USA > California > San Francisco County > San Francisco > A history of the city of San Francisco; and incidentally of the state of California > Part 26
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led to much denunciation by rivals and defeated op- ponents, who complained, usually without a particle of reason, that the bank ring controled the finance and legislation of California and Nevada.
On account of the large capital controlled by Mr. Ralston, and the encouragement given to them, espec- ially after the withdrawal of Mr. Mills from the presi- dency and business of the bank in 1872, it was the custom of men who wished to undertake industrial enterprises to go to him. Every day, competent men and schemers coming from abroad, brought letters of introduction, recommending them to his favor. All these he received and heard; some he assisted. He was largely interested in the Mission woolen mills, the Kimball carriage factory, the Cornell watch fac- tory, and many other manufacturing establishments. He contributed much to the San Joaquin irrigation canal, and to reclamation dykes. He furnished cap- ital for opening New Montgomery street, and for building the California theatre. He projected the Palace hotel, devised its general plan, and with the help of his friend Mr. Sharon, built it. It is the remarkable monument of a very remarkable man, but like most of his other investments, more showy than profitable.
When transacting business, his speech was short and sharp. He asked a brief question, insisted upon an explicit answer, gave his decision in a word or two, and turned to somebody else. The first impression was not favorable upon those who had an abundance
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of leisure ; but if a man impressed him favorably, he was most kind. He was habitually considerate ; and for those whom he liked, and they were numerous, he was obliging. No banker in San Francisco had so many warm friends and admirers. He regarded it as one of the duties of his position to entertain much company, and he did this in a princely country man- sion, where he had accommodations for a hundred guests at a time. He had a dozen carriages, with fast horses-fast, but not of the fastest, for he would buy no racers or very dear horses-to carry them to and from his house, and to serve them when they wanted to drive for pleasure. Shortly before his death he erected a mansion on Pine street, near Leavenworth, for the purpose of keeping up similar style in the city. It is doubtful whether the like of such hospitality was ever seen before. A rumor, unfounded of course, was started in the east that the bank allowed him one hundred and fifty thousand a year for the entertain- ment of strangers-a report that could never have got such a start upon the hospitality of any country save California. He gave largely and secretly to many charities. The general estimate of him was that he had in an eminent degree many of the virtues most desirable in a citizen, a neighbor and a friend.
SEC. 216. Eulogy. It was not until six months after his death that certain material facts about his management were proved in a judicial investigation, in which it appeared that he owed the bank about four million five hundred thousand dollars; and that
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the failure of the institution was caused by his use of its moneys for his private purposes, without the knowledge of the directors. These private purposes were nearly all large enterprises, designed to enrich the state, furnish employment to labor, or beautify the city, but they failed to yield a prompt return, and carried him down to bankruptcy, though they re- mained important and beneficent public improve- ments.
As Mr. Ralston had been the financial Cæsar of San Francisco, his death was followed by bitter indig- nation among his friends against those who had attacked him, and his assailants were now accused of having driven him to suicide by their vile slanders. The "Bulletin" and "Call" undertook to justify them- selves and were in the awkward position of making war on a popular favorite just after his death ; and were at the disadvantage of being unable to prove facts, of which, as it afterwards appeared, they had confi- dential and trustworthy information. A great public meeting was held to vindicate the memory of Ralston, and brilliant orators paid eloquent tributes to his genius and generosity. Thomas Fitch, one of the speakers of the occasion, said :
Eulogy! What part of human speech can fitly eulogize the man we have lost. What brush of artist or pen of dramatist can depict the benefactions of his generous life and the bravery of his heroic death? His deeds speak for him in tones that sound like the blare of trumpets; his monuments rise from every rood of ground in your city; his eulogy is written in ten thousand hearts; commerce commemorates his deeds with her
