ALMANAC

FOR

THIRTY-MINERS

SANFRANCISCO

From the collection of the

,, n z m o Prelinger

v Jjibrary

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San Francisco, California 2006

ALMANAC FOR THIRTY-NINERS

ALMANAC

for Thirty- Niners

Compiled by the Workers of the Federal Writers'

Project of the Works Progress Administration in

The City of San Francisco

With illustrations by the WPA Federal Art Project in the City of San Francisco

Sponsored by the Bret Harte Associates of California

Published by

JAMES LADD DELKIN BOX 55, STANFORD UNIVERSITY, CALIFORNIA

WORKS PROGRESS ADMINISTRATION

HARRY L. HOPKINS, Administrator

ELLEN S. WOODWARD, Assistant Administrator

HENRY G. ALSBERG, Director of the Federal Writers3 Project

OTHER PUBLICATIONS OF THE FEDERAL WRITERS' PROJECT OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

California: A Guide to the Golden State (to appear in 1939) . Death Valley Guide. (Boston: Hough ton Mifflin Company, 1938.) A Guide to San Francisco and the Bay Area (to appear in 1939) .

Copyright, 1938

By the Bret Harte Associates of California All Rights Reserved

BRET HARTE ASSOCIATES OF CALIFORNIA

DIRECTORS

CHARLES CALDWELL DOBIE, President; JEHANNE BI£TRY SALINGER, Vice- president; WILLIS FOSTER, Secretary-Treasurer; JOHN D. BARRY, HAAKOK CHEVALIER, SAMUEL T. FARQUHAR, JOSEPH HENRY JACKSON, ETHEI TURNER, GEORGE WEST

Foreword to a Year

WE SAN FRANCISCANS have to be reminded about the seasons. Blown upon by ocean mists, we wear our tweeds the year round — cultivate gardens in January and pull up our chairs to grate fires in July. We do have our seasons, often compressing spring, summer, autumn, and winter into a single day, but we sometimes forget that other sections of the country pace through a cycle of 1 2 very different months.

Hence, anyone who wishes to keep a personal eye on the seasons must exercise a sort of hunter's alertness — watch for the most fugi- tive signs. This is strenuous business, and there is a much easier way to keep informed — consult an almanac. Here we can read that winter, of all seasons, opened on this clear warm day, or that spring began on this chill one.

We can learn, too, that even as in a more fantastic era this city smokes more tobacco, drinks more hard likker, and stays up later at night than the average American city — and we who are daily im- perilled in that 6-inch space between thundering streetcars on Mar- ket Street can read with a sympathetic shudder that in 1849 horses and pedestrians occasionally vanished in the mud of Montgomery Street until cargoes of unwanted merchandise — cotton, cookstoves, and moldy tobacco — went into a foundation that gave the thoroughfare a dubious safety.

Any plodder can write a consecutive history of a city. But it takes more cooks to turn out a good civic stew. Many of the San Francisco staff of the Federal Writers' Project have been gathering, for some time, material for a comprehensive guide to the Bay Area, presently to be issued. As they wormed through texts, letters, memoirs, docu- ments, newspapers, scandals, and plain guff, they unearthed many unearthly items. These were tossed faithfully into the hat — and here they are.

P. C. J.

WE POSITIVELY GUARANTEE that Thanksgiving Day will fall on Thursday, November 30th, and Christmas on the 25th of December —^ but if you take your girl to the Oakland Dog Show on Saturday the llth of February and find a meeting of the local temperance society in full sway, control that impulse to write an indignant letter to the NEWS. At the time this book went to press, many organizations could give only tentative dates for events scheduled in 1939. Therefore we suggest that dates be verified through daily newspapers or the organizations concerned.

In the beginning, March 1776 . . . On the northernmost tip of the Peninsula stands a brown-frocked PADRE, overlooking "the port and its islands . . . the mouth of the harbor, and of the sea all that the sight can take in as far as beyond the Farallones" He is Fray Pedro Font, friar of Lt. Col. Juan Bautista de Anza's expedition. "Indeed, al- though in my travels I saw very good sites and beautiful country, I saw none which pleased me as much as this. And I think if it could be well settled like Europe, there would not be anything more beautiful . . . for it has all the con- veniences desired, by land as well as by sea, with that har- bor so remarkable and so spacious that in it may be estab- lished shipyards, docks, and anything that may be wished. This mesa the commander designated as the site for the new settlement and fort which were to be established on this harbor; for, being on a height, it is so commanding that with muskets it can defend the entrance to the mouth of the harbor, while a gunshot away it has water to supply the people . . ."

ALMANAC for THIRTY-MINERS

Very damp were San Franciscans on January 29, 1881, when 4.67 inches of rain fell — maximum on record for 24 hours (and only .06 inch less than the average total for the month) . Coldest, rainiest, and cloudiest month is January, says the Weather Bureau — but laymen know it is apt to bring a balmy preview of spring.

1 SUNDAY — New Year's Day * * * Emancipation Day * * * Haitian Independence Day * * * Feast of the Circum- cision * * * Annual East-West Shrine Football Game at Kezar Stadium * * * On New Year's Day, 1867, the side wheeler Colo- rado sailed for Hong Kong, inaugurating the Pacific Mail Steamship Company's trade with China * * * The first American perform- ance of Gilbert and Sullivan's H. M. S. Pinafore was given in San Francisco this day in 1879.

2 MONDAY — The Western Union telegraphers who walked out January 2, 1870, protesting a $20 wage cut were starting some- thing: their strike grew into the first Nation-wide walkout in any industry * * * The first George White scandal, reported the same day by the Alta Californian, concerned the case of a San Jose drinking gentleman named George White who got into the school- house during the night. Attempting to leave by a window, he fell and was caught by a leg — and there he dangled until rescued the following morning.

3 TUESDAY — 1939 automobile licenses are procurable from today on * * * Stanford students register for winter quartert which begins tomorrow * * * Governor Carrillo closed the ports of San Francisco and Monterey this day in 1838 "until the north should submit to the supreme government" * * * On January 3, 1850, Mayor John W. Geary presented Washington and Union Squares to the city as a New Year's gift.

ALMANAC /or THIRTY-NINERS

4 WEDNESDAY — Registration for spring semester at Uni- versity of San Francisco begins today * * * Said Oakland's Daily Transcript on this date in 1 8 69 : "The police of San Francisco arrested 488 drunks last month, only 8 of which were 'common' ones. Drunks in that town are generally of a remarkable character."

5 THURSDAY — Col. W. Stewart -Rod die presents bis rf Euro- pean Mosaic" at Veterans' Auditorium * * * The Women's Suf- frage Association sponsored this day in 1870 a public discussion on the subject: "Will political enfranchisement conduce to the improve- ment of woman's character?" /^\

g FRIDAY — Epiphany * * * Jose Iturbi plays with the Sym- phony this afternoon and tomorrow night at Opera House * * * Throughout this month in 1870 taxpayers squabbled as to whether new pavements should be stow (wooden) or cobble. Concluded one: "When I drive, I like the stow; when I think of the taxes, I prefer the cobbles; and when I think of the taxes when I am driving, my judgment still says, 'Stick to the cobbles.' "

7 SATURDAY — Christmas Day (Greek Orthodox Church): mass at Serbian Church, Oakland; folk dancing at Serbian Hall, San Francisco * * * The public first rode from Sausalito to Tomales via the North Pacific Coast Railroad January 7, 1874.

In the days when "a -woman could hardly walk through the streets of San Francisco without having every one pause to gaze at her", declared the Oakland DAILY TRANSCRIPT of January 7, —]J J_ 1869, infants were virtually unknown. To prove the point, it recalled the lady who had taken her infant to a theater: ". . . when it began to cry, just as the orchestra began to play, a man in the pit cried out, 'Stop those fiddles and let the baby cry. I haven't heard such a sound for ten years!' The audience applauded this sentiment, the orchestra stopped, and the baby continued its performance, amid unbounded en- thusiasm."

10 ALMANAC for THIRTY-NINERS

Hail January, month-of-sales, When wives go shopping for chic French veils And hats and gowns of all descriptions, While husbands wallow in conniptions.

M. G.

8 SUNDAY — Jose Iturbi plays at Opera House this afternoon * * * On January 8, 1880, eccentric Joshua Norton, self-styled "Emperor of the United States and protector of Mexico", beloved by all San Francisco, suffered a heart attack while walking up California Street and died immediately afterward.

9 MONDAY — Spring semesters open today at U. of S. F. and California School of Fine Arts * * * Violinist Jascha Heifetz plays at Opera House * * * This day in 1847 Mormon elder Samuel Brannan published Vol. I, No. 1 of the California Star, San Fran- cisco's first, and California's second, newspaper * * * Two years later on January 9 was opened California's first commercial bank — Naglee and Sinton's "Exchange and Deposits Office" in the Parker House on Kearny Street.

10 TUESDAY — Hector Bolitho explains "Why the English Still Have a King" at the Curran Theater, 11 a.m. * * * A Cus- toms House official was so elated over the election of David C. Brod- erick as U. S. Senator in January 1857 that he took a bath in cham- pagne * * * A gang of laborers was digging up the pavement at the foot of Powell Street this day in 1888, preparatory to installation of that sightseers' oddity, the cable-car turntable.

U WEDNESDAY — On January 11, 1848, the town council passed stringent anti-gambling laws, all of which were repealed at the next meeting * * * Platt's Music Hall was sold out at $ 1 per seat this day in 1 865 for the city's first Philharmonic Society concert.

ALMANAC for THIRTY-NINERS

11

12 THURSDAY — "Britain, America, and the far East" is lec- turer S. K. Ratcliffe's subject tonight at Veterans' Auditorium * * * Three-day registration period opens at University of Cali- fornia . * * * Novelist Jack London was born in San Francisco this day in 1876 * * * Four years ago today Amelia Earhart Putnam landed at Oakland Airport 1 8 hours 1 6 minutes after leaving Hono- lulu on the first solo flight from Hawaii to California — thereby be- coming the first person, man or woman, to fly both the Atlantic and Pacific alone.

1 3 FRIDAY — Pierre Monteux conducts the Symphony at Opera House this afternoon and tomorrow night * * * The Ajax, first steamer to sail from California to Hawaii, went through the Golden Gate this day in 1866.

1 4 SATURDAY — Dog Show at Civic Auditorium today and tomorrow * * * "Harmless to mankind. Kills all other insects," boasted the Examiner of "Lyons Magnetic Pills" this month in 1 863.

The second State Legislature, meeting January, 1 862, at the new but still unfinished State capital, Benicia, was so disgruntled at having to deliberate sitting on boxes and barrels that it voted to move off, bag and baggage, in the steamer EMPIRE to Sacramento. The barkeepers, wrote a newspaper correspondent, "decided to stick by the Legislature as their only safeguard, and decanters and tumblers . . . silver twirlers and champagne baskets went pell mell into confusion and down aboard the boat, mixed in with legislators . . . The barber . . . shoul- dered his chair, and marched down . . . While in the midst of the confusion the shrill notes of THE ivasherwoman were heard, who was hurling elegant epithets against . . . the gay deceivers of the Legislature . . . with moral reflections touching unpaid bills, etc"

12 ALMANAC for THIRTY-NINERS

January

San Francisco's Italian colony recommends:

CRAB RISOTTO

Fry chopped onion, garlic, carrot, celery, and parsley in hot olive oil until golden brown. Add crab meat, tomato puree, and enough hot water to keep moist. When crab meat is tender, pour mixture on fried rice. Sprinkle with grated Parmesan cheese.

1 5 SUNDAY — The French ship Asia carried a cargo of 3 2 1 em- balmed Chinese when it sailed for Shanghai in January, 1858.

16 MONDAY — First day of U. C. spring semester * * * San Carlos Opera Company season until the 1st * * * This day in 1 847 word was received that the Donner emigrant party was in peril, trapped by heavy snows near the crest of the Sierra Nevada * * * And on this date in 1865 Michael and Charles de Young, still in their 'teens, printed and distributed free of charge their first issue of the Daily Dramatic Chronicle — the one-page theatrical paper that was to grow up to be the San Francisco Chronicle.

17 TUESDAY — "Science Turns Detective" is this morning's lecture by James M. Hepbron at the Curran Theater * * * San Francisco's first Grand Opera House was opened this day in 1876 with a "grand spectacular drama" entitled Snowflakes.

1 8 WEDNESDAY — At the opening of the $250,000 California Theater this day in 1869, 2,500 of the city's elite turned out to hear actor Lawrence Barrett read a dedicatory ode scribbled by Bret Harte the night before in lieu of the play he was to have written — and for which he was paid.

ALMANAC for THIRTY-NINERS

13

1 9 THURSDAY — Dr. No-Yong-Park and Dr. Yutaha Mina- kuchi debate "The Sino-Japanese Conflict" at Veterans9 Auditorium * * * "Final Decree," reads the terse inscription on the Laurel Hill tombstone of Silas W. Sanderson, former California Supreme Court justice and Southern Pacific Company counsellor.

20 FRIDAY — Guest artists with the Symphony this afternoon and tomorrow night are Luboschutz and Nemenof, duo pianists * * * In January 1870 the Bulletin, commenting on "the lamen- table lack of employment . . . the crying evil of the day", esti- mated the jobless at "one-fifth of the population of California . . . a terrible figure to contemplate."

21 SATURDAY — This date in 1869 Western Union reduced its rate on a 10-word telegram to New York to $5. 00 * * * The first State convention of the Workingmen's Party of California, meeting this day in 1878 with Dennis Kearney as permanent chair- man, adopted a platform attacking a government that had "fallen into the hands of capitalists and their willing instruments" and the "corrupt ring of land monopolists" who had "appropriated vast tracts of the fairest land on earth to themselves."

"Assault -with a deadly weapon — to wit, a steam- boat" 'With this charge was indicted Capt. Enos Fouratt of the Sacramento River steamboat, YOSEMITE, in the 1850's. But the good captain was only following the ownersy orders to "Sink, the opposition steamers" On this occasion his opposi- tion, the pilot of the WASHOE, had manoeuvred him out of a landing at Benicia. Overjoyed at the provocation, Capt. Fouratt ordered "Full speed ahead!" and rammed the WASHOE square amidships. The WASHOE sank, but not before the infuriated passengers had shot all the windows out of Capt. Fouratt's pilot house. Fouratt stood trial, was acquitted, and celebrated his release by serving champagne to the lawyers, judge, and jury.

r

14 ALMANAC for THIRTY-NINERS

Jarmarv SONG OF DEDICATION

J I* 1 1 IV* I J

doggerel) don>t you cry . You'll be a classic, by and by.

B. D. V.

22 SUNDAY — This day in 1850 the Alt a Californian became a daily — the first in the State.

23 MONDAY — On January 23, 1847, the town's first Amer- ican alcalde (Sp., mayor), Washington A. Bartlett, announced: "Whereas the local name of Yerba Buena, as applied to the settle- ment or town of San Francisco, is unknown beyond the immediate district . . . and that the town may have the advantage of the name given on the published maps, it is hereby ordered that the name of San Francisco shall hereafter be used . . ."

24 TUESDAY — "There Will Be No War in Europe," says the Countess of Listowel at the Curran Theater, 11 a. m. * * * Na- tional Pigeon Association Convention and Show at Oakland for a week to come * * * On this date in 1848 James W. Marshall, building a sawmill for Johann Sutter on the American River near Coloma, found the gold nugget that started the Gold Rush of 1848.

25 WEDNESDAY— -Russian Students' Day: White Russian students honor patron Saint Tatiana with a ball and concert * * * Spring semester registration begins at San Francisco State College * •* * Transcontinental telephone service was permanently estab- lished this day in 1915, when Alexander Graham Bell, in New York, talked with Thomas W. Watson, in San Francisco, in the first cross- country conversation.

ALMANAC for THIRTY-NINERS

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26 THURSDAY — Robert Burns' birthday: Scots celebrate Sunday at Burns9 statue in Golden Gate Park * * * Dr. Albert Wiggam on "'Your Abilities — How to Discover and Develop Them" at Veterans9 Auditorium tonight * * * The first adobe house north of San Francisco was erected in Marin County by Camelio Ynitia, last chief of the Olompali tribe, who learned the art of brickmaking from Spanish explorers.

27 FRIDAY — The first toothbrushes seen in California were unloaded, along with axes, shoes, fish-lines, and grindstones, from an American vessel which tied up at the Embarcadero of San Jose in 1840.

28 SATURDAY — "Plaza she's been, and Plaza shell be, though I do hear her called Portsmouth Square," said one old-timer, a- propos the controversy over naming the public square in 1846. "Baptizing a boy Augustus when he's always been Beany doesn't change him to the neighbors." 'Bh

A San Francisco show place in the 1850's was the Donohue-Kelly Bank. Unfortunately the sight- liness of its imposing flight of granite steps was usually marred by recumbent — and inebriated — patrons of the What Cheer House, just around the corner. Neither threats nor persuasions served to disperse them. Finally one of the bankers quietly evolved a scheme of his own. Came the day when he was ready. As usual the What Cheer Boys, paying no heed to newly installed narrow-gauge perforated pipes which ran up both sides of the steps, made themselves comfortable — but not for long. Without warning the pipes began to spout icy geysers of water. The pristine beauty of the Dono- hue-Kelly Bank's granite steps was sullied by loafers no more.

16

ALMANAC for THIRTY-NINERS

29 SUNDAY — Dance matinee by Angna Enters at the Curran Theater * * * A banquet called "The Feast of Reason" honored the memory and works of Thomas Paine January 29, 1855.

30 MONDAY — fifty-seventh birthday of franklin D. Roose- velt: President's ball for Warm Springs Foundation * * * A plaque honoring "that great benefactor of mankind, Duncan Nicol, and his famous Pisco Punch" was hung a year ago today at the site of the Bank Exchange Bar (in the Montgomery Block) , where Pisco Punch was first served.

31 TUESDAY — Dr. Ruth Alexander lectures at the Curran Theater, II a.m. * * * The Alta Californian advertised January 31, 1861: "Miss Munson, well-known clairvoyant from Boston, will deliver a lecture, while in a trance, on the subject: 'Why the Union should not be dissolved . . .' "

An ounce of gold dust (@ $10 per oz.) bought a moder- ately filling meal in 185 0, to judge from the Parker House bill of fare on New Year's Day:

SOUP

Bean

Ox Tail (short) .

ROAST

Beef Mexican Prime Cut . . .

Beef (plain) . . .

Beef up-along . .

Beef with one potato

,$1.50

1.50 1.00 1.00

Beef (Tame from

the States) $1.50

VEGETABLES Baked beans

(plain)

Beans (greased) . Two potatoes

(medium) . . . Two potatoes

(peeled) ....

ENTREES Sauerkraut

.75 1.00

.75 1.00

1.00

Hash (18K) .. Bacon (fried) . Bacon (stuffed)

. 2.50 .$1.25 . 2.00

1.25 Hash (low grade) 2.00

GAME

Codfish halls

(per pair) .... 7.00

Grizzly (fried) . . 1.50

Grizzly roast ... 2.50 Jack-ass rabbit

(whole) 1.50

SUGAR MEAL.. 5.00

DRINKS. . 1.00

PAYABLE IN ADVANCE: GOLD SCALE AT END OF BAR

A hundred years ago. . . From the brig CLEMENTINE in July 1839 lands Johann August Suffer, Swiss-German adventurer to whose efforts California will owe its history-making discovery of gold. '7 anchored at the spot which is now the corner of Clay and Montgomery Streets" he remembers afterward. "The nearest house . . . was the store of Spear and Hinkley. There was a large one-story adobe building at the upper side of the plaza . . . the property of the Englishman, William Richardson, the captain of the port, who had built the first tent at the Yerba Buena cove in 1835. The following year Jacob Leese had come and built a fine frame building . . . There were a few other small houses: one, a little frame house, belonging to John Fuller . . . and also a little adobe belonging to Victor Prudon, a Frenchman, who did some trading and sold liquor by the drink . . . The PRESIDIO was manned by a small garrison of Mexican soldiers, and was armed with a few guns, which did not look as if they could do much damage. The Mission Dolores under Padre Jose Gutierrez was likewise in a state of stagnation. A few people were living there . . . mostly native Californians and a few Indians."

February

1 WEDNESDAY — Seventy years ago today the Oakland Daily News was gossiping about a suit for slander instituted by a Virginia lady "against a fashionable milliner in Richmond. The milliner said the lady padded her legs."

2 THURSDAY — Candlemas Day * * * GroundhogDay * * * Capt. C. W. R. Knight on "Monarch* of the African Veldt" at Veterans' Auditorium * * * Said the Oakland Daily Transcript this day in 1869: "The San Francisco papers have become very re- spectful towards Oakland. We hear nothing more concerning the Suburbs', 'Terminopolis', or the 'bucolic district.' "

3 FRIDAY — Igor Stravinsky conducts the Symphony at Opera House this afternoon and tomorrow night * * * A mass meeting to aid the Donner Party, snow-bound and starving in the Sierra Nevada, raised $1,500 this day in 1847. ($\

4 SATURDAY — Last day to procure 1939 automobile licenses * * * There was a hot time in the old town 2 years ago tonight when maritime unions signed agreements with shipowners on the ninety-ninth day of their second coastwide strike.

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Many a San Francisco infant has waited until his fourth year, or longer, before seeing snow — and what he then saw would never qualify in New England. But the city was white on Feb- ruary 5, 1887, 3.7 inches of snow falling on the Weather Bureau, 7 inches on houses in the Western Addition — heaviest snowfall on record.

5 SUNDAY — Did any budget-balancer ever go further than Contra Costa County Judge Thomas A. Brown, who refused this day in 1861 to accept more than $4,000 of his $10,000 salary for a 4-year term?

6 MONDAY — Early in February 1855 a disgusted spectator wrote of "a performance of an intellectual and truly Californian character ... at the Adelphi Theater ... a fight to the death between a wildcat and bull terrier."

7 TUESDAY — New Ballet Russe at the Opera House until the 12th * * * Stefan Zweig deals with "The Secret of Artistic Crea- tion" at the Curran Theater, lla.m..* * * Spring semester opens at Mills College * * * Seventy years ago today the Oakland Daily News reported "an exciting race between the locomotive and a velocipede" over the railroad pier to a waiting ferry. The locomotive won — but the cyclist boarded the boat "before many of the pas- sengers could alight from the cars."

8 WEDNESDAY — When news of the wreck of the clipper San Francisco on North Point came this day in 1854, a couple of hun- dred armed rascals — among them some soldiers from the Presidio — went out to loot. But a storm came up as they were pulling away with boats laden and drowned about a dozen of them.

9 THURSDAY — Twenty-two years ago today the jury which tried Thomas J. Mooney for the Preparedness Day bombing returned

ALMANAC for THIRTY-NINERS 19

a verdict of murder in the first degree with no recommendation for life imprisonment.

1 0 FRIDAY — ( 'The Mob and the Movies" is Dr. Louis K. Ans- pacher's topic at Veterans' Auditorium * * * The men in Volun- teer Fire Engine Company No. 7 were indignant, about this time in 1863, to find the famous fox-tail missing from their engine; they announced publicly:". . . the company value this prize, which was taken away from another engine company, very highly, and it is hoped that whoever took it away will have the manliness to re- store it!" &

1 1 SATURDAY — Dog Show at Oakland Exposition Building today and tomorrow * * * Alcalde Washington Bartlett started booming real estate this day in 1847 when he ordered the first pub- lic sale of city lots at 25c per vara (33 1/3 square inches) * * * Celebrating the lighting of the city's first gas street lamps this day in 1854, banqueters at the Oriental Hotel toasted: "The ladies of San Francisco — whose eyes eclipse the gas" * * * U. S. Engineers, equipped with a WPA appropriation of $3,803,900, took on the job of making Treasure Island 3 years ago today.

