tilian way, with the vowels long,
and the full continental sound is given. This makes the name very
musical as it is syllabled on their lips. What is the Presidio? This
was originally the Military Post of the Spaniards, but it is now the
Military Reservation of the United States. We are carried back to the
old Spanish days as we tread the well kept walks of this garrisoned
post. It was on Sept. 17, 1776, as we learn that it was established.
There were four of these Presidios in California, one at San Diego,
the second at Santa Barbara, the third at Monterey, and the fourth
here by the waters of the Golden Gate. They were built on the lines
of a square, three hundred feet long on each side, and the walls were
made of adobes formed of ashes and earth. Within this enclosure were
the necessary buildings, of the simplest construction, such as the
Commandante's house, the barracks, the store house, the shops and the
jail. The government buildings as a rule were whitewashed. The chief
object of the Presidios was to give protection to the Missionaries and
guard them against the Indians. The full complement of soldiers in
each Presidio was two hundred and fifty--but the number rarely reached
as high as this. The soldiers in those early days were not, as a rule,
of the highest standing. Many of them were from the dregs of the
Mexican army, and among them were men sometimes who had committed
crime and were in a measure in banishment.

There could be no greater contrast possible than that between the
Presidio of Spanish days and the Presidio of the present time, both
as to the place and the personnel of the officers and men of the
garrison. As you look around you now your eyes rest on wide and
handsome parade grounds, on beautiful gardens where flowers bloom
in luxuriance, on groups of the Monterey Cypress, on neatly trimmed
hedges, on walks in many places bordered with cannon balls, on
attractive buildings which have a homelike aspect with vines climbing
the walls, on barracks where the soldiers are made comfortable. The
Presidio looks like a settlement in itself, and is very picturesque.
I will not soon forget the beautiful, balmy afternoon, when I walked
through the grounds on my way to the hills above the ocean. Here
everything was suggestive of forethought, of care, of order, of
dignity. The Reservation stretched out on every hand and over to the
shore of the Bay northward where it has a water frontage of at least a
mile and