Bohemian San Francisco

In Barbary Coast we have seen more beautiful danc- ing than on any stage, or in the famous Moulin Rouge, or Jardin Mabile of Paris. In fact, OX THE many of the modern dances that have BARBARY become the vogue all over the coun- COAST try, even being carried to Europe, had their origin in Pacific street dance halls. Texas Tommy, the Grizzly Bear, and many others were first danced here, and some of the finest Texas Tommy dancers on eastern stages went from the dance halls of San Francisco's Barbary Coast. Vice was there — yes. It was open — yes. But there was the attraction of light and life and laughter that drew crowds nightly. Barbary Coast was a part of San Francisco's Bo- hemianism because of its unconventionality, for, you know, there is conventionality even in Vice. Here was the rendezvous of sailormen from all parts of the world, for here they found companionship and joviality. Up to the time of the closing of Barbary Coast mo- lestation of women on the streets of San Francisco was almost unheard of. Since its closing it is becoming more and more hazardous for women to walk alone at night in the only large city in the world that always had the reputation of guarding its womankind. 54 SAN FRANCISCO Times change and we change with them is well evi- denced by the restaurant life of the present day San Francisco. Now, as before the fire, we have the greatest restaurant city of IrltLLllY the world — a city where home life is IHAl WAS subordinated to the convenience of FASSbS apartment dwelling and restaurant meals — but the old-time Bohemian finds neither the same atmosphere nor the same restaurants. True, many of the old names have been retained or revived, but there is not felt the old spirit of camarad- erie. Old personalities have passed away and old cus- toms have degenerated. Those who aw^ait The Gall feel that with the passing of the old city there passed much that made life worth living, and as they prepare to cross to the Great Beyond, they live in their mem- ories of the Past. With reverence we think of the men and women of the early San Francisco— those who made the city the Home of Bohemia — and it is with this feeling that we now come to discuss the Bohemian restaurants of the New San Francisco. 35 BOHEMIAN In the latter part of April, 1906, when the fire-swept sb'cets presented their most forbidding aspect, and when the only moving figures to be SANG seen after nightfall were armed sol- THE SWAN diers guarding the little remaining of SONG value from depredations of skulking vagabonds, a number of the old Bo- hemian spirits gathered at the corner of Montgomery and Commercial streets, and gazed through the shat- tered windows into the old dining room where they had held many a royal feast. On the blackened walls might still be seen scarred pictures, fringed by a row of black cats along the ceiling. They turned their steps out to- ward the Presidio, hunted among the Italian refugees and there found Coppa — he of the wonderful black cats, and it took little persuasion to induce him to go back to his ruined restaurant and prepare a dinner, such as had made his place famous among artists, writers, and other Bohemians, in the days when San Francisco was care-free and held her arms wide open in welcome to all the world.