USA > California > San Francisco County > San Francisco > The annals of San Francisco; containing a summary of the history of California, and a complete history of its great city: to which are added, biographical memoirs of some prominent citizens > Part 21
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In those miserable apologies for houses, surrounded by heaps and patches of filth, mud and stagnant water, the strange mixed population carried on business, after a fashion. It is not to be supposed that people could or did manage matters in the strict orderly manner of older communities. Very few were following that particular business to which they had been bred, or for which they were best fitted by nature. Every immigrant on landing at San Francisco became a new man in his own estima- tion, and was prepared to undertake any thing or any piece of business whatsoever. And truly he did it ; but it was with a
1
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ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO.
deal of noise, bustle and unnecessary confusion. The great re- cognized orders of society were tumbled topsy-turvy. Doctors and dentists became draymen, or barbers, or shoe-blacks ; law- yers, brokers and clerks, turned waiters, or auctioneers, or perhaps butchers ; merchants tried laboring and lumping, while laborers and lumpers changed to merchants. The idlest might be tempt- ed, and the weakest were able, to do something-to drive a nail in frame buildings, lead a burdened mule, keep a stall, ring a bell, or run a message. Adventurers, merchants, lawyers, clerks, tradesmen, mechanics, and every class in turn kept lodging-houses, eating and drinking houses, billiard rooms and gambling saloons, or single tables at these ; they dabbled in "beach and water lots," fifty-vara blocks, and new town allotments over the whole coun- try ; speculated in flour, beef, pork and potatoes ; in lumber and other building materials ; in dry goods and soft, hard goods and wet ; bought and sold, wholesale and retail, and were ready to change their occupation and embark in some new nondescript undertaking after two minutes' consideration. All things seemed in the utmost disorder. The streets and passages, such as they were, and the inside of tents and houses, were heaped with all sorts of goods and lumber. There seemed no method in any thing. People bustled and jostled against each other, bawled, railed and fought, cursed and swore, sweated and labored lustily, and somehow the work was done. A spectator would have im- agined the confusion inextricable, but soon had reason to change his opinion. Every body was busy, and knew very well what he himself had to do. Heaps of goods disappeared, as if by magic, and new heaps appeared in their place. Where there was a va- cant piece of ground one day, the next saw it covered with half a dozen tents or shanties. Horses, mules and oxen forced a way through, across, and over every obstruction in the streets ; and men waded and toiled after them. Hundreds of rude houses and tents were daily in the course of erection ; they nestled between the sand-hills, covered their tops, and climbed the heights to the north and west of the town.
As we have said, there were no homes at this period in San Francisco, and time was too precious for any one to stay within doors to cook victuals. Consequently an immense majority of the
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MANNER OF LIVING.
people took their meals at restaurants, boarding-houses and hotels -the number of which was naturally therefore very great ; while many lodged as well as boarded at such places. Many of these were indeed miserable hovels, which showed only bad fare and worse attendance, dirt, discomfort and high prices. A few others again were of a superior class ; but, of course, still higher
Lodging Room.
charges had to be made for the better accommodation. At best all were inconveniently crowded, heated and disagreeable. The whole population was constantly moving, and always visible, which added greatly to its apparent numbers. If only people did not sleep in public, they at least worked, eat, and amused themselves in crowds. But even at night, they lay from half a dozen to two score in a room, on the floor, in rows of cots, or contracted and filthy bunks fastened to the weather-boards from floor to ceiling, in which were immense swarms of fleas and other troublesome vermin. At some lodging-houses and hotels, every
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ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO.
superficial inch-on floor, tables, benches, shelves, and beds, was covered with a portion of weary humanity.
