Here, indeed, are no rolls of papyrus, no
hieroglyphics, as in Egyptian tombs, to tell us the story of the
past, but it is written in the experiences of the gold seekers, it is
interwoven with the life of the city, now the mistress of the great
ocean which laves her feet, and it is burned into the memories of many
living witnesses.
If yonder grave could tell its tale it would speak to you of a
misspent life which might have been a blessing--of midnight revels and
mad excesses and Circe's feasts, the ruin of soul and body. And this
grave could talk to you about one who, far away from home and
kindred, had pined and wasted away in his loneliness, and had died of
homesickness. But while you are touched with the pathetic recital,
that grave near by reads you a lesson of patience, of heroism, of
faith, of purity of soul and body preserved in the midst of fiery
temptations, even while strong men were yielding themselves up to
"fleshly lusts which war against the soul."
The shrubs and trees and flowers on which you gaze, and which are
green and blossom the year round, now beautify all and mother earth
softens with her ministries the severities of the past, and sunlit
skies bend over the dead, as of old in many lands, and star-bedecked
heavens tell still to the living, as once to those whose bodies
mouldered here, the story of the life beyond, where glory and riches
and honour are the heritage of the faithful!
CHAPTER V
THEN AND NOW, OR EIGHTEEN HUNDRED FORTY-NINE AND NINETEEN HUNDRED AND
ONE
Triangular Section of San Francisco--Clay Banks, Mud and Rats
in 1849--Streets at That Time--Desperate Characters--Gambling
Houses--Thirst for Gold--Saloons and Sirens--The Bella Union--The
Leaven of the Church--Robbers' Dens and Justice in Mining Camps--The
Vigilance Committee and What It Did--San Francisco Well Governed
Now--Highway Robbers and the Courts--Chief of Police Wittman and His
Men--A Visit to Police Headquarters--The Cells--A Murderer--A Chinese
Woman in Tears--A Hardened Offender.
Pages:
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81