My great grandfather got back to the U.S. in 1901 after fighting in the Philippines and China (with his Model 1898 Magazine Rifle). His first stop before going to Fort Porter in New York was San Francisco where he had time to sight see, according to a book on the history of the 14th Infantry Regiment. This film from 1900 may represent some of what he had seen. Some mighty high livin' here.

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Dang! .... No lights, No lanes, No laws. Those pedestrians had to be fast!

(If I ever have trouble sleeping, I'll watch this again).

And no side/rear view mirrors. Horse carriages and horseless carriages making "lane changes" without looking back. Pedestrians not looking both ways. Then there was an automobile with two men in front and three in the back that kept showing up in the film like schoolboys having fun. There was just a few instances of somebody needing to two-step it out of the way.

But otherwise kind of slow paced with some music you don't hear every day. I can imagine my great grandfather watching some fellows tooling around in an automobile without a care and possibly wishing that he had something like that in China when they were marching in blistering heat. Had to be something coming of age in that period. He eventually settled back in central Wisconsin as a mail carrier.

I liked seeing the guy walking just casually jump in the back of an open bed to hitch a ride. Maybe it was a precursor to Uber.

I also wondered who actually was filming this, obviously from the front of a moving vehicle, and why was it being filmed?

Real neat! Thanks. (I could only stand to watch about the first half.)

The camera was mounted to the front of a trolley car riding on the rail. If you watch it to the end of the street you will see it get on a turntable and turn 180 degrees and go the opposite way. You will also see people on the right in spots getting ready to board the trolley. Ding-Ding-Ding. Ahh-oo-gah, Ahh-oo-gah. Clip-clop, clip-clop. "Move over". I think some added sound affects may have been more entertaining then the music.

Here is an article from the "Krag Era" as an author in the National Magazine of 10/1903 looks into the future. He writes of snow mobiles, snow plows in unreachable regions, conveniences, etc.

I always found it interesting what others thought the future would be like that we have lived through. The author has some hits and misses. Of course we have "progressed" much further than the author could imagine.

There are still some phrases that some of us "more mature fellas" use from that era, such as "hang up the phone". We may still use that phrase, but we rarely actually put a phone back on its hanger. We simply push a button, we tell it to end the call, or it will do it all by itself.

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