Oakland, California

“ Within two years over 100,000 adventurous men came, and many remained to help upbuild San Francisco and California. Across the bay on the eastern shore is Oakland, third city on the coast, with its 175,000 people. It is a city of slopes covered with charming homes, spreading northward to the city of Berkeley, seat of the great University of California and noteworthy for its loveliness. ”

“ California is full of ambuscades, not of a hostile sort, but with all embarrassments that attend surprise. In a hasty drive this afternoon, when I thought I was to visit Oakland, I was suddenly drawn up in front of a college and asked to make an address, and in a moment afterward before an asylum for the deaf, dumb, and blind, the character of which I did not know until the carriage stopped in front of it. All this taxes the ingenuity as your kindness moves the heart of one who is making a hurried journey through California. ”

“ I noticed in Oakland a man who drew the whole length of his body along the sidewalk, like an enormous reptile, moving slowly by the help of his hands, unable to get along in any other way, holding up a bright, sunny, sailor face. On his back was a pack of newspapers, from which men helped themselves, and flung him generally a half or a quarter of a dollar, always refusing the change. That such a man could do business in the streets, was a credit to the kindliness of the people incommoded by him. ”

“ Passengers and freight from the East to San Francisco are transferred by ferry from Oakland. A branch of the bay (called Oakland Harbour) divides Oakland from Alameda, and the railway piers of Oakland run directly out into the bay for more than 2 m. toward San Francisco, thus shortening the ferry connexions. Lake Merritt, in the heart of the city, a favourite pleasure resort, is the centre of the city's park system. Oakland is the seat of California College (co-educational, Baptist, opened in 1870) , and of St Mary's College (Roman Catholic, 1863) for men ”

“ We arrived at San Francisco towards midnight. At noon on Saturday we took the steamboat for Oakland, which is across the bay from San Francisco. It took its name from the number of oak-trees growing there. They give a green and pleasant appearance to the country round. California College is situated in Oakland.
On Sabbath we had the pleasure in the morning of listening to a sermon from an old friend, and in the evening grandpa told the people of what God had wrought through the missionaries in the Sandwich Islands. ”

“ In the Oakland suburbs is Berkeley, where are some of the College buildings of the University of California, founded in 1868 and having twenty-three hundred students, many of them women. The attractive grounds cover two hundred and fifty acres, and the endowments exceed $8,000,000. South of Oakland is the pleasant suburban town of Alameda. On the western shore of the bay, south of San Francisco, is Menlo Park, a favorite place of rural residence for the wealthy San Francisco people, having many handsome villas and estates with noble trees. ”

“ The climate of California is especially kind to childhood and old age. Men live longer there, and, if unwasted by dissipation, strength of body is better conserved. To children the conditions of life are particularly favorable. California could have no better advertisement at some world's fair than a visible demonstration of this fact. A series of measurements of the children of Oakland has recently been taken, in the interest of comparative child study; and should the average of these from different ages be worked into a series of models from Eastern cities, the result would surprise. ”

“ Young, who was a native of Massachusetts and just as proud of California as he was of his old home in the east, turned with considerable elation to Berkeley, the University town. "There," said he, "to the north of Oakland is Berkeley, with a population of thirteen thousand. It is, as you see, situated at the foot of the San Pablo hills, and is about eleven miles from the Market street ferry in San Francisco. To reach it you go by ferry to the Oakland pier and then take the cars on the Southern Pacific road." ”

“ Have you not dictated the government of Oakland for the past twenty-five years? Until last election had you not continuous control of Alameda County’s government?... [327]
When one desires to test the accuracy of accusations like those of Casserly and of Bassett, one has first to remember that they are in accord with the substantially uncontradicted declarations of men of all degrees of prominence in California over a period of fifty years. Political campaigns have been waged on the question of the railroad versus the people. ”

