The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, June 5, 1904, Page 7

yright, 1904, by Central News and Press Exchange.) OW does she do 1t?” That is t the European girl s to know. The Ameri- girl! She comes over and, as a British ma- to slang by force of In- once exclaimed to me, k the whole blessed show her. 1 girl is hampered by her s s to account for her in _away, if possible, The American girl e: “Dont you worry she says to the Lord “It's awfully good of ou fuss yourself. I'm old people. That's my at I want you to do ten to what I am saying iustie around. I can fill up all right my " Her father soep-boller, her grandmoth gone out charring. “That's she says to her Embassador, re not coming. You just take my and tell the King that when he's ot & few minutes to spare I'll be pleased to see n."" And the extra- erdinary thing is that a day or two afterward the Invitation arrives. A modern writer bas sald that “I'm Mur- o the civis romanus sum of the day woman's world. The late King of Saxony did, I belleve, on one ocoasion make a feeble protest at be- ing asked to receive the daughter of a retall bootmaker. The young lady, nonplused for the moment, telegraph- ed to her father in Detroit. The an- swer came back next morning: “Can’t ly giving them The lady daughter of an t is due to g her as a class, s a distinct gain Her influence is and in favor of her greatest charms the European man is him. I cannot say remember it all. But ng she does give woman does mot al- greets you pleasantly often wanted to “must you really s sudden; you ving for hours. oo plain to be ig- reparing to agree n, looking around, mark was not ther gen- ds with 1 be able ,” she says. o say that I You have Again you are jump to the con- speech is proba- e another party moment, her back engaged in & whis- girl cannot, on her path the ¢ quette. Two Ay e a sad tale of ton would be on that oc- g in Dres- season. The Grosser Garten 1is and conditions d commoner circle d one another. But 1s were pleased, uld not skate. r put her in a ey were in the garde heir skates a German up and bowed to a nice young man of ssessing appearance and amiable They could not call to mind embered having met nd on more than one s always iled and y. He replied with ed them down on y most attehtive. fend, the officer of and with the assistance rman gentlem skated to- He glided past them. They v turned and skated chased him three times nd and then, feeling tired, took counsel together. e he must h nger girl. “What does he t “Well, I have not come here to play forfeits,” said the added to which I want my wait here a minute, } it out with him.” He iing only a dozen yards away. ugh not a good performer she contrived to cover half dividing them. The of- g her, with a pleasant . to her assistance and her with effusion. “Oh,” said greeted ght maybe you had left your ® John McLaren, Who Goes to Europe for New Ideas for Beautifying Golden Gate Park # ‘ the sand in place, and the prospective of foflage, plant Continued from Page One cover the expenses of the outing, while reday night a large body of ished men of the West further California’s appreciation of past, present and future, y Mr. McLaren's skill and ing the past seventeen years, nquet at the Palace Hotel honoring him were of the Chamber of Board of Trade, the Association, the Merchants’ the Manufacturers’ and * Assoclation, the California 0 » Committee, the California ate Board of Trade, the Board of Park Commissioners and city officials. McLaren will not only visit all e principal parks of Burope and merica, for new ideas in landscape gardening, but he will bring back with him such seeds and plants as may be suited to the conditions of the soil and the climate here, thus adding, if possible, to the already remarkable varieties that have made Golden Gate Park one of the most famous pleasure spots in the whole world. For, since Mr. McLaren took charge of the park seventeen years ago, it has been brought to such a high state of cultivation that it is now more a ques- tion of selection in the quality rather than in the quantity of the vegetation, and in the laying out of that portion of the park beyond Strawberry Hill the Commissioners desire to be guided by what is new or novel or unique in other quarters of the world. For instance, after visiting Paris and Th he benefits v. who was feeling indignant, glasses at home,” “I am sorry,” said “Wha! the officer, “but it is Berlin and several of the other large Continental citles, Mr. McLaren will go to see the famous Florentine Gardens, which are among the most beautiful in Europe and which, It is thought, will lend many good suggestions for the im- provement of the vast acres now being reclajmed out near the beach, which work in itself calls attention to what has been accomplished since the Com- missioners brought the Scotch gardener from the old Howard place In San Mateo in 1887 