ime, and Dr. Stebbins again gave out the
same hymn, and this time we sang it through.

The story of Golden Gate Park and how the city got it is very
interesting, but must be much abridged. In 1866 I pieced out a modest
income by reporting the proceedings of the Board of Supervisors and the
School Board for the _Call_. It was in the palmy days of the People's
Party. The supervisors, elected from the wards in which they lived, were
honest and fairly able. The man of most brains and initiative was Frank
McCoppin. The most important question before them was the disposition of
the outside lands. In 1853 the city had sued for the four square leagues
(seventeen thousand acres) allowed under the Mexican law. It was granted
ten thousand acres, which left all land west of Divisadero Street
unsettled as to title. Appeal was taken, and finally the city's claim
was confirmed. In 1866 Congress passed an act confirming the decree, and
the legislature authorized the conveyance of the lands to occupants.

They were mostly squatters, and the prize was a rich one. Congress had
decreed "that all of this land not needed for public purposes, or not
previously disposed of, should be conveyed to the persons in
possession," so that all the latitude allowed was as to what "needs for
public purposes" covered. There had been agitation for a park; indeed,
Frederick Law Olmstead had made an elaborate but discouraging report,
ignoring the availability of the drifting sand-hills that formed so
large a part of the outside lands, recommending a park including our
little Duboce Park and one at Black Point, the two to be connected by a
widened and parked Van Ness Avenue, sunken and crossed by ornamental
bridges.

The undistributed outside lands to be disposed of comprised eighty-four
hundred acres. The supervisors determined to reserve one thousand acres
for a park. Some wanted to improve the opportunity to secure without
cost considerably more. The _Bulletin_ advocated an extension that would
bring a bell-shaped panhandle down to the Yerba Buena Cemetery, property
owned by the city and now embraced in the Civic Center. After long
consideration a compromise was made by which the claimants paid to those
whose lands were kept for public use ten per cent of the value of the
lands distributed. By this means 1,347.46 acres were rescued, of which
Golden Gate Park included 1,049.31, the rest being used for a cemetery,
Buena Vista Park, public squares, school l