Ocean to Ocean on Horseback

CHAPTER XXX.
SAN FRANCISCO AND END OF JOURNEY

San Francisco, the chief city on the Western Coast of North America, is in every respect a wonderful city, not least so in its origin and development. Not very long ago – less than a century – the Pacific Coast was almost an unexplored region. The great State of California – next to Texas, the largest in the Union – now teems with populous cities and new settlements, and produces meat and grain abundantly sufficient for the supply of a large portion of the country. It has a coast line on the Pacific Ocean of seven hundred miles and, extending from the coast, a breadth of three hundred and thirty miles. California has also the most wonderful gold fields of the world. They were discovered in the middle of the last century by the Jesuits, who kept the knowledge a secret.

In 1848, as previously stated, Captain Sutter found gold on the land of one of his farms, and the news of the discovery at once spread. The excitement extended throughout the Union and the "Argonauts of '49" came swarming to the gold fields. People ran about picking up the precious lumps as "hogs in a forest root for ground-nuts." The golden product of 1848, was $10,000,000; 1849, $40,000,000; and that of 1853, $65,000,000.

Silver mining has been attempted in many localities in the State, but generally with poor results. There are valuable deposits of iron ore, coal, copper, tin, platinum, manganese, asphalt, petroleum, lead and zinc. Fruits are abundant, of great size, and are sold in all the Eastern markets.

The constitution of California requires a free school to be supported in each district six months in each year, and the system includes primary and grammar schools, high schools, evening schools, normal schools, technical schools, and the State University, which is free to both sexes, and is a perpetual public trust. The schools of California are justly famous.

Upper California was discovered in 1538 by a Spanish navigator. In 1578, Sir Francis Drake visited it and gave it the name of New Albion. The Spaniards planted the first colony in 1768. The territory was purchased from Mexico by the United States in 1847 for $15,000,000. A constitution was adopted in the same year, and in 1850, California, without ever having been under a territorial government, was admitted into the Union as a State.

The progress of California has been of the most substantial character. Gold mining has become a staple industry, but in the agricultural capabilities of her soil lie the possibilities of her greatest wealth. Among the most valuable of her industries in the future will be those of the orchard and the vineyard. The grape growers of the State can now sell their grapes with as much certainty as the farmer his wheat. There is sent to the Atlantic coast more wine than is imported from France, the heretofore wine market of the world.

In Central California a little peninsula juts out from the main land, a great harbor is on one side, a great ocean on the other. The lofty mountains, lower just here, form, as it were, a natural gateway to the great interior beyond.

Here, in 1836, an American named John P. Lease settled, and here, in time, a little town called San Francisco grew up around him. Two miles to the south loomed up the antiquated building of the Catholic Mission Dolores, with its pretty old gardens. The opposite shores of the bay presented a most beautiful park-like expanse: the native lawn, brilliant with flowers and dotted by eastward bending oaks, watered by the creeks of the Alameda, San Lorenzo, San Leandro, and their tributaries, and enclosed by the spurs of the Diablo Mountains.

San Francisco was on the soil of Mexico, under the flag of Anàhuac, governed by an Alcalde and a sapient council, yet the spirit of the United States breathed in it, built its stout wooden houses, and thronged its busy wharves. Animated by this spirit, it was destined to become the metropolis of the Pacific, one of the noted cities of the globe.

Before the "Golden Age," while California was a peaceful settlement, of no especial importance, it was said that around San Francisco Bay there was raw material enough, of different types, to develop a new race.

San Francisco was not in the gold region, but it was the gate to that region.

Two weeks after Marshall first discovered the precious metal, a bag of it was brought to the city for analysis, and one day early in May, 1848, "Samuel Brennan, the Mormon leader, held a bottle of gold dust in one hand, and jubilantly swinging his hat in the other, passed through the streets of San Francisco shouting, 'Gold! Gold!! Gold!!! from the American River!'"

This started the enthusiasm, the fever, the madness for gold.

Carson writes his sensations when first looking upon a well-filled bag of gold dust. He says:

"A frenzy seized my soul, unbidden my legs performed some entirely new movements of polka steps. * * Houses were too small for me to stay in. I was soon in the street in search of necessary outfits; piles of gold rose up before me at every step."

All yielded more or less to the subtle influence of the malady. Men hastened to arrange their affairs, dissolving partnerships, disposing of real estate, and converting other effects into ready means for departure.

Stores were rummaged for miners' tools.

One man offered as high as fifty dollars for a shovel. By the middle of June, San Francisco was without male population. The once bustling little town looked as if struck by a plague. Sessions of the town council were at an end. There were no church services. Stores were closed. Newspapers dropped out of existence. Merchandise lay unhandled on the docks. The sailors deserted the ships that lay at anchor in the bay.