When John Vioget, the Swiss engineer who made the first survey of Yerba Buena, and Andrew Hoeppner, the German musician who taught music to General Mariano G. Vallejo's children, both began to win renown for their eating abili- ties about 1841, an eating contest between them was arranged. The event was staged in rounds. A bite-by-bite description: round one, several plates of pancakes — Hoeppner' s by a plate; round two, beefsteaks — Hoeppner' s by a T-bone; round three, GISADO (meat stew) — Hoeppner's by a spoonful; round four, ASADO (broiled beef) — even; round five, tamales and beans — V to get's by a bean; round six, pudding, cakes, pies, and black coffee — Hoeppner' s by a hearty helping. Vioget slowed down on the cakes and barely managed to come out chewing on pie and coffee, but Hoeppner was still masticating easily at the bell. Decision: Hoeppner on point si

20 ALMANAC for THIRTY-MINERS

February ADVICE T0 TOURISTS

x *,is§ i n*i j If you want to be liked in gan Francisc0j

Remember not to call it "Frisco." If you'd rather not arouse our ire, Remember the earthquake was "the fire." If you want to earn our friendliness, Remember to knock Los Angeles.

M. A. deF.

12 SUNDAY — Lincoln's Birthday: program at Opera Home tomorrow * * * Frederick. Douglass Day * * * Several persons were wounded, one fatally, this day in 1867, when a party of white laborers tried to prevent a group of Chinese laborers from working at South Beach, San Francisco * * * Unfortunately San Francisco had no Chinese hospital until about this time 57 years later, when the only one in the United States was completed.

1 3 MONDAY — A tradition of privacy thousands of years old was broken for the first time a year ago today when the Loong King Tien Yee Association (Four-Family Tong) opened its reception rooms to a white gathering; the occasion was a tea given by the American Friends of the Chinese People to aid war-torn China.

14 TUESDAY — St. Valentine's Day * * * Theodore Dreiser lectures at the Curran Theater, II a.m. * * * Pianist Josef Hoff- mann plays at Opera House * * * In 1890, to the anguish of the righteous, San Francisco had 3,117 liquor dispensaries — one for every 95 inhabitants * * * "Warning to evildoers: the Prosecut- ing Attorney in 1876 was a Mr. Noah Flood.

15 WEDNESDAY — "Emperor" Norton issued to the Oakland papers this day in 1869 the proclamation: "Norton, Dei Gratia, Em- peror United States and Protector of Mexico, being anxious that the physicians should continue unabated in their zeal for the total oblit- eration of the small-pox, do hereby command the city authorities, in all places, where the disease has been or may continue, to make

ALMANAC for THIRTY-NINERS 21

compensation in honor or money to all physicians who may make the most effective cures in cases of small-pox — Norton I."

16 THURSDAY — Contralto Kathryn Meisle sings at Opera House * * * Foreign correspondent John Gunther lectures at Dreamland Auditorium * * * Marian Anderson sings at Oakland Auditorium Theater * * * Three-day State convention of Cham- ber of Commerce secretaries begins in Berkeley * * * This day in 1903 the Eschscholtzia — better known as the golden poppy — was adopted as State flower * * * On February 16, 1914, Silas Chris- tofferson made the first non-stop air flight between San Francisco and Los Angeles.

17 FRIDAY — California's first telephone exchange opened in San Francisco this day in 1 877 * * * The worst tragedy in modern bridge building occurred 2 years ago today when a platform de- clared unsafe by inspectors broke loose under the Golden Gate Bridge and plunged 1 1 men to their deaths.

18 SATURDAY — The Golden Gate International Exposition begins its 28 8 -day stay on Treasure Island * * * Opening exhibit in the Livestock Barn is the all-world Beef Cattle Show ^mtil the 28th * * * In the year 1841, 30 families were living in San Fran- cisco.

In 1863 San Francisco maidens and their swains passed St. Valentine's Day in a flurry of antici- patory delight, awaiting the arrival of "Apple- ton's Valentine Express." A caparisoned coach drawn by four prancing steeds made the rounds, delivering valentines "every hour in the day in every part of the city." The company's adver- tisement waxed lyrical:

"The riders are mounted, they dash up the street, And many a maid feels her heart wildly beat, And as Cupid's postmen's approach she can see, Cries: 'Ob! I hope they have got one for me!' "

22 ALMANAC for THIRTY-MINERS

I j1 -jj-i yr.i § -rY.yr/vi ^an Francisco's French colony recommends:

-T COrUiiry ONION SOUP

Simmer medium-sized onions cut in quarters in a few tablespoonfuls of stock. Add l/z pint cream, a platter of toasted crusts, and 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese. Serve steaming hot — with 1 tablespoon brandy and 1 wineglass white sherry added.

1 9 SUNDAY — Chinatown celebrates the 2,490th Chinese New Year with sidewalk displays of Sar Teen Yo (citrus fruit) , water lily plants, and blossoming trees; Chinese businessmen lose their credit unless they clear their debts by today * * * The first Chinese in San Francisco is thought to have been a cabin boy on the trading ship Bolivar, which dropped anchor in 1838 * * * The first recorded Chinese resident was one Chum Ming, here in 1847. A,

20 MONDAY — Pageant of Jewels * * * Cattlemen's Day at the Exposition * * * Pacific Coast Society of Orthodontists begins a 3 -day meeting * * * "Stella", nude and buxom, painted in Italy, was an unexpected highlight of the $50,000,000 Panama-Pacific In- ternational Exposition, which opened in San Francisco this day in 1 9 1 5 .

21 TUESDAY — Shrove Tuesday * * * Marian Anderson, contralto, sings at Opera House * * * Denis Conan Doyle lectures at the Curran Theater, 11 a.m. * * * Only 10 days after severance of diplomatic relations with Germany in February 1917 President Benjamin Ide "Wheeler of the University of California was jumping the gun with a request to the regents for power to put the University, its entire equipment and resources at the government's disposal. War was not declared until April 6.

22 WEDNESDAY — Washington's Birthday * * * Ash Wednes- day * * * Sons and Daughters of the American Revolution cele- brate at the Exposition * * * Governor Manuel Micheltorena started spending his way to prosperity this day in 1844 by ordering

ALMANAC for THIRTY-NINERS 23

three bricklayers from Santa Clara and a carpenter from San Jose to begin work on the new custom house.

23 THURSDAY — Deep-sea diver Capt. John D. Craig gives a -motion-picture lecture at Veterans' Auditorium * * * The streets were in an uproar this day in 1853, long remembered as "Black Fri- day", when frantic depositors hammered at closed bank doors; among leading firms that went to the wall were Page, Bacon & Co. and Adams & Co. * * * Seal Rocks were deeded to San Francisco this day in 1887 by an Act of Congress and placed under jurisdiction of the Park Commission. We wonder whether the seals were notified.

24 FRIDAY — Estonia and Latvia celebrate Baltic Republics Day at the Exposition * * * Paul Hindemith, conductor-violinist, appears with the Symphony this afternoon and tomorrow night at Opera House * * * Seven years ago today Governor James Rolph received the official papers sanctioning construction of San Francisco- Oakland Bay Bridge.

25 SATURDAY — Order of E. Clampus Vitus holds forth on Treasure Island * * * First public crier to herald important events on the streets of San Francisco was Charles Kimball, who began his shouting in 1848 * * * And in 1862 one could be whisked from North Beach to South Park in a horse cart for lOc.

The story is told that in 19 05 a Santa Clara prune

grower, Martin Seely, was plagued with labor

problems. His fruit pickers were monkeys — the

simian kind — 500 of which he had imported

from Panama. Seely divided the monkeys into

crews of 5 0, each crew under the direction of a

human foreman who had responsibility for train-

ing his gang to pick the fruit. The endeavor

failed because the monkeys could not be taught the ways of the "American"

system. Having always helped themselves to the fruit they pickedy they

could see no reason for divvying up with the boss.

24 ALMANAC for THIRTY-MINERS

26 SUNDAY — First Sunday in Lent * * * Marian Anderson at Opera House this afternoon * * * Trudi Schoop Comic Ballet at the Curran Theater * * * The Chinese Ladies Garment Work- ers' Union, Local 108, began, a year ago today, the first Chinese strike supported by an American labor union.

27 MONDAY — The Fair celebrates Dominican Republic Inde- pendence Day (1844) * * * San Francisco had its own book- burning in 1834, when mission padres seized and burned scientific books brought by one Dr. Alva from Mexico. 'gh

28 TUESDAY — David Seabury interprets modern psychology at the Curran Theater, 11 a. m. * * * Richard Tauber sings at Oakland Auditorium * * * The first mail from the East arrived this day in 1 849 on the steamship California along with 365 frenzied Argonauts taken aboard at Panama. The crew promptly deserted to try its luck in the mines.

In '49 speculation was in calico, cork, and nails; today it is in power, chemicals, motion pictures — but the place is / \ the same: Montgomery Street, the Wall Street of the West ' . . . The Street was a mud flat, lapped by the wakes of departing clipper ships, when its first financiers began exchanging gold dust. In the rainy season it became a river of mire where animals — and even fallen drunks — sank out of sight. Finally merchants and bankers sank a founda- tion of cook stoves, bags of flour, New Orleans cotton, hard-twist tobacco — whatever goods were deemed un- salable. They conducted their curbstone transactions standing on the lids of the stoves, striking with their canes at the rats that bounded past . . . Today Montgomery Street is a narrow slit between towering walls. In the foggy dawn, sleek motorcars arrive carrying brokers in time for opening of the New York. Exchange. Nine o'clock brings the staccato of stenographers' heels, eleven the wind-blown trouser legs of early-lunching customers. By mid-afternoon the day, for Montgomery Street, is ending . . . Dusk deepens the canyon. Savory odors drift from doorways of restaurants that sold their first meals for gold dust. Idle newsboys draw together at corners. And artists hurry to their historic studios at the end of the Street, where it reaches toward a flaming sky. D. D. W.

1849 ... "Around the curving shore of the Bay . . . the town is planted and seems scarcely yet to have taken root, for tents, canvas, plank, mud, and adobe houses are mingled together with the least apparent attempt at order . . ." writes globe-trotter Bayard Taylor, disembarking mid a forest of masts to inspect El Dorado. "On every side stood . . . canvas sheds . . . covered with all kinds of signs, in all languages. Great quantities of goods were piled up in the open air . . . The streets were full of people . . . of as diverse and bizarre a character as the houses: "Yankees of every possible variety, native Californians in SARAPES (sic) and sombreros, Chilians, Sonorians, Kanakas from Hawaii, Chinese with long tails, Malays armed with their everlasting creeses, and others in whose embrowned and bearded visages it was impos- sible to recognize any especial nationality . . ."

March

1 WEDNESDAY — Said visitor G. K. Chesterton 8 years ago today: "I am amazed . . . your hills are fascinating; I must hire a car and coast down them."

2 THURSDAY — Richard Tauber sings at Opera House * * * Dr. William Moultrie Marston shows his "Lie-Detector" at Veterans' Auditorium * * * The Dashaway Temperance Society struck at Demon Rum in 1859 by having water faucets installed on street corners.

3 FRIDAY — Japanese Doll Festival at the Fair * * * Sym- phony today and tomorrow at Opera House * * * On March 3, 1893, convicted murderer Jose Gabriel was hanged in San Quentin Prison's first execution.

4 SATURDAY — Welsh celebrate St. David's Day at the Fair * * * The Pennsylvania fire brigade boys beat the Monumentals to a tar-barrel fire, lit in honor of Lincoln's inauguration March 4, 1861, but had to go back and haul their rivals' engine out of a hole in the street — which they did by ripping off its front wheels.

26 ALMANAC for THIRTY-NINERS

March, by reputation, may be windy, and so may San Francisco. Nevertheless, March in San Francisco is less windy than any of the 6 months following, though the record south wind of March 4-5, 1879, blew in at a rate of 47 miles per hour.

5 SUNDAY — Purim: Jewish holiday * * * Malta Day on Treasure Island * * * Comedian Harmonists at the Curran The- ater and Richard Tauber at Opera House this afternoon * * * About noon this day in 1885, Sigismund Daniel wicz, a member of Karl Marx's International Workingmen's Association, found excited seamen along the waterfront protesting wage cuts. He gave them ad- vice on the formation of their union, the Sailor's Union of the Pa- cific, which 4 days later adopted its constitution and by-laws.

6 MONDAY — This day in 1861 the Alt a California's editor reported witnessing at a local tavern the feat — "as legitimate as it was unprecedented" — of a Teutonic gentleman who peeled off his coat, piled three chairs on a table, seized the table in his teeth, and hoisted the whole load upward so forcibly as to thrust the uppermost chair through the paper ceiling.

7 TUESDAY — Arbor Day celebration at the Exposition * * * Birthday of Luther Burbank: school children are requested by legis- lative act to plant trees * * * Reminisced 90 -year-old Julia Judge, in Federal Court a year ago today, about early San Francisco: "There were quite a few shootings then, but it was editors and so on — not like the murders we have now." ,

8 WEDNESDAY — The American flag replaced that of Mexico over Castillo del San Joaquin, which thereupon became Fort Winfield Scott, this day in 1 847 * * * California's new legal executioner, a 2 -ton lethal gas chamber of stainless steel, was being installed at San Quentin a year ago today.

ALMANAC for THIRTY-NINERS 27

9 THURSDAY — Sir Ronald Storrs, Ameen Ribani, and Dr. Ja- cob Weinstein discuss ffWko Shall Rule Palestine?" at Dreamland Auditorium * * * Women's Safety League of Northern Califor- nia visits the Exposition * * * Stanford Charter Day * * * At a "harmony" meeting of Democrats in Portsmouth Square this day in 1850 one faction was asked to withdraw when several fights broke out, whereupon the quarreling assembly divided into opposing sides and fought until all were exhausted.

10 FRIDAY — At the Opera House: Alexander Brailowsky plays with the Symphony this afternoon and tomorrow night; Igor Gorin sings tonight * * * Order of Hadassah visits the fair * * * A move to declare the independence of California as a sovereign state was so "rapidly and openly extending" about this time in 1850 — wrote Commodore Thomas Ap C. Jones from his flagship — that it could "only be restrained by the navy, and by keeping a ship or two constantly in San Francisco."

\ 1 SATURDAY — Three Alcatraz convicts who tried to escape from "The Rock" 9 years ago today by swimming ashore were nearly drowned in the Bay's swift-running tides. Eight years later two other prisoners followed their example. They were never heard of again.

Editor Dr. Robert Semple was so unimpressed by

James Marshall's discovery of gold that he devoted

only 68 matter-of-fact words to the first published

notice of it on March 15, 1848: "GOLD MINE

FOUND. — In the newly made raceway of the Saw

Mill recently erected by Captain Suffer, on the

American Fork, gold has been found in considerable

quantities. One person brought thirty dollars worth

to New Helvetia, gathered there in a short time. California, no doubt, is

rich in mineral wealth, great chances here for scientific capitalists. Gold has

been found in almost every part of the country."

28 ALMANAC for THIRTY-NINERS

"\ yl* /V V r*h How do the strong committees

jLVJLCl'f C'l I Assure the world of peace

By talk among the cutaways

And the striped trouser crease? How do the strong committees

Preserve the status quo By documents, cigar-smoke,

And the wiggling of the toe?

M.G.

1 2 SUNDAY — fourteenth anniversary of Sun Yat Sen's death: Chinese patriots gather at his statue in St. Mary's Park to collect money for war victims * * * The first union label was invented by San Francisco cigarmakers to distinguish their cigars from Chi- nese-made varieties. (K

1 3 MONDAY — Said the Star's fighting editor this day in 1 849 : "The Star costs $6 a year and it is a mistake for people to imagine that for the sum named they can buy the editor" * * * Less could be said for the Board of Supervisors this day in 1907, when the Ruef-Schmitz City Hall graft ring was exposed for taking bribes. The Grand Jury returned 383 indictments, 47 against Mayor Schmitz alone.

14 TUESDAY — Burns Mantle prophesies the future of Amer- ican drama at the Curran Theater, 11 a.m. * * * National Coun- cil of Jewish Women gathers at the Exposition * * * On March 14, 1870, the Legislature set aside 1,013 acres of sand dunes for the creation of Golden Gate Park.

15 WEDNESDAY — The Ides of March: dictators beware * * * Public School Business Officials State Convention at Oak- land until the 18th * * * Yerba Buena's first alcalde, N. Padilla, wanted to resign this day in 1845, inasmuch as he was only 24 years old, only an 8 -months resident of the town, had no offices, and wanted to go back to Sonoma anyway.

ALMANAC for THIRTY-MINERS 29

16 THURSDAY — "Women under Fascism, Communism, and American Democracy" is tonight's Town Hall symposium at Dream- land Auditorium, with Doctors Marie Bentivoglio, Anna Louise Strong, and Ruth Alexander participating * * * A rally of 1,200 unemployed, demanding jobs this day in 1870, greeted with applause the Irishman who "spake a bit of me mind" on a certain "Misther Humphreys", legislator: "... it would be telling him more, if he was working night and day for a spell, to set hungry men to work whose votes put him where he is, sure, than be lobbying at Sacra-

17 FRIDAY — St. Patrick's Day * * * Ireland Day at the Ex- position: South of Market Boys lunch on corned beef and cabbage * * * Alice Roosevelt Longworth lectures at Opera House to- night * * * Roland Hayes sings with the Symphony at Opera House this afternoon and tomorrow night * * * The Japanese steam corvette Candinmarrah, first vessel ever permitted to sail for a foreign country from Japan, arrived this day in 1860.

18 SATURDAY — De Molay Day on Treasure Island * * * Wells, Fargo & Co. began transacting "in connection with their Ex- press Business ... a general Banking, Exchange and Collection Busi- ness" 87 years ago today in a small two-story brick building on Montgomery Street.

Honors for the first successful flight in a heavier-than- air flying machine were claimed March 17, 1884, by John J. Montgomery of Santa Clara County, who took of in a homemade glider from' a hill near Otay and soared 600 feet. As a physics professor at the University of Santa Clara, he went on experimenting. Twelve years later he manned what was doubtless the first pick- a-back glider, hoisted aloft by a hot-air balloon. When balloon and glider were but a dot in the clouds, he cast off, swooped and dipped above gaping spectators, and landed on the spot he had previously designated. Montgomery was killed in a glider crash October 23,1911.

30 ALMANAC for THIRTY-NINERS

"\ ft g~4*A x>l| San Francisco's *49ers recommended:

iVlUT Lil HANGTOWN FRY

First concocted by a Hangtown (Placerville) chef in answer to a miner's demand for "some- thing different", it consisted of oysters, bacon, eggs, hot peppers, chili sauce, and milk dumped into a skillet and fried. Some San Francisco chop houses still serve it.

19 SUNDAY — This day in 1851 two Italian priests, Fathers Giovanni Nobili and Michele Accolti, founded Santa Clara College, which in 1912 became the University of Santa Clara * * * UEco delta Patria, San Francisco's first Italian newspaper, was founded this day in 1859 * * * The same day in 1892 saw the first Stan- ford-California football clash.

20 MONDAY — Although he was granted the first trans-Bay ferry boat franchise in 1852, Horace W. Carpentier was not the first ferryman. The first was Indian Chief Marin, who hung up his war bow and went into the business about 1814. Carpentier Js schedules were more regular than the Chief's, however. /ffi)

21 TUESDAY — Spring begins this morning * * * William Rose Benet speaks on modern poetry at the Curran Theater, 11 a.m. * * * Robert Casadesus, pianist, plays with the San Francisco Sym- phony at Oakland Auditorium Theater * * * A $20 reward was posted this day in 1 854 for "one light bay and one dark mare MULE . . . with a rope around each of their necks. Whether these critters have hanged themselves or not makes no difference. We will pay the above reward to see the bodies delivered . . . dead or alive. They are both American mules."

22 WEDNESDAY — Memo: the next time you have to dig up an extra penny for sales tax, you can blame an old Spanish custom. A sales levy was first imposed on hide and tallow traders in 1846 to pay inspectors' salaries.

ALMANAC for THIRTY-NINERS

31

23 THURSDAY — Bertrand Russell lectures at Veterans' Audi- torium * * * Charter Day atU.C. * * * Seventy-one years ago today Governor Henry H. Haight signed the charter of the Univer- sity of California, established by act of the Legislature.

24 FRIDAY — Robert Casadesus plays with the Symphony at Opera House this afternoon and tomorrow night * * * Annual student opera at Mills College today and tomorrow * * * San Franciscans were pointing with pride this day in 1854 as the San Francisco Sprinkling Company began dust-subduing operations with "good strong horses and efficient apparatus" * * * A "Doctress Kammel" opened a "Female Hospital" at 92 Broadway the same day, billing herself as "an old practitioner who . . . has her diploma to show."

25 SATURDAY — Annunciation Day * * * Greek Indepen- dence Day (1 821): Greeks celebrate with folk dancing at the Expo- sition * * * Ethel Barrymore appears at Oakland Auditorium Theater * * * The incorporated town of Oakland this day in 1 8 54 reincorporated as the city of Oakland.

Passengers on Panama Mail steamers were spared

the perils of boarding by pirates when jive "rebs"

cruising about the Bay in the schooner J. M.

CHAPMAN were arrested March 15, 18 63. They

were Kidgely Greathouse, Asbury Harpending,

William C. Law, Lorenzo C. Libby, and Alfred

Kubery. In their possession were letters of marque

from Jefferson Davis authorizing them to "burn,

bond or take" any United States vessel or citizen and a proclamation urging

the people of California to throw of United States authority. To Alcatraz

Island, which they had planned to capture, the first three were hustled of

and there tried, convicted and sentenced to 10 years imprisonment and

$10,000 fine each.

32 ALMANAC for THIRTY-NINERS

26 SUNDAY — Two years ago fortune hunters on the Bolinas beach were collecting what they thought was ambergris, but chem- ists pronounced it plain sewage residue.

27 MONDAY — On March 27, 1854, Mayor Garrison was pleased to see "consternation among the frail ones" at his move to restrain them from "sitting before their open windows and doors" and from "flaunting, perfumed parade on foot or on horseback through the streets."

28 TUESDAY — Richard Crooks sings at Opera House * * * Bertita Harding lectures at the Curran Theater, 11 a. m. * * * This day in 1776 Lt. Col. Juan Bautista de Anza set up a cross on his chosen site for a presidio at Fort Point. XB]\

29 WEDNESDAY — A year ago today were sentenced the un- lucky seven arrested — in the first raid in 20 years — for reviving the ancient sport of cockfighting.

30 THURSDAY — Hon. Lawrence M. Judd lectures on Ha- waii at Veterans' Auditorium * * * City and County Federation of Women's Clubs meets at the Fair * * * The first Europeans to see Carquinez Strait, Capt. Pedro Pages and expedition, stood on its southern shore March 30, 1772, unable to cross over.

31 FRIDAY — Symphony this afternoon and tomorrow night, with violinist Nathan Milstein * * * Among the Oregon's 350 passengers this day in 1 849 was Col. John W. Geary, the city's first postmaster, bringing 5,000 letters.

For a quarterly tuition fee of $12, pupils at the first public school, opened by Thomas Douglas in the redwood school- house on the Plaza April 3, 1 848, were offered instruction in: reading, writing, spelling and defining, geography, mental and practical arithmetic, English grammar and composition, mental and moral science, ancient and modern history, chem- istry and natural philosophy, geometry, trigonometry, alge- bra, astronomy, surveying and navigation, Latin and Greek.

1859 ... Only a quarter century has passed since a college boy, spending his "Two Years Before the Mast" on a hide-and-tallow boat, saw nothing here but the waters of the Bay lapping lonely shores. He returns a middle- aged man, Richard Henry Dana, Esq. As he looks from his windows "over the city of San Francisco with its store houses, towers and steeples, its court houses, theatres and hospitals, its daily journals; its well-filled professions; its fortresses and lighthouses, its wharves and harbor with their thousand-ton clipper ships more in number than London or Liverpool sheltered that day"; as he looks across the Bay and beholds "a beautiful town on the fertile wooded shores of the Contra Costa, and capacious freighters and passenger carriers to all parts of the great bay and its tributaries with lines of their smoke on the horizon"; as he sees all these things and reflects on what he "once was and saw here and what now" surrounds him, he can "scarcely keep . . . hold on reality at all"

April

1 SATURDAY — All Fools' Day * * * San Jose State College program at the Exposition * * * City of Berkeley holds open house * * * A fast rider for the California Star Express, first in the State, left this day in 1 848 for Independence, Missouri, on a promised round-trip schedule of 60 days (postage 50c per letter). The first trip was the last * * * On the same day Dr. John Townsend, first resident physician in Yerba Buena, was appointed mayor of the town * * * On April 1, 1872, was organized San Francisco's Bohemian Club * * * This day in 1878 was incorporated the city of Berkeley.

