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steward comes round to look after his perquisites, and every one is in a bustle about something or other.

I took a last rest in my bunk-for it was still early morning-until I was told that we were close alongshore, and then I jumped up, went on deck, and saw America for the first time.

CHAPTER XXIII.

SAN FRANCISCO TO SACRAMENTO.

Landing at San Francisco.-The Golden City.-The Streets.-The Business Quarter.--The Chinese Quarter.-The Touters.-Leave San Francisco. The Ferry-boat to Oakland.-The Bay of San Francisco.— Landing on the Eastern Shore.-American Railway Carriages.--The Pullman's Cars.--Sleeping Berths.—Unsavory Chinamen.--The Country.-City of Sacramento.

WE have passed in from the Pacific through the Golden Gate, swung round toward the south, and then, along the eastern margin of the peninsula which runs up to form the bay, the City of San Francisco lies before me! A great mass of houses and warehouses, fronted by a long line of wharves, extends along the water's edge. Masses of houses, tipped with occasional towers and spires, rise up on the high ground behind, crowning the summits of Telegraph, Russian, and Clay Street Hills. But we have little time to take note of the external features of the city, for we are already alongside the pier. Long before the gangways can be run out and laid between the ship and the wharf, there is a rush of hotel runners on board, calling out the names of their respective hotels and distributing their cards. There is a tremendous hurry-scurry. The touters make dashes at the baggage and carry it off, sometimes in different directions, each hoping to secure a customer for his hotel. Thus, in a very few minutes, the ship was cleared, all the passengers were bowling along toward their sev

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eral destinations, and in a few minutes I found myself safely deposited in "The Brooklyn," a fine large hotel in Bush Street, situated in the business part of the town, with dwellings interspersed among the business houses.

It is not necessary to describe San Francisco. Travelers have done that over and over again. Indeed, there is not much about it that is of any great interest except to business men. One part of the city is very like another. I was told that some of the finest buildings were of the Italian order, but I should say that by far the greater number were of the Ramshackle order. Although the first house in the place was only built in 1835, the streets nearest to the wharves look already old and worn out. They are, for the most part, of wood, and their paint is covered with dirt. But, though premature

ly old, they are by no means picturesque. Of course, in so large a place, with a population of 150,000, and already so rich and prosperous though so young, there are many fine buildings and some fine streets. The hotels carry away the palm as yet, the Grand Hotel at the corner of Market and New Montgomery Streets being the finest. There are also churches, theatres, hospitals, markets, and all the other appurtenances of a great city.

I had not for a long time seen such a bustle of traffic as presented itself in the streets of San Francisco. The whole place seemed to be alive. Foot-passengers jostled each other; drays and wagons were rolling about; business men were clustered together in some streets, apparently "on change;" with all the accompaniments of noise, and bustle, and turmoil of a city full of life and traffic. The money-brokers' shops are very numerous in the two finest streets-Montgomery and California

Streets. Nearly every other shop there belongs to a money-broker or money-changer. Strange to see the piles of glistening gold in the windows-ten to twenty dollar pieces, and heaps of greenbacks.

John Chinaman is here, I see, in great force. There are said to be as many as 30,000 in the city and neighborhood. I wonder these people do not breed a plague. I went through their quarter one evening, and was surprised and disgusted with what I saw. Chinese men

and women of the lowest class were swarming in their narrow alleys. Looking down into small cellars, I saw from ten to fifteen men and women living in places which two white men would not sleep in. The adjoining streets smelt most abominably. The street I went through must be one of the worst, and I was afterward told that it was "dangerous" to pass through it. I observed a large wooden screen at each end of it, as if for the purpose of shutting it off from the white people's quarter.

One of the nuisances we had to encounter in the streets was that of railway touters. No sooner did we emerge from the hotel door than men lying in wait pounced upon us, offering tickets by this route, that route, and the other route to New York. I must have had a very "new-chum" sort of look, for I was accosted no less than three times one evening by different touting gentlemen. One wished to know if I had come from. Sydney, expressing his admiration of Australia generally. Another asked if I was "going East," offering to sell me a through ticket at a reduced price. The third also introduced the Sydney topic, telling me, by way of inducement to buy a ticket of him, that he had "worked

there." I shook them all off, knowing them to be dangerous customers. I heard some strange stories of young fellows making friends with such strangers, and having drinks with them. The drink is drugged, and the Sydney swell, on his way to New York, finds himself next morning in the streets, minus purse, watch, and every thing of value about him.

There is only one railway route as yet across the Rocky Mountains, by the Western, Central, and Union

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Pacific, as far as Omaha, but from that point there are various lines to New York, and it was to secure passengers by these respective routes that the touters were so busily at work. All the hotels, bars, and stores are fullof their advertisements: "The shortest route to the East" "Pullman's Palace cars run on this Line". "The Route of all Nations"-" The Grand Route, via Niagara" -such are a few specimens of these urgent announcements. I decided to select the route via Chicago, Detroit, Niagara, and down the Hudson River to New York, and made my arrangements accordingly.

I left San Francisco on the morning of the 8th of Feb

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