SAN FRANCISCO 



5193 



SANGSTER 



of California and the Leland Stanford Jr. Uni- 

 versity, there is an excellent High School of 

 Commerce. The city maintains a normal 

 school for training teachers. The Cogswell 

 Polytechnic College, the Wilmerding School of 

 Industrial Arts, the California School of Me- 

 chanical Arts and the Lux School of Industrial 

 Training for Girls are all institutions of a high 

 order. The Conservatory of Music is widely 

 known for its excellent work, and the universi- 

 ties mentioned above maintain professional 

 schools of college grade in the city. 



Population. Notwithstanding the disaster of 

 1906, San Francisco has had a steady increase 

 in population. In the decade 1900-1910 its in- 

 crease was from 342,782 to 416,912, and the 

 official estimate of 1916 gave it 463,516 inhab- 

 itants. Like other large American cities San 

 Francisco includes many different nationalities. 

 By far the largest part of the population, how- 

 ever, consists of Americans, who are among the 

 most wide-awake and progressive people of the 

 country. 



History. Some authorities believe that Sir 

 Francis Drake entered San Francisco Bay some 

 time between 1577 and 1580 (see DRAKE, SIR 

 FRANCIS). The first entrance to the bay of 

 which we have any record was made by Don 

 Caspar de Portola, governor of California, in 

 1769. The Spanish plan of colonization in- 

 cluded three departments, the religious or mis- 

 sion, the military or presidio, and the civil or 

 pueblo. The settlement of San Francisco be- 

 gan with Mission Dolores in 1776, the year of 

 the adoption of the Declaration of Independ- 

 ence. A military post, the presidio, was estab- 

 lished the same year. From its beginning the 

 mission prospered and increased rapidly in 

 numbers and wealth. In 1834 commercial in- 

 terests began to control its affairs and from 

 that date it declined. In 1836 the village of 

 Yerba Buena was established on the bay about 

 three miles from the mission. From this little 

 business center San Francisco has grown to its 

 present proportions. 



o, with California, became independ- 

 ent of Spain in 1832. The United States took 

 possession of California in 1846, and the name 

 of the town was changed to San Francisco the 

 following year. The discovery of gold in 1848, 

 at Coloma, in what is now El Dorado County, 

 was the beginning of one of the most spectacu- 

 lar developments in American history. In 1849, 

 12,000,000 in gold was exported. San Francisco 

 sprang from a town of 800 inhabitants to 10,000 

 in eighteen months. The worst and the best of 



men contended here for wealth. Buildings ap- 

 peared Lke mushrooms, and the city was de- 

 stroyed by fire five times in three years, 1849- 

 1851. Crime became so flagrant that vigilance 

 committees were organized to bring offenders 

 to justice. San Francisco became a city in 1850 

 and the city and county were consolidated in 

 1856. The second great gold discovery, the Corn- 

 stock lode in Nevada, came in 1859. In 1862 

 telegraphic communication was established with 

 the Eastern states, and in 1869 the Union Pa- 

 cific Railroad was completed, giving the city 

 railway connection with the Atlantic seaboard. 

 The foreign commerce, industries and popula- 

 tion increased steadily from decade to decade 

 until San Francisco, in 1916, was twelfth among 

 the great cities of America. 



An earthquake shock, which occurred on the 

 morning of April 18, 1906, was followed by one 

 of the most devastating fires known in history. 

 In three days an area of four square miles in 

 the heart of the city was reduced to ashes and 

 a tangle of debris. Over 450 people lost their 

 lives, and the loss in property exceeded $200,- 

 000,000. Measures for rebuilding the city on a 

 grander scale and more substantial plan were 

 at once perfected, and in less than ten years a 

 new San Francisco had replaced the old. The 

 city united with the state in extending to the 

 United States government an invitation to 

 have the Panama-Pacific-International Exposi- 

 tion held in San Francisco in 1915. The invi- 

 tation was accepted and the exposition brought 

 to the city thousands of visitors from all parts 

 of the world (see PANAMA-PACIFIC-INTERNA- 

 TIONAL EXPOSITION). WJ.B. 



Consult Young's San Francisco: A History of 

 the Pacific Coast Metropolis; El dredge's Begin- 

 nings of San Francisco. 



SANG'STER, CHARLES (1822-1893), a Cana- 

 dian poet and journalist, one of the first of the 

 native English-Canadian poets, and one who is 

 credited with a considerable part of the na- 

 tional sentiment which resulted in Confedera- 

 tion. Beginning about 1860, when political 

 conditions in the Canadas were at the worst, 

 Sangster wrote many verses in which patriot- 

 ism has a strong, if not always predominant, 

 note. His poems were collected in two vol- 

 umes, The Saint Lawrence and Sagucnay and 

 Other Poem*, and Hesperus and Other Poems 

 and Lyrics. 



Sangster was born at Kingston, Ont. In his 

 youth he was a newspaper editor at Amherst- 

 burg and later at Kingston, but in 1868 he ac- 

 cepted a position in the Postoffice Department. 



