Cable Car Days in San Francisco by Edgar M. Kahn.

For more than a half century the cable cars of San Francisco have been one of the city's most characteristic features. Here, where this form of transportation originated, it still possesses a distinctive charm which no San Franciscan or visitor ever completely forgets, no matter how far he may roam from the city of hills beside the Golden Gate. This is an informal narrative. Through its pages march many notable characters of the city's eventful past, and many a long-forgotten anecdote wit hall its variety and flavor has here been recalled. It is fitting that the story of the cable car be written and that it be written by a San Franciscan whose family background and business association have bound him closely to these hills and to the now quaint little cars so inseparably a part of the landscape of San Francisco. Mr. Kahn's researches have disclosed numerous features of the cable-car story that might otherwise have been lost - as most of the actual records have disappeared or were destroyed when fire followed the earthquake in 1906. Much of the account came from the mouths of those who themselves or whose fathers were a part of the picture during the formative years of the city. Cable Car Days - the very phrase recalls tall hats and crinolines, the Comstock excitements and the coming of the Pacific Railroad, the nabobs of Nob Hill headed by The Big Four and their satellites. These days have passed long years ago, but still the little cars go clinging up and down the hills of San Francisco. Out for the curve. The delightful chapter head drawings and frontpiece are by William Wilke.