OAKLAND 



4325 



OATH 



Pacific, the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe and 

 the Oakland, Antioch & Eastern (electric) rail- 

 roads, and is connected with the surrounding 

 cities and with towns of the interior Sacramento 

 and San Joaquin valleys by electric lines. 



Parks and Boulevards. Both nature and man 

 have done much for Oakland ; wooded hills, the 

 bay, a luxuriant growth of semitropical vege- 

 tation, and wealth and taste have combined to 

 make it a beautiful city. Lake Merritt. 

 blocks from the business section, is a salt-water 

 lake covering 160 acres, connected by an inlet 

 with the hay. It is surrounded by Lakeside 

 Park, broad avenues and handsome residences. 

 There are about thirty other parks, together 

 valued at $3,500,000. Highland Drive and 

 Foothill Boulevard are two of many scenic 

 roads of the city and vicinity which are a part 

 of the excellent system of state and transcon- 

 tinental highways. 



Buildings and Institutions. Conspicuous 

 from every part of the city is the $2,000,000 

 rity hall. The Municipal Auditorium, which 

 cost $1,000,000, is a popular convention head- 

 quarters. Other buildings of note are the Fed- 

 eral building, erected in 1903 at a cost of $200,- 

 000; Y. M. C. A. and Y. W. C. A. buildings, 

 hotels Oakland and Claremont, a Carnegie 

 Library, men's and women's club buildings, in- 

 cluding the Nile, Ebell, Athenian, Elks and 

 Masonic Temple, Macdonough Theater and 

 many fine churches. The city has Saint Mary's 

 College (Roman Catholic) for men; California 

 College (Baptist), coeducational; Mills College, 

 nonsectarian, for women; a Chinese College 

 and a number of private schools. At Berkeley 

 is the University of California. There are more 

 than a dozen hospitals, and the city has the 

 state industrial home of mechanical trades for 

 the adult blind. 



Industries. Oakland is situated at the outlet 

 of a wide agricultural and fruit-growing belt, 

 ni'l by reason of unexcelled shipping facil 

 controls a large commerce. It is also near the 

 discharge tanks of pipe lines from great oil 

 is and obtains fuel for manufacture at a 

 low cost. Many of the industrial plants arc 

 along the inner harbor, and include shipbuilding 

 yards, marble, smelting and metallurgical works, 

 flour, quartz and planing mills, printing and 

 publishing houses, fruit-canning factories and 

 manufactories of building materials, chemical 

 products, foundry and machine-shop products 

 and textiles. 



History. In 1850 a settlement at Oakland 

 was made by "squatters" when the land was 



still a part of a private Mexican land grant. 

 It was chartered as a town in 1852, became a 

 city in 1854, and was made the county seat in 

 1874. In 1910 the commission form of govern- 

 ment was adopted; it provides for five officers, 

 a mayor and commissioners of public works, 

 public health and safety, streets and finance. 

 Since 1908 the city has owned and controlled 

 the wharfing privileges. Joaquin Miller's cot- 

 tage, for many years his home, is not far from 

 the city. 



OAKUM, o'kum, originally the coarse part 

 of flax, the portion left after the fibers had 

 been smoothed and separated. The term is now 

 applied to hemp fiber obtained by picking to 

 pieces old tarred ropes. It is most commonly 

 used to close the seams in the sides of wooden 

 ships to keep them from leaking, a process 

 known as caulking. White oakum, made from 

 clean, untarred rope, is sometimes used in 

 dressing wounds. 



OASIS, oa'sis, any fertile spot in a desert 

 region, sometimes only large enough to sus- 

 tain the lives of a few people, at other times 

 so extensive that two millions can live upon it". 

 Generally the soil in deserts is fertile but lackb 

 the moisture to help things grow, so in the 

 places where springs, underground streams or 

 wells furnish water, the oases spring up as 

 bright spots in a dreary waste. The water from 

 hills or mountains in the deserts often perco- 

 lates through the fine rock waste down on the 

 lovcl, where much of it is held, sometimes form- 

 ing small lakes. The oases in the North Ameri- 

 can deserts are mainly formed in this way, 

 while those in the Sahara result from springs, 

 underground streams or the proximity of moun- 

 tains sufficiently high to cause the condensation 

 and precipitation of moisture. Great tracts of 

 land have recently 1" - :i n <!. limed in these vast 

 wilderness regions, not only by the sinking of 

 artesian wells, but also by irrigation from moun- 

 tain streams (see IKKICATION). so that artificial 

 oases exist in many sections. In ancient turn- 

 the most celebrated oasis was one in the Libyan 

 Desert, called Siwa, 350 miles west of Cairo, 

 where a splendid temple to Jupiter Animon was 

 built. 



See illustration, with urtlclo DBSKKT. 



OATH, in law, is a solemn pledge made by 

 1 of mouth before nn .authorized officer, by 

 which a person swears or affirms that certain 

 statements made by him nre true. Oaths taken 

 for use in legal proceeding- >n of 



which constitutes the crime of perjury. rc 



