USA > California > San Francisco County > San Francisco > San Francisco, a history of the Pacific coast metropolis, Volume I > Part 35
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The town in its early days boasted another character whose mysterious source of livelihood was perhaps more responsible for his fame or notoriety than his fas- tidiousness in the matter of dress. His name was William F. Hamilton. That, and the fact that he made it his solemn business to parade the streets whenever the weather permitted in irreproachable clothes, were well known to all, but no one knew his occupation until after his death, when it was discovered that he secretly engaged in upholstering and that his specialty was stuffing cushions for church pews and carriages, for which he was well paid, and the proceeds of which he devoted to adorning himself with shiny hats, patent leathers, and the other insignia of an effete civilization. His crowning glory was his dyed hair, which he thought concealed his advancing years. But no one was deceived, and almost as much was made of his eccentricities as of those of the shrewd individual who lived at the
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expense of the community by making believe that he was under the hallucination that he was a mighty potentate, or of Lilly Coit, the daughter of a well known physician named Hitchcock, whose desire for notoriety led her to "run with the machine." San Francisco in the pioneer days, and well on toward the Eighties was in the habit of making for herself idols. She refused to be unconventional but dearly loved to exploit someone or something out of the usual. Hamilton was her Beau Brummel during the Fifties and Emperor Norton, who bore some likeness to Napoleon III, gave distinction to her streets during a couple of decades, arrayed in a once gorgeous uniform, with massive epaulets whose brilliancy was tarnished by the weather until their color and general appearance harmonized with that of the coat which carelessness at the lunch counter had rendered almost undistinguish- able. Norton was welcome in many of the eating houses of the City and could always command the price of a dinner from a host of admirers, and he shared with two dogs, "Bummer and Lazarus," about whom tradition has woven many remark- able stories, the affections of a people, who, despite the exciting events of the Vigi- lante period, and some other experiences were often hard pressed for diversions exactly suited to their tastes.
It is possible that there were other communities in this work-a-day world a half a century or so ago that could make as much out of little, and as little out of much, as San Francisco, but it is doubtful. If they existed they had no one to throw the glamour of romance over their inconsequential doings, and make an epic out of material that as often as otherwise was commonplace. There were few places on the footstool where the disposition existed to make a heroine out of a hoyden who derived amusement from running to fires with the boys, or who were ready to expend their admiration upon a man who preferred to live like a crab in a shell rather than pay $32 a day for treatment in a hospital. This disposition to admire at random was an amiable weakness due to isolation rather than to peculiarity of temperament. It disappeared rapidly when San Francisco came into close touch with the rest of the world. But the period of isolation was not wholly given up to red shirts, gambling and amusements of a doubtful character. San Francisco in 1849 and in the Fifties had its serious as well as its excitable and happy-go-lucky sides. As already pointed out it promptly arrayed the forces of religion against those of vice, and opposed to the selfishness engendered by the eager desire for gold the ameliorating sentiment of consideration for the unfortunate. The man "down on his luck" had little difficulty in finding a friend in San Francisco in the days of gold, and those who helped were not always over zealous in their efforts to ascertain whether the one asking aid deserved to be helped; it sufficed to know that he needed a helping hand. It is not surprising that where such feelings prevailed charity should quickly take on an organized form in order to make it more effective and the "Annals" and other sources of information inform us that such was the case.
All great cities draw the unfortunate. The adage about God making the coun- try and man making the town conveys an impression that it is only in the former that we need look for goodness and its accompaniments, but actual experience con- tradicts the assumption and discloses that it is in the places where men congregate in large numbers that the virtues are most actively displayed. The opposite quali- ties may be rampant; crime and immorality may be painfully conspicuous ; but they cannot repress the nobler instincts in a people in whom the germs of a better life have been implanted. The Sydney coves and the transplanted rowdies may
Effects of Isolation
Amelloration of Suffering
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have been cruel and unscrupulous, but the mass of those who crowded into San Francisco in the earlier days were made of the right stuff, an assertion well sup- ported by the record of the promptitude with which it provided itself with all the instrumentalities for the amelioration of suffering, and of the spontaneity it dis- played in extending sympathy and help to those in need.