34 ALMANAC for THIRTY-NINERS

April

Capricious April has been known to fool the statisticians. Ordinarily April showers will fall on only 6 days out of the month, they say, and spill but 1.52 inches altogether. But rain fell on 17 days out of 30 in April 1880, totaling a record high for the month of 10.06 inches.

2 SUNDAY — Palm Sunday * * * Interstate Junior Livestock. Show on Treasure Island until the 8th * * * Buddhist Day at the Fair * * * Dominican College has its day on the Island, too * * * Reported the News Letter this day in 1887: "The com- bined literati of the Pacific Coast were dumb-stricken . . . upon reading that Joaquin Miller had acquired a hundred acres of land near Fruitvale. A Pacific Coast poet the owner of an acre is an anomaly in the history of the coast."

3 MONDAY — American Association of Health and Physical Education convenes until the 6th * * * Registration at Stanford for spring quarter, which begins tomorrow * * * The San Fran- cisco mint, first U. S. mint in California, began operations this day in 1853 — capacity, $100,000 in gold coin daily * * * On April 3, 1 894, the San Francisco contingent of Coxey's Army started east- ward, 600 strong, on its hunger march to Washington. (0)

4 TUESDAY — Feast of the Passover: Jewish, until the llth * * * A 4 5 -foot whale, stranded on Duxbury Reef at Bolinas, was causing neighborhood residents to wrinkle their noses in April 1923. Dynamite, whale oil, and huge piles of driftwood were re- quired to effect its destruction.

5 WEDNESDAY — The Tsar's Chamberlain, Nikolai Petrovich Rezanof, arrived from Alaska this day in 1806 on the Juno, being careful to anchor beyond the range of the Presidio guns, and came ashore to bargain for fresh food to feed starving Sitka.

ALMANAC for THIRTY-NINERS 35

6 THURSDAY — Holy Thursday * * * The Exposition cele- brates Army Day * * * "March of Time" photographer Julian Bryan shows his motion pictures at Veterans9 Auditorium * * * "All sham — a supurb (sic) take-in, as was ever got up to guzzle the gullible," wrote the Star's acting editor, E. C. Kemble, of the gold rush, on his return from a trip to the mines about this time in 1848.

7 FRIDAY — Good Friday: special services in Catholic and Epis- copal churches * * * Celebration of Russian Easter begins at 11 p. m. in Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, Van Ness Avenue and Green Street, and Cathedral of the Holy Virgin, Fell and Fulton Streets * * * This day in 1853 was laid the cornerstone of Marine Hos- pital on Rincon Point.

8 SATURDAY — Birthday of Buddha: Japanese celebrate with cherry blossom festival at Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park, usually on the first Sunday trees are blooming * * * The Fair honors Stanford University * * * "The bark Emily Banning will give an exhibition of the submarine apparatus," announced a newspaper report of this date, 1856. "A bell weighing 6,600 pounds will be put in water and an operator descend in it . . ."

In San Francisco's first election of a County Sheriff, April 1, 1850, neither candidate beclouded the issue by intro- ducing political arguments. The two contenders were Col. J. J. Bryant, tavern-keeper, and Col. John C. Hayes, ex-Texas Ranger. At first the electorate seemed reluctant to choose. At noon, therefore, Bryant began lavishly dis- pensing refreshments from his bar. It looked like a Bryant victory by late afternoon, when he started propelling his

fuests to the polls. And then Col. Hayes appeared on a lack charger. Up and down he rode, performing such prodigies of horsemanship that the populace cheered him to the echo. In fact, so mellow were they with Bryant's whiskey that they elected Hayes by an enthusiastic majority. H. M.

36 ALMANAC for THIRTY-MINERS

April

Water should be used for bathing, or for travel, Or — gently, as in April rains — to fall,

And sometimes, for the very young, as chasers, But never, internally, at all.

M. W.

9 SUNDAY — Easter: sunrise services on Mount Davidson h * * What to wear was settled once and for all in 1874 by the Evening Bulletin's authoritative fashion note: "The woman's shoe as it is today, with its low, broad heel, wide sole and high top, is the best ever designed and never will be superseded by anything more becoming, more tasty or more available for all purposes."

1 0 MONDAY — Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, West- ern Union Meeting Association, until the 15th * * * "A piratical midnight attempt to join Clay Street Wharf and Long Wharf", un- dertaken in April 1854 by a group of mysterious malefactors, who began building a slip from the end of Long Wharf under cover of darkness, was frustrated in the nick of time when police "battered the pile-driving gentlemen into submission."

1 1 TUESDAY — The steamboat business suffered a setback this day in 1853 when the Jenny Lind, crack stern wheeler on the San Francisco- Alviso run, burst its boilers and foundered in the Bay with 3 1 lives lost.

1 2 WEDNESDAY — Probably the only occasion on which Yan- kee Doodle and The Star-Spangled Banner were introduced in the sacred oratorio, The Creation, occurred April 12, 1862, when a San Francisco performance was halted for the reading of news of the battle of Pittsburg Landing, whereupon the audience burst out sing- ing while the orchestra accompanied.

ALMANAC for THIRTY-MINERS 37

13 THURSDAY — The garrison at Castillo del San Joaquin, first fort in the Presidio, threw off Spanish rule this day in 1822 and swore allegiance to the Republic of Mexico.

14 FRIDAY — Pan- American Day at the Exposition * *'* Inter- American Travel Congress until the 21st * * * Tito Schipa with the Symphony this afternoon and tomorrow night * * * The whole town turned out April 14, 1860, to watch the Sacramento steamer Antelope loom out of the dark, bearing in its bow the first Pony Express horse and rider to reach San Francisco. They brought letters carried from St. Joseph, Missouri, in 10^2 days.

15 SATURDAY — Young People's Symphony at Opera House this morning * * * Alameda County Retail Grocers Association Food Show at Oakland Auditorium until the 23rd * * * One hun- dred and one years ago today the first white child born at Yerba Buena, Rosalia Vallejo Leese, made her appearance * * * On April 15, 1850, was incorporated the city of San Francisco * * * This night in 1879, when the curtain went down on the Passion Play at Maguire's Grand Opera House, actor James O'Neill (father of dramatist Eugene O'Neill) was arrested for impersonating a scrip- tural character on the stage.

"The latest thing in Saucelito dudism," an- nounced the NEWS LETTER of April 2, 1887, ff/s wearing a green Tarn o'Shanter with yellow flan- nel trousers. The fashion was imported from Brighton by a young daisy who used to drive a costermonger's cart, but . . . was compelled to fly the country , and set up as a British aristocrat in Saucelito. His wonderful overhand service at tennis, acquired by holding a whip over the recalcitrant donkey, at once admitted him into the first society. By the end of April, 1887, it is con- fidently expected . . . that he will be engaged to an heiress."

38 ALMANAC for THIRTY-NINERS

April

Habitues of San Francisco's Chinatown recom- mend:

A CHINESE MEAL

Soups — Egg Flower or Gai Choy Gong (Chi- nese mustard greens soup) ; Entrees — Polo Gai (chicken with pineapple), Hung Ngun Gai Ding (diced chicken with almonds) , Char Siu (roast pork), Chinese Sausage, Shrimps Chicken Style, or Crab Fooyoung (omelette) ; Vegetables — Mar Tai Yuk (water chestnuts with meat and sauce), Gai Lan Yuk (Chinese broccoli with meat and sauce), or Sweet Peas; Dessert — Almond Cookies and Tea.

16 SUNDAY — Low Sunday * * * On Treasure Island: Na- tional Garden Week begins * * * Parent-Teachers Association has its day at the Fair * * * News of Lincoln's assassination in April 1865 so angered loyal Unionists that they wrecked the offices of the pro-Confederate Democratic Press. The paper had to be re- named the Examiner to reappear safely.

1 7 MONDAY — Daughters of California Pioneers gather at the Exposition * * * The Bulletin gave "the thanks of the citizens" April 17, 1856, to 10 draymen who "with their own means and la- bor" repaired Clay Street Wharf when "property owners refused to do anything."

18 TUESDAY — San Francisco Day on Treasure Island * * * On its third day in San Francisco, New York's Metropolitan Opera Company was rudely routed out of bed at 5:10 a. m., 33 years ago today, by the worst earthquake disaster in American history. Ter- rified Enrico Caruso swore he would never set foot in the city again. He never did.

19 WEDNESDAY — Astronomers predict a solar eclipse * * * Masonic Order celebrates at the Exposition * * * Jan Kiepura sings at Opera House * * * Aroused by a fumbling policeman

ALMANAC for THIRTY-NINERS 39

from the sleep into which he had fallen on his way home this night in 1856, Mr. T. H. Carter discovered "his pantaloons pocket was minus of the bag of gold that was there when he sat down to rest." Police found no clues, said the Bulletin. A

20 THURSDAY — Sonoma County Day at the Fair * * * York Kite Bodies and Knights Templar Conclave at Oakland until the 25th * * * Mounted soldiers, California's first regular post- men, inaugurated a twice-weekly schedule this day in 1 847, riding from San Francisco and San Diego to meet at a half-way point and exchange mail bags.

21 FRIDAY — At the Exposition: Italy Day * * * Annual Sportsmen's Exposition at Oakland Municipal Auditorium until Sunday * * * News item, April 21, 1866: "In God We Trust: The first double -eagle with this legend . . . was coined at the Branch Mint in this city and exhibited by Mr. Francis Bret Harte . . . yester- day morning, April 20."

22 SATURDAY — Young People's Symphony at Opera House this morning * * * The Exposition commemorates John Muir * * * Northern California Friendly Indian Pow-wow on Treasure Island * * * On April 22, after destroying 4 square miles of the city, the great fire of 1906 was stopped at Van Ness Avenue by dynamite; soldiers blew up every building on the east side of the street from Golden Gate Avenue to Greenwich Street.

Militant moralists felt vindicated when they prowled among the ruins of San Francisco late in April 1906, but others more San Fran- ciscan in temperament sang Char- ley field's jingle as they began setting the warm stones back upon each other:

"If, as they say, God spanked the town

For being over- frisky — Why did He burn all the churches down And spare Hotaling's whiskey?"

(Hotaling's warehouse still stoodt dominating a razed business district.)

40 ALMANAC for THIRTY-NINERS

April

Oh, give me a big silver dollar To throw on a bar with a bang;

A dollar all creased will do for the East But we want our money to clang!

M.A.deF.

23 SUNDAY — Birthday of William Shakespeare (1564): an- nual Shakespearean Declamation Festival on Treasure Island * * * Humphrey -Weidman Dance Group at the Curran Theater this af- ternoon * * * Today at the Fair: Lake County Day; today and tomorrow: Knights Templar celebrate * * * In Golden Gate Park's Shakespeare Garden the poet's bust, set in an ivy-grown wall, overlooks a plot where blooms every flower, shrub, and tree men- tioned in his works.

24 MONDAY — Brig. -Gen. Edwin Sumner arrived this day in 1861 to relieve suspected pro-Confederate Albert S. Johnston of the Pacific Coast command. Next day Johnston started south to join the "rebs."

25 TUESDAY — Gol d Star Mothers' Day at the Exposition * * * About this time in 1 843 the first piano in the Bay Region was unloaded from the brigantine George W. Henry and sold to Gen. Mariano G. Vallejo, who offered Andrew Hoeppner, German mu- sician, some 7 square miles of land for 5 years of music lessons.

26 WEDNESDAY — California Federation of Music Clubs 3- day program opens at the Fair * * * In April 1868, editor Jerome Barney of San Rafael's Marin County Journal wrote: "The San Francisco papers are going into raptures over Mark Twain's lecture on Pilgrim Life. This miserable scribbler whose letters in the Alta sickened everyone who read them ... has the audacity and impu- dence to attempt to lecture to intelligent people." "Bh

*JXr

ALMANAC for THIRTY-NINERS 41

27 THURSDAY — Student peace strike day: on campus or off — depending on whether the administration says yes or no — 17. C. students demonstrate against -war * * * The cornerstone of the Stock Exchange was laid this day in 1876 at Pine and Mont- gomery Streets.

28 FRIDAY — About time for Oakland's California Spring Gar- den Show * * * With the Symphony this afternoon and tomorrow night: E. Robert Scbmitz, piano; Naoum Blinder, violin; and Henry Woempner, flute * * * Off for Hongkong in the steerage of the Mary Wbittredge this day in 1846 sailed 46 Chinese passengers to end their days in the "flowery kingdom", disgusted with the "out- side barbarians" of this country.

29 SATURDAY — Young People's Symphony at Opera House this morning * * * Japan Day at the Exposition; also Santa Clara University Day * * * On April 29, 1854, appeared the first issue of the Gold Hills' News, first all-Chinese newspaper, so called be- cause "Gold Hills" is the Chinese name for San Francisco.

It was probably without superstition that Wells Fargo and Company receipted for a medium-sized, can on Friday, the 13th of April, 1866. Down the outside of the receptacle ran a syrupy substance, known by name to the purser of the ship that brought the can — though neither he nor Wells Fargo knew its purpose. For three days the can was left in a rear courtyard. Then one of the com- pany's clerks decided to learn its contents. While two interested companions stood by, he applied a chisel to the lid, raised a hammer, and struck. He vanished immediately, as did his watchers. A huge hole appeared in the ground, the express office was wrecked, and the new brick building next door moved 2 inches on its foundations. In all, 10 persons were killed and 1 1 wounded. The substance was the first shipment of Nobel's new discovery, nitroglycerine.

42 ALMANAC for THIRTY-NINERS

30 SUNDAY — The East begins saving daylight today: turn on your regular 6 o'clock. Eastern radio program at 5 * * * This is Santa Rosa's Day at the Fair, as -well as Western Women's Clubs Day * * * The first Italians to make San Francisco their home were Capt. Pietro Bonzi and his son Orazio, who arrived in 1840. Like most of their successors, they settled in North Beach.

A tiny black man, under 100 pounds, fought his way Into San Francisco's affections near the end of the late century. Mighty in the ring, he was even mightier in a barroom rough and tumble, where he whipped opponents two and three times his size. Yet he was a friendly little fellow, happiest when he was doing someone a kindly turn. On the street he wore a coat too long for him, whence his nick- name, "Deacon Jones" * * * Bullies kept their dis- tance, remembering what had happened to "Buck", a good 200-pounder, when he met the Deacon one night in a Barbary Coast saloon. "Come and let me rub your head for luck" cried Buck, grabbing the Deacon. "Big white man," the Deacon said, "kindly let go mah arm. Ah ain't yo' friend, Ah nevah seen yo} befo'." Buck blinked at talk like that — then jerked the Deacon off his feet. What happened next happened very fast. The Deacon jumped on Bucks chest, clutched both his ears in his hands, butted him on the face with his head. In less than half a minute the big fellow sprawled on the floor, hollering for help * * * At dawn on the morning of April 18, 1906, the Deacon, after a night of it, reached the old saloon at O'Farrell and Divisadero Streets and found the bartender sweeping out. His money gone, the Deacon demanded a drink. The bartender continued sweeping. "If yo} dony give me a drink dis minute," said the Deacon, "Ah'll take hold of dis bar and Ah'll shake de place down." The bartender's only concern was a coy cigar butt under the brass rail. The Deacon grabbed the bar and shook — and as he did so, all of San Francisco started to tumble! The Deacon ran from the door and scuttled for his room, dodging falling walls and chimneys. He jumped into his bed and pulled the covers over his head, where he lay terrified until sleep eased him into oblivion. About eight o'clock something disturbed him a bit, but he pulled the covers higher and drifted of again. Hours later, when he emerged, folks told him there had been an earthquake — two, in fact. The Deacon scratched his head — he remembered grabbing the bar and starting to shake. To his dying day in 1933 he had a sneaking suspicion that he "just didn't know his own strength." D. D. W.

1869 ... Traveller Samuel Bowles finds San Francisco sprawling "roughly over the coarse sand-hills that the Ocean has rolled and blown up . . . The daily winds . . . [keep] the town fresh and clean; and the hills offer wide vistas of bay and river, and islands and sister hills . . . No other American city holds in its very center such sweeping views of itself . . "

May

1 MONDAY — May Day * * * Eighty-nine years ago today the State Legislature granted San Francisco's first city charter.

2 TUESDAY — The Fair honors S.F. State College * * * "The wind blew it down," said a reporter of the three-story Bay Hotel's collapse in May 1854.

3 WEDNESDAY — Lunar eclipse tonight * * * American Red Cross Day at the Fair * * * California Federation of Women's Clubs convenes at Oakland until the 6th * * * Today is the eighty-eighth anniversary of the fifth great fire; tomorrow, the eighty-ninth anniversary of the second. The London Times doubted (July 5, 1851) "whether San Francisco will ever recover . . ." ($\

4 THURSDAY — Oakland Day * * * This day in 1852 was incorporated the "Town of Oakland" — population, about 75.

5 FRIDAY — Grand Army of the Republic Day at the Fair * * * Season's last Symphony pair * * * Nicaragua-bound this week in 1856 were 900 of William Walker's filibusters — "from their looks," said the Bulletin, ". . . just the b'hoys for such an expedition."

6 SATURDAY — At the Fair: Egypt Day, S. P. College for Women Day, and Olympic Club Day * * * San Francisco's Olym- pic Club, oldest existing amateur athletic club, was founded May 6, 1860.

44 ALMANAC for THIRTY-NINERS

May

San Franciscans call their spring and summer breezes "brisk." Unquestionably so was the northwest gale of May 1903, which attained a velocity of 60 miles at Point Lobos and 88 miles at Point Reyes Light. Even brisker was the gale of May 18, 1902, which reached an extreme velocity at Point Reyes Light of 120 miles.

7 SUNDAY — Berkeley Land and Sea Pageant until the 9th

* * * National Music Week opens at the Exposition; today's events: Catholic Day, Petaluma Day * * * Independent Order of Odd Fellows and Rebekah Assembly State Convention at Oakland until the llth * * * The first Japanese exclusion meeting was held in San Francisco this day in 1905 after the appearance of in- flammatory articles on the "Yellow Peril" in the Chronicle.

8 MONDAY — General Federation of Women's Clubs convenes until the 1 4th * * * U. C.'s final spring examinations begin * * * As the Juno sailed away May 8, 1806, Dona Concepcion Arguello stood waving farewell to Nikolai Rezanof, gone to obtain the Tsar's consent to their marriage. She never heard of him again until news of his death on the journey came 3 6 years later.

9 TUESDAY — The Fair greets United Daughters of the Con- federacy * * * San Francisco's first American city government started life out of the red this day in 1850 with its liabilities of $199,174 offset by assets of $238,253 * * * Five years ago today between 10,000 and 15,000 longshoremen began the first coast wide maritime walkout, which led to San Francisco's 1934 general strike.

10 WEDNESDAY — This is Jewish Day at the Exposition

* * * Ancient Order of Foresters Pacific Coast convention today and tomorrow * * * Three months before the last spike was driven in the first transcontinental railroad 70 years ago today, the Oakland Daily Transcript had calculated — the distance to Philadelphia via Chicago being 3,300 miles — that if "a train should run at the

ALMANAC for THIRTY-NINERS 45

rate of twenty miles an hour ... it would require little less than seven days to accomplish the distance."

H THURSDAY — Odd Fellows assemble on Treasure Island * * * First day of final spring exams at U. of S. F. * * * Super- tragedian Edwin Forrest was appearing this evening in 1866 before an audience of 58 San Franciscans who had paid approximately $437 apiece for their seats at auction. (g

12 FRIDAY — Scheduled for today: a total solar eclipse * * * Annual horse show at Mills College today and tomorrow * * * The Exposition welcomes Optimists * * * It cost Francisco de Haro 100 cows and $25 worth of goods to buy 1 1/2 -league-square Rancho Laguna de la Merced this day in 1837 * * * "San Fran- cisco Item — The practice of drawing deadly weapons on every slight occasion of conflict is too prevalent," complained the Oakland Daily Transcript this day in 1871.

13 SATURDAY — Wild West Show and Rodeo on Treasure Island until the 22nd * * * Today the Fair honors Girl Scouts and California Federation of Women's Clubs * * * San Francisco workingmen initiated this day in 1867 the movement for the 8 -hour day in California, which culminated a year later with passage of an 8 -hour-day law by the Legislature.

Whether true or false, the story attributed to

Reverend Charles Meihl, San Rafael schoolmaster,

keeps his name alive. At the ranch of a Spanish

family near Phoenix Lake where he often stopped,

he used to find the blind grandmother always

knitting. Asked what she was making, she told

him — so the story goes — "A tail for the cow."

It appears that the animal's tail had been chopped

off, leaving her defenseless against flies. In compassion, the old lady supplied

her with knitted substitutes, replacing them regularly twice a year before

they unravelled from too much switching.

46 ALMANAC for THIRTY-MINERS

May

Why do I stand when the moon is high With arms outstretched to a starless sky And raise my voice in a wordless cry While the moon stares back and the clouds

drift by? Why do I do it? Fm nuts — that's why.

M. W.

14 SUNDAY — Mother's Day * * * California Conference of Social Work at Oakland until the 17th * * * Today is Redivood Empire Day, Order of Hermann's Sons Day, and De Molay Day at the Fair * * * May 14, 1856, political boss James P. Casey, smart- ing under the Bulletin's exposure of him as an ex-inmate of Sing Sing who "had stuffed himself through the ballot box ... to the board of supervisors", shot down editor James King of William. As angry thousands answered the summons of a tolling fire bell, the Vigilance Committee of 1856 sprang into life.

1 5 MONDAY — Paraguay's national holiday celebration at the Exposition * * * Native Sons of the Golden West Grand Parlor until the 19th * * * The fathers of Mission Santa Clara dedicated this day in 1784 the second of their three mission buildings.

16 TUESDAY — Native Sons of the Golden West and Ancient Order of Foresters gather on Treasure Island * * * Probably the first Sunday school in American California was organized this day in 1847 by Rev. James H. Wilbur, Methodist missionary on his way to Oregon. It met in the mayor's office.

1 7 WEDNESDAY — Norwegian Independence Day: Norway Day at the Exposition * * * San Franciscans saw Faust, presented by the Bianchi Company, for the first time this day in 1865.

18 THURSDAY — International Goodwill Day on Treasure Island; the Fair is host to American War Mothers * * * Final exams begin at S. F. State * * * Foresters of America, Grand Court

ALMANAC for THIRTY-NINERS 47

of California, convene until the 20th * * * News item, 1864: "The Free Ditcher of Napa, alias Uncle Freddy Coombs, alias Wash- ington II, alias Ben Franklin Jr., alias The Great National Promoter, that mild-eyed, always-smiling, fat-legged fellow, who has been the wonder of strangers ... as he strutted along Montgomery Street in buckskin frock-coat, knee breeches, ruffles, and cocked-hat, left our shores on the May 18 steamer, and we shall see him no more forever — which is soon enough." dg&

19 FRIDAY — Ascension Day * * * Knights of Pythias Day at the Exposition; also School Safety Patrol Day * * * Commence- ment Day for San Francisco Junior College and California School of Fine Arts * * * "That physiognomical phenomenon, Spoon- bill Butler, has been trying to wring himself into the domestic affairs of 'Brick' Pomeroy," gossiped the Oakland Daily Transcript this day in 1 871. "Mrs. P. ... would have none of the kleptomaniac's pettifogging interference . . ."

20 SATURDAY — Cuba, Shriners, Humboldt County, and Teachers' Association of San Francisco are all honored today at the Exposition * * * Sixty-sixth Commencement Day at University of California * * * Rodeo at Hayivard today and tomorrow * * * f^ trjp to §an jose v'm the tri-weekly stage line inaugurated about this time in 1850 took 9 hours and cost $32 — and passengers walked part of the way, so bad were the roads.

