A SAN FRANCISCAN DAY. 267 



capillary bisections are no longer done with impunity. Still 

 John walks as if in dread of having his fond hopes severed, 

 and carries them snugly coiled under his arms like a cart 

 whip. 



My walk brings me to a quarter of the city inhabited by 

 these strange people. I can easily imagine myself on the 

 other side of the Pacific. Chinamen, Chinawomen, boys, 

 girls and babies. Shops filled with Chinese toggery, presided 

 over by a Chinese clerk. Chinese literary depots where books 

 are sold which you begin reading at the back end and read 

 up the page instead of across. Collections of drugs made 

 from all kinds of vile and outlandish sources. Opium dens 

 where groups smoke their worthless lives away. 



I go to the Plaza. It bears about as much resemblance to 

 our public squares as does the Sahara Desert to the Grand 

 Prairie. The stunted trees look as if a simoon had been 

 through them, and the yellow grass peeps timidly above the 

 gravel. Unattractive as this promenade is, it is the best our 

 transmundane metropolis afiPords. 



Still hotter glows the sun on this pent-up place. Its brassy 

 beams leap down to the earth, rebound and nearly blind me. 



To-day there is a parade. Even now it is passing through 

 the Plaza. There is an orator and poet of the day, who ride 

 at the head of the column in a barouche drawn by four 

 prancing grays. A halo of self-complacency surrounds them. 

 The poet of the day has a poem in his side pocket which is 

 badly rhymed, badly metred and lacking sense. The orator 

 is ready to burst with his suppressed eloquence. There is a 

 brass band with shining horns and stunning drums, and their 

 laborious strains make my head ache. There are horsemen, 

 grenadiers and " citizens generally." On the high side of the 

 Plaza an artillery company is posted which fires off deafening 

 shots. Somehow, owing to the hot sun, the sulphurous condi- 

 tion of the air, the blare of band or din of cannon, I don't 

 appreciate the scene. 