While wages and profits were so high, and there was no com- fort at their sleeping quarters, men spent money freely at differ- ent places of riotous excess, and were indeed forced to pass their hours of leisure or recreation at drinking bars, billiard rooms and gambling saloons. Such places were accordingly crowded with a motley crew, who drank, swore, and gamed to their hearts' con- tent. Every body did so; and that circumstance was a sufficient excuse, if one were needed, to the neophyte in debauchery. To vary amusements, occasionally a fancy-dress ball or masquerade would be announced at high prices. There the most extraordi- nary scenes were exhibited, as might have been expected where the actors and dancers were chiefly hot-headed young men, flush of money and half frantic with excitement, and lewd girls freed from the necessity of all moral restraint. A concert or a lecture would at other times help to entertain the weary spirits of the town. But of all their haunts, the gambling saloons were the most notorious and best patronized.
Gambling was a peculiar feature of San Francisco at this time. It was the amusement-the grand occupation of many classes-apparently the life and soul of the place. There were hundreds of gambling saloons in the town. The bar-room of every hotel and public house presented its tables to attract the idle, the eager and covetous. Monté, faro, roulette, rondo, rouge et noir and vingt-un, were the games chiefly played. In the larger saloons, beautiful and well-dressed women dealt out the cards or turned the roulette wheel, while lascivious pictures hung on the walls. A band of music and numberless blazing lamps gave an- imation and a feeling of joyous rapture to the scene. No wonder the unwary visitor was tempted and fell, before he had time to awake from the pleasing delusion. To make a fortune in the turning of a card was delightful-the very mingled hope and fear of eventual success was a charming excitement. For the mo- ment, men felt as great conquerors may be supposed some- times to feel ; they manœuvred on the green cloth,-the field of their operations,-thinking their own skill was playing the game, when chance alone gave the result. At the end of a long even-
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GREAT PREVALENCE OF GAMBLING.
ing's campaign of mingled victories and defeats-petty skir- mishes-they would either draw off their forces to renew the game next day, or hazard their all, thousands of dollars perhaps, on the issue of one great battle, and a moment afterwards leave the table richer or poorer by a moderate fortune. Again and again, were such campaigns fought, till the excitement and in- tense desire of playing became chronic. When great sums could no longer be had, small ones served the same purpose ; and were, in the end, lost like the others. Gambling became a regular business ; and those who followed it professionally were really among the richest, most talented and influential citizens of the town.
The sums staked were occasionally enormous. One evening sixteen thousand dollars' worth of gold dust was laid upon a faro table as a bet. This was lost by the keeper of the table, who counted out the money to the winner without a murmur, and continued his business with a cheerful countenance, and ap- parently with as good spirits as though he had incurred no more than an ordinary loss. As high as twenty thousand dollars, it is said, have been risked upon the turn of a card. Five thousand, three thousand, and one thousand dollars were repeatedly ven- tured. The ordinary stakes, however, were by no means so high as these sums-from fifty cents to five dollars being the usual amount ; and thus the common day laborer could lay his moderate stake as stylishly as a lord. It was only when the rich gamester was getting desperate, or a half tipsy miner had just come from the diggings with a handsome " pile," that the larger sums were put on the cloth. Generally speaking, the keepers of the tables, or " bankers," had no objection to these heavy stakes ; they knew the game better than the player, and were well aware of all the chances in their own favor. But it was scarcely necessary for the professional gambler to encourage particularly large stakes. The combined amount of all the usual small ones was very large ; while every two minutes there was a new game formed, and new stakes put down. The extensive saloons, in each of which ten or a dozen such tables might be placed, were continually crowded, and around the tables themselves the players often stood in lines three or four deep, every one vieing with his neighbors
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ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO.
for the privilege of reaching the board, and staking his money as fast as the wheel and ball could be rolled or the card turned. The professional gamblers, who paid great rents for the right of placing their tables in these saloons, made large fortunes by the business. Their tables were piled with heaps of gold and silver coin, with bags of gold dust, and lumps of the pure metal, to tempt the gazer. The sight of such treasures, the occasional success of players, the music, the bustle, heat, drink, greed and deviltry, all combined to encourage play to an extent limited only by the great wealth of the community. Judges and clergymen, physicians and advocates, merchants and clerks, contractors, shopkeepers, tradesmen, mechanics and laborers, miners and farmers, all adventurers in their kind-every one elbowed his way to the gaming-table, and unblushingly threw down his golden or silver stake. The whole of the eastern side of Ports- mouth Square, three-fourths of the northern, and a portion of the southern sides were occupied by buildings specially devoted to gambling. At these portions of the plaza were perhaps the greater saloons, but all around the neighborhood there were num- berless other places, where the same system was carried on, and where the proceedings were exposed to the careless look of every passer-by.