What seems like a new and promising political tech- nique passed with insufficient notice in 1933, when Dan Slinkey of Mill Valley blocked the opposition to the town's incorporation single-handed. Most of the enemies of incorporation were among the commuting population, poll-bent as they started home on the crowded 5:75 ferry. When the ferry was opposite the Golden Gate, Slinkey dived overboard with a shout to attract attention. The ferry stopped and dropped a lifeboat, but Slinkey, a strong swimmer, kept the boat and ferry at bay until too late for the Mill Valley voters to reach the polls before they closed. The incorporation carried.

48 ALMANAC for THIRTY-NINERS

May

San Francisco's Italian fishermen recommend:

CIOPPINO

Cut 2 Ibs. striped bass or rock cod into pieces for serving and combine in large kettle with 2 large cooked crabs and l/z lb. cooked shrimp. In skillet brown 1 chopped onion in % cup olive oil, simmer with parsley and chopped gar- lic about 5 minutes, add 3 cups tomatoes, l/2 cup chopped celery, salt and pepper, and cook 10 minutes. Add to fish and simmer 30 minutes. Serve in soup dishes.

21 SUNDAY — Foresters of America and Companions of the Forest gather on Treasure Island * * * Capt. Charles Kingsford- Smith and companions took off from Oakland Airport this day in 1928 to span the Pacific to Australia in 84 hours 3 minutes, lapsed time * * * Nine years ago today abatement proceedings were filed in Federal Court against the "Silver Slipper", asking that it be padlocked for selling ginger ale and ice "set-ups" to patrons.

22 MONDAY — National Maritime Day celebrated at the Fair, which also celebrates John McLaren Day * * * When the thou- sands who joined the funeral procession of James King of William marched silently past Vigilance Committee headquarters this day in 1856, they saw the body of King's murderer, James P. Casey, hanging by the neck outside a window.

23 TUESDAY — Citizens gathered on their hilltops this day in 1870 to witness the dynamiting of Blossom Rock from the Bay between Alcatraz and Yerba Buena Islands. Mines planted 30 feet deep demolished 19 feet of rock to clear a channel for navigation.

24 WEDNESDAY — Shabuoth: Jewish holiday , today and to- morrow * * * Today and tomorrow the Fair honors Mendocino County * * * Filibuster William Walker, ex-President (self -pro-

ALMANAC for THIRTY-NINERS 49

claimed) of the Republic of Lower California, was indicted by the Grand Jury May 24, 1854, for violating U. S. neutrality laws when he returned with a handful of his army from the attempted con- quest of Sonora.

25 THURSDAY — Argentine Independence Day celebration on Treasure Island * * * Catholic Daughters of America have their day at the Fair * * * On May 25, 1898, one month after declara- tion of the Spanish-American War, the First California Regiment sailed out the Golden Gate, bound for Cavite, Island of Luzon. 'Bj\

26 FRIDAY — The Exposition welcomes Business and Profes- sional Women's Clubs and National Sojourners * * * Commence- ment Day at S. F. State * * * National Sojourners Convention until the 28th * * * The eclipse of this date in 1854 was adver- tised as "positively the last appearance of the century! No postpone- ment because of weather." It occurred as scheduled.

27 SATURDAY — British Empire Day: Britons celebrate on Treasure Island * * * Also Golden Gate Bridge Day, University of San Francisco Day, and American Association of University Women Day * * * San Francisco Bay Intercollegiate Rowing Re- gatta * * * Isadora Duncan began living her life as a native daughter of San Francisco May 27, 1878.

The editor of the Oakland DAILY TRANSCRIPT was in high dudgeon May 29, 1 871, about the doings of his con- freres in that citadel of sin across the Bay, San Francisco. "The San Francisco papers," he snorted, "not content with insolently thrusting before the public the names of ladies who attend places of public amusement and of divine worship, have fallen upon the amazing imperti- nence of publishing the names and insolently describing the person and attire of ladies walking the public streets. After two or three reportorial heads have been broken, this insurmountable insolence will proba,* bly be checked."

50 ALMANAC for THIRTY-NINERS

28 SUNDAY — Whitsunday (Pentecost) * * * Commence- ment Day at U. of S. F. * * * So amused was a certain Mr. Frank Ball this day in 1851 at the strong force hired by customs collector T. Butler King, to guard removal of $1,000,000 in specie from the fire-wrecked custom-house, that he composed a song which won him the offer of a custom-house job — providing he stop singing it.

29 MONDAY — The Californian's publishers shut up shop this day in 1848, complaining that "our subscribers and many of our advertisers have . . . left town . . . The whole country . . . resounds with the sordid cry of 'Gold, gold!! GOLD! ! !' '

30 TUESDAY — Memorial Day (Decoration Day): outboard motorboat races on Lake Merritt, Oakland * * * Early San Fran- cisco's favored burial place was Lone Mountain (Laurel Hill) Ceme- tery, opened this day in 1854.

3 1 WEDNESDAY — Morning of May 31, 1854, found sleepy- eyed policemen trying to stop a dozen squatters from staking claims among the smoking ruins of 40 burned buildings. By 8 a. m., 11 owners were rebuilding.

On the main drag of the old Barbary Coast opens a stair- way — narrow and dirty and smelling of hot broiled steaks. It leads to a room as dilapidated as in speak-easy days, retain- ing the broken plaster of the ceiling, the insecure chairs, the cracked oilcloth on the tables, the long pine bar. Only note of luxury is the rich-hued mural behind rows of bottles, bordered with cartoons painted by thirsty patrons and Walter Winchell's greeting to the celebrated owner . . . Idle behind the bar, leaning across it with leisurely amusement, is Izzy Gomez in a black fedora, lifted only when he speaks of his wife . . . Izzy Gomez, a coffee-colored fat man of mysterious race, elaborately feted on his birthdays by San Francisco's Press Club . . . an illiterate fat man painted, photographed, written and sung about, because his lazy voice and ageless soft black eyes are better than even Izzy's liquor for giving back to jittery moderns something primitive — and lost. D, D. W.

1879 ... The fog is rising "over the citied hills of San Francisco" as a lonely young Scotchman, penniless and ill, lands from the ferry one autumn day- break in 1879. He is Robert Louis Stevenson, who grows "into a waterside prowler, a lingerer on wharves, a frequenter of shy neighborhoods" In Little Italy he looks "at the windows of small eating-shops, transported bodily from Genoa or Naples, with their macaroni, and chianti flasks and portraits of Garibaldi." He wanders through "that dispeopled, hill-side soli- tude of Little Mexico, with its crazy wooden houses, endless crazy wooden stairs, and perilous mountain goat-paths in the sand" In Chinatown he can never "wonder enough at its outlandish, necromantic-looking vegetables set forth to sell in commonplace American shop-windows, its temple doors open and the scent of the joss-stick, streaming forth on the American air, its kites of Oriental fashion hanging fouled in Western telegraph-wires." From North Beach he gazes "at the straits, and the huge Cape -Homers creeping out to sea, and imminent Tamalpais" Nor does he "neglect Nob Hill . . . the habitat of the mere millionaire. There they dwell upon the hill- top, high raised above man's clamour, and the trade-wind blows between their palaces about deserted streets"

June

1 THURSDAY — Mills College seniors were warned by their class president, this day in 1872, against sitting crosslegged: "Sup- pose a few years hence one of us should be entertaining a gentle- man admirer and should inadvertently throw one leg over the other and expose our stockings, what would he think?" fij*\

2 FRIDAY — Martinez Early Days Fiesta until Sunday * * * This day in 1873 ground was broken in San Francisco for the world's first cable street railway.

3 SATURDAY — Monterey Day at the Exposition * * * Cali- fornia State Fraternal Congress and Catholic Professional Women meet on Treasure Island * * * The "public", 10,000 strong, turned out a year ago today to hear CIO and employers' Committee of 43 discuss their differences at a Town Meeting which set a prece- dent in labor history.

52 ALMANAC for THIRTY-NINERS

June

Sunniest month is June, which averages 76% of possible sunlight. Its average would be higher, except for the fogs which begin moving in from the sea in mid-afternoon, shutting out more than half the possible sunshine during cocktail hours. But no month averages more clear days than June, and only one, October, as many.

4 SUNDAY — Trinity Sunday * * * The Fair stages Jugo- slavia "Day * * * A 4,0 00 -pound ox named "Eclipse", sold at auc- tion this month in 1855, prompted one enthusiastic editor to write: "He is indeed a monster and excited perspirational excitement in all who are experts in bovine bigness" * * * Eight years ago today the U. S. Navy awarded the first contract for work on the $ 5,000,000 Sunnyvale dirigible base.

5 MONDAY — Civic note, 1850: a meeting of the citizens held at Portsmouth Square, in indignation over the high salaries voted the aldermen by the aldermen, appointed a committee to call and protest. The committee met with a cold reception.

6 TUESDAY — World's Automotive Engineering Congress of the Society of Automotive Engineers until the 8tb * * * Pacific Coast Women's Press Association meets at the Exposition * * * In a footnote on page 32 of John Charles Fremont's Geographical Memoir, presented to the United States Senate this month in 1848, is the first use of the name "Golden Gate" for the entrance to San Francisco Bay: "Passing through this gate — called Chrysopylae (golden gate) on the map, on the same principle that the harbor of Byzantium . . . was called Chrysoceras (golden horn) . . ."

7 WEDNESDAY — Everybody hurried out to do battle with the Mexicans when the noise of a bombardment shook the town about this time in 1847 — but the noise turned out to have been caused by a gallon-and-a-half coffee pot blowing off its lid. The cook in charge picked himself up several yards from his kitchen.

ALMANAC for THIRTY-MINERS

53

8 THURSDAY — Corpus Christi * * * Chinese laborers on the three-story granite Parrott Building, first fireproof structure in town, went on strike in 1852, demanding more pay; since only they could read the characters on the building's granite blocks, which had been cut, dressed, and numbered in China, they got it.

9 FRIDAY — Greek play at Mills College Greek Theater * * * San Rafael Day at the Exposition * * * That new-fangled inven- tion, the automobile, was raising such havoc this month in 1902 that the Marin County Board of Supervisors passed an ordinance setting the speed limit at 1 0 miles per hour — and on bridges and curved roads, at 4 miles per hour * * * Autoists were further hampered the same month in 1905 by new rules closing Golden Gate Park drives after 6 p. m. — but joy riding went right on.

10 SATURD AY — Mills College Day on Treasure Island * * * final spring examinations at Stanford * * * Rodeo at Livermore today and tomorrow * * * A carrier pigeon started East about this time last year bearing Mayor Rossi's invitation to Governor Lehman of New York to visit the Golden Gate International Ex- position. No sooner had the messenger alighted for his first stop at Richmond, 1 0 miles away, however, than a few crumbs offered by a friendly grocer induced him to discontinue his journey.

A battle on a barge made history when James Cor- bet t and Joe Choynski met June 5, 18 89, on a scow anchored in Southampton Bay near Benicia to settle grudges against each other. Corbet t donned 3 -ounce mitts; Choynski, driving gloves. Early in the fight Corbett broke both hands, but, un- daunted, he went on pummelling Choynski until he knocked him out in the twenty-eighth round. Both had to be carried from the barge.

54 ALMANAC for THIRTY-NINERS

June

Even the weariest river Goes sometimes to the sea,

And so do the Hearsts and the Astors But never, confound it, me.

M.W.

1 1 SUNDAY — Hawaii Day on Treasure Island * * * Before a crowd in Portsmouth Square, June 11, 1851, John Jenkins, appre- hended by San Francisco's first Vigilance Committee for stealing, was given a cigar and a glass of brandy and then heaved aloft as Vigilante Sam Brannan cried, "Every lover of liberty and good order lay hold of the rope!"

12 MONDAY — Degree Day at Mills College Greek Theater * * * In mass meeting assembled this day in 1849, San Franciscans thought so little of Governor Bennett Riley's proclamation urging them to elect delegates to help draw up a State constitution that they voted not to.

13 TUESDAY — The Fair welcomes Ladies of Woodcraft * * * When Mayor Eugene Schmitz, found guilty of extortion this day in 1907, went off to jail to serve his 5 -year sentence, he carried his official seal of the city with him, and for 6 weeks continued to trans- act city business behind bars before he could be stopped legally.

14 WEDNESDAY — Flag Day * * * Benevolent and Protec- tive Order of Elks holds forth at the Exposition * * * This was Bear Flag day in 1846, when 33 armed Americans hauled down the Mexican flag at the Sonoma presidio and ran up in its place a make- shift pennant of home-woven cloth with a red flannel stripe, on which were painted crudely a bear, a star, and the legend, "California Republic." Overcritical Mexicans found the bear too porcine in ap- pearance; they took their revenge by calling it a pig.

ALMANAC for THIRTY-NINERS 55

15 THURSDAY — - Once more San Francisco had it all to do over again this day in 1850 — the morning after the third con- flagration.

16 FRID AY — Alumni Day at Stan ford * * * School's out to- morrow: summer vacation begins * * * The sloop Gjoa (pro- nounced "yo-ah") , in which Capt. Roald Amundson made the first trip through the Northwest Passage, was presented to the city 30 years ago today by the Norwegian Government. (It rests today in the northwestern corner of Golden Gate Park.)

1 7 SATURDAY — Denmark Day at the Exposition with King Christian X, the Copenhagen Royal Ballet, and Lauritz Melchior as visitors * * * Also American Newspaper Guild Day: the Guild's national convention meets here this month * * * Summer school students register today at S. F. State * * * Freebooter Francis Drake, cruising up the coast 360 years ago today, "fell in with a convenient and fit har borough" (Drake's Bay in Marin County), where he careened his vessel, the Golden Hind. A

San Franciscans know it is characteristic of the

Chinese never to take without giving in return.

They were not surprised when Chinatown staged

its "Bowl of Rice Party" a year ago on June 17

to reciprocate for help given victims of Japan's

undeclared war. It was a real party — the Dragon

parading, Chinese orchestras playing in the streets,

inner sanctions throwing open their doors. From

housetops and windows party-goers tossed coins into a giant rice bowl

convoyed by laughing girls; their procession wound through a crowd of

300,000, so dense it finally broke up the line of march and engulfed the

floats. Till midnight the gaiety lasted — then an American aviator dived

from the sky in a mock air raid. Fear brushed the throngs as the plane flew

over, almost close enough to flutter the paper lanterns — certainly close

enough to drop a bomb.

56 ALMANAC for THIRTY-NINERS

June

San Francisco's Scandinavian colony recom- mends:

FISH PIE

Fill baked pastry shells with a mixture of shell- fish, tuna, mushrooms, lemon juice, melted but- ter, beaten egg, and seasonings. Cover with pastry tops and brown in moderate oven. Serve with cream sauce and a dash of paprika.

18 SUNDAY — Fathers9 Day * * * Methodist Episcopal Day at the Fair * * * American Library Association Convention until the 24th * * * Registration at U. of S. F. summer school opens

* * * "The Overland train . . . bore from our shores" this month in 1871, reported the Oakland Daily Transcript, "about one hun- dred brothers and sisters of the more -man (Mormon) persuasion — all bound for that happy land of Bigamy Young."

19 MONDAY — Summer session opens at S. F. State College

* * * When Governor Richard B. Mason arrived in San Francisco in June 1848, he found not an able-bodied man in the place except the merchants, who were unloading their own merchandise; even the sailors had deserted for the mines.

20 TUESDAY — Annual Institute of International Relations at Mills College until the 1st * * * The Fair greets Native Daughters of the Golden West * * * The first Italian to set foot in San Fran- cisco, Capt. Giovanni Dominis, anchored his ship in the harbor 112 years ago today, en route to Boston with the first east-bound ship- load of Columbia River salmon * * * In a rented room at Fifth and Broadway, Oakland, Principal Henry Durant, with three stu- dents, opened on June 20, 1853, the College School, later to become the University of California.

21 WEDNESDAY — Summer begins tonight * * * Lions In- ternational get-together on Treasure Island * * * This day in 1855, 5 days after the bell of Old St. Mary's had been blessed and

ALMANAC for THIRTY-NINERS 57

hung, indignant citizens complained to the Alta Califbrnian of being aroused daily by its ringing. The editor retorted by calling them slug-a-beds.

22 THURSDAY — American Library Association visits the Ex- position * * * On the night of June 22, 1849, ruddy-faced Brit- isher Stephen C. Massett treated San Francisco to its first public entertainment when he gave a song recital to a packed house before smoky whale-oil footlights.

23 FRIDAY — Druids have their day on Treasure Island * * * Stanford summer school opens * * * Strangest thing found by searchers on June 23, 1854, the day after the sixth great fire, was an iron coffin filled with women's black kid gloves; it was discov- ered to belong to a merchant who had ordered the gloves shipped from New York in an airtight container.

24 SATURDAY — Nativity of St. John: pageant at Mission San Juan Bautista today and tomorrow, commemorating its found- ing on St. John's Day ,1797 * * * Scandinavian Midsummer Day: Swedish colony celebrates at Neptune Beach, Alameda * * * Fin- land Day at the Exposition; also Siam Day.

When residents near the waterfront felt a heavy shock, followed by a trembling of the earth, a commotion in the water, and the crashing of tim- bers, one day in June 1854, they were certain an earthquake was upon them. But their fears turned abruptly into merriment with the discovery that the ancient store-ship SALEM, for years half buried in the mud, was afloat once more. She had just been emptied of the goods in her hold when the tide came flooding in, lifting her hulk from its resting place, full speed ahead plowed the SALEM, shattering the iron building next door with an ear-splitting crash, shaking a whole block of brick warehouses. Three blocks from the open water of the bay she came to rest again, still afloat.

58 ALMANAC for THIRTY-NINERS

25 SUNDAY — Pacific Advertising Clubs Association at Oak- land until the 29th * * * Junior Musicians of America at the Fair

* * * Harried police in June 1854 were ejecting a dozen squat- ters who had fenced off Union Square.

26 MONDAY — U. C., U. of S. F., and California School of Fine Arts summer schools open * * * Conservation week is on at the Fair * * * American Association of Museums and Associ- ated Traffic Clubs of America convene until the 28th, American* Institute of Electrical Engineers until the 3 Oth, American Fisheries Society and International Association of Game, Fish and Conserva- tion Commissioners until July 1st.

27 TUESDAY — In 1 846 civic-minded Capt. George McDougal was pitting the poor against one another in foot-races for a purse donated by hotel guests.

28 WEDNESDAY — - Lts. Maitland and Hegenberger left Oak- land Airport June 28, 1927, on the first flight to Hawaii — time: 25 hours, 50 minutes.

29 THURSDAY — On June 29, 1835, William A. Richardson put up his tent, first habitation at Yerba Buena.

30 FRIDAY — Night Horse Show at the Fair until July 9th

* * * Woodlawn Park's monument to "Emperor Norton" was unveiled June 30, 1934 — 54 years after his death.

Charmed were visitors in the 1850's by Telegraph Hill's little Dickensian taverns — "The Magpie", "The Bobby Burns", "The Bird in Hand", "The Boar's Head", "The Jolly Waterman", "The Tarn O'Shanter", "The Bay of Bis- cay" — but often they never returned from visits. An investigating Vigilance Committee found the tavern folk handy with the sand bag. They were identified as "Sydney Coves", Australian convicts who from the time they landed in San Francisco terrified even that terrifying town.

H.M.

1889 . . .A round-the-world voyage brings Rudyard Kipling to San Fran- cisco, tra mad city, inhabited for the most part by perfectly insane people whose women are of a remarkable beauty . . . a city of three hundred thou- sand . . . white men and women gathered . . . in a hopeless maze of small wooden houses, dust, street-refuse, and children who play with empty kero- sene tins . . ." He begins "a vast but unsystematic exploration of the streets", taking the cable-cars "one by one" over the "ragged, unthrifty sand-hills, pegged down by houses . . . Recklessness is in the air . . " it seems to him. "The roaring winds of the Pacific make you drunk to begin with. The aggres- sive luxury on all sides helps out the intoxication . . . They make greatly and they spend lavishly . . . they go mad over a prize fight. When they disagree, they do so fatally, with firearms in their hands, and on the public streets . . . It is enough to know that fifty per cent of the men in the public saloons carry pistols about them . . " He finds "only one drawback" in San Fran- cisco: " 'Tis hard to leave" And when he departs, it is "with regrets for the pleasant places left behind, for the men who were so clever, and the women who were so witty, for the 'dives', the beer-halls, the bucket-shops, and the poker-hells where humanity was going to the Devil with shouting and laughter and song and the rattle of dice-boxes."

July

1 SATURDAY — Northwest Mounted Police and Scotch bag- pipers help celebrate British Columbia Day at the Fair * * * To- day is also Empire Builders of the Pacific Day on the Island , com- memorating Johann August Suiter's birthday anniversary * * * Revolution was rife as a guerrilla band of 1 2 men, stealing over from Sausalito in the launch Moscow, spiked the guns of the Presidio this day in 1846. Their leader was "Pathfinder" John C. Fremont and their standard, the Bear Flag. fg5)

60 ALMANAC for THIRTY-NINERS

July

The month of extremes: highest in the year is wind velocity (average 11.5 miles), vapor pressure (0.41 inch about 1 p. m.), and rela- tive humidity (equaling or exceeding 95% from 1 a. m. to 7 a. m.) ; lowest is precipita- tion (average .01 inch). Significant to east- erners is the fact that picnics are never spoiled by rain.

2 SUNDAY — Silverado Trail festival at Calistoga until the 4th * * * Three-day National Amateur Press Association meeting at Oakland * * * Women's Overseas Service League national con- vention until the 6th * * * "An Officer and 1 5 Soldiers came on board and ordered me out," wrote Johann August Sutter of his reception at Yerba Buena this day in 1839, "... and at last I could obtain 48 hours to get provisions (as we were starving) and some repairings done on the Brig."

3 MONDAY — Oregon Week opens on Treasure Island * * * "Oakland is putting on airs," said the Evening Bulletin July 3, 1866. "It threatens to beat us on Fourth of July fireworks, throws its schools and colleges in our faces, brags about its superior climate . . ." If it "goes on prospering at its present rate," the Bulletin predicted, "there is no telling what it might come to — in time."

4 TUESDAY — Independence Day * * * Regatta and fire- works at Lake Merritt, Oakland * * * United Veterans of Re- public Council at the Fair * * * Having just finished building his house, the second in Yerba Buena, at 10 a. m. on the sixtieth anni- versary of American Independence, Jacob P. Leese raised the Ameri- can flag for the first time on the site of San Francisco in California's first Fourth of July celebration * * * To celebrate the centennial of the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1876, forts and warships began firing at a target on a barge in the Bay at 1 0 a. m. and con- tinued at 5 -minute intervals until 4 p. m. — without hitting it once.

ALMANAC for THIRTY-NINERS 61

5 WEDNESDAY — - The Fair celebrates Venezuela Independence "Day * * * On this day labor honors the memory of two water- front pickets killed in 1934. The event was prologue to the general strike of that year.

Q THURSDAY — Anniversary of martyrdom of Jan Hns (1615) : Czechoslovakia Day at the Exposition * * * The English ship Niantic, arriving in July 1849, was anchored at the foot of Clay Street and converted into a rooming house, advertising: "REST FOR THE WEARY AND STORAGE FOR TRUNKS."

7 FRIDAY — Filipino National Convention of America until the 9th * * * Hawaii and the National Education Association are both honored on Treasure Island * * * Nine years ago today San Francisco was paying tribute to Charles Kingsford-Smith, round- the-world sky trail blazer, with a parade and reception.

8 SATURDAY — At the Fair: Oregon State College Day * * * On July 8, 1865, 24 vessels, carrying several tons of equipment and 500 men, sailed from San Francisco to build the 16,000-mile Collins Overland Telegraph from New York to Paris via Alaska and Siberia; but Cyrus W. Field finished his trans-Atlantic cable first, and the project ended in fiasco.

