Show san francisco remembers stevenson with Mon monument tourists to san francisco are shown the little square at the edge c of 0 chinatown where robert louis stevenson sat and passed the time of day with sailors booted miners and wanderers from everywhere back in the seventies called portsmouth square it is a historic spot around it grew up the little village of yerba buena later called san francisco the towns first hotel theater and schoolhouse faced the square capt john montgomery of the united states sloop of war portsmouth seized yerba buena and raised the american flag in the square on july 9 1846 during the mexican war from his ship the square got its name stevenson was born in edinburgh scotland on november 13 1850 just 89 years ago A wanderer at heart the frail man in his twenties landed on the east coast then came west by emigrant train motley crowds of people from all quarters of the globe haunted the square when stevenson frequented it among them the slender writer found inspiration for his tales as he observed strange characters and listened to their yarns for hours at a time he sat on a bench in the sun hearing stories about china the south seas and strange ports and peoples it is said that some of these aroused in him a romantic interest in samoa where later he visited and died at lonely apia abia portsmouth square remembers R L S with a monument the first ever erected to his memory A simple rectangular block of sierra granite it is surmounted by a golden galleon the Hi of treasure island A quotation from the writers christmas sermon is inscribed thereon to be honest to be kind the scene from Steven sons day changed much today there are sailors on leave adventurers and peoples of many races to be found in the square chinese children I 1 romp on the grass while their elders doze in the sun latin and oriental boys with bootblack boxes made the rounds shine five cents |