“ Await orders at the hotel. Protect the boy at all hazards.”
Inclosed in the sheet were gold-notes to the value of five hundred dollars—a thoughtful detail for which I was grateful at the outset of such an expedition. I thrust the money into my pocket and pondered upon the letter, wondering where Livermore might be. My knowledge of the geography of California was exceedingly scant. I knew that Oakland lay across the bay and that Brooklyn lay close by, a part of Oakland. I remembered a dinner at Sacramento, and knew Los Angeles on the map. ”

“ Oakland is a pretty town of 400 inhabitants, so named by its founder, D. S. Baker, from its situation in an oak grove. Deady's Hist. Or., MS., 79. It is on Calapooya creek, a branch of the Umpqua River, and the Oregon and California railroad passes through it to Roseburg. Wilbur is another picturesque place on the line of this road, named after J. H. Wilbur, founder of the academy at that place. It is only an academic town, with two hundred population. Canonville, at the north end of the Umpqua canon, has a population of two or three hundred. ”

“ For many miles we continued skirting the bay, partly crossing it on trestle bridges till we reached Oakland, so called from its beautiful groves of oaks; and which, though separated from San Francisco by the bay, is one of its suburbs. We crossed over from Oakland Ferry, and were at San Francisco, our journey to the Far West—across the continent of America, 4000 miles from ocean to ocean, traversing the ten states of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, the territory of Utah Nevada, into California—safely accomplished. ”

“ The compromise described was effected under authority of an act of the California legislature dated March 21, 1868.
[138] By ordinance passed August 31, 1867, the Oakland City Council voted to pay Mr. Felton a fee equal to 15 per cent of all the property recovered by the city in the water-front litigation. (Transcript of testimony, sup. cit. p. 759.) Mr. Merritt was subsequently accused of having promoted the settlement between the city of Oakland and the Oakland Water Front Company in order to derive a pecuniary profit for himself. ”

“ Cincinnati, Ohio; Oregon, Victoria, and throughout the cities of California. In San Bernardino I found during my sixteen months' stay many prominent families who extended their cordial support and appreciation and welcome. I take great pleasure in mentioning especially Mr. Seth Marshall and wife, Dr. and Mrs. Addison Collins, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Perkins.
On returning to Oakland I received the right hand of fellowship from Horace A. Redfield, who visited me in my studio, and his wife, Addie Lowell Redfield and her sister Mrs. Gussie Lowell Garthwaite. ”

“ Winter Garden, Post and Stockton streets; Tivoli, Eddy street; in Oakland, Oakland Tivoli; Cameron Hall, Fourteenth street; Oakland theater, later Coliseum, Twelfth street; also was director of the Oakland Harmonic society until he became director at the Grand Opera House, San Francisco. Became organist at St. Patrick's church, March, 1864, then located at the corner of Annie and Market streets, San Francisco, later on Mission street. Held that position until May, 1899. During the greater part of his musical career he has resided in Oakland, where he is still busy as a teacher. ”

“ Oakland is a large, rapidly growing city, with its fine two-million-dollar Hotel Oakland occupying an entire block. The Municipal Auditorium, seating thirteen thousand people, is near the shores of Lake Merritt, in the City Park. It is a great railway center, the terminus of the Southern Pacific, Santa Fe, and Western Pacific lines. From here you take the ferry to San Francisco. ”

“ Oakland is more to San Francisco, than Brooklyn is to New York. The ocean breezes are so tempered in crossing San Francisco Bay, that a very perceptible change of climate takes place, and Oakland is able to boast of a genial air and a clear sky on many days in summer, when San Francisco is shrouded in fog or swept by heavy, dust-laden winds. ”

“ We stroll around, first on one side of the train and then on the other, keeping one eye on it for fear it will get away from us and careful not to get too far out of its reach. We can see that Oakland is a large and beautiful city, and learn that it has a population of 60,000 inhabitants; a place where flowers bloom on the lawns, fruits mature in the orchards, vegetables grow in the gardens, and grains are harvested in the fields each and every month in the year. It has mountain scenery back of it and an ocean view in front of it ”

