A Valuable Guide

1895

While visiting San Francisco we engaged a carriage to drive through Golden Gate park, stipulating for an intelligent driver who could point out the places and objects of interest. The one sent was a bright looking young Irishman, in a neat livery, and he took much interest in displaying his knowledge. Two crosses on elevations in view of the park are prominent. One of them, a Greek cross, we had been told was erected to mark the place where the first Church of England services were held on the Pacific coast, on the occasion of the visit of Sir Francis Drake, in the sixteenth century. The object of the other, a plain wooden cross, we did not know. So I asked the driver about it.

"Well, sir," he replied, a little puzzled, apparently, "that shows the merriden."

"The what?" I inquired.

"The merriden," he repeated.

"But what is that?" I asked.

"Well, sir," he replied, "it's what they find their place with on ships."

"Oh," I exclaimed, light breaking, "that is where the meridian line passes through?"

"Yes," said he, delighted to have solved the matter satisfactorily, "and that other cross is a monument to Stab King, the great oil man."

We asked few other questions. — New York Post.