Petaluma High School - Trojans Yearbook (Petaluma, CA)

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P. H. S. ENTERPRISE ' 08. and the Fire Department. The city also maintains in this building a free lunch coun¬ ter and rooming house for the “weary and wandering” population of the county. The odd decoration you see in front of the building is a street sweeper. It is kept in full view so the public will know there is such a thing. Some day it is expected the machine will be used as an experiment. We must hasten by this unique and inter¬ esting structure because the chief fire fight¬ ing appliances of the city are located here. The noise you hear is made by the driver who is practicing arising with grace and alacrity from his couch. Black Bart is giv¬ ing him the horse laugh. No, madam, this is not a one-horse town just because we have a one-horse fire de¬ partment. Some nights ago a chimney took fire three block from this place. So well did the department work, that before it could, reach the scene of the conflagration two women had extinguished the blaze and the family had gone over to visit the neighbors. The large stone building on your right is the Free Public Library, one of tho by-products of the Carnegie Steel Corpora¬ tion. It is a wonderful institution. The books you want worst are either out or stor¬ ed in the basement awaiting the arrival of a cataloguer from Sacramento. It is con¬ fidently expected that the library will all be catalogued before Japan reduces the United States to a tribute-paying dependency. We are now passing in front of the Kindergarten Department. The Must Hatch Incubator Com¬ pany. This company has so far separated the production of chicks from the old and accepted methods that it is said that a con¬ scientious Plymouth Rock hen will not speak to an incubator offspring. the famous boulevard of the city. It leads directly to the D street-bridge, which has the distinction of being open nearly every time you are in a hurry to cross. The Pacific Ocean is an enlargement of the stream you are now crossing. On the official map it is a creek, if you are addressing tjie Chamber of Commerce or preparing a petition to Con¬ gress it is a River. It is so crooked that the further you sail out the nearer you are to being back. Congress has just appropri¬ ated $500 to straighten out all of the 914 bends in this stream. It is estimated that this amount will almost pay the expenses of the dredger to make the trip up here and tack to San Francisco if it encounters no rough seas and does not have to do any work. Congressmen are great things to sentative. If we had had none there is no doubt but that the national government would have come onto us for an assessment of a thousand or more. The large brick building ahead of us is — 24 —

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We are now in a position to get a good view of the High School building. The assistants will furnish you with magni¬ fying field glasses so that you may note its architectural beauties. It was painted two years ago. There are still some traces of the paint to be seen on the sheltered por¬ tions of the building. The job was contract¬ ed, but the paint was extracted. The large bare spot you see in front of the building is the old athletic grounds. It is fully twenty feet wide by thirty-two feet long, with a flag pole in the center and has a slope of twenty-three degrees. This insures a dry field for practice even in a rainstorm. Upon this track were trained all of the gold medal sprinters which have come from Pet¬ aluma for the last decade. The track is so large that one man can train at a time and not bump into himself provided he uses due care and keeps to the right all the time. The boys will train on the roof just as soon as they can risk themselves on a larger and more level surface. The building with the loud sign is the Petaluma Furniture Emporium. It is claim¬ ed by some who are in a position to know that this building contains as many unique specimens as does the far-famed British Museum. It would require a catalogue the size of Webster’s Dictionary to name and locate the articles to be found here. No guides are furnished but you can wander through at your own risk. This stately edifice is the official home of the City Fathers, the City Assessor, OW, ladies and gentlemen, we are ready to start upon our regular trip around the city. We will take you to many of points of. interest by daylight £ nd bring you back in time to see the mov¬ ing pictures at the Unique or hear the phon¬ ograph at the Nickelodeon. All ready, Chauncey. Let her go. We will first go through the residence portion of the city and see where the people stay when they are at home. The building which appears to be around the corner is really on this same street. The people here made their streets crooked so as to make them longer and still keep them inside the city limits. In this way we get more miles ) of paved streets and sidewalks than any other town of this size in the state. 23 —

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P. H. S. ENTERPRISE 08. the Carlson Currier Co. silk mill. The raw silk cuccoons are imported from China. These cuccoons and laundrymen are the only products of the Celestial kingdom which the custom officials will permit to en¬ ter this country. The loud pounding noises you hear come from the shoe factory just a block down the street. They turn out so many shoes down there you would suppose they thought the entire population were centipedes. We are now approaching the Washington- street bridge which spans the stream we crossed some time ago. The hill was placed in front of this bridge so as to induce the peasantry to drive rapidly across the bridge and fall into the hands of plain-clothes po¬ licemen on the other side. Keep your seat, ladies, there is no danger. That is not a riot call you hear. It is the gentleman at the Nickelodeon several blocks away announcing a complete change of pro¬ gram on Tuesday, Wednesday and Satur¬ day. He makes this announcement 420 times every day, to the great delight of all busi¬ ness houses on that street. The Old Brick School.—From the base¬ ment to the belfry you will find carved the names of the leading citizens of the county. In this famous ‘.‘Cradle of Knowledge” were rocked half of the stalwart pillars of the community, and the other half are being cared for in the same old crib. The building with the large sign is the home of the Petaluma Incubator Company. In this factory are made machines which hatch anything in the egg line from the pee- wee to the ostrich. They also make the brooders in which the product of the in¬ cubators is trained for good citizenship. Yes, madam, the brooders are some¬ what deficient as mothers. They can not teach the youngsters how to scratch for worms or call them in when it rains, but the firm is at work on a scheme to remedy this defect. We are now passing within eight blocks of the storage plant of the Petaluma Gas and Electric Company. The unpleasant odor you doubtless detect is due to the fact that ihe gas was made in Santa Rosa. You can not notice the odor when you see the bill. If the candle power was as high as the bill every citizen would have to wear goggles. We are now in the heart of the business district. This is Prosperity Avenue, the newly paved street. The city is now the proud possessor of one whole block of this kind of paving. We will have to drive slow¬ ly because school is out and most of the boys are using this street as a bicycle race track. It is now growing so dark you can not see to advantage any more of the many interest¬ ing features of this portion of the city. You will now be given the rare privilege of see¬ ing the city as it rests from the hurry of the day. The light you see some blocks ahead is a street lamp. The city now has twenty of these lamps and is very proud of them. Since they were installed the price of can¬ dles has been increased three times. A local architect has just finished a plan for lighting the entire city. He intends to have a ‘‘Statue of Liberty” every four blocks hold¬ ing in each hand a lighted candle. The City — 25 —