The fact that before the occupation no such institution as an orphan asylum ex- isted in California has been mentioned, but it will do no harm to repeat it and add that for quite a time the most conspicuous edifice in San Francisco was the Roman Catholic orphanage, which stood on the spot where the Palace hotel now stands, and was built with funds largely subscribed by men who were not of the Catholic faith, but belonged to the universal brotherhood which easily unites when a demand for help is made. Not only were the little ones who were left alone carefully looked after, the sick also received attention from the various benevolent societies which multiplied rapidly, and in 1853 the state established a hospital in San Francisco which was to be the sole general state hospital in California. The rev- enues for its support were to be derived from taxes levied upon persons arriving in the port and from fines imposed for infractions of harbor regulations. Half of the amount obtained from these sources, not to exceed $100,000 annually, was to go to the maintenance of the hospital, and if the sum collected fell short the deficit was to be made up by the state treasury. The hospital was at first located on Stockton street in what had formerly been a hotel, but later a substantial brick building was constructed on Rincon hill.
This action of the legislature was prompted by recognition of the tendency already commented upon of the sick and the needy to make their way to the port when in distress. San Francisco, then as at present, was a magnet, and the result was productive of singular abberations in the mortality reports. It is related that in 1849 and 1850 there were so many unfortunates who found their way to the City that it often happened that men died on the streets or in the bushes without a soul near them. The annalist states that the majority of those who died in 1850 were actual paupers. They had made their way from the mines to the City, hoping for relief which they failed to receive in the hurly-burly of the same excitement that had taken them to the mining regions where they contracted the diseases which destroyed their lives. Between 1850 and 1854 the total number of interments in the three cemeteries, Yerba Buena, Mission Dolores and the Jewish, was 5,770. A large proportion of this relatively great mortality was due to hardships incurred in crossing the plains, and to the wretched accommodations of some of the ships which brought the immigrants, but the greatest part by far was set down to the exposure and unaccustomed work of the gold hunter. The indifference to the needs of the poverty stricken who had fled to San Francisco for refuge did not endure for any great length of time. Very soon an active sympathy was manifested, which did not confine itself to the precincts of the City, but responded to calls from re- mote places. The awful plight of the Donner party of immigrants caused the formation of a body of men who volunteered to go to their relief at their own ex- pense, and they would have done so had not an equally generous spirit manifested itself in settlements closer to the scene of the awful tragedy. Subsequently when there were calls for help from settlers threatened by Indians the response was equally prompt.
First Orphan Asylum and Hospital
Mortality From Exposure
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These were manifestations of the spirit which at a later day, when wealth was more abundant, and society better organized, impelled California and particularly San Francisco to go to the aid of the Sanitary Commission and evoked from its head the effusive tribute "Noble! tender, faithful San Francisco; City of the heart; commercial and moral capital of the most humane and generous state in the world." The praise may sound exaggerated, but San Francisco had long been trying to live up to its reputation for liberality and hospitality and deserved all the good things said about her people by generous outsiders who just as often were censorious critics of actions and habits they could not understand. In the story of San Fran- cisco charity there is one episode which San Franciscans would like to forget. In 1856 there was an exhibition of intolerance growing out of the Know Nothing antagonism to foreigners. The Sisters of Mercy, who had been brought to the City in 1854, and who had braved the cholera epidemic, nursing patients deserted by all others, had contracted with the municipality to take care of the indigent sick. They were at once made the objects of calumnious attacks by a portion of the press, the "Bulletin" being particularly virulent. Charges were made which were resented by the Mother Superior, who demanded an investigation by the grand jury, which developed the fact that the Sisters had given their services without compensation during seven months of a most trying period. The disturbed condition of municipal affairs prevented the recognition of their claims, and in 1857 they cancelled their contract with the City because it refused to pay its bills. But this was only a temporary wave of intolerance which soon subsided, and enables the historian to say with an approach to accuracy of statement that San Francisco was less dis- turbed than other sections of the Union by the illiberal uprising, even though the state enjoyed the unfortunate distinction of electing a Know Nothing governor and supreme justices, whose careers did not add luster to the reputation of Cali- fornia.
