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San Francisco As Seen
By An Intelligent Traveler
San Francisco is not like anything but itself. The hills on which it is built
are partly covered with houses, and partly projecting in huge banks of earth; so
that the city looks as if stuck on a hill side. Altogether it has a raw and half
finished appearance, unlike any of the cities of the Old World, and not like
many of the new. But, if the first view is disappointing, the second and nearer
view is reassuring. When one lands at the quay and enters the city, he soon
perceives the signs of a vigorous life. He drives through miles of well-built
streets; the shops and stores are large, and gay with animation, and all wears
an air of business no where seen in an American city. But the people were what
most struck us. There was a bustling activity that we had not seen for a year
before—men stepped quickly, as though they had something to do. This eager
movement was the more startling to us coming from the Old World, it was in such
contrast with the torpid and languid life of the millions of Asia. We found that
we were indeed in the New World. This impression grows upon us the longer we
stay. In walking the streets we are struck with the number of fine heads and
intelligent faces. It seems as if we had seen them before. No doubt some of them
we have seen in eastern cities. But there is an individuality about them which
is very marked, and makes us often turn to look at them again. Thus full of
life, San Francisco begins to have a fascination for us, and after several weeks
here, we have come to think it one of the most attractive cities in our whole
country, East or West. — Henry M. Field
San Francisco News Letter and California Advertiser
November 11, 1876
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