Everything fizzled out, including the fireworks, at San Francisco's Fourth of July celebration in 1854. One disaster followed another. At the very portals of the County Building a madman was found about to ignite a barrel of gunpowder he had been diligently rolling down the sidewalk. That evening, the thou- sands gathered at the Plaza for the fireworks display waited in growing impatience until a perspiring com- mittee announced that the building in which the fireworks were stored had collapsed. To cap the celebration, the California Guards fired such a resound- ing salute that it broke every pane of glass in a nearby hospital and sent 60 terrified patients burrowing beneath their cots for safety.

62 ALMANAC for THIRTY-MINERS

July

You're only young once, And boys will be boys,

But I wish they could do it Without so much noise.

M.W.

9 SUNDAY — At the Exposition: B'nai B'rith Day * * * On July 9, 1846, Capt. John B. Montgomery, landing from the U. S. sloop Portsmouth with 70 men, marched uptown to the music of fife and drum and hoisted the United States flag above the Plaza, henceforth known as Portsmouth Square. tf£

1 0 MONDAY — American Bar Association convenes until the 15th, American Society of Mechanical Engineers until the 17 th, American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers until the 17th * * * Health tip: at 1 p. m. this day in 1872 arrived one Dr. Bourne, vegetarian, boosting the merits of stewed fruit and unbolted bread, his sole diet on a 34-day stroll from Portland.

1 1 TUESDAY — International DX-ers Alliance convenes at the Exposition * * * "The air was . . . loud with the music of clamor- ing bands, shriekings of the steam whistle, and the thunders of can- non" this day in 1862, read a newspaper account, as a "long and brilliant procession" celebrated President Lincoln's signing of the overland railroad bill.

1 2 WEDNESDAY — When international charmer Lola Montez first appeared in San Francisco in 1853, dancing "like a bit of fluff blown about by the wind", she was promptly burlesqued in the show, Who's Got the Countess? The question was answered by Pat- rick Purdy Hall, who married her in July of the same year.

13 THURSDAY — The Fair stages Engineers Day * * * Cali- fornia Rodeo and Horse Fair at Salinas until Sunday * * * "An

ALMANAC for THIRTY-NINERS 63

irreverent depredator of San Francisco architecture," announced the News-Letter this day in 1895, "says that the prevalent style of wooden house ... a dry-goods box with big bay windows fastened on ... reminds him of a large breeding cage."

1 4 FRIDAY — The Fair honors France, celebrating Bastille Day, 150th anniversary of the French Revolution * * * This day in 1886 the Cliff House was wrecked by a terrific explosion when the schooner Parallel crashed with its 8 0,000 -pound load of dynamite on the rocks below.

15 SATURDAY — At the Fair until the 24th, Draft Breeding Horse Show; until Tuesday: children's Toy Symphony concerts; today and tomorrow: American Kennel Club all-breed dog show and Coast Yacht Regatta; today: American Bar Association Day * * * On July 15, 1849, the "Hounds" — self-styled "Regula- tors" of public welfare — attacked the Chileno quarter, robbing, beating, pillaging, and chasing the inhabitants on horseback up over the hills, shooting as they advanced.

The whales of the Pacific can henceforth turn their lazy somersaults and sneeze their fountains of water untroubled by cries of "Thar she blows!" A century ago scores of whaling vessels were setting out from the Golden Gate to ply the Pacific. After 1865 San Francisco was whaling headquarters, sending out fieets which as late as 1890 numbered some 50 vessels. As the fieets dwindled, speedy tugboats for pursuit ("killer" ships) and steam-propelled processing plants (factory ships) substituted efficiency for romance. But the once-great in- dustry continued to decline. And finally, on July 26, 1938, the California Whaling Company, last of the south Pacific whalers, called in the last of its vessels — two killer ships and a factory ship — in accord with an inter- national agreement which leaves the whales free once more to gambol unmolested.

64 ALMANAC for THIRTY-MINERS

July

San Francisco's Spanish colony recommends:

ARROZ CON POLLO

Cut chicken in small pieces and fry in deep oil 30 minutes. Remove chicken and fry onions, garlic, tomatoes, and red pepper in oil. Return chicken to oil and add 6 ounces rice and 2 cups stock. Simmer until rice is soft.

16 SUNDAY — Kosicrucian Day at the Fair; also Magicians Day * * * On the University of California's first Commence- ment Day, 66 years ago today, was graduated the Class of '73, af- fectionately known by later graduates as the "Twelve Disciples."

1 7 MONDAY — The Fair sets today aside for the International Stereotypers and Electrotypers' Union, in convention until the 22nd * * * This day in 1853 was laid the cornerstone of the city's first cathedral, Old St. Mary's (Grant Avenue and California Street) .

18 TUESDAY — Annual Solemn Novena opens at Basilica of St. Anne of the Sunset: thousands of visitors march in outdoor* procession Sunday * * * Pacific Coast Association of Magicians convenes until the 20th * * * "It works like a charm," said the Alt a Californian, July 18, 1872, of the hydraulic elevator, invented by a Mr. Stebbins, which had just been installed on Leidesdorf Street to lower goods from street to basement.

1 9 WEDNESDAY — S. F. State College Day on Treasure Island * * * "Woman suffrage is something you'll have to swallow sooner or later, anyhow," predicted a Mrs. Duniway in a lecture at Platt's Hall this day in 1872. "She then dabbled for some time in the pool of politics, in which she is plainly no novice," wrote an impressed reporter.

ALMANAC for THIRTY-NINERS

65

20 THURSDAY — The Exposition celebrates Colombian Inde- pendence Day * * * Salvation Army Western Territorial Con- gress until the 23rd * * * A certain Jose Miguel Costa, haled into Police Court this day in 1855, was discovered to be wearing 12 pairs of pants, all of which he had stolen.

21 FRIDAY — Belgium Day at the Exposition * * * Active International Convention at Oakland until the 24th * * * A year ago today, in the last hours before registration for gubernatorial primaries closed, 10,617 voters — greatest number ever to register in a single day — swelled registration figures to 321,097, with Demo- crats leading 2 to 1.

22 SATURDAY — At the Fair: Salvation Army Day * * * United Swiss Singing Society of the Pacific Coast meets until the 24th: Swiss choral concert today on Treasure Island * * * This day in 1916, as the Preparedness Day parade marched down Market Street, a bomb explosion killed 9 persons and wounded 40. Four labor leaders — Thomas J. Mooney and his wife, Mrs. Rena Mooney, Warren Billings, and Israel Weinberg — were arrested, charged with murder.

Providing the city's food in its early decades was a hazardous trade. Vegetables and fruits were im- ported from Chile, Australia, and the Sandwich Islands, lard from China, dairy products and bacon from Boston and New York, and delicacies from Mexico and South America. Ice came down from Alaska, then called Russian America. One staple article of diet — the eggs of wild birds — origi- nated on the Farallon Islands off the Golden Gate. Seagoing " poultrymen" discovered early that these eggs were abundant during the laying season and brought good prices in San Francisco markets. So intense was the competi- tion in the industry that every year brought its naval "Egg Battle" — fights waged with bullets which took a toll over three decades of 30 men killed and 60 wounded.

66 ALMANAC for THIRTY-NINERS

July

O see the tourist! In July He gazeth anxious on the sky And raiseth his umbrella high Because a fog is floating by!

M. A. de F.

23 SUNDAY — Yachters vie for National Outboard Champion- ship * * * American Society of Civil Engineers national conven- tion until the 30tb * * * On the evening of July 23, 1877, an anti-Chinese mob launched a 2 -day attack on Chinatown, singling out laundries in particular for destruction * * * "As might have been expected the lunatic exhibition last night was a miserable fail- ure," the San Francisco Examiner declared this day in 1888 in its report of the lunar eclipse, obscured from sight by a dense fog. J|

24 MONDAY — First white men to set foot inside the bound- aries of what is now the City and County of San Francisco were members of Sir Francis Drake's company; they landed this day in 1 579 on the southeastern Farallon Island.

25 TUESDAY — Feast of Ab: Jewish * * * Mills College summer session until August 5th * * * The first recorded Protes- tant church service in California was preached this day in 1847 by Chaplain Chester Newell of the U. S. frigate Independence in the C. L. Ross store at Montgomery and Washington Streets * * * The entire crab fishermen's fleet lay at keel a year ago today at Fisherman's Wharf during celebration of the twenty-fifth anniver- sary of the Crab and Salmon Fishermen's Protective Association.

26 WEDNESDAY — St. Anne's Day: Annual Solemn Novena closes at Basilica of St. Anne of the Sunset * * * A year ago today the University of California dispatched one of history's biggest botanical expeditions, to collect plants and flowers in South America for the Exposition.

ALMANAC for THIRTY-NINERS 67

27 THURSDAY — Baby Beauty Show at Oakland Civic Audi- torium * * * The man who carried "the message to Garcia" in the Spanish- American War, Col. Andrew S. Rowan, 81, was pre- sented, a year ago today in his bed at Letterman Military Hospital, a medal from the Cuban Government by Cuban Consul Jose J. Zarza.

28 FRIDAY — This is Peru Day at the Fair, being Peruvian In- dependence Day (1821); and also Western Business Day * * * On the Island today and tomorrow: Pacific Sangerbund and Inter- national Sangerfest concert * * * The "very latest thing" about this time in 1871 was "Solidified Beer . . . concentrated the way they do milk," according to the Oakland Daily Transcript. "A man can carry enough in his vest pocket to ruin a whole temperance society," the Transcript reported.

29 SATURDAY — The first transcontinental air-mail flight, from New York to San Francisco, was completed July 29, 1920. Regular service was inaugurated September 8; 16,000 letters were carried on the first flight.

On the last day of July 1 846, the full-rigged ship BROOKLYN hove into port unheralded, bearing 240 Mormons led by Elder Samuel Brannan. With them were two children born on the 6-month voyage from New York — Atlantic, a boy, and Pacific, a girl. Their ship carried nearly everything needed to start a complete community — even a printing press. Having come to found an earthly kingdom of their own in the West, they were somewhat disappointed to find the American flag already waving — but not as disappointed as were San Franciscans to discover that Mormons were not the wild and desperate people they imagined. As the women came down the gangway, a long- drawn sigh escaped the crowd. Finally one of the watchers gave vent to the general feeling by growling: "Damnation! Why, they're just like other

68 ALMANAC for THIRTY-MINERS

30 SUNDAY — San Francisco came to a standstill July 30, 1901, when Bay Area maritime unions joined striking teamsters in the biggest strike staged on the Coast up to that time. fij\

3 1 MONDAY — So animated were the whales seen from the Cliff House July 31, 1874, said the Bulletin, that they seemed to be "celebrating the dislodgement of Jonah."

Among San Francisco court annals lies buried a small tragedy — the deflation of an elegant lady's pride. It is con- tained in records of a suit by Miss Margaret Towan, seams- tress, tran antiquated, middle aged, powdered woman", against Mrs. Elsie Wilkins, "a finely formed lady with patri- cian features and dignified gait" * * * The occasion was a Charles Dickens reading at the Congregational Church one evening in 1888. The front pew had been reserved for Mr. and Mrs. Wilkins, who arrived late — possibly to allow Mrs. W. to display a new silk gown, tensely fitted over an improved kind of rubber bustle, described later in court as rta cross between a football and a birdcage", which could be "inflated by using a tube that accompanied it" * * * Down the aisle paced the Wilkinses. Then, just as Mrs. Wilkins was entering the pew, there was a loud explosion. The speaker paused, the audience tittered, while Mrs. Wilkins "turned a deathly pale, then a carmine hue ... A large shawl was thrown over her shoulders to hide the blushes that stole around the back of her neck" * * * Patrick Duffy, janitor, next morning found what he took to be a deflated toy balloon, but, testified he, "It turned out to be the corpse of a bustle" * * * The upshot was that Mrs. Wilkins refused to pay Miss Towanys bill of $20 for the bustle and the dress, and Miss Towan sued. Mrs. Wilkins claimed that the bustle had burst because the dress was badly fitted. Miss Towan replied that Mrs. Wilkins "required an alteration of her dress after each meal, as she expands and contracts considerably" The defendant, introducing the dress as evidence, "blushingly begged the court to observe that the garment was too tight across the hips." Judge Boland, after close inspection, decided "that the dress did appear a little tight, but very becoming." He ordered $8.50 deducted from the seamstress' bill, as damages for "explosion trouble."

D. D. W.

1899 ... "A-gunning for stories" in the San Francisco of the '90's, Frank. Norris finds: "Things can happen in San Francisco . . . Nob Hill, Telegraph Hilly Chinatown, Lone Mountain, the Poodle Dog, the Palace Hotel and the What Cheer House, the Barbary Coast . . . the Bohemian Club, the Presidio, Spanish town, Fisherman's Wharf" have an air "suggestive of stories" He decides that only three American cities "are 'story cities' — New York . . . New Orleans, and best of the lot, San Francisco."

August

1 TUESDAY — A scheme proposed, this day in 1938, to whisk Fair goers over bridge towers in roller coasters was "actually larger", said its inventor, "than . . . the Exposition." Fair officials agreed.

2 WEDNESDAY — American Union of Swedish Singers meets in Oakland until the 5th * * * The world's first cable car rolled up Clay Street August 2, 1873, on its maiden journey.

3 THURSDAY — The Bulletin reported, August 3, 1874, con- tinued success by Montgomery Queen's Circus despite "the stoning to death last week of one of their employees by hoodlums."

4 FRIDAY — Sonoma-Marin Agricultural Fair at Petaluma until the 6th * * * San Leandro Day at the Exposition * * * On Au- gust 4, 1851, H. W. Carpentier and A. Moon were licensed to run a ferry from Contra Costa to San Francisco.

5 SATURDAY — San Mateo National Horse Show at Atherton for a week * * * Sweden Day at the Fair; also Loyal Order of Moose Day * * * Swine breeders' show on the Island until the 14th * * * This day in 1775 arrived the San Carlos, first ship to enter the Golden Gate.

70 ALMANAC for THIRTY-NINERS

Pixilated weather . . . San Franciscans, fur-clad, sympathize with tourists shivering in summer suits. Cause of the August chill is the surge of cool sea air, drawn in through the Golden Gate as the inland valley's excessive heat mushrooms upward. Ocean fogs continue to blot out after- noon sunlight, cutting average sunny hours to 63 % of the possible total.

6 SUNDAY — Bolivian Independence Day (1825), celebrated on Treasure Island * * * Chemistry Week opens at the Fair * * * This day in 1 83 5 Secretary of State Forsyth authorized the American charge d'affaires in Mexico to negotiate for the purchase of San Francisco Bay for $5,000,000 * * * And one year ago today, on the ninth annual Harbor Day, San Francisco celebrated the seventy- fifth anniversary of control of its port by the State Board of Harbor Commissioners with a gala regatta off the Marina.

7 MONDAY — This month in 1 864 San Francisco church ladies who had purchased "fluffy five-pound cushions" from a merchant high in church standing were finding it increasingly difficult to doze through services. Investigating, they discovered that 2 pounds of the fluff consisted of sand.

8 TUESDAY — The sixty-fourth national convention of the Women's Christian Temperance Union, convening in San Francisco, was shocked a year ago today to learn that their San Diego County president, Mrs. Mary Blufuss Woodworth, had been "knocked down by a drunken driver" and, worse yet, "assisted to her hotel by three drunken men." (ft

9 WEDNESDAY — Only 29 years ago this month the Golden Gate Christian Endeavor Union tabled a resolution condemning Alice Roosevelt Longworth for smoking cigarettes, lest it offend Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., sojourning at the St. Francis. Interviewed, Junior expressed complete indifference.

ALMANAC for THIRTY-NINERS 71

1 0 THURSDAY — Ecuadorian Independence Day (1810), ob- served at the Exposition * * * This day in 1776 the wife of soldier Ignacio So to in the camp of the de Anza expedition gave birth to the first white child born on the site of San Francisco * * * On August 10, 1852, all of Montgomery Street was draped in black as funeral ceremonies of a "most novel, imposing and splendid descrip- tion" were held in honor of Henry Clay.

II FRIDAY — Rotarians celebrate on Treasure Island * * * Sonoma County Fair at Santa Rosa until the 1 9th * * * Great excitement prevailed 9 years ago today when a ferry boat — engines dead and lights out — started drifting through the Gate with 40 embryo Robinson Crusoes aboard; their peril lasted for 45 minutes.

12 SATURDAY — American Legion, California State Depart- ment, convenes in Oakland until the 12th: American Legion Day at the Exposition * * * The first American flag in San Francisco Bay was flown this day in 1803 by the trading ship Eliza * * * This month in 1 896 sightseers were first privileged to scale the slopes of Mount Tamalpais on "The Crookedest Railroad in the World" (since torn up).

ALCALDE Thaddeus Leavenworth was more than mildly surprised one July morning in 1846 by a visit from the prisoner he had just locked up in the new log "calaboose" The prisoner u>as a gentleman known as "Pete", who had run afoul of the law for cutting off the tails of five horses. Nobody could believe his plea that he wanted to send them to England for Queen Victoria's use in brushing flies off her table. "Pete" bore his incarceration, shackled to the door of the "calaboose", with equanimity. But when he was refused his breakfast, he got mad. Bearing the door on his back, he stormed into Leaven- worth's office to announce that unless his breakfast was sent up in half an hour, he would take French leave. He got his breakfast.

72 ALMANAC for THIRTY-NINERS

A i / cri M ct Much surPrised — in fact'

xJL M^ Mo I/

We would put it in this log If there chanced to be no fog In San Francisco during Aug.

M.W.

13 SUNDAY — The Fair is host to veterans of the Philippine insurrection * * * Twenty years ago this month the agitation for a bridge across the Golden Gate culminated in a meeting at San Rafael to form the promotional Golden Gate Bridge Association.

14 MONDAY — The site of the Russ Building (present valua- tion about $2,500,000) sold in 1850 for $27.50 * * * Commander Charles Wilkes' U. S. Exploring Expedition, arriving this day in 1841, found Yerba Buena "anything but beautiful." The Presidio "was deserted, the walls had fallen to decay, the guns were dis- mounted ..." dffil

15 TUESDAY — Assumption of the Virgin Mary * * * Reg- istration at U. of S. F. until Saturday * * * Fall semester begins at California School of Fine Arts * * * Panama Canal Day at the Exposition * * * The State's first boys in blue were off to war this day in 1861 when the First Regiment of California Volunteers left by water for San Pedro.

16 WEDNESDAY — Alaskan old-timers meet for llth annual convention of International Association of Sourdoughs at Oakland until the 19th * * * August 16, 1856, saw the opening of the city's first high school, with 35 boys and 45 girls in attendance * * * Twelve years ago today five flyers left Oakland Airport on the Dole Flight to Hawaii: three succeeded and two failed.

1 7 THURSDAY — Alaska Day on Treasure Island, commemo- rating discovery of gold on the Yukon in 1896 with pageantry, ban-

ALMANAC for THIRTY-MINERS 73

quet, and costume ball * * * Registration at U. C. for fall semester until Saturday * * * City Hall musical note, 1 8 5 6 : "Peter Kenny has been appointed bell ringer in place of J. McGowan" * * * On the same day of the same year Lola Montez was billed to do "her famous Spider Dance" at the American Theater.

18 FRIDAY — Flags were flying, cannon firing, and flowers floating from balconies as 5,000 members of the Vigilance Commit- tee held one final parade with their muskets this day in 1856 before disbanding.

1 9 SATURDAY — San Benito County Saddle Horse Show and Rodeo at Hollister * * * The Fair welcomes Job's Daughters * * * A letter written in San Francisco appeared this day in 1848 in the New York Herald, providing the East with its first news of the discovery of gold in California * * * One year later a small room in San Francisco with a single bed rented for $ 1 5 0 a month.

The safest part of San Francisco in which occidentals

may prowl at midnight is probably Chinatown — yet

a blue-coated peace officer may not be encountered in

the whole area. Reason is the unwritten agreement

between the Chinese and San Francisco fathers that

the former may govern their province themselves,

providing they do so efficiently. Control rests almost

entirely with the Chinese Six Companies (actually

seven now) , each representing one of the districts of old China. The names

of the original six companies were: Hop Wo, Ning Yeung, Kong Chow,

Sam Yup, Yang Wo, and Yan Wo. The seventh is the Shen Hing Company.

Anyone having important btisiness — economic, social, or political — in

Chinatown does well to go first to their headquarters, a flowery building

about one block north of the Stockton Street Tunnel.

74 ALMANAC for THIRTY-NINERS

August

San Francisco's Greek colony recommends:

KABOBS

On skewers thread 2 -inch cubes of lamb shoul- der between folds of bacon and slices of onion. Roast in hot oven until tender — about 1 hour — and serve on hot buttered rice.

20 SUNDAY — Hungarians observe St. Stephen Day on Trea- sure Island * * * Redmen and Order of Pocahontas meet at the Fair * * * In 1847 Spanish Californians were described as being thrilled at the "dash" of the Yankees, saying, "They leap before any one has a chance to look."

21 MONDAY — fall term opens at U. C., U. of S. P., and

Golden Gate College * * * On Treasure Island: South of Market Boys, Sunrise Breakfast Club, San Francisco Shut-in Association, and Illuminating Engineering Society convene; California Writers and Composers Society Week begins * * * The citizens responded to a proclamation by Mayor John W. Geary this day in 1850 by raising $6,000 and a huge stock of provisions to aid destitute immi- grants coming overland. 'Bh

22 TUESDAY — In August 1866, one Captain Swift, contract- ing to remove the dead from Yerba Buena Cemetery at so much per cadaver, was enraged to discover the trickery of a coroner of the *50's. The latter, paid well by the city to bury paupers, had manu- factured them by filling coffins with stones and manure — designed to provide both the weight and the aroma expected.

23 WEDNESDAY — The first carload of railway freight reached San Francisco this day in 1869 — boots and shoes shipped from Boston on the 7th.

ALMANAC for THIRTY-NINERS 75

24 THURSDAY — A Packard auto was on its way from San Francisco to New York on the first known cross-country automobile trip — time: 52 days — this month in 1903.

25 FRIDAY — The Exposition celebrates Uruguayan Independ- ence Day (1835) * * * Birthday of Bret Harte, commemorated on Treasure Island * * * In the fifth round of a fight at Recrea- tion Park, August 25, 1930, Max Baer delivered the blow from which Frankie Campbell died the following day. The Grand Jury recommended later that Referee Toby Wing be barred from the ring.

26 SATURDAY — Birthday of Sir Walter Scott: Scots cele- brate at the Exposition with dancers, pipers, Caledonian games, and tossing the caber * * * Pacific Coast Norwegian Singers9 Asso- ciation meets until the 28th: Norwegian singers' concerts until Mon- day on Treasure Island * * * San Leandro Dahlia Society is stag- ing its annual show * * * This day in 1875 the Bank of California was forced by the indiscreet speculations of president William C. Ralston to close its doors. Next day Ralston was found drowned off North Beach.

A sure cure for cancer was the prescription of Dr. Li Po Ti, one of San Francisco's best-known medical prac- titioners in the 1 870's:

1 oz. dragon's 2 oz. black dates heart blood 1 oz. red bark

2 oz. pickled 3 oz. devil- fish suckers

lizards 3 1/2 dr. reindeer's horns (ground)

l/2 oz. Corea ginseng root 1 l/z oz. bird's claws

1 2 oz. willow cricket skins 6 oz. lotus leaves

3 oz. rattlesnake's tail 5 oz. white nuts

7 dr. sweet-potato vine 8 dr. coffin nails (old ones)

Boil in 2 quarts of water. Dose: 1 tablespoon every 3 hours.

76 ALMANAC for THIRTY-NINERS

27 SUNDAY — In August 1926, French detectives asked Mayor James Rolph to comb city bank vaults for loot cached by French pirate Martin Thierry, who ravaged the coast in 1852. He searched — but in vain.

28 MONDAY — Conversion of the city's Chinese to Christian- ity rated a public ceremony August 28, 1850, when the mayor and clergymen distributed religious tracts in Chinese. Interpreter Ah Sing relayed courteous speeches of gratitude.