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whitening sails and her laden wharves; philanthropy chimes the bells of all public charities in attestation of his liberality; patriotism sings pæans for him who, in the hour of the nation's struggle, sent the ringing gold of mercy to chime with the flash- ing steel of valor. Unnumbered deeds of private generosity attest his secret charities. Sorrow has found solace in his deeds. Despair has been lifted into hope by his bounty. There are charities whose heaven-kissing spires chronicle his donations to the cause of religion. Schools claim him as their patron. Hospitals own him as their benefactor. Art has found in him a supporter. Science has leaned on him while her vision swept the infinite. The feet of progress have been san- dalled with his silver. He has upheld invention while she wrestled with the dead forces of nature. He was the life of all enterprise, the vigor of all progress, the epitome and the repre- sentative of all that is broadening and expansive and uplifting in the life of California. Would you show honor and hospi- tality to travelers, renowned in letters, arts or arms? Ralston was the princely host. Did you wish to forward a public or a private charity ? Ralston headed the subscription list. Would you develop a new industry to enlarge the resources of the city, start a new manufacture, add wealth to the state, and furnish hundreds of husbands and fathers with contented and well paid toil ? You went to Ralston for advice and assistance. He im- pressed you with his power; he infused you with his energy; he touched you with his princely generosity; he conquered you with his magnetism; his vitality was like the flash of steel; his enduring energy was like the steady and swift flow of a cataract; his beneficence was like the copious and search- ing philanthropy of the summer rain. Of all her public pos- sessions the commonwealth of California never owned any more valuable than this man's life; of all her public disasters she has had none greater than his death.
SEC. 217. Bank Reorganized. Mr. Ralston sup- 1 posed that, as the capital of the bank had been lost, the institution had reached its end; but he did not
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fully appreciate the situation. Among its directors and stockholders were many leading capitalists, includ- ing perhaps a dozen millionaires, who were personally responsible for their share of the debts, from which they could not escape if it went into bankruptcy; be- sides in that event its large assets would be greatly reduced by expensive litigation, and the surplus would be tied up in the courts for years. The desire to main- tain the bank as a protection to the business of the city, and a belief that its good will was valuable, and that no other bank in the city would accommodate them and many friends among the merchants so well, contributed to induce them to form a syndicate, which opened the bank five weeks after it closed, supplied by assessment the lost capital, provided for paying all its debts with no abatement of interest, and restored it to its former credit and favor. Such a re-establish- ment of a bank that was undoubtedly bankrupt for a large sum is said to be without its like elsewhere.
SEC. 218. Virginia Fire. The destruction of Vir- ginia City by fire was felt very keenly in San Fran- cisco, where much of the burned property was owned, where the money to rebuild had to be raised, and where one result was an immense and immediate decline in the prices of stocks. The aggregate depreciation was $35,000,000. This disaster, with its direct loss of $5,000,000, coming within six weeks after the failure of the great bank, gave a rude shock to many for- tunes; but backed by the bonanza which within the year paid nearly $11,000,000 in dividends, the city
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soon showed no signs of its trials, and its business went on as steadily as though it had never been dis- turbed.
SEC. 219. Lick's Trustees Changed. Mr. Lick had selected as his trustees to administer his benevolent gifts seven of the richest and most respectable citizens of San Francisco; and in his deed, made when he was feeble and expecting the approach of death within a few months, or perhaps even weeks, he had given them absolute control. He soon gained in strength, and though not able to walk about much, his mind was active, and he undertook to give directions to the trustees, sending for them frequently when they were engaged in other business, and issuing instructions to them without inquiring about their views. This method of procedure did not suit them. They had assumed a large responsibility without compensa- tion, and now looked with apprehension to being placed in an awkward position before the public, whether they yielded or not. While such thoughts were under consideration among them, Mr. Lick took offense at something said by Mr. Selby, one of the number, and requested him to resign. He expressed his willingness, but the others objected on the ground that they had accepted partly because Mr. Selby was to be with them, and they prevailed upon him to withdraw his consent. The result was the institu- tion of a suit in which, without opposition from them, judgment was rendered removing the first board of trustees, and appointing a new set, including his son,
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John H. Lick, who was thus made a participant in the trust. James Lick executed a new deed to the new set of trustees, giving one hundred and fifty thou- sand dollars to his son, in addition to the pitiful three thousand dollars before, and making reductions in the amounts for art purposes.
