race horse which had been brought across the plains and imported from Oregon in a stage coach Ail the great horses of the olden time Goldsmith Maid Lucy Harry Wilkes Guy Wilkes St Jullen Occident and lots of others won their laurel on the Bay District track It was a popular course being said to be the fastest oval In the world Marigold made four miles over it in 7204 aDd Star Ruby covered it last year in 7 231 Hones went from here to carry off stakes in Kentucky and on Long island Miss Mabel Craft to whose interesting article on the Bay District track I am Indebted for much of my information on the subject repeats a pleasant interview she had with Theodore Winters one of the first presidents of the Blood Horse Association Mollie McCarthy said Mr Winters was the best mare that ever went over this track I sold her to Baldwin and she eent all the Kentucklans home afoot when she ran in Kentucky They een put their watches on their own horses and sh beat them all George Hanson rode her The Blood Horie Association was founded in 1879 and has counted among Its presidents Baldwin Theodore Winters Coleman Major Rath bone Colonel Burns Colonel HL Thornton and Thomas Williams It was absorbed with all Its Indebtedness by the California Jockey Club which has been one of the most successful racing associations in the United States It is now giving races in Oakland Round the old Bay District track memories of exciting events and races and gains and losses will cluster for many a day tenants of the cottages to be hereafter built on the spot where the kings of the turf paused in the panting exultation of victory or the harrowing mortification of defeat win tell the visitor If he be of sporty proclivities that he stands on classic ground Describing the last race on the track Miss Mabel Craft wrote When the money has tinkled Into the box for the last time when the last faint neigh is heard as the last horse Is led away hen the gates creak for the last time when there Is a cracking and splitting of timber and a plowing of hard trodden earth wherrrthe land shall have reverted to the Stanford and Crocker estates to which it belongs still men win tell stories of the first races run in that bleak spoUand by night you can Imagine you see Crowded balcony and yod may hear cheers and the rythmical beat ot ghostly hoofs as the horses pound down the stretch that was and Is no more4 ucb thoughts will come naturally on a spot which is surrounded by cemeteries and which may be supposed to be a haunt of the spirits of the dead When the great hole in the middle of the course has been filled up and the earth pounded down so as to fill any possible subterranean quicksand the spot will naturally become a desirable residence quarter and the twelve or thirteen new blocks added to the city will soon fill up Along the north boundary the Geary street line with Its extension on Point Lobos avenue will carry passengers to the Chronicle office at the Junction of Market Kearny and Geary The Turk street line will strike the new tract Just at the center of its eastern boundary while the McAllister street line will supply a convenient exit en the south By crossirg Fulton street the resident will find hlrrelf in the Park and his bable can play all day long under the green trees and hi the bracing fresh alrv If instead of disporting himself In sylvan grove he prefers to get buried the Odd Fellows Cemetery opens its hospitable gates Just at his door and a few steps further on he will find vacant lots in the Masonic Cemetery so It may be said that all the modern conveniences stand ready to his hand And if the fancy takes him to operate in city lots the region between him and the sea constitutes the prosperous Addition known as Richmond whera every body who buys a twenty flv foot lot gets rich if the lot advances In value far sooner than he would if he reclined under the shadow of his own vine and fig tree TLe Fair extension on the north side of the city is being prosecuted on a far larger scale Ihe area which will be added to the habitable part of San Francisco being not less than one hur dred acres It is a repetition of the operation by which the area east of Montgomery and Second streets was wrested from the bay In the first twenty ears of the city existence It is curious to note bow in this particular history has repeated itself in the record of every seaside or rtvereide City in the country In all such cities the traveler rote a street known as Front street which runs parallel with the water line but at some distance from It This street at one time fronted on the water line but by degrees water lots were filled in until It found itself well inand In thlscity Davis Drumm and East streets have beer conquered from the bay ard the Harbor Commissior is continuing Its work of annexation Battery ereet which Is now quite a dlstarce from the harbor front was named from a battery which was set upon that lire in the old Mexican day to guard the approaches to Terba Buena The jruns which It carried could not have done much mischief to