29 TUESDAY — Eastern Star meets on Treasure Island * * * "The Great Ghost Mystery Solved," said the Oakland Daily Tran- script in August 1871, reporting a medium's seance with the "old ferry slip ghost" — a victim in the wreck of the ferry El Capitan, "drowned when another man jumped on his back . . . He is now looking," said the medium, "for the man who did it ..." (g)

30 WEDNESDAY — Today is Golden Wedding Day at the Fair * * * A poverty-stricken Scotchman landed in San Fran- cisco this day in 1879, seeking health and work, but found little of either. He was Robert Louis Stevenson.

31 THURSDAY — Netherlands Day at the fair; also Luxem- burg Day * * * The Flying Cloud anchored this day in 1 8 5 1 , hav- ing voyaged from New York via Cape Horn in 8 1 days, 2 1 hours — an all-time record for sailing ships.

Irish school teacher Kate Kennedy knew what she wanted and how to get it. No sooner had she arrived at San Fran- cisco in 185 6, than she launched a campaign to give female teachers equal pay for equal work. Her campaign won, she became the first woman to reap the benefits. To promote woman suffrage, she secured the office of State Superin- tendent of Instruction. When her defeated opponent con- trived to have her demoted without explanation Kate sued — although ready to retire — won reinstatement, promptly resigned, and then sued successfully for $5,700 in back salary. Result of her fight was the Tenure of Office Law, which still protects teachers against dismissal without cause and without hearing. F. M.

1909 ... "The City That Was" Will Irwin had named it, as he sat in the office of the New York SUN on the night of April 20, 1906, and wrote: "The old San Francisco is dead. The gayest, lightest-hearted, most pleasure- loving city of the western continent, and in many ways the most interest- ing and romantic, is a horde of refugees living among ruins. It may rebuild; it probably will; but those who have known that peculiar city by the Golden Gate, have caught its flavor of the Arabian Nights, feel that it can never be the same. It is as though a pretty, frivolous woman had passed through a great tragedy. She survives, but she is sobered and different. If it rises out of the ashes it must be a modern city, much like other cities, and without its old atmosphere." And now only 3 years later another newspaperman, Rufus Steele, writes another piece, calling it "The City That Is." He advises Will Irwin to "dry his tears. Of a truth the things which he meant by 'the old San Francisco' did not die and are not dead. By the Market Street parade, by the Poodle Dog, by the wall pictures at Coppa's, by the Orpheum gal- lery, by the honor of Metia, by Sanguinettiys, by the Italian opera, by Lotto's fountain, by Fill-more Street on Saturday night, by the potent sign of each of these *the old San Francisco* is very much alive . . ."

September

1 FRIDAY — "The buffooneries of the actors" in the five-act comedy, A Trip to Australia by Lola Montez in the Fanny Major, "excited much spasmodic laughter" in the audience at the American Theater this night in 1856. "The dog, the monkey, and Mr. Chap- man without his pants were natural and amusing."

2 SATURDAY — Today at the Exposition: Negro Day; today and tomorrow: Welsh Eistedfodd (singing festival) * * * Nine years ago today the West's longest telephone cable went into service between San Francisco and Los Angeles, carrying a peak load of 26,000 words per minute.

78 ALMANAC for THIRTY-NINERS

September is the hottest month (average tem- perature 61.4°) , and September 16, 1913, was the hottest day on record in San Francisco — the thermometer soared to 101.2°. Spectacular was September 1904, with the warmest "warm spell" on record — mercury rising above 90° for 4 days and reaching 101° on one day, Sep- tember 8 — followed by a 4-day storm un- paralleled for the season in any year, during which 3.84 inches of rain fell in 24 hours and 5 inches altogether — 17 times as much as the average total precipitation for the month.

3 SUNDAY — Salutes were fired this day in 1867 as the Great Republic, first crack steamer built for the China trade, sailed for the Orient, flying the Japanese standard at the mizzen, the Chinese ban- ner at the fore, and the American flag at the peak. Chinese on the wharf said bon voyage by tossing yellow joss papers after her.

4 MONDAY — Labor Day: union members parade down Mar- ket Street * * * San Francisco Labor Council Day at the Exposi- tion * * * State and National Lawn Bowling Tournament for 2 weeks to come * * * Seven teen -year-old Francis J. McCarthy, speaking over a wireless telephone from the Cliff House, was heard on a receiving set a mile down the beach this day in 1905.

5 TUESDAY — National Federation of Federal Employes, con- vening until the 9th, visits the Fair * * * Fall semester registra- tion at S. F. State College until Friday * * * The Metropolitan Theater was advertising about this time in 1856 "Rodger's Grand Moving Picture of the Crimean War and Fall of Sebastopol" — - cov- ering 10,000 feet of canvas * * * The Southern Pacific joined San Francisco and Los Angeles by rail this day in 1876.

6 WEDNESDAY — Portugal Day at the Exposition * * * Complained a civic-minded observer in 1850: "We have seen the whole congregation of a religious meeting start from their seats at

ALMANAC for THIRTY-NINERS 79

the ringing of the bells of other churches, supposing it was for a fire ; and how are our firemen to know whether the bells are ringing to call them ... to fight the devouring flames, or ... to attend a prayer meeting?" /g*

7 THURSDAY — Celebration of Brazilian Separation Day (1822) on Treasure Island * * * National Council of Catholic Women convenes until the 14th * * * Style note, Oakland Daily Transcript, 1871: "Young ladies of fashion now affect silver heels on their shoes, of remarkable length. The heels are hollow and filled with shot."

8 FRIDAY — The Fair welcomes Pioneer Women of California * * * San Francisco's first Mechanics' Institute Fair opened this day in 1857 under the canvas roof of a pavilion on Montgomery Street.

9 SATURDAY — Admission Day: Native Sons celebration at the Fair, motorboat regatta on Lake Merritt * * * California Vintage Festival on Treasure Island * * * This day in 1850 Cali- fornia was admitted, after 9 months' argument in Congress, to the Union * * * Lotta's Fountain, gift of actress Lotta Crabtree, was presented to the city this day in 1875 by actor Harry Edwards. It still stands at the intersection of Geary, Kearny, and Market Streets.

Careful not to die too soon were early San Francisco's aged Chinese — at least not before they had finished paying their tongs monthly installments of "bone •money" to insure shipment of their bones back to China for burial. After the dead Chinese had turned to dust in his temporary American grave, his bones were dis- interred and measured, dipped in water and brandy, and polished. During the 185 O's China-bound coffins bearing bones averaged a hundred a month. The coffins, like the ships, sailed back and forth, few Chinese being rich enough to afford coffins of their own. And like the ships they came back bearing another cargo — opium.

80 ALMANAC for THIRTY-NINERS

Lots of women (each a minx) Have maps as strange as any sphinx And every one is some man's jinx — The reason for the male sex* kinx.

M. G.

10 SUNDAY — The Fair w host to Sons of Italy * * * Scepti- cism was not enough to shake the story of the Bolinas coast fishermen who swore this month in 1901 to having seen a 100-foot sea serpent lift its green-whiskered, horse-like head from the waves.

1 1 MONDAY — Western Safety Conference at Oakland until the 1 5th * * * National Customs Service Association meets until the 1 5th * * * Registration for fall semester at Mills College today and tomorrow * * * A "benefactor to the city" at this time in 1855 was a certain Monsieur Elchand, proprietor of "a strange ma- chine on wheels", drawn through town by a pair of horses, "by which piping hot water is dispensed. A large iron boiler is kept filled with water and beneath it a fire is kept constantly burning . . . concealed from view by a handsomely painted covering of French ladies at play." Elchand's hot water sold at two-bits a bucket.

12 TUESDAY — first day of fall semester at S. F. State College * * * The Workingmen's Party of California, led by Irish dray- man Dennis Kearney, was organized this day in 1877 with a fight- ing program designed to rout the "vested interests."

13 WEDNESDAY — At 5:30 o'clock of a windswept dawn, September 13, 1859, Chief Justice David S. Terry of the California Supreme Court and U. S. Senator David C. Broderick met near La- guna de la Merced (Sp., lake of mercy) to settle a long-standing political feud with pistols at 30 paces. Broderick fell with a bullet in his right breast; he died 3 days later. A

ALMANAC for THIRTY-NINERS 81

1 4 THURSDAY — Kosh Hashonah: Jewish New Year (5700 in the Jewish calendar) .today and tomorrow * * * National Council of Catholic Women visits the Exposition * * * In September 1857 a flying machine constructed of gull's wings and bamboo was occasioning pop-eyed interest among the citizenry.

15 FRIDAY — Central America Day at the Fair: Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and El Salvador celebrate their Independence Days * * * The first coaches of the Butterfield Overland Mail left San Francisco and Tipton, Missouri, simultane- ously this day in 1858 on a 2 3 -day schedule for the 2, 79 5 -mile trip.

16 SATURDAY--^* of Gedaliah: Jewish * * * Mexican Independence Day: celebration on Treasure Island * * * Today at the Fair -.State Federation of Labor Day * * * Old Timers' Day at Benicia today and tomorrow * * * This day in 1854 appeared the first issue of Oakland's first newspaper, The Contra Costa.

A performance of THE HUNCHBACK at the American

Theater came to an abrupt halt one night in the 1850's

faring the spirited combat scene between two of the

actors when a third entered, threw out both arms, and

cried, "What does this mean?" From the gallery was

roared the answer, "Side wheel steamer!" The audience

broke into a hubbub of merriment, recognizing instantly

the reference to the old semaphore atop Telegraph Hill

which signalled the coming of ships through the Golden Gate. Most eagerly

awaited of the signals was the one in which the arms of the semaphore,

stretched horizontally, announced the arrival of a Pacific Mail side wheel

steamer. The semaphore was connected about 1853 with a telegraph line to

& -mile-distant Point Lobos, which gave still earlier information of incoming

ships, from this, the first telegraph in California, Telegraph Hill took its

name.

82 ALMANAC for THIRTY-NINERS

September

San Francisco's Mexican colony recommends:

CHILI CON CARNE

Soak 1 Ib. red beans in cold water overnight. Brown cubes of lean beef in hot olive oil. Add minced onions and garlic and cook 5 minutes. Stir in 2 tablespoons chili powder, 1 tablespoon paprika, salt and pepper, and enough hot water to cover meat. When meat is tender, remove and cook beans in liquor. Return meat to mix- ture and simmer until sauce is thick.

17 SUNDAY — Constitution Day * * * San Francisco has a Birthday Party on Treasure Island; also scheduled: Order of Orioles Day, Junior Chamber of Commerce Day, and opening of Dog Week

* * * Annual Horse Show at Pittsb^lrg, Contra Costa County

* * * On September 17, 1776, Lt. Jose Moraga took possession in the name of King Carlos III of Spain of the Presidio, farthest north- ern and western outpost of Spanish rule in the Americas.

18 MONDAY — The Exposition celebrates Chile Day * * * California League of Municipalities meets at Oakland until the 21 st

* * * A notable social event of September 1867 — admission by ticket only — was the circumcision of Henry Danziger's triplets, Abraham Lincoln, Isaac Andrew Johnson, and John Conness Dan- ziger, before a large congregation of "friends of the happy parents, distinguished military and civil personages, and representatives of the newspapers" in Synagogue Ohaibai-Shalome.

19 TUESDAY — Queen Emma of the Hawaiian Islands, arriv- ing on the Sacramento from New York this month in 1866, was greeted by a 21 -gun salute from the Shubrick and a serenade by the Second Artillery Band.

20 WEDNESDAY -— About time for San Mateo County's An- nual Floral Fiesta at Bay Meadows * * * Ex-President Ulysses S. Grant landed from the City of Tokyo on a world tour this day in

ALMANAC for THIRTY-NINERS 83

1 879 in a San Francisco draped with flags and loud with welcoming bells and whistles. , ^

21 THURSDAY — Three-day Napa County celebration opens at the Fair * * * Said visiting Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman, Commander-in-Chief of the Army, from the balcony of the Palace Hotel this day in 1876: "I am perfectly willing to see any of you during my stay, in your own way; and if in walking the streets I should fail to recognize you, just pull me by the coat."

22 FRIDAY — When the Reverend William Scott found him- self hanged in effigy as "Dr. Scott, the Reverend Traitor" on the door of Calvary Presbyterian Church this day in 1861 because of his habit of praying for Confederate President Jefferson Davis, he quietly left the city.

23 SATURDAY — Autumn begins this afternoon * * * Yom Kippnr (day of atonement) : Jewish * * * Sheep Show and world- wide fleece exhibit at the Fair until October 2nd * * * The class of 73, 40 strong, took up its studies this day in 1869 as the University of California began its first semester of instruction.

California, too, had its Paul Revere — John Brown, called Juan Flaco ("Lean John") — who covered on horseback the 630 miles be- tween Los Angeles and San Francisco in 96 hours without stopping to rest. He brought a plea for aid from young Lt. Archibald Gillespie — besieged with his tiny garrison in Los Angeles by hostile Californians — to Commodore Robert F. Stockton. The message, "Believe the bearer", written on a thin piece of paper, was rolled in a cigarette and concealed in Brown's hair. Stealing out of Los Angeles before dawn on September 24, 1846, he outdistanced pursuers, although his horse had been struck by a bullet. When the animal dropped dead, he continued for 27 miles on foot. The balance of the trip exhausted three more horses. The entire journey led through dangerous country, much of it unmarked by any trail, where water was scarce and settlements far apart. His record was never duplicated.

84 ALMANAC for THIRTY-NINERS

24 SUNDAY — "Nothing save hurricane," said the papers this day in 1865, ". . . will keep the daring Capt. James Cooke" from walking a tight-rope from the Cliff House to South Seal Rock — but the feat was called off when it rained.

25 MONDAY — Stanford fall term registration begins * * * The John L. Stephens sailed for Alaska this day in 1 868 with the new Territory's officers aboard.

26 TUESDAY — This month in 1876, 20,000 salmon spawn were shipped to Honolulu to be transplanted in Hawaiian rivers.

27 WEDNESDAY — The city's second Chinese woman, Madam Ah Toy, capitalized on male curiosity in 1848 by exhibiting herself for an ounce of gold dust.

28 THURSDAY — Succoth (harvest festival): Jewish, until October 6th * * * Cabrillo Day, commemorating Juan Cabrillo's discovery of California (1542) * * * The brick walls of 7 16-1 8- 20 Montgomery Street are built around a four-masted schooner dragged through the mud to the site. ^\

29 FRIDAY — Contra Costa County Day at the Fair * * * Said the 17. C. Blue and Gold this day in 1887: "Class of '91 enters with ... 26 young ladies, almost all as ugly as a picket fence."

30 SATURDAY — One week after the first boat unloaded at Clark's Wharf, reported the Alta Californian this day in 1848, goods had fallen 25 per cent and real estate risen 50 to 100 per cent.

A Chinese woman named Suey Hin, who plied a ques- tionable trade with the assistance of 50 girls whom she owned, decided in 1898 to lead a better life. She therefore disposed of all but seven of her girls. These, valued at $8,500, she retained, awaiting further assurance of her salvation. After operating with this reduced staff for some weeks, however, she felt such a glow of regeneration that she conducted another sale and retired with a clear con- science and the $8,500 check of Grant Avenue's most reputable slave dealer. H. M.

1919 . . . Said King Albert of Belgium October 14, 1919, "We are glad to be here today in San Francisco, the great city by the Pacific Ocean, with its great and deep harbor, its high buildings and its energetic people."

October

1 SUNDAY — Germany Day at the Fair * * * Leland Stan- ford Jr. University first opened its doors October 1, 1891.

2 MONDAY — Many people thought the young man who gave his first lecture at Maguire's Academy of Music this day in 1866 "would make something of himself." He was Mark Twain.

3 TUESDAY — A tale of 1850 relates that Constable Elleard's black horse, whenever a coin was put between its teeth, went to the bootblack's and held up its hoofs for a shine.

4 WEDNESDAY — Feast Day of St. Francis, the city's patron saint * * * Fray Junipero Serra, on his first visit, said mass at Mission Dolores on St. Francis' Day, 1777.

5 THURSDAY — Mills College Founders' Day * * * An anonymous gentleman relieved of jury duty in October 1861, to display a 60-foot whale, harpooned in the Bay, was soon back in court, arrested for displaying it too long. /g*

6 FRIDAY — Simchas Torah (Feast of Laws): Jewish * * * Having over-issued $ 3 00,000 in warrants, City Comptroller "Honest Harry" Meiggs sailed for Chile October 6, 1854.

7 SATURDAY — A school system supported by the dog tax was achieved by Marin County in the 1860's.

86 ALMANAC for THIRTY-NINERS

No Indian summer, but the genuine thing is October, with strawberries ripening, flowers coming to a second bloom in temperatures which average but 1 degree less than those of September, year's hottest month. Only June averages as many clear days — 17.

8 SUNDAY — Fire Prevention Week begins on Treasure Island; also Redwood Empire Week * * * The Sabbath quiet of this day in 1865 was upset by an earthquake that sent churchgoers and late sleepers scrambling into the streets — many of the latter in sufficient deshabille to raise the eyebrows of the former * * * First telegraph line between San Francisco and Los Angeles went into service this day in 1860 * * * Cornelius J. Sullivan, 27, was so "thoroughly disgusted with the habits and manners of the Republicans" that he begged to be sent to Russia, reported the Examiner this day in 1880. He was sent to the asylum at Napa.

9 MONDAY — When Mission de los Dolores de Nuestro Padre San Francisco de Asis (Sp., mission of the sorrows of our father St. Francis of Assist) was dedicated this day in 1776, the noise of bells, muskets, and cannon so terrified the Indians that they ran away and hid.

10 TUESDAY — China Day at the Fair, celebrating Ten-Ten Day, which commemorates the downfall of the Manchu dynasty on the tenth day of the tenth month, 1911 * * * As he looked upon the Golden Gate for the first time, this day in 1777, Fray Junipero Serra exclaimed: "Thanks be to God, now has Saint Francis, with the holy cross of the procession of missions, arrived at the end of the continent of California; for to get any further it will be neces- sary to take to the water."

1 1 WEDNESDAY — Pulaski Day: Polish colony honors Gen. Casimir Pulaski, soldier in the American Revolution, with Poland Day at the Fair * * * The San Francisco School Board's resolution

ALMANAC for THIRTY-NINERS 87

of October 11, 1906, to receive the city's 90 Japanese pupils only at the Oriental Public School created an international issue, the so- called "school-boy incident." Rather than face prosecution by the United States Government for violating the treaty with Japan, the Board rescinded its action.

1 2 THURSDAY — Columbus Day: Italian and Spanish colonies celebrate with a ball Saturday and a parade Sunday * * * At the Exposition: Spain Day * * * Six years ago today Alcatraz Island Penitentiary, long a military prison, was transferred from the War Department to the Department of Justice — henceforth to be used for incarceration of the more unruly Federal prisoners. fi|

13 FRIDAY — Healdsburg Day on Treasure Island * * * "Breathes there a miner with soul so dead — As to an agent ne'er hath said, Til take the Golden Era!' " Such was the appeal by which the Golden Era hoped to induce subscriptions when it appeared in the autumn of 1852.

14 SATURDAY — The Fair greets Camp Fire Girls * * * The Examiner reported in October 1880 that Oakland "proposed to collect a license from people owning wind-mills who furnish their neighbors with Nature's fluid."

"I agree not to use profane language, not to get

drunk, not to gamble, not to treat animals cruelly,

and not to do anything else that is incompatible

with the conduct of a gentleman" Thus swore

"Buffalo Bill" Cody and some 8 0 other young men,

the "pick of the frontier", when they entered the

service of the Pony Express as riders. From April

3, 18 60, to October 7,1861, they carried the mails

over the 1,966-mile route between St. Joseph, Missouri, and San Francisco,

averaging 10l/2 days each trip. Each rider averaged 30 miles, changing

horses twice, at stations spaced about 1 0 miles apart. Emergencies demanded

longer rides: "Buffalo Bill" was credited with a continuous one of 3 84 miles.

88 ALMANAC for THIRTY-NINERS

Fog and wind and furs in August, Sun and blue skies in October —

No wonder San Francisco seems A little screwy to the sober!

M. A. de F.

15 SUNDAY — Shakespearean Play at Mills College Woodland Theater * * * As the first Butterfield Overland Mail coach clat- tered up Montgomery Street, at 4:15 p. m. this day in 1858, waiting crowds burst into hurrahs, tossing their hats wildly in the air. The journey from St. Louis had taken just 23 days, 18 hours, 40 minutes.

16 MONDAY -— Muncbener Oktoberfest (Bavarian festival) at California Hall * * * At 10 a. m. this day in 1863, 400 excursion- ists, carrying picnic hampers well stocked with chicken, ice cream, and champagne, boarded an 1 1 -car train for the maiden trip of San Francisco's first railroad, the San Francisco and San Jose, bound for Mayfield, 35 miles away. The cars were advertised as "elegantly furnished and supplied with all the modern conveniences."

17 TUESDAY — In order to satisfy a judgment for $19,239 obtained against the city by a certain Dr. Pete Smith for services to the sick in 1851, the sheriff was compelled to sell the hospital, several wharfs, and even the City Hall.

18 WEDNESDAY — As the mail ship Oregon steamed through the Golden Gate October 18, 1850, firing the salutes which gave the first news received of California's admission to the Union, all business stopped while the town began to celebrate with brass bands, cannon, and fireworks. Messengers were dispatched by boat, stage, horse, mule, and foot to spread the word throughout the State.

ALMANAC for THIRTY-MINERS

89

19 THURSDAY — 1^. C. T. U. visits Treasure Island * * * Capt. Sir Edwood Belcher, R. N., commander of H. M. S. Sulphur, arriving in the harbor this day in 1837, found the region most repel- lent and its inhabitants little better than bandits, as he took occasion to state when he wrote a book about his travels.

20 FRIDAY — College of the Pacific has its day at the Exposi- tion, and the English Speaking Union, too * * * On its opening night, October 20, 1851, the walls of the American Theater sank 2 inches into the mud beneath the weight of the audience; no casual- ties were reported.

21 SATURDAY — Thirtieth National Dairy Show on Treasure Island until the 30th * * * Today the Fair welcomes Soroptimists * * * About the time San Francisco was on its way to work on the morning of October 21, 1868, its most severe earthquake since American occupation shattered windows, cornices, walls — and public confidence — killing 5 and injuring 40 or 50. Property dam- age totaled $400,000. A general exodus of the fearful from the city began.

"Full dress was the rule — and no boisterous mirth

or rude conversation was allowed", when "The

Countess", leading courtesan of 1849, opened her

establishment, reported a chronicler of the occasion.

Admission was by invitation, extended to all the

leading men of the city, not excluding the clergy.

The place was at once established as a rendezvous

for the city's fashionable. "At the hour of leave

taking, all who wished to depart did so. The price of a night's entertainment

was six ounces [of gold dust} or $96."

90 ALMANAC for THIRTY-NINERS

/~\ xW^^l San Francisco's Filipino chefs recommend:

October CAMOTCS

Bake peeled and sliced sweet potatoes in a syrup made of l/z cup crushed pineapple, % cup brown sugar, l/z teaspoon ginger, l/2 teaspoon salt, and l/2 cup water. Dot top slices with butter.

22 SUNDAY — "We live in a great age," orated Steve Maybell, greenbacker, this month in 1880. "Formerly all your female relatives had to work for 200 years to make a coat. Now science has invented the Spinning Jenny* that will make a coat in 1 0 minutes and your mother-in-law can put in her loose time strumming the piano, bang- ing her hair, or yours, practicing the Grecian bend and all those French tricks."

23 MONDAY — A bull and bear fight was staged on the beach near the Presidio this day in 1816 for the edification of visiting Rus- sians from the Rurik, under command of sailor-scientist Otto von Kotzebue.

24 TUESDAY — The first telegram to the interior of California was dispatched to Marysville this day in 1 8 5 3 — rates: first 1 0 words, $2.00; each additional 5, 75c * * * The telegraph office was jammed with persons waiting to send messages at $1.00 per word as the last piece of wire was strung up on the Overland Telegraph this day in 1861. The first dispatch was sent to President Lincoln.

25 WEDNESDAY — The first meeting to organize California's Democratic Party, held this day in 1849 in Portsmouth Square, ad- vocated "opposition to enactments intended to benefit the few at the expense of the many."