SEC. 220. 1876. San Francisco enjoyed more than her usual amount of prosperity through 1876. The rains of the winter were abundant, the crops good, and towards the close of the year grain commanded high prices on account of the expectation of a great war in eastern Europe. The Southern Pacific company built several hundred miles of road, completed the connection with the net work centering at Los An- geles, and ran out into the Colorado desert; thus giv- ing facilities and inducements for the settlement of a large region of new country, bringing the city into more intimate association with the southern part of the state, and making it certain that no railroad should cross the continent on a southern route in American territory without finding a terminal con- nection with San Francisco ready for immediate use. This was a check upon the supposed inten- tion, attributed probably without good cause to leading men in the Texas and Pacific Railroad, of using their influence in trying to build up a rival to San Francisco on the southern coast. The mining production, as well as the agricultural yield was unu- sually large. The dividends paid in the metropolis in the course of the year were $39,000,000, including
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$24,000,000 from mines. The mining stock market was considered dull, but the sales in one board amounted to $226,000,000. Numerous new buildings were erected; and among these were Baldwin's build- ing, comprising a hotel and theater, a large and splen- did structure.
SEC. 221. Lick's Death. James Lick appointed a third set of trustees, and soon afterwards died; leav- ing a benefaction that promises to be among the greatest on record for the advancement of knowledge and the alleviation of poverty. A native of Penn- sylvania, bred with scanty education to the trade of cabinet-maker, he emigrated when a young man to South America, where he had in 1847 accumulated thirty thousand dollars. Coming with that sum to San Francisco, he invested it in town lots, paying three hundred dollars for the land occupied by the Lick House, now worth three quarters of a million. He was industrious, sharp-witted, simple in his tastes, stingy, and almost miserly in his mode of life, though capable of much liberality for certain purposes that suited his fancy. The value of his property rapidly increased, and he was soon reckoned one of the rich- est men of the Californian metropolis. His profits came almost exclusively from the increase in the value of land. He never speculated in anything else. It had long been his intention to leave the bulk of his estate for the benefit of the people of his favorite city. For their sake he refused to give to his rela- tives, drove hard bargains with his servants and
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neighbors, stinted himself, and lived in a hovel not worth two hundred dollars. When, by the defeat of the adverse claims to the site of the Lick House, he acquired a clear title there, he, with the help of an able architect adopted an original and highly meri- torious plan for a hotel, designed to accommodate wealthy families in permanent boarding as well as travelers.
SEC. 222. Centennial Celebration. The centennial anniversary of the declaration of national indepen- dence occurred on Tuesday, and was celebrated with festivities that began on Monday morning and ended on Wednesday evening. The people of San Francisco believed that the fourth of July, 1876, should be ob- served with great rejoicing. In the hundred years of existence, the nation had grown beyond all previous example or even conception. It had increased its area and population more than ten fold, and its wealth a hundred fold. Its people had been happier than those of any other country. It had been the leader of the world in general education and social and political lib- erty. It had exerted a mighty influence in diffusing higher ideas of the capacity of the multitude for ex- ercising rights never before conferred on them in Europe. It had done much to aid men to believe in themselves. It had made wonderful contributions to progress by inventions that gave greater control over the forces of nature. It planted the highest civiliza- tion securely over half a continent. Even in its weak- ness and mistakes it became the teacher of other
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nations. It had done enough to furnish material for one of the most attractive and impressive divisions of universal history.
While the whole people had so much reason for cele- brating the centennial anniversary, San Francisco had additional motives, on account of the local circumstances of the city, which for nearly three quarters of a cen- tury had remained stationary, insignificant and un- known under Spanish dominion and then imme- diately after its transfer to the United States started upwards with a speed that soon led to a high place in the metropolitan list. The citizens who had shared the excitements and had been enriched by the profits of San Francisco's growth could sincerely celebrate the hundredth birthday of the nation.