a vessel lying off th East street of to day Mr Fair purchase of the North Beach tract took place in 1891 It had belonged to a corporation which was unable to turn It to account and was glad to find a purchaser The ex Senators far reaching sagacity discerned the uses to which it could be put and irvested a few of the dollars which he always held ready for such chances The Fair Addition is In the shap of a boy mud pie with the bas line on th water edge running from Fort Mason the old Fort San Jose better known as Black point on Van Ness avenue to Baker Itreet the eastern boundary of the Presidio Ten years ago the beach between Baker and an Nes formed a crescent with a southern apex deeply indented Into the peninsula The water came up as far as Francisco street and between that point and the base line above mentioned sand dunes and a salt swamp which were sometimes submerged presented a desolate aspect East of this Cow Hollow sloped to the heights of Plsgah It had frequently been proposed to grade this tract and cut streets through It but a tenacious settler opposed an Immovable front to all schemes of Improvement and for many years he blocked them The city finally overcame his resistance so far as to extend Van Ness avenue to Black point and an ordinance was passed levying a tax for the opening of other streets In the lcinlty North Beach development thus begun Senator Fair survey ed the bulk of the beach line north of Van Ness ur der and above water and set dredgers and steam shovels to work to level and reclaim It His scheme embraced a bulkhead from the Preldio vharf to Black Point wharf with piers and docks for the use of shipping Inside of the bulkhad he proposed to erect factories and to sell lots on which cottages could be erected for workmen The enterprise was vast and Involved the Dreaming of the Old Bay District Race Track expenditure of millions but th Fair administrators have fel it th duy to prosecute and in due tie the estate will dotibtlfs reap the reward ch ttw ex Senator foresaw It is quite on the ca ds that the Fair addition nay draw fom outh San Fran Cisco ard the Potrero the bulk of te population which was attracted to that quarter by the railroad and the Lnion Iron Works To the most far sighted of the early settlers of San Francisco the angle wher the ba of the bay after pursuing a course nearly due east from the Golden Gate swings round to run south seemed clearly to be the land of promise The holding ground In the cove of Yerba Buena was better than at the Presidio The landing place wa at the spot where Broadway and Battery now intersect lr 1835 one of th two first settlers William A Rlcrardson lived in a ten on the lot which Is now i Dupont street while the other Jacob Leese built houe on the south side of Clay a few feet wet of Dupont There was a spring fed pond In which the Indians bathed on the corner Montgomery and Sacramento at high tde the ealt water of the bav flowed into it Dupont was at that time the west era boundary of the place Wstofthat line a field of and weds with scrub oaks here ard Lhere ioped upward to the height afterward nicknamed Nob Hill and beyond It sloped downward and norhward to the swamp and morass which served as he common or ejido of the pueblo At that time the only occupant of the common was the Widow Brlones who kept a sort of boarding house on what Is now the northeast corner of Powell wood ard thatched with rrash grass The Indians were fnndlv ard so eT the bears who showed an amiable position to share the qua ters of th new owners and accoraingly th god Christians under the gviidanc of Father Plon made slaves of t1 former a id steaks of the latter Fifteen years La er Vancouver aild into the bay in his ship the Discovery and visited Ensign Sal who was com mandant of the military district wi headquarters at the Presidio Tie a ior was not much struck with the strerg of the works or the lmpolng ratur salads paavry ults preserves and Ith the desterity ef Cosiscks At that conkes th capital native wine To time the garrison of the Presidio con th vUi or 3 surp ise th meal wus sisted of a Captain of cavalry a gunner Kd he pate Senora Arguelo a Commissary a Lieutenant an En prsicied at the table 1th her sister in sign and eighty rank and file an i jneep on by her aide It was The next visitor was Captain Beechey ther ard thre that the heroine of the In the British frigate Blossom He came famous ror ance met her fate It the in 1826 and found the Presldjo Un pfon of Chamberlain von Resanoff who 1 his heart to the simple and arti anners the sparkling eyes the oxprp features and the exqu i el modlel form of the Californlan ajty Th Puian oncers sera to have bpen rruch truck with the cos changed The commandant whose rame was Martinet entertaired the Engllhmen royally and amused them with accounts of the hardships he endured his salary being eleven years In arrears Captain Beechey was filled with amazement at the equipment of a of the buddings bu he found Sere a anne the commandant who wore Presidio dragoon over hi uritorn a majiti of