iod of its
greatest activities.

Then, again, there is another advantage--the exposition grounds are
situated well within the city; the site is within easy riding distance
of the civic center and not miles away from the middle of town, as has
been the case in certain other instances in this country where big
expositions were held. It is a place admirably devised by Nature for the
purposes to which it is now being put--a six-hundred-acre tract
stretching along the water-front, with the Presidio at its farther end,
the high hills behind it, and in front of it the exquisite panorama of
the Golden Gate, with emerald islands rising beyond; and Berkeley and
Oakland just across the way; and on beyond, northward across the
narrowing portals of the harbor, the big green mountain of Tamalpais,
rising sheer out of the sea.

Moreover, the president of the exposition and his aides promised that
the whole thing, down to the minutest detail, would be completed and
ready months before the date set for opening the gates--which furnishes
another strikingly novel note in expositions, if their words come true;
and they declared that, for beauty of conception and harmony of design,
their exposition of 1915 would surpass any exposition ever seen in this
country or in any other country. Probably they are right. I know that,
when I was there, the view from the first rise back of the grounds,
looking down upon that long flat where men by thousands were toiling,
and building after building was rising, made a picture sufficiently
inspiring to warm the enthusiasm and brisken the imagination of any man,
be he alien or native.

There isn't any doubt, though, that the people of San Francisco are
going to have their hands full when the exposition visitors begin to
pile in. By that I do not mean that the housing and feeding
accommodations and the transit facilities will be deficient; but it is
going to be a most overpoweringly big job to educate the pilgrims up to
the point where they will call San Francisco by its full name. All true
San Franciscans are very touchy on this point--touchy as hedgehogs, they
are; the prejudice extends to all classes, with the possible exception
of the Chinese.

I heard a story of a seafaring person, ignorant and newly arrived, who
drifted into a waterfront saloon, called for a simple glass of beer and
spoke a few casual words of greeting to the barkeeper--and woke up the
next morning in the hospital with a very bad