of the Spaniard, the spirit of the French, the passion of the Italian.

- into -

All the foregoing is put in, not to make it harder, but because - as a
Californiac - I couldn't help it, and to show you what, in the way of a
State, the Native Son is accustomed to. You will have to admit that it
is some State. The emblem on the California flag is singularly apposite
- it's a bear.

- oh boy! - San Francisco!

And if, in addition to being a Californian, this Native Son visiting the
East for the first time, is also a San Franciscan, he has come from a
city which is, with the exception of peacetime Paris, the gayest and
with the exception of none, the happiest city in the world; a city of
extraordinary picturesqueness of situation and an equally notable
cosmopolitanism of atmosphere; a city which is, above all cities, a
paradise for men.

San Francisco, which invents much American slang, must have provided
that phrase - "this man's town." For that is what San Francisco is - a
mans town.

I dare not appeal to Easterners; but Californiacs, I ask you how could I
forbear to say something about "the city"?

San Francisco, or "the city"', as Californians so proudly and lovingly
term her, is peculiarly fortunate in her situation and her weather.
Riding a series of hills as lightly as a ship the waves, she makes real