While such scenes, in hundreds of distinct places, were night and day being acted in public, the better or richer classes, who at first had openly appeared and gambled among the crowds at the general saloons, began to separate and confine themselves to semi- private play in the rear of the Parker House, and at similar places. There, if the external excitement of moving crowds and music was wanting, the interest in the sport arising from larger stakes was correspondingly increased, if that were possible. The amounts ventured in such secluded circles were immense ; and almost surpass belief. Men had come to California for gold ; and, by hook or by crook, gold they would have. It was a fair and honest game, they thought, to hazard one's own money against that of another. Therefore, they staked and lost- staked and won-till in the end they were rich indeed, or penni- less. But poor or rich, the speculative spirit continued-(there was surely something infectious in the air !)-and either in direct
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GREAT PREVALENCE OF GAMBLING.
gambling, or in nearly similar operations in mercantile, land-job- bing, or general business, the inhabitants of San Francisco, at this period of its history, seemed to be one great horde of game- sters. There were exceptions indeed, and some men scorned to enter a gambling saloon or touch a card, but these were too few comparatively to be specially noticed in the general hubbub and speculative disposition of the place.
Parker House when first opened.
Who can tell the joy, the hope, the triumph, or the fear, misery and ruin of the busy gamester ? It is not avarice alone that urges his course-for we often find the professed gambler careless of money, liberal and generous to excess. There is mental excitement-personal victory-riches, and consequent power, honor and happiness in the game. Other passions have their moments of excitement and ecstasy ; but perhaps few have more blissful ones than the uncontrollable spirit of play. Let cold-blooded, lethargic people, who condemn the practice-for it is still a pernicious vice-consider the temptations and pleasure, as
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ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO.
well as the evils and crimes it induces, and withhold their indis- criminating censures against those who have fallen victims to it. Some countries indulge in national vices-it may be intoxication or gambling, gross superstition or fanaticism. But no man can know all the peculiar circumstances and temptations that lead to wrong-doing ; and no man is so personally and morally pure that he is entitled to throw a stone at the offender. We would not seek to excuse the San Franciscans of those days for indulging in gambling ; but we think some palliation might be found for their conduct in the anomalous circumstances in which they were placed, and much allowance made for their temptation and fall. The same speculative spirit continues, although in a much less degree. There are still many public gaming tables, open every day of the week, at nearly all hours ; but the stakes are much smaller than before, and the more respectable classes of the com- munity do not attend such places. Private play is likewise still carried on, but to nothing like the extent of former years. The evil is dying away ; though many years must pass before it be altogether extinct. So long as San Francisco is without proper homes, and its population is composed chiefly of adult males, while enormous profits and wages are usually made in every under- taking, so long will the only amusements be publie ones, and chief among them, gambling. The richer and more respectable classes have now such homes and families to enjoy themselves among, and they no longer gamble. Give an agreeable domestic circle to the mechanic and the laborer, the general speculator, the tradesman and the clerk, and they likewise will forsake the public haunts of dissipation.
We have occasionally alluded to the desertion of scamen. At the time of which we write there were between three and four hundred large square-rigged vessels lying in the bay, unable to leave on account of want of hands. Many of these vessels never got away, but, in a few years afterwards, rotted and tum- bled to pieces where they were moored. As stores and dwelling- houses were much needed, a considerable number of the deserted ships were drawn high on the beach, and fast imbedded in deep mud, where they were converted into warehouses and lodgings for the wants of the crowded population. When subsequently the
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EXTRAORDINARY CIRCULATION OF MONEY.
town was extended over the mud flat of the bay, these ships were for ever closed in by numberless streets and regularly built houses both of brick and frame. When, by and by, the runaway seamen returned from the mines, crews could be more easily had, though still at a great increase of wages ; and gradually the de- tained vessels were enabled to leave the port, to make room for new fleets.
