San Francisco. Oakland, so named from the abundance of its live-oaks,
has been styled the "Brooklyn" of San Francisco. It is largely a place
of residence for business men, and from fifteen to twenty thousand
cross the Bay daily in pursuit of their avocations. It is pleasantly
situated on the east side of the Bay, gradually rising up to the
terraced hills which skirt it on the east. The streets are regularly
laid out and lined with shade trees of tropical luxuriance as well as
the live-oaks. Pretty lawns, green and well kept, are in front of many
of the houses in the residence part of the city, and here the eye has
a continual feast in gazing on flowers in bloom, fuschias, verbenas,
geraniums and roses especially. At a later day I visited Oakland, and
found it just as beautiful and attractive as it looked in the distance
from the deck of the ferry boat. It has several banks, numerous
churches, five of our own faith, with some twelve hundred
communicants, also good schools, and some fine business blocks.
Trolley cars conduct you through its main streets in all directions.
Landing at the Oakland pier, one of the largest in the world, and
extending out into the Bay some two miles from the shore, the Southern
Pacific Railway will soon carry you to the station within the city
limits. As you wander hither and thither you see on all sides tokens
of prosperity. There is an air of refinement about the place, and you
find the atmosphere clear and stimulating. There is not a very marked
difference in the temperature of the climate between summer and
winter. Frosts are unknown. It is no disparagement to San Francisco
to say that Oakland for delicate persons is more desirable. The trade
winds as they blow from the Pacific ocean, and make one robust and
hardy in San Francisco, when there is vitality to resist them, are
tempered as they blow across the Bay some fourteen miles or more,
while the fogs, so noted, as they rush in through the Golden Gate and
speed onward, are greatly modified as they reach the further shore. As