One day a Peruvian bark came to anchor in the port. Amazed at the desolation which he beheld, the captain inquired the cause. He was answered, "Everybody has gone northward, where the valleys and mountains are of gold." Instantly upon hearing this marvellous assertion his own crew joined the innumerable throng.

The San Francisco Star of May 27, 1848, says:

"Stores are closed and places of business vacated, a large number of houses are tenantless, various kinds of mechanical labor suspended or given up entirely, and nowhere the pleasant hum of industry salutes the ear as of late. * * Everything in San Francisco wears a desolate and sombre look; everywhere all is dull, monotonous, dead."

Apparently the Californian of that day was thoroughly imbued with the saying of the Cyclops, "The wise know nothing worth worshipping but wealth."

The Pacific Mail Steamship Company was incorporated in 1847, to sail from New York to New Orleans and Chagres, and from Panama to such Pacific port as the Secretary of the Navy might designate. Later, when the existence of gold in her mines made California the cynosure of all eyes, San Francisco was decided upon as the western terminus of the route.

On October 6, 1848, the "California," the first vessel of this line, steamed out of New York harbor, with but a small number of passengers. As this ship was intended for use on the Pacific coast alone, she was obliged to take the tedious and perilous route through the Strait of Magellan to reach her destination. Arriving at Panama, she found the Isthmus apparently turned into pandemonium. The one time dingy, sleepy city of Panama appeared to have fallen entirely into the hands of the gold-seekers. Cholera had broken out with terrible malignity on the banks of the Chagres. The panic-stricken travellers were fleeing from the disease, some trying to reach the land of their desire by an old trail, others were trying to make some progress in boats called "longos," poled by naked negroes. The mass of the worn, weary, eager wayfarers, however, were waiting as best they might, for that vision of hope and comfort, the "steamer." At last she reached them, with accommodations for about one hundred. She was mobbed by the frantic men, and at last when she left port, over four hundred of them had embarked upon her, many a man braving that adventurous voyage, with only a coil of rope or a plank for a bed.

Steerage tickets for the trip are said to have cost one thousand dollars, or over.

After spending four months in her passage, the "California" steamed into the Bay of San Francisco, February 29, 1849, a day never to be forgotten at the Golden Gate! The town was crowded with miners wintering there; the ships in the harbor were gay with bunting; the guns of the Pacific Squadron boomed out a salute to the new-comers. Bands of music played, handkerchiefs waved, and men cheered in their enthusiasm, as the first steamship of a regular line entered the Golden Gate, in pursuit of the treasures of the "Golden Age."

That ship bore to California the new military commander, General Persifor F. Smith.

So high ran the fever for treasure, that before the passengers had fairly left the steamer, she was deserted by all belonging to her, save one engineer, and she was consequently unable to start on her return trip.

Nor was it alone the "California" which was deserted. Five hundred ships lay in the San Francisco Harbor deserted, the crews, wild for gold, carrying off the ship's boats in their eagerness to reach land; very often the commander leading, or at least joining in the flight. Many vessels that year were left to rot; many were dragged on shore and used as lodging houses.

In the spring, San Francisco seemed deserted, only two thousand inhabitants being left. The heart of the city began to quail. Thousands thronging through her harbor, yet so few to stay! But winter brought the miners back to civilization again, and the population swelled to twenty thousand.

San Francisco was at this time mainly a city of tents, although there was a sprinkling of adobe houses, and a few frame buildings. It was a community of men. The census of 1850 showed that only eight per cent. of the population were women. It was, moreover, a community of young men; scarcely a grey head was to be seen in it.

Men were there from all the European nations, together with Moors and Abyssinians from Africa, Mongols, Malays, and Hindoos from Asia and Australia. Turks, Hebrews, and Hispano-Americans jostled the ubiquitous Yankee, in the new streets of San Francisco.

The predominant dress, we are told, was "checked and woollen shirts, mainly red and blue, open at the bosom which could boast of shaggy robustness, or loosely secured by a kerchief; pantaloons tucked into high and wrinkled boots, and belted at the waist, where bristled an arsenal of knife and pistols. Beard and hair emancipated from thraldom, revelled in long and bushy tufts, which rather harmonized with the slouched and dingy hat. * * The gamblers affected the Mexican style of dress, white shirt with diamond studs, chain of native golden specimens, broad-brimmed hat, with sometimes a feather or squirrel's tail tucked under the brim, top-boots, and a rich scarlet sash or silk handkerchief thrown over the shoulder, or wound around the waist."

They were a buoyant race, brave, intrepid, light-hearted – above all things free from restraint.

They had braved all hardships and dangers to reach the land of their desire. They had reached there safely, however, and they exulted. They overflowed with activity; they worked jubilantly and untiringly.

They shouted, they fought, they gambled, in their moments of recreation, intoxicated with the bracing climate, with their excitement of success, and with that rollicking freedom which threw off all shackles of custom or self-restraint.

They worshipped success, and greatness with them meant "fitness to grasp opportunity!"

