Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIV.djvu/627

 SAN FRANCISCO 603 theatre not yet named, and the unfinished city hall. James Lick, a pioneer citizen, has given his property, valued at several million dollars, to trustees with instructions to erect various institutions that will contribute to sci- ence, art, and philanthropy, as well as orna- ment the city. The Palace hotel, the largest building of the kind in the world and the most complete in its appointments, is 275 by 350 ft. on the ground, nine stories high (counting two below the level of the street), can accom- modate 1,200 guests, and cost with land and furniture $3,250,000. The Occidental and Cos- mopolitan hotels can each accommodate 400, the Lick house 350, and the Grand hotel 300. In the S. part of the city, 3 m. from the city hall, are the buildings of the old mission of San Francisco. The main structure is the church, built of adobe in 1778. Four miles "W. of the city hall, and on the S. shore of the Golden Gate or entrance to the bay, is Fort point, the chief defence of the entrance, which is there 1 m. wide. Alcatraz island, which contains another fortification, commanding both the entrance and the city, is 2 m. N. of the city hall. Although the city is on a sandy, rocky, treeless peninsula, with a site so ill fitted by nature for its present purposes that $50,000,000 have been spent in grading, still it has much attractive scenery in its vicinity. The Golden Gate park contains 1,043 acres, and the Lone Mountain cemetery has in many respects no superior. Bridges each a mile long span Mission and Islais coves. The climate is peculiar. The mean temperature of January is 49, and of July 57. Furs are often seen in the streets in August, and snow is never seen in December. People go to San Francis- co from the interior of the state to escape from the heat of summer, and the number of days so warm that the shade is necessary for com- fort does not exceed a dozen in a year. As New City Hall. severe frost is unknown, tropical and subtrop- ical plants need no shelter. The people are ruddier and stouter than Americans generally. The growth of San Francisco has been un- precedented. In 1846 the population was 600 ; in the spring of 1848, when the gold fever broke out, it was 1,000; in 1852 a state census reported 34,870; the federal census in 1860 gave 56,802, but there were probably 70,000 ; according to the federal census of 1870 there were then 149,473 ; and in February, 1875, the number was estimated by local authorities at 230,000. Included in the last number were 83,956 white males over 21 years of age, 44,000 white females over 18, 43,573 white males under 21, 37,804 white females under 18, 19,000 Chinese, and 1,800 colored persons. In 1874, according to the city school census, there were 60,552 persons under 17 years of age, and of these 35,000 were between 6 and 17; 40,056 were born of foreign parents, 12,- 230 of native parents, and 5,956 of mixed parentage. In 1870, according to the census, half the inhabitants were foreign, of whom 36 per cent, were Irish, 14 per cent. German, 13 per cent. Chinese, 9 per cent. English and Welsh, and 6 per cent. French, and the rest Scandinavians, Dalmatians, Spanish Americans. &c. Of the natives, 50 per cent., mostly chil- dren, were born in California, 16 per cent, in New York, 10 per cent, in Massachusetts, 3 per cent, in Maine, and some in every other state of the Union. There are German, French, Spanish, Italian, and Chinese newspapers, and Irish, German, French, Italian, Spanish Amer- ican, Scandinavian, Dalmatian, Swiss, Dutch, and Chinese benevolent societies. The only railroad terminating within the city limits is the Southern Pacific ; the Central Pacific ter- minates at Oakland on the E. side of San Francisco bay, and the California Pacific and San Francisco and North Pacific lines termi- nate on San Pablo bay N. of the city. Ferry steamers ply to these points. There are eight