ALMANAC for THIRTY-NINERS 91

26 THURSDAY — No one bothered about it when a runaway Russian sailor fell into the 20 -foot well at Alfred Ellis' hotel one stormy night this month in 1846 until a washerwoman began to complain about the water.

27 FRIDAY — Navy Day: public festivals at Mare Island Navy Yard and Treasure Island * * * The Exposition is host to United Spanish War Veterans * * * One-man cars were disgusting strap- hangers as early as 1 862, when the City Railroad Company dispensed with its conductors, compelling passengers to deposit their fares in a box under the driver's eyes. fO5)

28 SATURDAY — Czechoslovakian Independence Day: Czechs celebrate at Sokol Hall * * * "San Franciscans have a place of eve- ning resort at length," announced the Alt a Califbrnian, when Rowe's Olympic Circus brought California its first circus entertainment this day in 1849, presenting three equestrians, two rope dancers, a clown, and a ringmaster before crowded tiers of boxholders in an amphi- theater on Kearny Street. Admission was $3.

So widespread was the fame of Chinese hatchet man Fung Jing Toy — nicknamed "Little Pete" — that few matinee idols outrivalled him in the size of their followings. At his funeral in 1897, several hundred white women, struggling for sou- venirs, broke up the ceremonies. Of all the hatchet men who ever prowled the alleys of Chinatown, Little Pete was the chief. Head executioner for the Sam Yup tong, he also undertook commissions for other tongs; more than 50 killings were credited to him. But murder was not Little Pete's only accomplishment. He also operated assorted gambling and opium dens — and even found time to write plays for his Jackson Street Theater. White bodyguards watched over him, but he came to his end none the less, shot down by imported hatchet men as he sat in a barber shop getting his ears cleaned — and even the shirt of mail which he wore beneath his robes did not save him.

92 ALMANAC for THIRTY-NINERS

29 SUNDAY — At midnight 3 years ago today 40,000 West Coast maritime workers walked out in the second coastwide maritime strike. For 99 days not a ship moved.

30 MONDAY — About this time in October 1854, two wan- dering grizzlies were being pursued simultaneously by policemen with rifles and by their owner, a Bush Street French baker. The baker caught up with them first.

31 TUESDAY — Hallowe'en * * * It took 4 years to build the lighthouse on the Farallones in the 1 8 50's ; bricks had to be carried four at a time up a precipitous half-mile trail. And then the bark Oriole, after bringing machinery for the light 15,000 miles, sailed so far off her course that she ran aground at the mouth of the Co- lumbia River. Considerable maneuvering was required to exact more funds for a new beacon from Congress.

Very eager to turn his cargo over to its consignees was the captain of the schooner CAROLINE E. FOOTE, arriving from Siberia on July 25, 1860. The shipment, 15 ailing camels, had been purchased in Mongolia by enterprising Otto Esche and sent to M. Frisius, with whom he planned to establish a camel express to Salt Lake City. Unfortunately the cargo disembarked "lean, meagre and with their double humps shrivelled down to mere skinny sacks . . ." Alarmed, Frisius turned them loose in a verdant meadow near Mission Dolores. Esche meanwhile shipped two other herds, unaware that the disheartened Frisius had abandoned their scheme and ordered the original brutes sold. It took a year to dispose of all the animals. In the mean- time San Francisco visitors were frequently astonished at the sight of a dejected camel pulling a sulky along Montgomery Street. Julius Bandmann, who purchased 10, regularly drove them up and down the cliffs near the Presidio, laden with 650 pounds of sand, to test their strength and agility. Eventually he sold them to mining companies in Nevada, to haul supplies. In the long run, however, they caused so much trouble that the Nevada Legislature imposed a $25 fine on anyone guilty of letting his camel go astray. Thus in ignominy, classed as a nuisance, did the gaunt, grave crea- tures end their sojourn in an alien land. D. D. W.

1929 ... "Of all American cities the most . . . likable — the one which on all counts wears the best and longest" — so wrote Irvin Cobb about the San Francisco of the }20's. "The architecture is nothing to rave about, or rather, a good deal of it is something to rave about — monotonous miles of narrow- chested, high-shouldered, jimber-jawed houses strongly reminiscent of the scrollsaw period of our creative artistry . . . rich men's palaces which appar- ently were designed by the mad King of Bavaria; homely public buildings; cobbled streets running so steeply up and down that they could have appeal only for . . . the bounding chamois of the Alps ... I/ is something else . . . which -makes San Francisco . . . the happiest-hearted, the gayest, the most carefree city on this continent", able "to produce a greater number of native-born or, anyhow home-grown actors, distinguished fictionists, sculptors, landscape painters, silver-tongued orators . . . dramatists, wits, and — oh, yes — pugilists, than any other city, great or small, in this Union."

November

1 WEDNESDAY — At the Fair: National Authors' Day; begin- ning today: National American Art Week * * * Among the first lodgers at the Old City Hotel, opened November 1, 1846, was 7-foot Dr. Robert Semple, who complained after one night's sleep that his legs stuck far enough out of bed to roost four dozen chickens. The manager obliged with a bed 7 feet 6 inches long.

2 THURSDAY — Scouts led by Sgt. Jose Ortega of the first land expedition to California beheld, 170 years ago today, "a great arm of the sea." They were the first white men known to have seen San Francisco Bay.

3 FRIDAY — Japan Day at the Fair; also Panama Day * * * Poultry Show on Treasure Island until the 19th * * * The Cali- fornian printed this day in 1 847 a piece entitled "Punch Drinking and its Effects", first bit of fiction written in California.

4 SATURDAY — Ninety kegs of powder, exploding in a tun- nel under Telegraph Hill this day in 1 867, tore down rock for a new harbor sea wall. (fc

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T^TV|/| i /7 VV» Kl^V San Francisco of the novelists is San Francisco 1. if WCIIM/tf in November, with streets wrapped in mist,

bell buoys tolling, fog horns blowing. Novem- ber is the month of least wind (although the highest wind velocity recorded was attained by the 64-mile northeaster of November 30, 1906). It averages 3 days of dense fog — as many as January and more than any other month.

5 SUNDAY -— U. S. S. R. Day at the Exposition, celebrating the 22nd anniversary of the Russian Revolution (November 7), with Russian folk songs, dances, balalaika orchestra, and choir; also the first day of American Education Week * * * The Law and Order Committee's high-pressure campaign for an anti-picketing ordi- nance was going full blast this month in 1916, as 400 telephone girls rang up every telephone subscriber to urge a "yes" vote. The vote was "yes."

6 MONDAY — Capt. F. W. Beechey of the British ship Blossom, arriving this day in 1826, found soldiers and friars discontented over lack of pay. The friars, he wrote, "had been so long excluded from the civilized world that their ideas and their politics, like the maps pinned against the wall, bore the date of 1772, as near as I could read for fly specks."

7 TUESDAY — Three years ago today street florist Manuel Bar- tel, on trial for obstructing the sidewalk, argued that his stand was an ornament and asset to San Francisco. The jury not only agreed but congratulated him for keeping alive a city tradition.

8 WEDNESDAY — The first West-bound overland train steamed over the Central Pacific tracks into Oakland this day in 1 8 69 * * * At the same time the Oakland Daily News was "earnestly" protesting against "large bands of cattle running through Oakland

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95

9 THURSDAY — California's first regular U. S. post office began doing business in San Francisco this day in 1848 * * * Fire de- stroyed 32 buildings in the block between Merchant and Clay Streets, east of Kearny, this day in 1852.

10 FRIDAY — The Exposition commemorates poet Joaquin Miller * * * About this time in 1861 a certain Mr. Rowlands alighted from a steamboat to take a walk across the Bay, wearing his own invention, "canoe shoes with leggins." Up to sunset, says a contemporary report, "his body has not been found." /jjjjjjjj)

1 1 SATURDAY — Armistice Day: American Legion exercises at the Fair, street parades in San Francisco and Oakland * * * In- ternational Polo Series this iveek-end and next * * * An interest- ing contribution to insurance literature of Mark Twain's was cited by the Oakland Daily Transcript in 1871: "He finds that the Erie Railway only killed about twenty-three persons in six months, out of 1,000,000 passengers, whilst 13,000 died in their beds out of 1,000,000 inhabitants of New York in the same time. He thinks rail- way insurance a mistake, and wants to get his insurance on going to bed increased."

Outstanding among the practitioners of the native San Francisco art of shanghaiing was Shanghai

Kelly, envy of every "crimp" in the ports of the . iy

seven seas. Master of the routine technique — ||jj| |

knock-out drops, sand bags, and similar devices — III

Kelly used an additional refinement: a trap door in the floor of his Pacific Street saloon through which unconscious mariners-to-be were dropped into rowboats. Kelly reached the crowning point in his career, however, on the great occasion when he invited every habitue of the saloon to his birth- day celebration on a chartered steamer. Aboard the boat drinks circulated freely. When the last of the unsuspecting company had fallen sound asleep, Kelly made the rounds, delivering full crews to three of the worst "hell ships" on the Pacific.

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November Some hi8h"toned 8uys

Is off dere bean. Dey says "I saw"

When dey means "I seen."

H.M.

12 SUNDAY — At the Exposition: Slavonic Day, Red Cross Sunday, Bay Bridge Day * * * Some 200 of the city's most solid citizens were on hand to celebrate completion of new Chamber of Commerce headquarters in the Merchant's Exchange Building with a gala banquet this day in 1867.

13 MONDAY — On November 13, 1908, as Special Prosecutor Francis J. Heney was conducting the trials of the Ruef-Schmitz City Hall graft ring, ex-convict Morris Haas shot him through the neck while his back was turned. Heney recovered, but not Haas. He killed himself the day after.

14 TUESDAY — This day in 1792 Capt. George Vancouver sailed into the Bay at the helm of the British sloop-of-war Discovery, first recorded vessel to anchor in Yerba Buena Cove.

1 5 WEDNESDAY — Anniversary of Philippine President Man- uel Quezon's inauguration: Philippine Day on Treasure Island * * * Three years ago today the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge was opened to traffic * * * Hint to motorists: out of 14,51 1,504 vehicles crossing the bridge in the 20 months and 4 days following, an average of 19 per day were stalled — the moral being: take plenty of gasoline and a spare tire along.

16 THURSDAY — Hot bread in peacetime, red-hot cannon balls in wartime — the bake shop at old Fort Point was equipped

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to turn out both. The round balls fired from the Fort's 10-inch cannon were heated in the bakery ovens in the hope they would set fire to the wooden hulls of invading vessels.

17 FRIDAY — Western Regional Dairy Conference show at Oakland Exposition Building until the 18th * * * San Francisco's first Masonic lodge, California No. 1, was organized 90 years ago today at 247 (now 726) Montgomery Street, with John W. Geary, first mayor of San Francisco, one of its members * * * This is the thirteenth anniversary of the death of California poet George Sterling.

18 SATURDAY — This day in 1847 Adm. C. W. Wooster pre- sided over a dinner at the Old City Hotel in the first Thanksgiving Day celebration of New Englanders in California. 'Bh

From peanut vendor to justice of the peace — such was the self-directed rise of His Honor, William B. Almond. Peddling bis peanuts in 1849, Almond noticed how profitable was the business crowding local courts. Why not start a court of his own? he asked himself — and start one he did, pulling strings among his clientele to win the Governor's assent. He opened up in a little shanty in the winter of 1849-50, hearing only civil cases in amounts above $100. Having listened to as much evidence as he cared to hear, Judge Almond would stop proceed- ings to render his judgment — and help himself to his fee. The price for postponing a case was one ounce of gold dust; for excusing a witness from- appearing, two ounces. Injunctions sold for cash. Nevertheless, Judge Almond was a howling success, approved by frontiersmen for his impudent boldness, his courage and, too, for his informality — since whenever he felt like it, he would adjourn court with the announcement, "The court's dry. Let's take a drink!"

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^an Francisco's Russian colony recommends:

BORSCHT

Cook chopped beets, cabbage, celery root, and onion in stock or consomme flavored with salt, pepper, nutmeg, and a pinch of sugar. As soup boils away, thin with hot water and beet juice. Add a little vinegar and a few cloves. Serve very hot with a spoonful of sour cream in each bowl.

19 SUNDAY — While the body of U. S. Marshal Gen. W. H. Richardson, shot down by a thief, was lying on the pavement of Clay Street, another "contemptible thief stole from the pockets a gold watch and a silver knife sheath," reported the Evening Bulletin this day in 1855.

20 MONDAY — A popular sport among San Francisco young bloods in the 1880's was dueling on horseback; the armor-clad com- batants hacked away at each other with broadswords, usually atop Telegraph Hill on otherwise quiet Sunday afternoons.

21 TUESDAY — Mayflower Descendants Society is welcomed at the Exposition * * * Treasure Island, dedicated 2 years ago to- day, was advertised as "the world's largest man-made island" with- out fear of contradiction until some irreverent wag pointed out that it really is a peninsula, being connected by a tongue of land to Yerba Buena Island.

22 WEDNESDAY — Four years ago today the China Clipper, first of the trans-Pacific airliners, took off on its first flight, west- ward-bound for Manila via Hawaii, the Midway Islands, Wake Island, and Guam.

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23 THURSDAY — Early this morning 87 years ago inhabitants in the vicinity of Lake Merced woke up to discover that the water level had fallen 30 feet during the night. Heavy rains had broken a passageway to the ocean.

24 FRIDAY — Winter Poultry, Pigeon, Bantam, and Rabbit Show at Hayward this week-end or next * * * When a dead man was discovered hanging from a tree near the county line at Visita- cion Point in 1863, the coroners of San Mateo and San Francisco Counties each maintained that the problem lay within the other's province. For 2 weeks the body went on hanging until the San Mateo coroner gave in.

25 SATURDAY — California Night Horse Show at the Fair until December 2d * * * Announced the Alta Californian of No- vember 25, 1887: "The Giants are here and the only Kelly has dis- played his $10,000 shape for the admiration of the ladies and the small boys" * * * Dedication of San Francisco's so-called Statue of Liberty on Mount Olympus the same day seemed to attract less attention than Kelly.

Anyone in search of a hurricane lamp, a binnacle head,

or a sea-going compass from some old square rigger in

the China trade can locate it in San Francisco — stocked

by Ed and Joe Savery, whose shelves once held such

mariners' gadgets in their pristine polish. There were

150 men in the Savery shop when the brothers held a

contract to supply all warships built on the Pacific Coast

with lamps, binnacle heads, and wheels. They even made the lamps for the

Japanese battleship CHITOSI, built here in 1905. When western shipbuilding

fell on evil times, the Savery brothers began dismantling old vessels and

selling their gear to collectors, interior decorators, restaurants of the quaint

variety, and Hollywood's property departments. Business is still brisk,

though the once hearty crew has shrunk to three.

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26 SUNDAY — The procession celebrating the fall of Sebasto- pol in the Crimean War this day in 1855 was headed by flag-bearers carrying the French, English, and Sardinian flags ahead of the Amer- ican flag. "No Turkish flags were noticed," said a reporter. /£}*)

27 MONDAY — On California's first arbor day, instigated by Joaquin Miller, trees were planted in the form of a cross on Yerba Buena Island November 27, 1886, by the poet's daughter, Cali- Shasta, and prominent citizens.

28 TUESDAY — This day in 1776 Juana Francisca Pinta and Mariano Cordero were married at the first wedding at Mission Dolores * * * On November 28, 1918, Gov. William D. Stephens commuted Thomas J. Mooney's death sentence to life imprisonment.

29 WEDNESDAY — The Fair honors Admiral Byrd * * * This day in 1777 soldiers and settlers — 68 in all — were sent out to found the Pueblo of San Jose.

30 THURSDAY — Thanks giving Day * * * Along the shores of Drake's Bay on October 30, 1595, were scattered the fine silks and porcelains carried by Sebastian Cermenho's Manila galleon, the San Agustin, when a squall drove it ashore.

What was possibly history's slowest boat ride began November 25, 1847, when the SITKA, first steamboat on San Francisco Bay, departed on its maiden -voyage to Sac- ramento. The 17 -foot side-wheeler had been imported from Alaska, where Russian officers had built her for a pleasure launch. But when she started up the river she was discovered to be ill-balanced, listing badly. A woman passenger, missing her child, found it — to her horror — being passed from hand to hand across the cabin for bal- last. Disgusted passengers, disembarking to continue the journey on foot, arrived in Sacramento before the SITKA. 1/5 scheduled 20 -hour run required 6 days and 7 hours.

1939 ... " Rarely in my life have I been more thrilled than I am today . . . I think you people here on the Coast, when you start to do something, do it better than anywhere else in the world." So said President franklin Delano Roosevelt a year ago on July 14 in his radio address from the Golden Gate International Exposition grounds. Next day Jack Lutz, peace officer assigned as his chauffeur, was quoted as saying: "When the President got out of the car at the Island, he swung around and looked at the Bay and the city and everything. Nobody was with him but his own group, but he just spread his arms out — and 'magnificent,' he said."

December

\ FRIDAY — As if his duties as carpenter and blacksmith at the Presidio were not enough to keep him busy, Corporal Manuel Bor- onda was ordered this day in 1794 to assume also those of school teacher — at no extra pay.

2 SATURDAY — This is the 288th and last day of the Golden Gate International Exposition * * * Flour was selling at $27 per barrel about this time in 1848 — with little lack of buyers — but wise shoppers waited. Two weeks later it was selling for $12.

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I ^\fy r*fj<Y\\ \\OV* Coldest day on record in San Francisco was JL/CCCTllt/Cl December 11, 1932, when the mercury fell to

27°, but December is ordinarily not quite so cold as January, or quite so rainy. Trees are trimmed and holly hung, but only newcomers speculate about the chances for a white Christmas.

3 SUNDAY — First Sunday of Advent * * * This month in 1846 overland immigrant Mrs. Olive Mann Isbell opened Califor- nia's first American school on the grounds of Mission Santa Clara in a dilapidated stable with an earth floor and a leaky roof. The 25 pupils had boxes to sit on, but no slates, no paper, and no pencils.

4 MONDAY — For the first time this day in 1871 appeared the San Francisco Post. Its editor was Henry George of single tax fame * * * At high noon this day in 1774 Capt. Don Fernando de Ribera y Moncada's expedition — first known Europeans to stand on the site of San Francisco proper — climbed to the top of Point Lobos and there erected a cross.

5 TUESDAY — Outstanding curiosity in 1870 was silk manu- factured in San Francisco by Messrs. Newman. After 4 years of struggle to get started, they were displaying everything from the cocoon to the finished goods.

6 WEDNESDAY — Finnish Independence Day * * * The Railroad House, advertised in 1856 as "the most cleanly and BEST KEPT HOTEL ON THE PACIFIC", was not among those estab- lishments which dispatched solicitors to drum up business at the arrival of every boat that docked. "No runners attached to this Establishment," boasted the owners, "as its proprietors depend upon its own merits" — not the least extraordinary of which was the "Ladle's (sic) Ordinary, Second Story."

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7 THURSDAY — Hanuhah (feast of lights) : Jewish, until the 13th * * * Shortly after midnight, this date in 1853, a door on Front Street was opened cautiously, carts and drays appeared, and files of men silently began moving guns, ammunition, and stores to the brig Anita. Before the authorities could stop her, the Anita was off with 230 men aboard to join William Walker's filibusters in Lower California.

8 FRIDAY — One hundred and forty-five years ago today the first fort on the site of the Presidio, horseshoe-shaped Castillo del San Joaquin, commanding the Golden Gate with its brass cannon, was completed and blessed.

9 SATURDAY — The author of The Old Oaken Biicket ; Samuel Woodworth, who died in the city of New York this day in 1842, lies buried in an ivy-clad tomb with a rusty door in Laurel Hill Cemetery, his remains having been brought cross-country in 1864 by his son, U. S. Navy Comdr. Selim E. Woodworth.

Believe it or not, the old sea dogs know that San Francisco Bay is haunted. One foggy evening about 1810, a little Russian vessel lay at anchor near the present site of Fisherman's Wharf. Suddenly the lookout saw a strange ship coming in the Gate, racing through the tide although no wind was stir- ring. Closer she came and then all at once flared up in a great red glare. The Russian captain, thinking she had burst into flames, lowered a boat to go to her rescue; but when he looked again, the light was out. No ship was there. The next night others saw the fiery ship sail in and disappear when she reached the same spot. When she flares up now, on misty evenings, the mariners salute but never try to send her aid.

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December In winter l §et up at nisht

And have to dress by candlelight Because I failed to heed, you see, The warning from P. G. & E.

M. W.

10 SUNDAY — Christmas Festival at St. Helena until the 3 1st * * * A crowd of 10,000 persons climbed Russian Hill this day in 1852 to witness the hanging of confessed murderer Jose Forni, their curiosity piqued by the unusual legality of the occasion: it was the first of all the city's executions to win official approval.

1 1 MONDAY — Twelve more shopping days before Christmas * * * Of the "California Hundred" who gallantly sailed on the Golden Age for Boston this day in 1862 to join the Second Mas- sachusetts Cavalry, only 40 lived to bring back their standard, the Bear Flag. They carried it through 23 Civil War battles.

12 TUESDAY — Twenty-seven years ago today was incorpo- rated the Municipal Street Railway. Green (Market Street Rail- way) cars have been racing gray ("Muny") ones down Market Street ever since.

13 WEDNESDAY — Santa Lucia Day: Swedes honor Santa Lucia, Roman saint of light, with family celebrations * * * The Phoenix Oil Company was advertising itself in 1856 as "Manu- facturers of & Dealers in Anti-Gum Oil, Sperm Oil, Elephant Oil, China Oil, Neat's Foot Oil, Polar Oil . . ."

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14 THURSDAY — On December 14, 1902, the S. S. Silvertown departed to begin laying the Pacific cable to Honolulu.

15 FRIDAY — "... I have now resolved upon the occupation of the Port of San Francisco," wrote Mexican Viceroy Antonio Bucareli this day in 1774, ". . . and have decided that Captain Don Juan Bautista de Anza . . . shall lead a new expedition . . . who will volunteer to go and make their homes in that country ..."

1 6 SATURDAY — Oakland school children's annual Christmas pageant * * * "Start to shine for '39" became the city's motto 2 years ago today when the Mayor's committee of 200 outlined a 2 6 -point program of beauty treatments for San Francisco.

When California's first Legislature met at San Jose December 15, 1849, Senator Green from Sacra- mento lost no time in introducing a most effective personal form- of log-rolling. The Senator had stocked a goodly supply of liquors near the capitol. Whenever the Legislature adjourned he cried, "Come, let us take a thousand drinks!" The Legis- lature's distinction as being the first was obscured by public and historians alike, who fell into the habit of calling it "The Legislature of a Thousand Drinks."

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^an Francisco's Chinese colony recommends:

EGG FLOWER SOUP

Into boiling chicken bouillon pour beaten egg through the tines of a fork, and immediately remove from fire. Serve with rice. (The Chi- nese soak their rice 3 hours before cooking. Bring to a boil quickly in covered pan. After 5 minutes of hard boiling, simmer for 1 5 min- utes without removing cover.)

17 SUNDAY — Cosmopolitan note: Tanforan Race Track, founded by Polish nobleman Prince Poniatowski in 1901, was named for Spanish pioneer Torbirio Tanforan.

18 MONDAY — Christmas celebration at New Century Com- munity Center, Oakland, until the 23rd * * * When 500 Indians suffering from smallpox and venereal diseases were removed from Mission Dolores to Mission San Rafael Arcangel, founded this day in 1817, the Indians of Marin County, resenting the introduction of these plagues into their territory, went on the warpath. "B\

19 TUESDAY — One week until Christmas, including today and Christmas * * * Said British author Phillip Guedalla when he visited San Francisco 12 years ago: "I estimate that a cent dropped on the crest of California Street would gather speed enough to kill a horse in Market Street, unless it hit a Chinaman on Grant Ave- nue

20 WEDNESDAY — Ninety-third birthday of John McLaren: a Christmas tree will be lighted tonight in front of Golden Gate Park Lodge * * * Superintendent of Parks and Squares since 1887, "Uncle John" has done more than any other man to beautify San Francisco. When he took office most of Golden Gate Park was

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107

a barren dune. His creation are the cliffs, lakes, waterfalls, and grace- ful winding vistas. And his conception, largely, are the gardens of Treasure Island.