to undertake the task of thoroughly reconstructing the park. At that time Golden Gate Park con- sisted of nothing more than the Pan- handle and a mere patch of lawn lying between Stanyan street and the old mu- sic stand to the right of the present main drive to the beach near the con- servatory and the conservatory itself. All beyond that point was little better than a tangled waste of shrubbery and drifting sand. There was no children’s playground, no recreation grounds, no aviary, in short, none of the splen- did features that have now made these acres fronting on the Pacific one of the greatest parks in the whole world. In those seventeen years, however, every. foot of the ground comprised within the Government grant has been gone over, not once but many times, and even to many constant residents in this city during all that time many of the im- provements are still unknown or un- visited. In fact to give them mere cat- egorial mentian is to pile up a long list, many of which were unthought of when Mr. McLaren took charge. One of the first things to be inaugu- rated was the children's playground, which from a very modest beginning quickly grew to its present pularity and importance, though its it hobby horses were very wobbly in comparison to the gayly caparisoned steeds that now pursue each other in a never-end- ing circle, while in place of the two little dookeys and the jaunting cart that now drag the wee little tots along the asphaltum driveway encircling the ieland of patent wooden swings, bi- cycles were for hire to ride around the same saucer-shaped track, but they ‘were never very popular even when the cycling craze was at its height. And immediately after the comple- tion of the handsome stone bullding and cafe at the grounds the littie goat teams and donkey rides around the shrub-hidden lane were installed and have remained to this day one of the most popular sports in the whole park among the children. Simultaneously there had been: bullt the second music stand, the pearly shell-shaped structure in the hollow facing the Francis Scott Key monu- ment, which temple of music has but recently, in turn, given place to the tennis courts, which will, no doubt, be ane of the most lasting monuments to Mr. McLaren's regime. And while this second music stand was In the height of its glory the rough hill to the northwest, which is now connected with the tennis courts by an firon on bridge that crosses the connecting the north and south driveways to the beach, was encircled with a little tor- tuous canal, down which boats were floated every Sunday to the great de- light of the big crowds, old and young. But that in turn had to give way to RECOVERED o Rt impossible?’ demanded the you,” declared the officer, “while you son.” % impossible.” lady. “That I can be seen speaking to are In company with that — that per- maybe he was alluding to the lady in We have met him somewhere; ¥ v “What person?” She thought V 725 HAIRDRESSER FAD" CONSCIOUSNEIS TN TINIE 770 SEE THEI ~ WADDLING .OVER THE GRASI the sledge. The chaperon was not showy, but, what is better, she was good. And anyhow it was the best the girls had been able to do. So far as they were concerned they had no use for a chaperon. The idea had been a thoughtful con- cession to European prejudice. “The person in - the knickerbockers,” ex- claimed the officer. "Oh, that,” ex- claimed the lady, relieved; ‘“he just came up and made himself agreeable while we were putting on our nka!esl. but can’t exactly fix him for the moment.™ “You have met him possibly at Wies- man’s in the Pragerstrasse; he is one of the attendants there,” said the of- ficer. The American girl is republican in her ideas, but she draws the line at hairdressers. In theory It is absurd; the hairdresser is a man and a brother; but we are none of us logical all the way. It made her mad the thought that she had been seen by all Dresden soclety skating with a halrdresser. “Well,” she said, “I do call that impu~ dence. Why they wouldn't do that even in Chicago.” And she returned to where the bairdresser was {llustrating to her friend the Dutch R determined to explain to him, as pdlitely as possible, that although the free and enlightened ‘Westerner has abolished social distine- tions he has not yet abolished them to that extent. Had he been a commonplace German hairdresser he would bave understood English and all might have been easy. But to the classy German hairdresser English is not so necessary, and the American ladles had reached as re- gards thelr German only the “improv- ing” stage. In her excitement she con- fused the subjunetive and the impera- tive and told him that he “might” go. But he had no wish to go. He assured them, so they gathered, that his inten- tion was to devote the morning to their service. He must have been a stupid man, but It i3 & type occasionally en- countered. Two pretty women had