"Custer was a pu$$y."
Posted on 07/04/2016 11:36:03 AM PDT by thecodont
July 4, 1876 was the grandest day San Francisco had ever seen.
For weeks, the city prepared for the young nation's centennial. They draped American flags and bunting on every doorway and balcony in town. In glowing terms, the San Francisco Bulletin reported that huge paintings of Revolutionary War heroes were placed in "conspicuous places here, there and everywhere."
Businesses were on their third straight day of celebration closures. Reverends in the town's Protestant churches gave centennial-themed Sunday sermons. Catholic churches held a special High Mass. On the bay and on land, revolutionary battles were reenacted for thrilled crowds. Thousands of celebrants disembarked from ferries all day long, swelling San Francisco — which had an 1870 population of 149,473 — to over 400,000 people.
"Such patriotic enthusiasm and lavishness to decorative display has not been exhibited probably by any other city," declared the Bulletin.
But the most glorious moment of the celebration was still to come.
At sunset, shopkeepers and businessmen lit thousands of candles and Chinese lanterns. As San Francisco gleamed with candlelight, a nighttime parade of 10,000 politicians and military figures began down Market Street.
Above the procession on the roof of St. Ignatius Church, Father Joseph Neri pulled a lever. All along Market between Fourth and Fifth, "a stream of soft, mellow light" glowed from the lamps and reflectors strung from the church roof to the other side of the street.
The streets of San Francisco were lit with electricity for the first time — three years before Thomas Edison introduced his incandescent light to the world.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
And today, San Francisco wipes it's posterior with the American flag.
And San Francisco's homeless population wipes it's posterior with San Francisco itself.
Interesting sort of symmetry there.
Arc lights?
The IPO immediately followed. Edison sued, and LightBook, Hundred, Banana, and Flicker were formed.
Back in the good old days when SF was proudly American.
" John Adams, on July 2, 1776, after a day in which the Continental Congress had adopted the Declaration of Independence, wrote to wife, Abigail:"The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epocha in the history of America. I am apt to believe it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forevermore.
"You will think me transported with enthusiasm, but I am not. I am well aware of the toil and blood and treasure that it will cost us to maintain this Declaration and support and defend these states. Yet, through all the gloom, I can see the rays of ravishing light and glory. I can see that the end is more than worth all the means. And that posterity will triumph in that day’s transaction, even although we should rue it, which I trust in God we shall not…
- John Adams
Ya, this is an awkward story, to think that at one time, San Francisco would have unabashedly celebrated American independence and America.
It’s fallen a long way since the Streets of San Francisco - Quinn Martin Production.
And of late they’ve turned off the lights.
That one time continued into my lifetime. San Francisco was Republican, with a long unbroken string of Republican mayors up into the early 1960s. Then liberal ah*les flooded in from the east coast, along with hippies from the midwest and ruined everything. I remember when USA flags were everywhere and the military was respected in SF, early 1960s. Both displaced by liberals who came later.
And A week earlier, George Armstrong Custer met defeat at the Little Big Horn.
"Custer was a pu$$y."
And then impenetrable darkness fell over the city.
They don't call it the land of fruits-n-nuts for nothing, eh? And last I saw, the Southeastern states were fairly well represented with mostly conservative values.
Mebbe you were referring to the New England part of the East Coast.
All true.
However, you fly the flag of New York, the very state that
has supplied San Francisco and the rest of my “Golden State”
with more liberals by far than any other. And, still
NY is as blue as blue can be. Just what is it that causes
so many New Yorkers to point out Califoibles? You are
in the same transcontinental boat.
The irony is not lost on Californians.
What are you doing lurking at a website based in
“the land of fruits and nuts”?
Being the quintessential optimist, I reckon. d;^)
When San Francisco was proud to be American.
This could not have been done by a Catholic priest, everyone knows the Church hates science.
Custer was apparently impatient too. I wouldn’t wanted to tag along with ole George either if I had a clue of what was coming.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0nHWAoIfxo
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