“ There's the chance to make five people grow where one grows now. Here's the scheme in a nutshell. Why don't more people live in Oakland? No good service with San Francisco, and, besides, Oakland is asleep. It's a whole lot better place to live in than San Francisco. Now, suppose I buy in all the street railways of Oakland, Berkeley, Alameda, San Leandro, and the rest,--bring them under one head with a competent management? Suppose I cut the time to San Francisco one-half by building a big pier out there almost to Goat Island and establishing a ferry system with modern up-to-date boats? ”

“ The oldest inhabitants of Oakland had “never seen the like before,” and they shook their gray heads ominously as over and adown the New England mountains the howling wind swept furiously, now shrieking exultingly as one by one the huge forest trees bent before its power, and again dying away in a low, sad wail, as it shook the casement of some low-roofed cottage, where the blazing fire, “high piled upon the hearth,” danced merrily to the sound of the storm-wind, and then, whirling in fantastic circles, disappeared up the broad-mouthed chimney. ”

“ The air is fresh and salt as if you were at sea. On the one hand is Oakland, gleaming white among its gardens. On the other, to seaward, hill after hill is crowded and crowned with the palaces of San Francisco; its long streets lie in regular bars of darkness, east and west, across the sparkling picture; a forest of masts bristles like bulrushes about its feet; nothing remains of the days of Drake but the faithful trade-wind scattering the smoke, the fogs that will begin to muster about sundown, and the fine bulk of Tamalpais looking down on San Francisco, like Arthur’s seat on Edinburgh. ”

“ It was with a sort of shock, that, after hours of travel, through smiling plain and upland, we found ourselves in the prosaic environment of Oakland.
Our car was run out to the end of a pier, which stretched for miles, it seemed, into the bay. The vast expanse of water about us, the great city away off across the bay, and the frail-looking, but yet perfectly safe, piling on which our car had place, gave a tone of empty loneliness to everything, and we could not but feel gloomy. ”

“ Sash and door factories have increased in number and capacity, their product finding a market on the sound and along the line of the Northern Pacific. Lumber is shipped from the mills direct to California, Chili, Peru, Central America, Sandwich islands, Australia, Japan and China, and ship timbers, spars and masts are sent to Europe and the Atlantic coast of the United States. Often a dozen ships are in port at one time loading lumber, and the scene along the docks is a busy one. By rail, lumber is sent as far east as Denver and Omaha. ”

“ Oakland lies seven miles east of San Francisco. At least that is the distance from centre to centre; between the nearest margins the measure would be hardly five miles. A dozen times a day the ferry-boat takes one over; fare, 25 cents. Get out at Broadway street, turn to your left, walk four or five blocks, notice the comfortable, roomy appearance of the city. Two blocks up, observe that neat church on the left, set well back from the street and surrounded by ample grounds and pleasant gardens. ”

“ Besides a day in Oakland and Berkeley, where the State University is located, and a short run on a railroad to San Quinten, all my sight-seeing was done in San Francisco. There are over half a million people in and around that city. Probably 350,000 in San Francisco; Oakland Alameda, Berkeley and several other [220] towns across the bay, practically one city, have over one hundred thousand more. ”

“ The country is older, the Spanish names are more musical; orange and lemon are not grown for ornament, but as a principal crop; and the climate is of that genial mildness which is most to the taste of seekers for health.
Famed Los Angeles, City of the Angels, is the terminus of the first day's journey which brings us into it. The watering-place of Santa Monica and the important points of San Buenaventura and Santa Barbara are not far distant to the west, while San Diego lies at a moderate remove to the southward, near the Mexican frontier. ”

“ It is as pleasant a climate as could well be contrived, take it all around, and is doubtless the most unvarying in the whole world. The wind blows there a good deal in the summer months, but then you can go over to Oakland, if you choose—three or four miles away—it does not blow there. It has only snowed twice in San Francisco in nineteen years, and then it only remained on the ground long enough to astonish the children, and set them to wondering what the feathery stuff was. ”