Pioneer Charities
CHAPTER XXX
SOCIAL AND OTHER DIVERSIONS OF PIONEER DAYS
SAN FRANCISCAN ARDOR-FIREMEN THE ELITE OF THE CITY-FIRE PRECAUTIONS-FIRE ENGINE HOUSES CENTERS OF SOCIAL ACTIVITY-FIREMEN'S PARADES-THE MILITIA ORGANIZATIONS-CITIZEN SOLDIERY NOT DEPENDABLE-THE DRINK HABIT-BULL FIGHTS AND BEAR BAITING-HORSE RACING-PUGILISTIC CONTESTS-THE DUELLO IN PIONEER DAYS-EARLY CELEBRATIONS AND LOVE OF MUSIC-THE SPANISH ELEMENT -SPANISH LANGUAGE LOSES ITS HOLD IN SAN FRANCISCO-CHINESE QUARTER IN EARLY DAYS-"CHINA BOYS" IN PARADES-ROUTE OF THE PIONEER PARADES-RUSS GARDENS AND THE WILLOWS-JOYS OF THE CIRCUS-APPRECIATION OF THE DRAMA -STARS VISIT CALIFORNIA-CRITICAL AUDIENCES-CHURCH FAIRS AND PUBLIC BALLS -NO EXCLUSIVE SOCIAL SETS-OBTRUSIVE COURTESANS-THE UBIQUITOUS COLONEL -PREVALENCE OF MILITANCY.
CI
T IS not difficult to invest with singularity customs which were prevalent in the early days of San Francisco, but which, upon investigation turn out to have been nothing of the sort, but were merely imitations and sometimes ex- aggerations of practices common in other cities of the pe- + SEAL OF OF AN riod. San Francisco in a way epitomized all the vices and follies as well as many of the virtues of the times in which it had its commercial beginnings. During many years it was conspicuously devoted to militarism and to fire fighting, but it was not peculiar in this regard. Throughout the Fifties military companies were common in all the cities of the East. Volunteer fire fighting organizations were relatively as numerous as in the City by the Golden Gate, although the people of the latter were perhaps more disposed to appreciate the importance of a good fire department because of the disasters through which the town had passed than those of some other more fortunate cities.
The enthusiastic praise of the writer of the "Annals" was doubtless deserved by the fire brigade which, he informs us, was regarded as "the right arm of San Fran- cisco." He tells us the members of the various organizations were as proud of the leathern caps they wore as if they were bedecked with finery. They were the elite of the City and considered it an honor to belong to a company. The first fire com- pany was organized Christmas day, 1849, and in its membership roll we discover several names of men who afterward became prominent, among them that of David C. Broderick. In the beginning of 1850 the number of engines had increased to three which, after the fashion of the times, were given names. They were the San Francisco, Empire and Protection. They were not well provided with hose and this drawback was held responsible for the ineffective work of the department
Ardor of San Franciscans
Firemen the Elite of the City
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in the fire of September, 1850. The trouble was remedied by the council, which made appropriations for additional equipment and for cisterns, also some new ap- paratus. At the close of the year there were in addition to the companies named the Eureka, Howard, Monumental and California engine companies. There were also three hook and ladder companies: the St. Francis, Howard and Sansome.