The circulation of money,-partly coin, partly gold dust,- was very great. Men had a sublime indifference to the smaller pieces of coin, and talked as familiarly of dollars as people else- where would of dimes. A copper coin was a strange sight. There was nothing less received for any service, however slight, than half a dollar ; for any article, however trifling, than a twenty-five cent piece. The price of admission to the pit of the circus was three dollars ; while fifty-five dollars was the cost of a private box. Thirty dollars a week, or eight dollars a day, was the sum asked for good boarding ; while the most indifferent could not be obtained for less than twenty dollars a week. Every mouthful at dinner might be valued at a dime ; and to get a hearty meal would cost from two to five dollars, according to the quality of the viands. Other things were in proportion. Wheat flour and salt pork sold at forty dollars a barrel ; potatoes and brown sugar at thirty-seven and a half cents a pound ; a small loaf of bread, such as might cost four or six cents in the Atlantic States, brought fifty cents ; and the same price was required for a pound of cheese ; coarse boots, the only description for which there was any demand, could not be purchased for less than thirty to forty dollars a pair, while superior ones of the same class were sold for more than one hundred dollars. And truly, when one considered the horrible muddy holes and ragged streets of the place, boots were reasonable at these rates. It was about as economical to throw away certain soiled articles of clothing and buy new ones, as to get the old ones cleaned, when people had to pay from twelve to twenty dollars for the washing of each dozen of articles, large or small. Laborers' wages were a dollar an hour ; skilled mechanics received from twelve to twenty dol- lars a day. The carpenters struck work because they were get- ting only twelve dollars a day, and insisted on being paid sixteen.
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ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO.
Their employers then offered fourteen dollars a day, for a limited time, and afterwards an increase. Every brick in a house was roughly estimated to cost a dollar, one way and another, before the building was finished. Lumber rose to five hundred dollars per thousand feet.
Rents were correspondingly enormous. Three thousand dol- lars a month, in advance, was charged for a single store, of limited dimensions, and rudely constructed of rough boards. A certain two story frame building, known as the " Parker House," and situated on Kearny street, facing the plaza, paid its owners one hundred and twenty thousand dollars a year in rents. Of this sum, somewhere about sixty thousand dollars was paid by gam- blers, who occupied nearly the whole of the second floor. The "El Dorado," a gambling saloon, which adjoined the Parker House on the right, at the corner of Washington street, and which was only a canvas tent of moderate size, brought at the rate of forty thousand dollars per annum. At another corner of the plaza a small building, which might have made a stable for half a-dozen horses, was possessed by Wright & Co., brokers, under the name of the Miners' Bank, at a rent of seventy-five thousand dollars. The United States Hotel paid thirty-six thousand dollars ; a mercantile establishment, for a one-story building, of twenty feet front, paid forty thousand dollars, and seven thousand dollars per month was paid for the Custom House. The interest of bor- rowed money was rated by the same scale. From eight to fifteen per cent. per month, with the addition of real security, was regu- larly given, in advance, for the use of money. And people paid these enormous wages, rents and interests ; and still made fortunes to themselves ! Real estate, that but a few years before was of little more worth than an old song, now brought amazing prices. From plain twelve dollars for fifty-vara lots, prices gradually rose to hundreds, thousands and tens of thousands of dollars ; so that large holders of such properties became on a sudden millionnaires. Shippers in foreign countries realized large fortunes at first by their ventures to California ; and if, ere long, the expenses were so heavy and the wholesale prices of goods, by excessive supply and competition, dwindled so low that sometimes they would not pay landing or storage charges, why, still the commission agents
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EXTRAORDINARY CIRCULATION OF MONEY.
of San Francisco, and the host of interior merchants, shopkeep- ers and other retail dealers, were doing a thriving business, and accumulating large sums. The holder of every office in the State and municipality was paid generously. There was no niggardli- ness in such things. A religious body, whose clergymen are seldom in the habit of receiving extravagant salaries, took the
H.EASTMAN DEL.
