THE BEGINNING OF RESTORATION



    For years the public had fought the plan of overhead
trolleys on Market Street. But immediate repair of the
cable system was out of the question. In places the earth-
quake had driven the sides of the cable slot together, and
in others separated it, while in still others the fire had
warped it into serpentine curves. The Mayor was ready to
give any kind of a permit in order to secure some kind of
transportation.  So the United Railways began stringing
wires on Market Street at once; and the first through train
that ran from Omaha to San Francisco was not greeted more
joyously than the first overhead trolley car that ran down
the main street to the ferry.
    This is only one feature of an upheaval of public opin-
ion on all questions. We know that at the outset the men
who put lines of steel across the plains were regarded as
benefactors. It was then a case of anything to get a rail-
road. That they were not quite single-minded in their bene-
factions was shown by the way they watered their stock and
juggled with rates. The Mayor, whom the "better element"
called a pariah, is to-day working hand in hand with the mil-
lionaires and promoters who once refused to sit at the same
table with him, and whom he bayed in his campaigns. San
Francisco has lost three hundred millions of actual value in
property, less the insurance, which, if it is all paid, can not
be more than one-third of the amount. Again and again it
-was said by men of all classes that the future of the city
rested with the man who three years ago was the leader of
a theatre orchestra, and to-day probably could be reelected
be almost a unanimous vote.



1368



1906