The Barbary Coast: An Informal History of the San Francisco - Assignment Example

1 San Francisco Order No.515475 Critically discuss “Ishi: The Last Yashi”. What kinds of problems does Ishi’s “capture” as the “last wild Indian” point to? How would you connect these problems with our experiences today?  Ishi belonged to the Yana tribe who lived in the southern region of the Mount Lassen foothills of Northern California. They lived a peaceful life of hunters—gatherers as the hills and mountains were bountiful hunting grounds for their food sources. However, as time passed by, the Yana became the victims of the powerful Winton, who drove them from their homes because they desired the fertile valleys of the Sacramento region. Though they were isolated, they were resilient and fierce fighters who terrorized their enemies especially the Winton. When the white settlers arrived, their perception was influenced by the Wintus stating that the Yanas were dangerous and had to be eradicated from the area. It was during this critical period that Ishi was born. From his childhood Ishi had lived his life in fear and was always on the run. He had witnessed the systematic annihilation of his tribesmen and as his world grew smaller and smaller he began to struggle for survival. During the 1840’s, the Anglo- Saxon era was ushered in and with it misfortune for the Yana tribe. Gold found in the river beds of California and the exchange of land claims saw the tragic wiping out of the Yana tribe. Immigrant people flushed out the Yana tribe by hunting, land staking and livestock pasturing. Hunger took its toll on the population of 2 the Yana tribe that plummeted down. None of Ishi’s Yana tribe was believed to have survived. The only survivors were Ishi, his mother, his sister and an elderly man who lived in hiding for nearly half a century. When the surveyors barged into their home, all of them ran away but Ishi’s mother was too sick to move. These people were so heartless and robbed whatever little they had, without a thought about how they would survive. Ishi’s mother passed away and finally, Ishi was the only surviving member of his tribe and hence led a lonely existence wherein there was not a single kinsman who could understand or share his plight. After sometime fearing that he would die, Ishi made up his mind to cross the Rubicon Trail and enter the land of the Whites. He was discovered on 29th August, 1911 and he was taken into custody by the Sheriff. Ishi was highly traumatized and almost dead and was put in a cell. Professors Waterman and Kroeber took charge of Ishi and kept him at the university’s museum and with great difficulty they managed to communicate with him by learning the Yahi language. Ishi too learned all about life in 20th century America. In the present day scenario, with the advent of globalization, many cultures are being lost or wiped out akin to what happened to the Yana tribe. In our contemporary world even with the great advancement of Science and Technology, we still experience the power of greed and unrest which take its toll on those who are most unfortunate. 3 2)Critically discuss the World’s Fair (California Mid – Winter International Exposition) of 1894. Cite specific examples of how we can think critically about this fair (e.g. commodification, race, gender, modernity, nature, etc.)  Michael Harry of San Francisco announced that he had plans to open the California Mid-Winter Fair in January 1894 in San Francisco. The local citizens were committed to the cause of the project and contributed around $41,500. The chief purpose of this fair was to promote trade, real estate and investment opportunities between California and people from other races and countries. Barbara Berglund in her book titled ‘Making San Francisco American,’ sheds light on San Francisco’s rapid evolution from the much earlier chaotic times to becoming a prized jewel of America’s western empire. She specifically points to the nascent elite’s efforts to bring about social order through cultural and political means. (Barbara Berglund, 2007) The chief idea according to Berglund, was to change it from a multi-cultural boomtown to a much higher stratified metropolis. Despite the economic downturn in the country, the California Mid-Winter Fair opened to huge crowds on January 27th 1894. The Fair was held at ‘Golden Gate Park’ in San Francisco on a 160 acre quadrangle stretch of land and comprised of a couple of Courts like the ‘Court of Honor’ and the ‘Central Grand Court.’ One of the main features of the fair was the Japanese sunken gardens (Japanese tea Gardens) that was designed by a Japanese landscape architect named Makoto. 4 The primary building of the fair was the Administration Building for which Moorish architecture was used for designing it. The souvenir of the fair was a silver plated spoon that had the embossment of the Administrative Building. At the center of the Grand Court, Bonnet’s Tower was erected to a height of about 266 feet. The main idea was to display the power of the Municipal electricity. The Tower had a beacon of light that attracted people to the fair. Race and gender were no barrier to the fair, as people from different countries were invited to showcase their extravagant performances. E.g. The Kilauea Cyclorama performed a re-creation of the Kilauea Crater, with a quartet of vocalists and musicians with Spanish guitars, ukulele and a five-string taropatch. 3)Critically discuss the place known as the Barbary Coast. How were “sin” and “vice” important parts of the cultural life of the city? The Barbary Coast in San Francisco was synonymous with vice and sin, prostitution and debauchery, gambling and crime. It got its name from the pirate infested Barbary Coast in North Africa where Mediterranean ships were attacked by the Africans. The Barbary Coast was for almost seventy years, the most depraved district in America. It was an outgrowth of Sydney-Town and the “Sydney Ducks” were the first criminal elements who comprised of Australian convicts and ruffians. They set up the dancehalls and bawdy houses which proved to be a fertile ground for breeding burglars, thugs, arsonists and swindlers. The California Gold Rush led to a massive influx of people into San Francisco who contributed to the lawlessness of Barbary Coast. The gold seekers and the gamblers, 5 thieves, harlots and such like people made the Barbary Coast their preferred district and hence contributed to the development of unique criminal district that was not only an embodiment of avarice and depravity but it also had elements of glamour which made it different from any other criminal district of America. People wanted to get everything in life fast and easy. This led to the flourishing of the gambling houses which lured people who wanted to make an easy fortune. It was a vicious and squalid section of the city which thrived on lewd conducts i.e. prostitution and robbery. Due to great disparity between the male female ratios, prostitution flourished. It was estimated that in 1849 there were only 300 women in a population of 20,000 to 25,000 and two thirds among them were prostitutes (Asbury, 1933).Most of the prostitution houses were functioning from noon to noon and girls of every race were made available to the patrons In spite of social activism, the immoral activities flourished as the government officials were highly corrupt. The activities of the district were dealt with the death blow, with the passing of the Red-Light Abatement Act of 1914 which allowed the city to try property owners in the Civil Court if their properties were found to be used for prostitution. Barbary Coast almost obliterated in the earth quake of 1906 but rose quickly to rebuild its infamous reputation as a district of vices and crime. The district that was described by Benjamin Lloyd as having, “Licentiousness, debauchery, pollution, loathsome disease, insanity from dissipation, misery, poverty, wealth, profanity, blasphemy, and death,” met its end when the San Francisco Police Department evicted the prostitutes to protect the sailors of World War 1 in 1917. Lloyd, Benjamin Estelle (1876).  6 References Asbury, Herbert (1933). The Barbary Coast – An Informal History of the San Francisco Underworld. Alfred A. Knopf. Barbara Berglund, Making San Francisco American: Cultural Frontiers in the Urban West, 1846 – 1906  Lloyd, Benjamin Estelle (1876). Lights and Shades of San Francisco. A Real – Life, the Last of the Mohicans http://www.mohicanpress.com/mo08019.html California Mid- Winter Fair 1894 www.spoonplanet.com/calmidfair.html Read More