greeted his advances with apparent de- light. They were Americans, and the American girl was notorfously uncom- ventional, He knew himself to be & good-looking young fellow. It did not oceur to him that in expressing willing- ness to dispense with his attendance they could be in earnest. There was nothing for it, so it seemed to the girlk but to request the assistance of the o ficer, who continued to skate round and round them at a distance of about ten yards. So again the elder young lady, sef ing her oppertunity, made appeal. * cannot,” explained the officer, who, having been looking forward to a morning with two of the prettiest girls in Dresden, was also feeling mad; “I dare not be seen speaking to a hailr- dresser. You must get rid of him.”™ ‘But we can't,” sald the girl. “We do not know enough German, and he can’t or he won't understand us. For good- ness sake come and help us. We'll be spending the whole morning with him if you don't." The German officer said he was desolate. Steps would be taken —later on the —the result of which would p: render that young hairdresser pr bald. But meanwhile, beyond % round and round them, for w h they did not even feel they wanted to k him, the German officer could do nothing for them. They tried being rude to the hairdresser; he mistook it for Ameri- can chic. They tried joining hands and running away from him, but they were not good sRaters and he thought they were trying to show him the cakewalk. They both fell down and hurt them- selves and it is difficult to be angry with & man, even a hairdresser, when he is doing his best to pick you up and comfort you. The chaperon was worse than useless. She was very cold. She had been promised her breakfast, but saw no signs of it. She could not speak German and remembered some- what late in the day that two young ladies had no business to accept break- fast at the hands of German officers; apd If they did, at least they might ses that they got ft. She appeared to be willlng to talk about decadence of modern manners to almost any extent, but the subject of the hairdresser and how to get rid of him only bored her. Their first stroke of luck occurred when the hairdresser showing them the “dropped three” fell down and tem- porarily stunned himself. It was not kind of them, but they were desperate. They fled for the bank just anyhow, and scrambling over the grass gained the restaurant. The officer overtaking them at the door, led them to the table that had been reserved for them, then back to hunt for the chaperon. The girls thought their trouble was over. Had they glanced behind them their joy would have been shorter lived than even was the case. The hairdresser had recovered consciousness in time to see them waddling over the grass. He thought they were running to fetch him brandy. When the officer returned with the chaperon he found the hair- dresser sitting opposite tothem explain- ing that he reallv was not hurt and suggested that, as they were there, perhaps they would like something to eat and drink. The girls made one last frartic appeal to the man of buck- ram and clay pipe, but the etiquette of the Saxon army was inexorable. It transpired that he might kill the hair- wresser, but nothing else; he must not speak to him—not even explain to the poor devil why it was that he was be- ing killed. It did not seem quite werth it. They had some sandwiches and cof- fee at the hairdresser’s expense and went home in a cab, while the chap- eron had breakfast with the officer of noble famfly. The American girl has succeeded in freeing European social intercourse from many of its hide- bound conventions. There is still much work for her to do. But I have faith in her. JEROME K. JEROME. the march of progress, when a little later the Midwinter Fair began to absorb the attention of the entire West. It was no small task to select this site and to prepare it for the great Pa- cific exposition, but now the k had began to grow at an amu rate, for with the building of the exposition there was realized also the construc- tion of Stow Lake and Strawberry HIll, with the observatory at its crest, and Huntington Falls, splashing down from the very entrance to the observa- tory itself. v The Midwinter Fair was perhaps the biggest step ever made in the matter of extending the park oceanward, for after the exposition had closed and all the buildings, with the exception of the Japanese garden and the museum, had been torn down and carted away, the superintendent and the Park Com- missioners were left with a vast tract to bring from chaos into orderliness and systematic beautification. The big parade ground to the south of fair proper lent itself so well to the sports of the Hour that Mr. Mc- Laren recommended that it be pre- served as the present recreation grounds, with its baseball lawn and its handball courts, which was done, and following this the grand