In their eyes the unpardonable sin was meanness.

Fifty cents was the smallest sum which could be offered for the most trivial of services.

Laborers obtained a dollar an hour, artisans twenty dollars per day. Laundry expenses exceeded the price of new underwear.

They loved grandeur. Bootblacks carried on business in prettily fitted up recesses furnished with cushioned chairs, and containing a liberal supply of newspapers.

It was over such a San Francisco that the frightful plague of cholera swept in 1850, carrying with it a lesser plague of suicide.

Doctors' fees were from sixteen to thirty-two dollars per visit, while for a surgical operation one thousand dollars was the usual price.

In spite of plague and death, that part of San Francisco which escaped continued to be jubilant.

Bull fights were in high favor, and the stage, though crude, was very popular, but the great, enchanting delight of the city was gambling. Money, gold, jewelry, houses, land and wharves were all put up to be gambled for. The city abounded with men of elegant manners and striking dress, who were professional gamblers. It was indeed an advance in civilization and morality when in September, 1850, a law was passed forbidding this pastime on the Sabbath day.

The news that California had been admitted as a State in the Union reached San Francisco on the morning of October 18, 1850, when the "Oregon" entered the harbor, flying all her bunting, and signalling the good news. Business was suspended; courts were adjourned; and the whole population, frenzied with delight, congregated on Portsmouth Square to congratulate each other. Newspapers containing the intelligence from Washington sold for five dollars each! The shipping in the harbor was gaily dressed with flags; guns boomed from the heights; bonfires blazed at night; processions were formed; bands played; and the people in every way expressed their joy. Mounting his box behind six fiery mustangs lashed to highest speed, the driver of Crandall's Stage cried the good news all the way to San José – "California is admitted!!" while a ringing cheer was returned by the people as the mail flew by.

The awaking of San Francisco during the five or six years following the discovery of gold was wonderful. "Hills were tumbled into the bay, and mud flats were made solid ground." Streets were graded, handsome buildings were erected, and San Francisco began to rank among the first cities of the land. So valuable was her water-front that, in 1853, four small blocks on Commercial street sold for over 1,000,000 dollars. The assessed valuation of property that year was about 10,000,000 dollars over that of the previous year.

The population was then estimated at about 50,000; that being about one-seventh of the then population of the State.

The city had, at this time, 1856, seventeen fire companies, twelve military companies, and a number of social clubs, four hospitals, seventeen public schools, thirty-two church organizations, thirteen daily newspapers, and as many weeklies published in half a dozen different languages.

From that time she has continued ever increasing, ever justifying her title of the metropolis of the Pacific.

Her City Hall is one of the grandest buildings on the Continent. Its construction cost 6,000,000 dollars. It stands five hundred and fifty feet on Larkin street, seven hundred on McAllister street, and eight hundred and sixty feet on Park avenue.

The Mint at San Francisco is the largest one in the United States. Its architecture is Doric, and it is constructed of freestone and California granite.

San Francisco is supplied with water from several large reservoirs, having a united capacity of seventy billion gallons. Her harbor could accommodate the shipping of the whole world.

Her commerce is immense. The trade of the Western Coast from Chili to Alaska is her natural heritage, and she can justly claim a fair, large share from China, Japan, India, Australia and the islands of the sea.

She has eighty-one public schools, sixty-nine clubs, nine public libraries, one hundred and fourteen churches, and thirty public parks and ornamental plazas.

What words could more aptly describe the career of San Francisco than those lately written by Governor Markham?

"Originally San Francisco consisted of wind-swept hills, the shifting sands of which seemed to defy either stability or cultivation. Now those hills, graded by pick and shovel, are gridironed by streets and railways, and crowned with the magnificent buildings of a populous city, or transformed by the magic of water and patient tillage into miles of verdant park, dotted by miniature lakes, ribboned with gravel drives, crowded with grottoes, statuary, conservatories, and ornamental buildings, enriched by luxuriant shrubbery and brilliant flowers, the wonder of the tourist, and a delight to her contented people."

There are larger and more populous cities in America than San Francisco, but few more deserving the designation of a Great City. The energies of her people, the prodigal wealth of her territory, and her singularly equable and temperate climate, form a sufficient guarantee of the increasing greatness of her future.

Finding my quarters at the hotel comfortable and restful after the strain I had endured as the result of two hundred days of rough riding, I deferred terminating my journey until two days later. It will be remembered that I undertook to ride from the Atlantic to the Pacific in the saddle, and hence my tour would not be literally completed before I reached the shores of the Pacific. Accordingly on the twenty-sixth of November I remounted and rode to the Cliff House, a romantic resort built on a rocky prominence overlooking the ocean. From here I descended the Toll Road to the sandy beach. A westerly breeze rolled the breakers up to the feet of my horse, and I forthwith walked him into the waters of the Pacific. My self-imposed task – my journey from Ocean to Ocean on Horseback – was accomplished.