striped His dress consisted of a round blu th Ahich looked like the cloth Jacket with red cuffs and collar covcrl a bed hs head coming blue elvet breeches which being un hrnuph ar opening in the middle so buttoned at the knees displayed a pair vi 1 hu down over brat back of white cotton stockings cased more a shouidrs Thy had never seen than half the way in a pair of deerskin a Mei an rape befor Nor were hos a black hat as broad in the brim Iy Sal the commandant wife dec dressed seated crose legged on a placed on a small square wooder pla form raised three or four inche fr the ground nearlv In fron of the door of her residence with two daugh ts and a son clean and decently dresed sit ing by her th being the node ob served by those ladles when hey re cMved visitors Captain Vnco and Corrmandant Sal wert qjail s1 Ing on the hills which now form par of the Preldlo grounds ard extended their tramp to Rulan Hll they had such good sport that the great navjga tor prerved a pleasant recollectior uf the place Other visitors were few and far tweei though when they did co they seem to hav been hopi ably cevd I 1 the tenants of the adobes in the nr inclosu in which ofl soldiers and cKizon color iF ld their stables storehouB Is and cstcrns at their elbiw The station was girt around with a wall frorr to fifteen feet high ard three fet thick constructed of adobe and strength ey leas irrued 1nd that the rank a fi garron whn they took hj 1id plso ore cloaks which tTeir ase ere of sole leather reacn ing fiir ank es and arrow proof Commandant Arguello quarters could hardly have commanded the ad as it was disproportionately low In the crow kept in order by lt own eight a profusion of dark hair which met behind and dangled half way down the back In the form of a thick cue A long musket with a fox skin bound around the lock was balanced upon the pommel and Filbert streets The kitchen of her ened bv a ditch six feet den thP parth house was extant only a few years ago from which was throw up to serve as parapet At the Presidio a single sergeant repre sented the military power of Mexico Time had laid a heavy hand on a fort ficatlon which had cut a figure in history Nearly sixty years before to wit on June 1 1G about a fortnight befor American independence was proclaimed lration of visitors Two years after 0f his saddle and he was further pro vided for defense against the Indians with a bulls hide shield Thus accoutred he bestrode a saddle which retained him In his seat by a high pommel in front and a corresponding rise behind His feet were armed at the heels with a tremendous pair of spurs secured by a metal chain and were thrust through an enormous pair of ooden box shaped stirrups Sixty years have made changes In the uniform of the cavalry at the Presidio Next came after an interval of fifteen years three distinguished visitors Cemmodore then Captain Wilkes of the United 8tates Navy Sir George I angsdor lef the Freidio as shaken up bv earthquakes respecting which the commandant reported clnee he 2 June lapt twenty shocks 0 earthquake have been felt In this Presld some of hich hav ken 0 er that the walls of my vouse rae lxen cracked owing to the bad construction of the same one of the ante chambers being destroyed if up tuis time no greater damage has pen dore it has been for the want of a erial to destroy there being no habitations Ten years after the Junos visit In 116 another Russian frigate the Ru Here Captain Langdorf of the Rus rk Captain Xotzebue entered the sitrpaon governor of the Hudsons Bay Company and Duflot de Mofraa attach of the French Legation in Mexico nkes paid little attention to the Presidio from which at that time the garrison had been partially withdrawn was more Interested In the possibilities of the bay hlch he foresaw was likely to pass into American hands before long Sir George sneered at everything he saw If we may Judge said he of the variety of uniforms each and exhibited a bull and Bciaier constitutes hi own regiment slan frigate Juno was entertained In 10 by Don Luis Arguello comman dart When the Rujan boat was beached th courtly SpanUrd received hl9 vlttors with a monk a seeral others by his side not ore of whom at Philadelphia a Lieutenant a ser coull pea any modern language but geant and sixteen soldiers in leathern Spanish As Captain Langsdorff was armor all married and with large fami unacquainted with Castllian convera lies crecidas familias two priests and tlon was carried on in Latin between seven colonists besides servants mul him am the monk which not pre teers and herdsmen set forth from vent the Muscovites being received Monterey to found the Presidio of San with perfect hospitality at the military bar fght for their diversion Xotietoue one being the Blues another the Buffs Francisco and having arrh ed at their reauquarters and being regaled with thougnt he Californlan troopers fine and soon The only article common to destination built a chapel a store excellent poup roat fow Is a kg of material for soldiers He declared that the whole are an enormous sword