court of the fair ftself, with its great oval basin, surrounded by broad driveways and footpaths and its classic statuary, so inevitably suggested itself as the best place to establish a new music stand, in place of the second, which in turn had outgrown its usefulness, that there were no dissenting opinions. But the work of selecting and pre- paring the site of the Midwinter Fair was as nothing to the task of reclaim- ing it after the exposition had been dismantled. The superintendent found himself in the midst of the task of su- pervising the construction of the avi- ary, the building of the new $100,000 music stand donated by Claus Spreck- els on the site of the Administration building of the fair at the southwest end of the grand court, the construc- tion of the big stone bridge on the main driveway to form a tunnel from the new music Site to the cars of the Mc- Allister, the Geary and the Jackson street lines, at almost one and the same time while cultivating the ground left barren by the removal of the Falr bulldings, covering a wide area. But all this was su and expedi- tlously until now this spot is one of the most beautiful as well as one of the most popular in the entire park. And in their turn there followed in rapid succession such improvements and additions as the deer glen, since converted Into the picturesque fern dell leading from the tennis courts to the bear pit; the buffalo paddock, the new deer glen, the chaln of lakes, the bi- cycle path to:the beach, the ocean boulevard, the picturesque and power- ful Dutch windmill near the ocean it- self, the boathouse on Stow Lake, with its myriad fleet of rowboats sail- ing In the shadow of the Starr King Cross; the new Spreckels Lake for min- fature yacht races, the elaboration and extension of the grounds around the- Japanese tea garden, and now the re- clamation of all that territory between Strawberry HIIl and the ocean beneath an- even two feet of fertilizer to keep construction of the proposed new speed track. These are only the big things. In innumerable other ways has the park been beautified and extended un- der Mr. McLaren's personal supervision in_the last decade. It is after leaving the home of his youth in Bannockburn that Mr. Me- Laren will turn his attention particu- larly to the plans for the cultivation of this new territory, which is to be made the most important in all the several miles of park that les .between the new McKinley monument now being erected at ‘the entrance to the pan- handle and the new speed way, 8o that it can be readily appreciated how im- t and far-reaching is Mr. Mo- 's present vacation trip abroed, the first in ten years. Since he took charge of the manage- ment of the Park in 1337 the force of workmen and gardeners at his com- mand has grown from twenty to 330, while under the new charter Mr. Me- Laren not only the supervision of Golden Gate but of all the smaller parks and plats surrounding public buildings of every sort as well, #0 it can be seen what a big task now nds surrounding the puble build- ings, particularly the City Hall and the City and County Hospital, as well as Union Square, give pleasing evidence of his masterful care and skill. Indeed it is in the finer art of garden- ing that Mr. McLaren has shown his superiority. In all the improvements in Golden Gate Park he has tried to copy nature herself. There is nothing set or stiff or stilted in his arrangement straight lines of awkward trees, no unbroken avenues of palms or hedge, no stereotyped t of flower beds, lawns or pathways. From one end of the park to the other and from one side to the other it is a constant procession of variety, but alwa harmonious, restful, pictur- esque, beautiful. In the science of posies and the cul- tivation of varied and marvelous effects in plant life Mr. McLaren has shown his skill in no better way than along that strip of sloping lawn that lles just in front of the conservatory and facing the main driveway near Cyclers’ Rest 80’ conspiciously. Here at various times upon notable occasions he has planted emblems that have made California’s possibiiities as the land of sunshine and flowers the talk of the world. When Presi- dents McKinley and Rooseveit were visiting San Francisco and during many national conventions of various orders he has decorated this patch of ground with beautiful and appropriate designs, such as the national colors and ensigny, ete. Just before ieaving on his world tour, for instance, he has had this favorite flower bed laid out in the emblems and insignia of the, Masomic order in honor of the conclave of the Knights Templar who will be visiting Cali- fornia -at just about the time he is scheduled to return from abroad. Al- ready it is one of the most striking dis- plays ever shown in the park and re- flects great eredit upon Mr McLaren's skill. What he will accomplish after his return remains to be seen.