Fire Precautions In 1854
This equipment was increased from year to year and in 1854, in summing up the fire fighting resources of the City, the annalist tells us there were fifty cisterns already constructed and others in course of construction. It is a curious com- mentary on the inadequacy of human foresight that in 1912 the City has provided itself anew with cisterns to replace those abandoned when the introduction of a water system was supposed to have rendered them unnecessary. The most of the cisterns constructed in the Fifties had fallen into disuse and their existence was almost unknown to the firemen in April, 1906. In one or two places the oldest inhabitant knew where they were and their almost forgotten stores of water were drawn upon to check the flames. In 1854 there were thirteen engines, which were described as powerful and well equipped and three hook and ladder companies. This appara- tus was wholly manned by volunteers, there being 950 certified members who were exempted from jury duty in recognition of their public service. Five years of active membership secured exemption from a duty which seemed to have even less attractions for citizens in those days than it possesses at present. The engines were all built in the East and were generally of the type known as side lever, and were usually provided with hose carts which were reels mounted on wheels. The cost of the engines ranged from $3,250 to more than $5,000. They were hand- somely decorated, and there was much rivalry between the different companies, each seeking to outdo the other in the matter of effectiveness and the appearance of their machines.
Centers of Sociai Activity
The engines and other apparatus were well housed in substantial and in some cases pretentious structures, which were the centers of the social activities for quite a period. The Sansome Company's building cost its members $24,000 and was furnished as well as any residence in the City. It boasted "a large library." In a few cases the engines were provided by public spirited citizens, but in most in- stances they were procured by united effort. The members contributed their serv- ices gratuitously, but the companies properly organized received appropriations from the council for maintenance. There were frequent contests to determine which was the most powerful engine and to test which company was most effective at the pumps, which were worked with brakes which made heavy draughts on the energy and skill of those who manned them. The chief glory of the department may have been the readiness of its members to respond to the call of duty, but its activities and usefulness were not confined to fighting fires. The "Fifties" were remarkable for the interest taken by the people in parades and public celebrations of all sorts and in no American city was there a greater desire shown for such diversions than in San Francisco. No event or anniversary of consequence was allowed to pass with- out a demonstration, and in these outpourings the firemen with their apparatus were the most conspicuous feature, rivaling in popularity the military companies, whose members were arrayed in "uniforms" that were not uniform, no two organ- izations being garbed alike.
Firemen's Parades
On these festive occasions the engines were drawn through the streets by hand by their members arrayed in their leathern hats. At the head of each company
ST. FRANCIS ENGINE HOUSE, 1856
KNICKERBOCKER ENGINE HOUSE, 1856
MONUMENTAL VOLUNTEER ENGINE COMPANY'S HOUSE ON THE PLAZA. 1856.
Great attention was paid to architectural effect by the members of the Volunteer Fire Department, and some of the best of the early buildings were erected under their auspices
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was the foreman or engineer, who carried a horn, usually of silver, handsomely chased, and his assistant was also provided with one, only less splendid than that of his chief. The rope by which the machine was drawn was immaculately white, and distended to about the width of the engine or hose, and the firemen marched two and sometimes four abreast, the intervals between ranks being properly spaced. The apparatus itself, as brilliant as paint and varnish could make it, with all its metal parts glittering, was as much an object of admiration as the men who drew it, and the relative beauties and "squirting" capacity of the fire extinguishers, and of the hook and ladders and hose carts were as much discussed as the abilities of the men who operated them.
In the numerous parades the militia companies were only less conspicuous than the firemen. Immediately after the affair of the Hounds a company was organized called the First California Guard. Its officers were prominent men, whose names frequently figure in the "Annals" and in the later history of the City. The cap- tain was Henry M. Naglee; there were two first lieutenants, W. D. M. Howard and Myron Norton; and two second lieutenants, Hall McAllister and David T. Bagley. Subsequently other companies were formed, and on the Fourth of July, 1853, five companies in addition to the Sutter Rifles were reviewed by Sutter, and a handsome flag was presented by Mrs. Catherine Sinclair in Russ' Gardens, where the birth of American liberty was celebrated by reading the Declaration of Independence and by listening to patriotic addresses. The militia companies did more than parade and enjoy themselves in the first years of the Fifties. They were always ready to respond to calls, and in 1851 the San Francisco and Aldrich Rangers when summoned to repress a threatened Indian uprising, hastily adopted a uniform more adapted to the field than the one used on parade, and was about to proceed to the scene of the disturbance when the news was brought that the disorderly aborigines had taken alarm and dispersed. In the beginning the fire and military companies were often closely identified, part of the membership of the former bear- ing arms, while the remainder more particularly occupied themselves with the oper- ation of the apparatus. The status of these early militia companies was a trifle indeterminate. At first they were supported by voluntary contributions, but in the fall of 1853 an appropriation of $500 a month was made by the City for the rent of the fourth floor of a building on the northeast corner of Sacramento and Mont- gomery streets, which was used as an armory in common by all the companies.
