Page:The Tourist's California by Wood, Ruth Kedzie.djvu/28

12 THE TOURIST'S CALIFORNIA Cabs and Street Cars. The glib taxi has invaded the metropolises of Cal- ifornia, and at licensed stands near public build- ings, squares, stations and ferry landings both horse and gasoline cabs are for hire at the purse- flattening rates of the American city. Every- man's cab, the street car, is the dependable and economical Tourist's Delight of California trans- portation. It pierces the canyons of high-walled streets, attacks the incline of breath-snatching hills, whirls one to the sea or through orchard- suburbs to outlying Missions and forests. Transfers are generously dispensed. In San Francisco one may ride all morning for two nick- els. Los Angeles is no vainer of her harbour and her summer climate than of her electric railway system. San Diego has 70 miles of street car tracks. From Mexico to the Oregon line every sizable community has a trolley service as cer- tainly as it has a Booster Club and an inflated population. The electric car, local and inter-urban, has car- ried a gospel of progress, comfort and recreation to every accessible quarter of the Sunset State, has joined the ranch to the market, made feasible the country home to clerk and city mechanic, given the city school to the farm-child and city amuse- ments to his parents. Nowhere is there a more effectual messenger of civilisation.