II. The Oakland Trip.
Oakland lies seven miles east of San Francisco. At least that is the distance from centre to centre; between the nearest margins the measure would be hardly five miles. A dozen times a day the ferry-boat takes one over; fare, 25 cents. Get out at Broadway street, turn to your left, walk four or five blocks, notice the comfortable, roomy appearance of the city. Two blocks up, observe that neat church on the left, set well back from the street and surrounded by ample grounds and pleasant gardens. That's Rev. Dr. Mooar's Congregational Church. A block or two beyond, look up the broad street to the right, and you see the buildings and grounds now occupied by the State University of California, pending the erection of ampler accommodations on the University site at Berkeley, five miles north. Take the horse cars if you like, and ride out north along the "telegraph road." Noble residences and beautiful grounds line both sides of the way. A mile out, that large, new, wooden building, crowning the summit of a moderate hill, accommodates McClure's Academy, wherein the military drill reinforces and enlivens the other usual studies of a first-class academy.
A third of a mile further, upon the same side appears the large and finely-proportioned Pacific Female College, lately purchased by the Pacific Theological Seminary.
Still north two miles further, brings us to or in front of the
Deaf, Dumb and Blind Asylum, beautifully located on the top of a little rise, and commanding a fine view of the Golden Gate, the bay, San Francisco, and its surroundings. The style of the building is a modified Gothic. It is built of a fine-grained, bluish granite, from a neighboring quarry. It has a length of one hundred and ninety-two feet front, one hundred and forty-eight feet depth, sixty-two feet height up the three stories and a half to the gable, and one hundred and forty-five feet to the top of the tower. Within, the school-rooms, chapel, halls, dormitories, and bath-rooms, are models of convenient arrangement. Principal, Prof. Wilkinson.
Another mile and we cross a ravine, bear away to the left, and find ourselves on the grounds of the State University of which only the Mining and Agricultural College Building has begun to take form. The site is the finest imaginable: facing the Golden Gate, the bay and its islands, and the "Golden City" beyond.
Continuing west from the University site, we may go down to the San Pablo road and return to Oakland by a different route. Approaching the centre we may note the new City Hall, delight ourselves with glances down the broad and "tree-ful" streets. Arrived at the Market street station we take the cars south, cross the San Antonio creek, through Brooklyn to San Leandro, where we may get out and take another train to
Hayward's,
Six miles southeasterly from San Leandro. This is a new, pleasantly-situated and rapidly-growing town, the shipping point for a large agricultural region around. Here see the grain sheds, run out to the Brighton cattle market, the largest in the State, after which you can take stage six miles to
Alvarado,
And there inspect the salt works, but, more especially, the
Beet Sugar Works, the first erected and operated in California, and regarded as the pioneer of an extensive and valuable industry. From Alvarado you can keep on, by stage, nine miles to the
Warm Springs, or you can reach these by driving to Niles, or Decoto, and thence taking the cars of the San José road. These springs are about two miles south of the Old Mission San José, in the midst of a pleasant grove of oak and other trees, near the Agua Caliente (hot water) creek. The waters contain lime, sulphur, magnesia, and iron, in various combinations. Summer guests speak highly of the neighboring hotel.
From the springs return to the railroad, and riding eleven miles, enter on