A large committee of citizens, under the presidency of General James Coey, had made arrangements for a demonstration worthy of the occasion and of the city; and all classes of her inhabitants showed their desire to do their part. Across the main streets, especially Kearny and Montgomery, were stretched banners with patriotic inscriptions, and ropes upon which were strung the stars and stripes; and the houses generally were not only decorated, but were almost hidden by the flags. Kearny street at Sutter was spanned by a large arch, built by French residents in commemora- tion of the participation of France in the establish- ment of the government of the United States.
On Saturday, the solemnities commenced with pa- triotic sermons in the synagogues; and the Protestant
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clergymen followed in the same strain the next day. On Monday forenoon there was a sham battle by the federal troops, and a review by Governor Irwin of the second brigade of the national guard of California, under command of Brigadier General McComb, at the Presidio; in the afternoon there was firing at a target-boat in the bay by several war-ships and forts, and a regatta of the master mariners' association, with forty-three boats; and in the evening a torch-light procession.
Tuesday was ushered in with salutes from heavy guns, and with national airs chimed by the bells of St. Patrick's church. Mass and Te Deum in special honor of the day were celebrated in all the Catholic churches. A procession in which ten thousand men took part, marched under direction of the Hon. D. A. Macdonald, grand marshal, through the principal streets to the Mechanic's Pavilion, where an oration was delivered by the Rev. H. Stebbins, and a poem by J. F. Bowman. In the evening many houses were illuminated, and there was a large masquerade ball; and on Wednesday there was a regatta on the bay under the management of the San Francisco yacht club, twenty-nine boats participating.
The centennial anniversary of the consecration of the mission of San Francisco was celebrated on the eighth of October, by a large procession, and oration by Archbishop Alemany, John W. Dwinelle, and M. G. Vallejo.
SEC. 223. 1877. A great depression of business,
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resulting from a severe drought, and a fear that the rich deposit of ore in the Consolidated Virginia and California mines would soon be exhausted, the organ- ization of the workingmen's political party, the com- mencement and rapid prosecution of the work in widening Dupont street from Market to Bush, the opening of the Hall of Records in the new City Hall, and the construction of a large part of the main build- ing; the adoption of a new line of water-front by the harbor commissioners, the completion and occupation of the building of the San Francisco stock and ex- change board on Pine street, the failure of Duncan's savings bank, and the discovery of the great frauds committed by its manager, were among the most notable events of 1877.
SEC. 224. Hard Times. The scantiness of the rainfall of 1876-77, the amount being less than ten inches at San Francisco, and less than that of any other season within a quarter of a century, caused a general failure of the grain crop, a large mortality in the herds of cattle, and a serious decline in the yield of the placer mines. The direct pecuniary loss to the state by the drought was estimated at twenty million dollars. The southern part of the state was especially depressed, notwithstanding the completion of the rail- road connection between San Francisco and Los An- geles in September, 1876, and the extension of the road to the Colorado river in the April following. Business generally, and especially land speculation, had reached a highly inflated condition on the south-
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ern coast in 1874, and four years elapsed before the debtors generally could get out of their embarrass- ments. The failure of the Texas and Pacific railroad company to do any work west of the Rocky mountains, its confession of inability to cross the continent with- out further aid from congress, and the refusal of that body to guarantee the payment of interest as solicited, were felt as disasters at San Diego. In 1876 the number of pleasure seekers in California from the eastern states was reduced by the rush to see the centennial fair at Philadelphia, and it was still more unfavorably affected the next year by the report that a great drought had for the season diminished the at- tractions and prosperity of our state. At the same time, there was a decline of confidence in the bonanza mines. The Consolidated Virginia, in January, sus- pended its monthly dividend of a million dollars, which it had been paying for nearly two years. The market value of the mine, calculated from the number of shares and the price at which they sold in the stock boards early in January, 1875, was $80,000,000; that was at the climax of the excitement, when the credulous public were assured by men represented to be compe- tent mining engineers that the mine had ore enough in sight to yield $700,000,000; while a prominent government official thought he would be entirely safe in fixing the sum at $150,000,000 as the lowest possi- ble figure. If this estimate had been correct, the price of $80,000,000 would not have been too high, for two thirds of the yield was profit, and the limits
