from the water; and we felt the bareness more strongly after
New Zealand and Australia. Another difference made itself
felt, the effect of which it was impossible to resist. There
had been life and energy in Melbourne and Sydney, with
crowded docks and growing enterprise; but an American city
--and San Francisco especially--is more than they. The
very pilot's voice as he came on board had a ring of decision
about it. The great liners passing in and out with the stars
and stripes flying; the huge ferry-boats rushing along, deck
rising above deck, and black with passengers; the lines of
houses on the shore, stretching leagues beyond the actual
town, all spoke of the pulsations of a great national existence,
which were beating to its farthest extremity.

San Francisco, half a century ago, was a sleepy Spanish vil-
lage. It is now one of the most important cities of the world,
destined, if things continue as they are, to expand into dimen-
sions to which the present size of it is nothing, for it is and
must be the chief outlet into the Pacific of the trade of the
American continent.

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