a house and quarters for tire troops all of mutton all kinds of vegetables and they managed their lances and carbines pair of nascent mustaches deerskin hartor and set the garrison In a flutter They fell to loading cannon and many soldi rs foot and on horseback dashed to and fro But Arguello as penial as ever fired ro cannon He welcomed his visitors with his usual hospiality and was especially pleased meet Lschschotr the naturalist afer whom our poppy the ech c1 oltz a was named He ga them dinnrs took them over the Tls on 1 ns bootsv and that everlasting scrape a blanket with hole la the middle of ft for the head The Frenchman had sharp eyes noted well everything he saw and put down his observations in a book which is a standard authority to this day With the courtesy of his nation describes the Calif ornlans kindly dwelling upon their good traits jund Ignoring their foibles Herein he contrasts with the other two foreigners An officer of the TIncennes describing fandango which was given on board when the ship lay al Uausalito sneers at the bull dance saying It was something new to me to see ladles personate a bull Both men and women retired to the shore with good stock of wine on board And Sir George genially Ternaries that a fight Is so much a matter of course as a termination to a religious festival that at one which lately tods place one of Commandant Prados numerous enemies came up to him and drawing his knifaaald What Heres daylight and no one yet stabbed He adds that It required all the influence of VaileJo who was present to nip so very promising a quarrel In the bud Six years after these gentlemen thus demonstrated their powers of observation Major Hardle A raised the American flag over the Presidio where it has floated ever since When the Army took possession the troops moved into the old adobes which had been occupied under Jne Mexican regime A few of these survive and are cherished as curiosities rather than edifices of utility Most of the Mexican constructions made way long ago for barracks and officers quarters built according to the rules of American military architecture They have been supplemented by cottages which embowered in roses and kept in peVfect order by the soldiers have made the Presidio the prettiest as it is the most enviable of our military posts It is a spot where every flower will grow to perfection and where the air is so balmy and wholesome that the army doctors might be granted furloughs of indefinite duration but for their duty as accoucheurs The Presidio reservation was accepted by the United States military authorities with the vague boundary lines which had been traced by the Spaniards For thirty years it was an open question where the military grounds began and where the pueblo territory ended The consequence of this was an Invasion of the reservation by squatters whose title the commandant was in the habit of disputing not with process or writs but with the speedier argument of the point of a bayonet One of these squatters who is still alive and whose name is George Eggleston claimed to own a large slice of the Presidio land besides a few acres of the beach His title failed to stand the test of examination by the courts and he was gradually expropriated ith a ruthle3sness which must be deplored General McDowell who dfd not win the battle of Bull Run is said to have been Hie tyrant of his little fields The official survey of the Presidio boundaries was not made till 1876 Other occupants of parts of the new addition are the Gas Company which carried cffa protracted legal warfare with Senator Fair to prevent his filling in the submerged lots on the ground that they bad acquired riparian rights to the stringers of sea water which dribbled through the swamps and the Fulton Iron Works which have erected an imposing establishment which will presently embrace a yard for shipbuilding with wharves and a locked basin The bulkhead and seawall which the Fair estate is constructing along the line of a street marked on the maps asf Lewis street are nearly completed from Webster to Devlsadero That part of it will probably be finished this year at a cost of 1400000 It Will subsequently be extended to its full length as far as Baker How long it will take to fill in the land back of it is at present impossible to say Much depends on the distance which the earth and sand for filling In will have to be carried But the work has made such progress that in spite of the delays caused by the Senators death it is reasonably certain that it will be prosecuted to completion within a few years Should San Francisco grow as sanguine residents expect the military authorities can hardly continue to occupy their present large estate much longr For purpose of ajjitery defense a much smaller area would suffice Indeed In the present state of the science of gunnery a mere strip on the beach or on the elevated points In the rear of It with disappearing batteries would answer every purpose when San Francisco contains a million people the tract known as the Presidio Heights