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of the ore body had not been found, and since that time it has been traced two hundred feet deeper. Nev- ertheless the opinion spread that the lowest of these figures was far too high, and so the prices continued to fall, till at the close of 1877 the mine represented a market value of about $10,000,000. The California mine declined at the same ratio; and as these were the two great dividend-paying mines, the stock market, which had played a large part in the business of Cal- ifornia, and especially of San Francisco, was greatly depressed. It had been estimated that at the begin- ning of 1875 there were one hundred millionaires in California, many of them worth more than $5,000,000 each, but in 1877 half of the number ceased to be millionaires, in the common estimation, and a score or more of them were reduced to bankruptcy or its verge, while among the laboring classes times were harder than ever before. Within three years there had been a shrinkage of $140,000,000 in the market value of the two leading mines, nearly all of whose shares were owned in San Francisco, or $1,000 on an average for every white adult in the city ; and though a large majority had never owned any of these shares, all were affected indirectly, if not directly, by the decline.
SEC. 225. Workingmen. Such was the condition of affairs when the railroad riots began on the Atlantic slope in July. They met a prompt response in San Francisco. The hostility among the white laborers, who believed that, if it were not for the Mongolian com- petition, they could generally get employment at bet-
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ter wages, broke out in a riot on the twenty-third of July, when one Chinese laundry was burned, and several were sacked. The police with difficulty dis- persed the mob, but the rioters were defiant, and threatened to drive out the Asiatics with fire and pistol at no distant day. As among the twenty-seven thousand houses more than four fifths were wooden, and three hundred Chinese laundries were scattered through all the wards, this threat caused much uneasi- ness. If an anti-Chinese mob should get control for a few hours, the destruction of San Francisco might. be the result. To counteract this danger, a committee of safety, organized under the presidency of W. T. Coleman, who had been president of the vigilance com- mittee of 1856, with six thousand members, prevented the enemies of the Chinese from resorting to force. Then the workingmen's political party arose, adopted the motto "The Chinese must go," held public meet- ings nearly every Sunday, and applauded speakers who clamored for hemp to be used in hanging monop- olists; who exhibited pieces of rope as part of their platform; who declared that the Mongolians must be driven out, even if all the manufacturing industry of the city should cease; who talked of the burning of Moscow as a lesson for the oppressors of white labor; and who advised their followers to arm themselves and organize in military companies for the purpose of re- sisting the police and state and federal troops.
This party suddenly rose to formidable proportions. It promised to protect the rights of laboring men, and
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denounced the democratic and republican parties as corrupt, and accomplices of the monopolists in oppress- ing the poor. Dennis Kearney, the leader of the new organization, became an effective popular orator, draw- ing large crowds of hearers, and commanding loud bursts of applause when he spoke; but his success was evidently due mainly to the high passions of his hear- ers, and his understanding of them, and not to superior judgment, learning, or rhetorical skill. His influence, however, was sufficient to attract the support of a majority of the voters in the city; and to cause much uneasiness among rich men and the leaders of the old parties.
SEC. 226. 1878. The year 1878, which has not reached its end when this paragraph is written, has so far been prosperous. The rainfall was abundant, the grain-crops large; and though the Consolidated Virginia and California mines reduced their monthly dividends from $1,000,000 to $500,000 each, and then suspended them, still hopes were entertained that they would soon resume, and also that equally large dividends would at no distant time be obtained from the Sierra Nevada, and Union Consolidated mines, in which a body of very rich ore was found. In this year six men classed among the millionaires residing in San Francisco or its suburbs, died. Mark Hopkins, one of the directors of the Central Pacific railroad company, left an estate of $10,000,000; Michael Reese about $8,000,000; W. S. O'Brien, $6,000,000; and Isaac Friedlander (who had been
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