In the latter part of 1850 the Washington Guards was formed, the company which in 1851 responded to the call of the municipal authorities and prevented the lynching of Burdue and Windred by the Vigilantes. The organization only lasted a few months. In 1856, when William T. Sherman attempted to support the state authorities in suppressing the Vigilance Committee, the militia of San Francisco was slow to respond and he threw up his commission in disgust. It was not aston- ishing that support was refused by the militia for many of its prominent members were identified with the Vigilance movement, but the defects of the system were also largely responsible for the inaction. The law called upon every white male citizen to perform militia duty and penalized refusal by a tax of $3, but the statute received no attention and became a dead letter.
The social side of militia and firemen's life implied by the creation of libraries and well furnished rooms, and the giving of frequent balls, did not keep politics out of the organizations and later we hear of them, under the manipulation of men
The Militia Organizations
An Unde- pendable Militia
Too Much Politles
Vol. I-17
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ambitious for national preferment, forming a part of the municipal machine respon- sible for so much of the corruption witnessed in the early Fifties. The militia was never a serious offender in this regard. The citizen soldiery may have been more accessible to the blandishments of politicians than if they had not been connected with militia companies, but they were never made use of as freely as were the fire- men by the cunning men who had learned their politics in the Atlantic cities. Many of the firemen were easily manipulated by clever and ambitious politicians of the Broderick stamp, but the militia were less vulnerable. For a while at least firemen and militiamen were as important factors in the development of San Francisco as the schools and churches. They helped to make life endurable in a city whose remoteness from the populous centers of the nation threw its inhabitants on their own resources and compelled them to work out their social problems in a different fashion from that prevalent in the sections from which they had emigrated.
The Drinking Habit
It would be a mistake, however, to assume that this isolation always resulted in spectacular manifestations. Occasionally there were departures from sanity, such as that which marked the celebration of the admission of the state to the Union, when a large company assembled in one of the big drinking places and formed itself into squads, and successfully essayed the feat of consuming all the cham- pagne in the place by each squad regularly advancing to the bar in military style, drinking and falling back to let another squad take its place and repeating the per- formance until all were drunk. But the drink habit had a powerful hold on the pioneers, and those who viewed its excesses with disapproval declared that the practice of treating was responsible for the greater part of the evil. It may have played its part, but the unsociable drinker was likewise much in evidence in 1849 and 1850, and men of talents and ability often fell victims to the "spreeing" pro- pensity, which was much more common in San Francisco at the time than in any place in America because there was no restraining public opinion. That did not begin to assert itself in real earnest until men began to bring their wives and fam- ilies in increasing numbers. With their advent the coarse and often brutal habits of a population in which males were unduly preponderant held sway, how gener- ally may be inferred from the fact that it seemed necessary to caution the priests of the diocese from lending the sanction of their presence to bull fights and bear baiting.
Bull Fights and Bear Baiting
These latter were amusements of an indigenous character, but the gold seekers took to them with astonishing facility. These contests were usually held near the Mission church in an enclosure of adobe walls which was entered through an iron gate. It is not recorded that the priests were witnesses of these spectacles, but there was for years an official prohibition against attending the concorsus taurorum in cemeteris. This may have deterred the clergy from attending, but it had no effect on the Americans, who thronged the sides of the bull ring in great numbers whenever a fight was advertised, or when bull and bear were pitted against each other. These exhibitions may have lacked some of the accessories which make the bull fights of Spain and Mexico so attractive to the peoples of these countries, but a much traveled pioneer, who has enjoyed opportunities to make comparisons, declares that the spectacles presented to San Franciscans in 1849 and the early Fifties were up to the standard so far as cruelty to animals was concerned.
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