will be needed for the occupation of Its Inhabitants and in planning for the future of the city authorities should not lose sight of this contingency JOHN BONNER jVlEeii Method torn DissAce PHosoGReiPHr THE SATURDAY morning lectures of the New York Board of Education delivered at the Museum of Natural History in Central Park are Illustrated says the New York Sun by a series of magic lantern views taken from photographs mad last summer for the museum purposes The pictures were taken in the Windward and Leeward islands Trinidad MexicoCblorado and Arizona Five hundred of theseviews were taken by Dr LMamendorf who used in as that which he was able to give it in this expedition to collect pictures for the museum lecture courses The machine Dr Eimendorf emploved Is cot altogether a new one and it was as far back as 181 in London that the apparatus called the telephoto as invented by Dalhneyer The first machine of the kind ever sent to this countrycountry came to Dr Eimendorf in 1S92 and he has been an enthusiastic advocate of the apparatus merits since that time At his suggestion theoriginal telephoto the work a new process Of photography was simplified so as to make It a small which had never had a trial so complete and convenient instrument which pro fr 1 Housm 300 FwY Off 6m U9VW by Telephoto duces the wonderful effects In photography without any greater preparation or trouble or at mot with vr little more than It takes to us an ordinary camera But Dr Eimendorf has succeeded in photographing at a distance of forty two mile the Alps of the Ber nese Oberland and the Jungfrau from the town ef Interlaken at least twenty four miles from the mountain The Views shown here are taken with a 4xS Dallmeyer lens both with and vlthout the telephoto attachment The view of the Minister at Bael is taken at a distance of about 300 feet from the building and the picture of the entire church Is photographed by an ordinary camera The adjoining picture taken with the telephoto attachment was photographed from the same point and viewing the two one will be able to see what the effect of the little machine is One of the gargoyles in ihe cathedral looks as large as the two steeples in the picture made by the telephoto One of the particular advantages to science of the new plan Is shown in views of the Jungfrau made by Dr Eimendorf The possibility of photographing from a distance objects which if taken at short range would be thrown out of all perspective is one of the greatest things that the apparatus makes possible The large View of the twenty four miles and the picture shows the proportions of the view Ju as they exist The two vieus made by Dr Eimendorf were published first in Anthonys Photographic Bulletin The machine that accomplishes these the photographic leas to diverge more or less thus as it were lengthening the focus of the phonograph lens One great advantage of this arrangement is that wi a camera bellows only fourteen rr hes ong one gets the effect of a lens firty inch focus Another advantage Ik that the lens can be Increased almost indefirltly A subsequent poslbllty for which the telephoto may be utilized is to take plc because It requires an extremely care cannot be truthfully reproduced if It is ful worker and because the use of the necessary to take a view of them at attachment causes sometimes an undue short range The picture of the Jung vibration frau which was taken by Dr Eimendorf The views made for the museum last would have requited he said an or 1 riuiiA ISwKui Cathedral at Basel 8ection of Same by Telephoto results is a cylinder only a few inches turn of birds in flight and although long that is applied to the camera It ther had not been Included by Dr consists of a negative lens which is at Eimendorf in his work he believes that tached to the rear of an ordinary rec it can be accomplished The use of the tlllnear Dhotozrabh lens The telephoto teleohoto has not crown mnefc rfnHn 4uflktrah was taken at a diftanct of lens Causes the rays converging from the five years of its existence chiefly clungfrau summer Include a great variety of scenes and their great effectiveness was due to the use of the telephoto which reproduced with particular beauty some of the mountains xf Mexico although there are also views of towns and villages takes with the telephoto The kite photography is in no sense the same thing as telephoto photography Kite photography aims to take birdseye views of towns or sectiona of country while the titephoto photdv graphs at a distance the objects that 3ti8iwrnr3matian 8ame Ufew by Telephoto dinary camera four feet long whereas the little telephoto accomplished the task easily The view of the houses shows them taken withind without the telephoto attachment The one with the snow on the roof Is IfiCttased five times in iaejy the telephoto Ml Benson yott know went to Africa and there met his death Poor ellowl But his body was brought home and given a Recent burial wasnt itr Well they hanged the cannibal aadthe brought home his body and buried luw Bcitoa Traveler.