176 EAST PRUSSIA TO THE GOLDEN GATE 



box over, whereupon, after emptying itself, it is replaced 

 as easily, after which a single old horse hauls it back to 

 the machine where the performance is repeated. While I 

 pen these lines the cars glide along the railroad tracks, 

 crossing and running through busy streets, traversing, for 

 instance, nearly a mile of Battery street, one of the most 

 populated thoroughfares of this city, where thousands of 

 people and hundreds of freight wagons, carts and vehicles 

 of all description pass hourly. What would you say to 

 all that! What would the Honorable City Council or the 

 worshipful Board of Police Commissioners of the grand 

 old city of Konigsberg say if a private citizen should con- 

 ceive the idea of rolling heavy freight cars in the above 

 mentioned manner, from the Haberberger Church, for 

 instance, to the Green Bridge? They would surely be 

 amazed at the audacity of the man who should even pro- 

 pose such a thing. But here! Why, the American would 

 be very much surprised indeed at the impudence of a 

 municipal body that would dare to interfere with an 

 undertaking which could be proven to be so eminently for 

 the purpose he had in view. Danger for the passer-by is 

 not considered by the American, who judges rightly that 

 every man should have sense enough to keep his eyes 

 open and be watchful to keep out of the way of danger 

 of being run over. 



I explained to you one method employed in reducing 

 the local elevations or hills, but there is still another by 

 which the city is leveled and this latter is typically Amer- 

 ican. The plan for the location and building of the city 

 of San Francisco as drawn by the government presup- 

 poses level ground and is calculated upon filling up of a 

 large portion of the bay. The building squares or so- 

 called lots, are cut exactly square and all of the same size 

 and whosoever intends to build, is obliged by law to keep 

 strictly within the boundary of his lot. Whether he pro- 

 poses to put up a match factory in a wooden shack, a 

 tamale factory in a tent, a cottage or a brick structure, 

 is nobody's concern but his own. No building restric- 

 tions here. A goodly number of these lots extend thus 



