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the Pacific-the Californian, and especially the San Franciscan "go-ahead" disposition. Let the immigrant be from what country and of what personal temperament and character he may, a short residence here will make him a shrewder and more energetic man, who works harder, lives faster, and enjoys more of both intellectual and sensuous existence than he would be

able to do in any other land. On any occasion of public excitement, such as a fire, a fight, an indignation or filibustering meeting, or the like, there is gathered together a multitude, which cannot be paralleled in any other place, of stalwart, bearded men, most of whom are in the early prime of life, fine, healthy, handsome fellows. The variety and confusion of tongues and personal characteristics, the evident physical strength, reckless bravery, and intelligence of the crowd, make a tout ensemble that is very awful to contemplate. Turn these men into an angry mob, armed, as at all times most of them secretly

are, with revolvers and bowie-knives, and a legion of drilled soldiers could scarcely stand before them. These youthful giants are the working spirits of San Francisco, that have given it a world-wide fame for good and evil.

When the early California pioneer wandered through the city, and contrasted the lofty structures which he saw on all sides; the broad, level, and bustling streets, the chief of them formed where once rolled the long swell of the sea; the great fire-proof warehouses and stores, filled with the most valuable products of all lands; the wharves, crowded with the largest and finest vessels in the world; the banks, hotels, theatres, gambling saloons, billiard-rooms and ball-rooms, churches, hospitals and schools, gin palaces and brick palaces; the imposing shops, within whose plate-glass windows were displayed the richest assortment of articles of refined taste and luxury; the vast amount of coined money incessantly circulating from hand to hand; the lively and brilliant array of horse and carriage riders; the trains of lovely women, and the crowds of well-dressed, eager men, natives of every country on the globe, most of whom were in the flower of life, and many were very models of manly or of feminine beauty-for the cripple, the hunchback, the maimed and deformed find not their way hither-when the veteran immigrant contrasted these things with what had been only a few years before, he could scarcely persuade himself that all the wonders he saw and heard were aught but a dream. The humble adobes, and paltry wooden sheds; the bleak sand hills, thinly dotted with miserable shrubs; the careless, unlettered, ignorant, yet somewhat gallant Californians; the few ragged Indians and fewer free white men; the trifling trade and gentle stir of the recently founded settlement of Yerba Buena, where coin was a curiosity; the great mud flat of the cove with its half dozen smacks or fishing boats, canted half over at low tide, and perhaps a mile farther out, a solitary square-rigged ship, the peaceful aspect of the village of the olden time—all flashed across the gazer's memory. Before one hair had turned gray, ere almost the sucking babe had learned his letters, the magic change had been accomplished. Plutus rattled his money bags, and straightway the world ran to gather the falling pieces. The meanest yet

most powerful of gods waved his golden wand, and lo! the desert became a great city. This is an age of marvels; and we have seen and mingled in them. Let the pioneer rub his eyes: it is no mirage, no Aladdin's palace that he sees-but real, substantial tenements-real men and women—an enduring, magnificent city.

When the later pioneer took his sentimental stroll, memory only recalled the frantic scenes of the memorable '49-a period that never can be forgotton by those who saw and shared in its glorious confusion. The lottery of life that then existed; the wild business and wilder amusements; the boundless hopes; the ingenious, desperate speculations; the fortunes made in a day and lost or squandered nearly as quickly; the insatiable spirit of play; the midnight orgies; the reckless daring of all things; the miserable shanties and tents; the half-savage, crime and povertystained, joyous multitudes, who had hastened from the remotest parts of the earth, to run a terrible career, to win a new name, fortune and happiness, or perish in the struggle; the commingling of races, of all ranks and conditions of society; the incessant rains and deep sloughs in the streets, with their layers, fourteen feet deep, of hams, hardware, and boxes of tobacco, where among clamorous and reckless crowds people achieved the dangerous passage; the physical discomforts; the sickness, desertion, despair and death of old, heart-broken shipmates and boyhood companions, whom remorse could not bring again to life, nor soothe the penitent for his cruel neglect; the rotting, abandoned fleets in the bay; the crime, violence, vice, folly, brutal desires and ruinous habits; the general hell (not to talk profanely) of the place and people-these things, and many of a like saddening or triumphant nature, filled the mind of the moralizing "forty-niner."

If these pioneers-and like them every later adventurer to California may think and feel, for all have contributed something to the work-lent themselves to the enthusiasm and fancy of the moment, they might be tempted with the Eastern king to proudly exclaim, and as truly: Is not this great Babylon that I have built, for the house of the kingdom, by the might of my power, and for the honor of my majesty? Many obstacles, both

of a physical and moral nature, have been encountered and gradually overcome before the grand result was obtained. Hills were removed and the deep sea filled up. Town after town was built, only to be consumed. Great fires destroyed in one hour the labor of months and years. Commercial crises and stagnation in trade came to crush individuals. The vagabonds and scoundrels of foreign lands, and those too of the federal Union, were loosed upon the city. Robbers, incendiaries and murderers, political plunderers, faithless "fathers" and officials, lawless squatters, daring and organized criminals of every description, all the worst moral elements of other societies, were concentrated here, to retard, and if possible finally destroy the prosperity of the place. All were successively mastered. Yet the excesses of the "Hounds," the scenes of the great fires, the action of the "Vigilance Committee," and the crimes that created it, the multitude of indignation meetings and times of popular strife, the squatter riots, and the daily occurrence of every kind of violent outrage—whatever was most terrible in the history of the city, will ever be remembered by the early citizens. Some of the worst of these things will never again occur; and others are being yearly modified, and deprived of much of their old frightful character. For the honest, industrious and peaceable man, San Francisco is now as safe a residence as he can find in any other large city. For the rowdy and "shoulder-striker," the drunkard, the insolent, foulmouthed speaker, the quarrelsome, desperate politician and calumnious writer, the gambler, the daring speculator in strange ways of business, it is a dangerous place to dwell in. There are many of such characters here, and it is principally their excesses and quarrels that make our sad daily record of murders, duels, and suicides.

CHAPTER XXIX.

1854.

Meeting of citizens regarding the State Revenue Act.-Run on Adams & Co.-Banking and banking-houses-The Express Building.-Weather unusually cold.-Effects of the weather upon the interests of the country.-Le Count & Strong's Directory for 1854.-Loss of the clipper ship San Francisco. The city lighted with gas.-Riot at the Mercantile Hotel.

JANUARY 9th.-Large public meeting held, of parties chiefly interested, at the Merchants' Exchange, to consider the effect of certain late decisions by the Supreme Court, which had established the constitutionality of the State Revenue Act of 15th May, 1853. Many of the provisions in this Act, such as the heavy license duties laid upon auctioneers and others; the duty of one per cent. chargeable on goods and real estate exposed to auction; that of "ten cents upon each one hundred dollars of business estimated to be transacted" by bankers, and dealers in exchanges, stocks, gold dust, and similar occupations; and particularly the tax of sixty cents per one hundred dollars laid upon "consigned goods," were considered to be unequal, oppressive and unconstitutional in their operation. The following were declared to be "consigned goods" within the meaning and intent of the Act: "All goods, wares, merchandise, provisions, or any other property whatsoever, brought or received within this State (California) from any other State, or from any foreign country, to be sold in this State, owned by any person or persons not domiciled in this State." It was estimated, that if the tax upon "consigned goods" were enforced, an annual burden of $300,000 would be laid upon shippers to the port. In like manner, the tax upon the sales of personal property, to say nothing of those of real estate, would form a burden of $125,000 annually; while the duties leviable upon the banking class would be so monstrous