Custom Ilouse on the Plaza.
support of their minister on themselves, and voted him the princely allowance of ten thousand dollars per annum ! Clerks and underlings were treated in the same handsome manner. The great sums, forming the total of such wages, salaries and profits, were always rapidly passing from hand to hand, and canie and went, and finally disappeared in gambling-saloons and billiard rooms, at bars and in brothels, in land-jobbing, building and mercantile speculations, in every kind of personal profusion, extravagance and debauchery.
The main-spring of all this bustle and money-making trade 1
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ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO.
was the gold mining. Consider, therefore, the mightily enhanced prices of every article at the diggings ! Gold dust paid for all foreign supplies, and filled the pockets of every active and shrewd inan besides. Millions' worth of pure gold, in lumps and dust, reached San Francisco every month. The greater portion was forwarded to the Atlantic States and other distant quarters in payment of supplies ; but, in the transit, much was appropriated and retained, as currency, among the ever plotting, restless and " wide-awake " people of San Francisco. Future generations will see California a rich and prosperous country independently alto- gether of her mineral wealth ; but in those early days it was the placers alone that made, and which are still making it what it appears. All honor then to the sturdy and independent digger, whose labors are peopling the country, cultivating the fields, build- ing cities, making roads, covering the ocean and the bays and the rivers of the land with steamers and great ships, and conferring riches and happiness not only on the growing population of Cali- fornia itself, that shall hereafter be numbered by millions instead of the present hundreds of thousands, but also on millions of in- dustrious workmen in every quarter of the world !
While labor was so well paid at this period, in San Francisco, it is a melancholy fact that there was much destitution, sickness, and even death by want and exposure in the place. Many of the immigrants had landed in a sickly and emaciated state, ill of scur- vy and other diseases which their long voyage and hardships had produced ; and such people could not work. Others had miscal- culated their own powers and inclinations, and the nature of the country they had come to, and were either ashamed or unable to perform honest labor ; while perhaps they were too timid or up- right to speculate in the variety of strange and often cunning ways by which other adventurers made a living and fortune. Disap- pointed diggers, returning from the mines with broken constitu- tions, swelled the destitute population. They probably lived in miserable habitations, sleeping often upon the bare earth. Around them were bustle and lucrative pursuits, while they alone seemed neglected. Then they lost heart, pined, took sick and died, curs- ing the country and its gold, and the foolish fancies, that had led them to it. Many committed suicide in the utter prostration of
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MIXED CHARACTER OF THE INHABITANTS.
physical strength, in feebleness or disease of mind and absolute despair. 'Public meetings were held to consider the destitute sit- uation of the poor-(strange word for such a country ! yet San Francisco had its full share of the class),-and large sums were raised for their support. The Orders of Free Masons and Odd- Fellows, nobly did their part in the charitable work, and were the principal means by which now, and at a later period, hundreds of suffering beings were saved from a miserable end, or their remains decently interred after death.
San Francisco was like the scene of a great battle. There were victorious warriors braving and flaunting on all sides, while hope swelled the breast of every unwounded soldier. But, un- heeded amid the crash and confusion of the strife, lay the wound- ed and dying, who had failed or been suddenly struck down in the mêlée. As in the case of other battles, there were likewise secret bands of unmanly ruffians, who attacked and plundered all sides alike. These were the thieves, burglars and murderers of the community, the "hounds " of recent times and their legitimate successors,-a large and fearful class indeed,-daily increasing in numbers, boldness and extent of depredation and crime. To their wickedness were afterwards ascribed, some of the extensive con- flagrations which so repeatedly laid waste the most valuable por- tions of the growing town ; and under cover of the alarm and con- fusion produced by which events, robberies could be carried on with impunity. What mattered it though millions' worth of property were consumed to enable the fire-raising villain to steal a few thousand dollars ? He had still the few thousand dollars, and the universe might go to blazes for aught that he cared. In this manner, doubtless reasoned the "Sydney coves," and the other desperate and criminal adventurers with which the town was now infested. The "Vigilance Committee " had not yet arisen to terrify the wretches into good behavior.
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