2 1 THURSDAY — It's better to mail your packages today than not at all * * * Obituary notice: San Francisco's first burial oc- curred when Marfa de la Luz Munoz, wife of a soldier, was interred this day in 1776 at Mission Dolores.

22 FRIDAY — Winter begins this morning * * * Two more shopping days before Christmas, counting this one * * * Little Bo-Peep held the boards 30 years ago today at the Tivoli's annual holiday spectacle.

23 SATURDAY — It's too late after tonight, but don't despair: there's always the five-and-dime * * * Fallen are the mighty in- deed, when today's San Franciscans casually refer to the Montgomery Block, boasted to be the world's finest office building at its dedica- tion this day in 1853, as merely the "Monkey Block"!

Of San Francisco coinage is the term "two-bits." Before

1854 the currency problem was solved by chopping gold wire

into pieces which passed for dollars. Spanish Californians,

however, held out for their accustomed Mexican REALES.

San Franciscans were willing to oblige. They agreed to

exchange the $1 ingots for 10 REALES — making a25c profit

on the deal, since the REAL was worth not lOc but 12l/2c.

When the Spanish insisted on a value of 8 REALES, the San

Francisco bankers refused to cooperate. And so arose the term "short bit"

and "long bit", referring to the ingot's disputed divisions. After 1854 the

new Mint's shining coins soon drove the "bits", both short and long, out of

circulation — but not the name by which they went. The coins themselves

became "bits" — quarters, "two-bits" and half-dollars, "four-bits."

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I have lived and loved and suffered And oh, how I can suff! — And I have come to the conclusion That love is not enough.

M. W.

24 SUNDAY — On Christmas Eve 90 years ago San Francisco's first dramatic stage presentation, The Wife, opened at Washington Hall * * * Later the same night the town caught fire, and 50 buildings burned down at a loss of a million dollars * * * On Christmas Eve 3 0 years ago the densest crowd the city had ever seen packed the streets around Lotta's Fountain to hear Luisa Tetrazzini sing outdoors.

25 MONDAY — Christmas Day * * * Outdoor trees are merry with lights tonight in St. Francis Wood and in Piedmont * * * Forty-five years ago today was played the first East-West football game, Stanford vs. U. of Chicago. Coaches: Walter Camp and Alonzo Stagg. Score: 24 to 4 in favor of Chicago * * * That night, as beads of champagne gleamed on many a handle-bar mus- tache, the old Cliff House, built in 1861, caught fire and burned to the ground.

26 TUESDAY — Only 364 days till Christmas * * * Com- ments on other Christmases: Said a lady newspaper correspondent after spending the festive season of 1853 in San Francisco: "The El Dorado is an elegant place of succor and relaxation for the San Franciscan whose cold climate both fosters a desire for liquor and enables him to carry it" * * * But in 1879 a lonesome youth, Robert Louis Stevenson, wrote: "For four days I have spoken to no one except my landlord and landlady. This is not a gay way to pass Christmas, is it?"

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109

27 WEDNESDAY — A few items from the Ward House menu of December 27, 1849: "Ox Tail Soup — $1.00; Fresh California Eggs, each — $1.00; Curlew, roast or boiled, to order — $3.00."

28 THURSDAY — The year 1865 closed in tragedy as the Alt a Californian announced: "Bummer Is Dead! The ancient Bummer's obituary was posted . . . some days since but we loyally hesitated to accept the mournful tidings . . . Later information confirms the re- port . . ." Bummer was one of "Emperor" Norton's two canine attendants.

29 FRIDAY — The first public building purchased for the pur- poses of the city government — if building it could be called — was the brig Eupkemia, floating in Yerba Buena Cove. It was converted into a much needed jail.

30 SATURDAY — The death toll at Mission Dolores from measles was 236 people in 9 months, reported Father Ramon Abella this day in 1806.

"I'm ridin' through ye window" announced a

Mr. Montgomery, auctioneer, recently arrived

from the Sandwich Islands, as he rode up to the

barroom window of Brown's Hotel one night in

1846. "'Twill cost ye plenty," said Brown.

"How much?" "Five hundred dollars," said

Brown. No sooner had he spoken than the tipsy

auctioneer tossed a bag of gold through the

window, saying: "Weigh out ye $500, and take enough for a basket of

wine." And before Brown could pick up the bag, Montgomery and his horse

were through the window and into the barroom.

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31 SUNDAY — New Year's Eve: big whoopee tonight along Market Street; bring all the confetti you like * * * State of the city at year's end, 1853: there were 160 hotels, 20 bath houses, 18 livery stables, 18 churches, 12 daily papers, 10 schools, 9 theaters, 2 race tracks — population: about 50,000. The number of saloons, gambling halls, and even less legitimate places of amusement went conveniently uncounted.

On June 30, 1934, San Francisco gave a second funeral to an old man who had died 54 years before. Few men are so honored even at their first funerals. The National Guard saluted him with 21 guns, the municipal band in dress uniform played the march, the Occidental Lodge of Masons performed the ritual, and a quartet from the Olympic Club sang. Taps closed the impres- sive ceremony. And no San Franciscan saw anything incongruous in the inscription on the new monument. It reads: "Norton I. Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico" * * * Emperors, it seems, are born to strife — enemy legions are as certain a part of their destiny as crowns. No less troublesome were Norton's hostile hordes because they were illusory. They marched into his mind on Christmas Day, 1853 * * * Joshua Norton had come to San Francisco in 1849 from Cape Town. While others went to the gold fields he made a quarter of a million dollars specu- lating in San Francisco's sandy hills. In 1853, he switched from sand to rice. Noting the prevalence of coolie labor, he and his friends decided to corner the rice market. With all of Norton's capital they bought the city's entire supply — 300,000 bags. And then, one day in September, five unexpected Chinese packets sailed into Golden Gate — with five boatloads of rice. Norton and his friends were ruined. In 3 months Norton had paid his debts. On Christmas Eve, he went to the opening of the new Metropolitan Theatre and heard Mrs. Sinclair in THE SCHOOL FOR SCANDAL read the lines: "No more in vice or error to engage, or play the fool at large, on Life's great stage." By morning Norton had disappeared from San Francisco * * * When he returned 6 years later he had a new suit — blue broadcloth with gold buttons and gold epaulets — a retinue composed of two mongrels, Lazarus and Bummer — and a new dignity. He was disappointed because his friends hadn't heard that he had been appointed Emperor of the United States. But they soon were informed, because he began inserting proclama- tions in the papers — one that the laws should be strengthened "to cause confidence to exist both at home and abroad in our stability and integrity and another that tra suspension bridge be constructed from Oakland Point to Yerba Buena [San Francisco}, from thence to Saucelito" * * * It

ALMANAC for THIRTY-NINERS

111

became the city's whim to play its part in Norton's tragic little drama. The City Council provided his elegant uniforms, printers furnished free the beautifully engraved 25- and 50-cent "royal bonds." Hotels, cafes, and bars treated him to their finest service. Theatres, concert halls, and private libraries welcomed him. Steamship lines and railroads gave him free trans- portation. He sat with the School Board and the State Legislature and often -made suggestions that were followed, for on -most subjects his mind was unusually clear. When Dom Pedro, Emperor of Brazil, visited San Fran- cisco, Emperor Norton was assigned to greet him * * * Norton fell dead, one rainy night, on California Street near Kearny. For 3 days his body lay in state, while 30,000 people came to honor him. The church was filled with flowers, and a chorus of school children sang. The Rev. W. L. Githens read the service: "Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power." And San Francisco remembered a tribute once paid to him by a magistrate: "Emperor Norton has shed no blood, robbed no one, despoiled no country — which is more than can be said of his fellow emperors." D. D. W.

9139

112 ALMANAC for THIRTY-NINERS

Trail's End for >39ers

DURING THE LAST DECADE the world's two longest bridges have been flung across San Francisco Bay . . . and to celebrate their completion, the world's largest man-made island now has risen from the waves.

BENEATH THE LEVEL WATERS of the Bay is an un- even terrain down to 2 to 3 82 feet. Mariners long have avoided the treacherous shoals just north of Yerba Buena Island, in no place deeper than 26 feet. These watery acres were waste territory — until it was decided to create upon them the site of the Golden Gate International Exposition, to be known as Treasure Island during 1939 and thereafter to become an airport for the trans-Pacific clipper ships.

ROCK WALLS composed of 287,000 tons of quarried rock were sunk in the shoals. Twenty million cubic yards of sea bottom were dredged up and piled within the walls. When the sand was 13 feet above sea level, engineers "unsalted" it by a leaching process. Barges brought 50,000 cubic yards of loam from the mainland to enrich it. When the engineers finished, a 400 -acre island, a mile long and two-thirds of a mile wide, had appeared in the Bay, connected by a 900-foot paved causeway to the Bay Bridge and equipped with ferry slips and landings for small craft and flying boats.

MEANWHILE BOTANISTS WERE HUNTING through all the conti- nents for unusual trees and plants. For many months orchids, hibis- cus, datura, rare silver trees, orange trees, and palms were accli- mated in a San Francisco plant hospital, where also are the elec- trically heated propagation beds that bring to bloom the plants to compose the ever-changing floral patterns of the Fair grounds. Hor- ticultural plans called for planting 4,000 trees, 70,000 shrubs, and 700,000 flowering plants. To sprinkle the plants — and quench the thirst of visitors — San Francisco water was piped over the San Fran- cisco-Oakland Bay Bridge to a 3,000,000-gallon reservoir cut in the solid rock of Yerba Buena Island.

WITH FEDERAL AID were commenced three permanent structures that later will serve the airport — the $800,000 administration build-

ALMANAC for THIRTY-NINERS 113

ing and the two $400,000 steel and concrete hangars, each 335 feet long and 78 feet high, used temporarily to house the $20,000,000 art exhibits and the foreign treasures loaned for the Fair. Finally, around these structures, began to rise a $50,000,000 fantasy — America's World's Fair on the Pacific.

THE FAIR GROUNDS are designed as a walled city, enclosing a series of connected courts. Although a primary consideration was to plan step-saving routes across the 400 acres, the effect first noticed is the island's beauty — its vistas of pools, gardens, and lagoons, bor- dered with exotic buildings representing the Pacific nations. Cam- bodian, Mayan, and Incan motifs give a charming strangeness to this modern Exposition "city."

FROM THE CENTRAL COURT, where the Island's two systems of avenues and courts intersect, rises the 400 -foot Tower of the Sun. Northward the mile-long Avenue of the Seven Seas leads to the Court of Pacifica, portal to the Fair's open-air pageant, the Cavalcade of the Golden West; southward, to the Port of the Trade Winds, anchorage for trade ships, junks, square riggers, and yachts. The main cross -a venue leads from the central Court of Honor into the Court of the East and thence to the Lake of All Nations, a lagoon overlooked by the $1,500,000 United States Government Building and exhibit area. At the north end of the island, next to the 12,000- car parking lot, lies the Gay way, a 40 -acre fun zone, with its cyclone coaster, rocket ship, giant crane, and other thrill rides and shows.

IN THE EXHIBIT PAVILIONS, visitors will see a $1,000,000 "min- eral mountain" of ore with miniature models showing gold mining operations and a $1,000,000 relief map of Western America — so large that the borders of the States can be traversed on foot paths. They will witness demonstrations of the electric eye, television, elec- tronic music, atom-smashing, chemical agriculture. The latest sub-stratosphere transport planes — even Douglas Corrigan's famed "Corrigan Crate" — will be on exhibition. Forty or more foreign nations will exhibit in the International Building and Pacific Na- tions' Exhibit Area ; the United States and nearly half the States of the Union, in the Federal Building and Hall of Western States; the State and Counties of California, in the California Building Group. A cross-section of American business and industry will be displayed

114 ALMANAC for THIRTY-NINERS

in pavilions and exhibits valued at more than $15,000,000 — the Halls of Varied Industries, Electricity and Communication, Foods and Beverages, Homes and Gardens, Mines, Metals, and Machinery, Science, and Vacationland. The Fair's Gayway, a mile-long circular boulevard, will be lined with showplaces — the Chinese City, Holly- wood Boulevard, Streets of the World, and many others.

THE ISLAND'S COLORS, stimulating, unforgettable, represent the first extensive application of chromotherapy — the science of health treatment by color usage. In the daytime the effects are gained with flowers and tinted walls; at night, with fluorescent tubes, with the new "black light", with ultra-violet floods, underwater lamps, translucent glass fabric pillars, and cylindrical lanterns 75 feet high. Some of the flower beds are played upon by artificial moonlight, others bathed in sunshine created out of neon and mercury. The $1,000,000 illumination program presents at nightfall the illusion of a magic city of light, floating on the waters of San Francisco Bay.

Transportation :

Via the Bay Bridge, toll per car, including driver

and 4 passengers 50c round trip

Via ferry from San Francisco and Oakland.

Parking (cars parked by attendants) for 12,000 vehicles.

Admission to Fair Grounds 50c

Accommodations:

Transportation by bus, rickshaw, wheel-chair . . . Small charge

Nursery to care for children Small charge

Rest rooms Free

Numerous restaurants All prices

Hours: from 10 a. m.

ALMANAC for THIRTY-NINERS

115

Facts About the World's Biggest Bridges

GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE SAN FRANCISCO-OAKLAND

The World's Longest and Highest BAY BRIDGE

Single-Span Suspension The World's Longest, Deepest, and

Bridge Costliest Bridge

Measurements

Total length. .9,200ft. (l%miles) Total length. 43,5 00 ft. (Similes) Length of main span

.4,200ft. (Longest in the world by 700 ft.)

Length of side spans 1,125 ft.

Height of towers 746 ft.

Deepest pier 1 1 0 ft.

Largest pier 155 x 300 ft.

Vertical clearance at center: at 57°:

238 ft. (mean low water) 232.3 ft. (mean high water) at 110°:

225.7ft. (mean low water) 220 ft. (mean high water)

Diameter of cables 3 6 l/z in.

Number of wires 27,572

Cable wire length 80,000 miles

Tension in one cable . 63,000,000 Ibs. Supporting capac- ity 43 0,000,000 Ibs.

Pull at anchorage. . 126,000,000 Ibs.

West Bay crossing 10,450 ft.

Island section 2,950 ft.

East Bay crossing 19,400 ft.

Toll plaza to terminal. . . 6,500 ft.

West Bay Crossing

Length of center spans. . 2,310ft.

Length of side spans 1,160 ft.

Height of towers . . . 474 and 5 19 ft. Height of center anchorage. 300 ft.

Depth of piers 100 to 240 ft.

Highest vertical clearance . . 2 1 6 ft.

Diameter of cables 28% in.

Number of wires in each

cable 17,464

Cable wire length. . . .70,815 miles

East Bay Crossing

Length of main span 1,400 ft.

Clearance above high water 185 ft.

Quantities of Materials

Steel 100,000 tons

Concrete 254,690 cu. yds.

Cable wire 22,000 tons

Paint 110,000 gals.

Material excavated . 5 1 1,000 cu. yds.

Work started . . Bridge opened . . Total cost .

Structural steel 152,000 tons

Reinforcing steel 30,000 tons

Cable wire 18,500 tons

Concrete 1,000,000 cu. yds.

Cement 1,000,000 bbls.

Timber 30,000,000 F. B. M.

Paint 200,000 gals.

Construction

January 5, 1933 Work started July 9, 1933

. . .May 28, 1937 Bridge opened . .November 12, 1936 $33,500,000 Total cost $77,000,000

116

ALMANAC for THIRTY-NINERS

Lights and Signals of the San Francisco Channel Name and Date Light Visibility Horn Location Established Signal (miles) Signal
Farallon Light (white conical tower on highest peak of S. E. Farallon)	1855 Flash 26 2.7 sec., eclipse 17.3 sec.	(Diaphone, air) Blast 2 sec., silent 4 sec., blast 2 sec., silent 1 sec., blast 2 sec., silent 49 sec.
San Francisco Lightship (anchored in 108 ft. off entrance to Golden Gate)	1898 Flash 5 sec., eclipse 10 sec.	(Diaphone, 2- tone, air) Blast 2 sec., silent 28 sec.
San Francisco Bar Channel Lighted Trumpet Buoy No. 6 (anchored in 44 ft. on south side of channel)	Flash 7 0.5 sec.	(Trumpet, elec- tric) Blast 1 sec., silent 14 sec.
Mile Rocks Light (white cylindrical tower on outer rock)	1906 Light 10 sec., 15 eclipse 2.5 sec., light 5 sec., eclipse 2.5 sec.	(Diaphone, air) Blast 3 sec., silent 27 sec.
Pt. Diablo Light (white wooden house on end of point)	1923 Flash 2 sec. 12	(Siren, electric) Blast 4 sec., silent 2 sec., blast 4 sec., silent 20 sec.
Golden Gate Bridge Mid-Channel Fog Signal (at center of bottom chord of span)	1937	(Diaphone, air) Blast 1 sec., silent 2 sec., blast 1 sec., silent 36 sec.

ALMANAC for THIRTY-NINERS

117

Name and Location

Date Established

Light Signal

Visibility (miles)

Horn Signal

Lime Point

(white brick buildings

on end of point)

1883

Flash 0.5 sec., eclipse 1 sec., flash 0.5 sec., eclipse 4 sec.

(Horn, dia- phone, air) Blast 2 sec., silent 2 sec., blast 4 sec., silent 22 sec. (whistle sounds 5 or 6 short blasts and blast of 15 sec. to warn Coast Guard when vessels are in distress)

Alcatraz Light 1854 Flash 0.5 sec., 21

(gray octagonal pyra- (Rebuilt eclipse 4.5 sec.

mid at tower on SE. 1909) part of Alcatraz Island)

(Siren, electric) Blast 4 sec., silent 4 sec., blast 4 sec., silent 18 sec.

Alcatraz Fog Signal 1901

(on NW. part of Alca- (Rebuilt traz Island) 1913)

(Siren, electric) Blast 5 sec., silent 15 sec.

Transport Dock Fog Signal

(on NE. corner Pier 3, Ft. Mason)

1926

(Siren, electric) Blast 4 sec., silent 2 sec., blast 1 sec., silent 23 sec.

Pier 45 Signal (on E. corner of Pier 25)

1929

(Siren, electric) Blast 1 sec., silent 9 sec.

Pier 41 Signal

(on warehouse at end

of wharf)

1915

(Bell)

1 stroke every

7.5 sec.

118

ALMANAC for THIRTY-NINERS

Nemc and Location	Date Established	Light Visibility Signal (miles)	Horn Signal
Pt. Blunt Light (white frame house on point)	1915	Flash 3 sec., 13 eclipse 3 sec., flash 3 sec., eclipse 11 sec.	(Siren, electric) Blast 2 sec., silent 13 sec.
Angel Island Light (on SW. end of Island)	1856 (Rebuilt 1915)	Light 5 sec., 12 eclipse 5 sec.	(Bell) Group of 2 strokes every 15 sec.
Pt. Stuart Light (white frame house on edge of bluff)	1915	Light 10 sec., eclipse 1 0 sec.	(Siren, electric) Blast 2 sec., silent 2 sec., blast 2 sec., silent 14 sec.

Harbor Calls

Service

Ensign in rigging

Whistle Call Flag Call

Bar Pilot Four long P-T or G

Stockton Pilot One long, three short U

Quarantine One long, one short Q

Customs, Barge Office Three short, one long

Immigration One short, one long, one

short

Fire Boat Succession of short whistles .

Police Boat Five short whistles ....

Marine Department

(S. F. C. of C.) One short, one long M

Buoys and Beacons

Buoys and beacons around San Francisco Bay are colored and numbered as follows:

1. In approaching the channel from seaward, red buoys with even numbers are found on the starboard or right side of the channel, black buoys with odd numbers on the port or left side of the channel.

2. Buoys painted with red and black horizontal stripes mark ob- structions, with channel ways on either side of them.

3 . Buoys painted with white and black perpendicular stripes are found in mid-channel and must be passed close-to.

ALMANAC for THIRTY-MINERS 119

Marine Rules of the Road

1. A sailboat which is running free shall keep out of the way of a sailboat which is close-hauled.

2. A sailboat which is close-hauled on the port tack shall keep out of the way of a sailboat which is close-hauled on the starboard tack.

3. When both are running free, with the wind on different sides, the sailboat which has the wind on the port side shall keep out of the way of the other.

4. When both are running free, with the wind on the same side, the sailboat which is to windward shall keep out of the way of the sailboat which is to leeward.

5. A sailboat which has the aft shall keep out of the way of the other.

*6. When two steam vessels are meeting end on, each shall alter her course to starboard.

*7. When a steam vessel and a sailboat are approaching each other, the steam vessel shall keep out of the way of the sailboat.

*8. In narrow channels every vessel shall keep to that side of the fairway or mid-channel which lies on the vessel's starboard side.

Sound Signals

One short blast means: "I am directing my course to starboard." Two short blasts mean: "I am directing my course to port." Three short blasts mean: "My engines are going at full speed astern."

(Inland Rules apply to the east of a line drawn from Bonita Point Lighthouse through Mile Rocks Lighthouse to the shore and Inter- national Rules of the High Seas to the west.)

""("Steam vessel" is the term used to designate any vessel propelled by machinery.)

120 ALMANAC for THIRTY-MINERS

Spring and Neap Tides as occurring at the Golden Gate 1939
		High		Low
Date	Tide	(feet)	Hour	(feet)	Hour
Jan. 5	Spring	6.7	10:15 a.m.	— 1.3	5:20 p. m.
12	Neap	5.8	5:00 a. m.	1.2	11:46 a. m.
20	Spring	5.7	10:58 a. m.	— 0.3	5:49 p.m.
28	Neap	5.3	4:42 a. m.	1.1	11:47 a. m.
Feb. 3	Spring	6.5	10:09 a. m.	— 1.1	5:00 p. m.
10	Neap	3.9	5:3 Op.m.	2.2	10:27 p.m.
18	Spring	5.4	10:48 a.m.	0.1	5:18 p.m.
26	Neap	3.6	5:56 p. m.	2.6	10:27 p.m.
Mar. 5	Spring	5.9	11:01 a. m.	0.2	5:56p. m.
12	Neap	5.0	4:17 a. m.	0.5	11:36 a. m.
21	Spring	4.7	11:58 a. m.	1.1	5:38 p. m.
28	Neap	5.1	4:13 a. m.	0.0	11:40 a. m.
Apr. 3	Spring	5.9	ll:10p.m.	0.1	4:40 a. m.
11	Neap	4.4	4:35 a. m.	0.5	11:42 a.m.
19	Spring	5.6	ll:15p.m.	0.0	5:17a.m.
26	Neap	4.9	3:58 a. m.	— 0.2	11:10 a. m.
May 3	Spring	5.9	ll:10p.m.	0.1	4:40 a. m.
11	Neap	4.4	4:35 a. m.	0.5	11:42 a. m.
18	Spring	6.0	10:34 p. m.	0.6	4:57 a. m.
25	Neap	5.2	5:46 p. m.	0.1	10:38 a. m.
June 1	Spring	6.0	10:42 p.m.	0.8	5:05 a. m.
9	Neap	4.8	5:45 p.m.	0.9	10:31 a. m.
17	Spring	6.3	10:52 p.m.	1.2	5:20 a.m.
23	Neap	5.6	5:05 p.m.	0.3	10:07 a. m.
July 1	Spring	5.8	11:00 p. m.	0.7	5:29 a.m.
9	Neap	5.2	5:18 p. m.	1.6	10:19 a. m.
16	Spring	6.5	10:43 p.m.	1.1	5:01 a.m.
23	Neap	5.9	5:17 p.m.	1.6	10:30 a. m.
30	Spring	5.7	10:48 p.m.	0.3	5:07 a. m.
Aug. 8	Neap	5.4	5:01 p. m.	2.4	10:31 a. m.
14	Spring	6.4	10:37 p.m.	0.7	4:36 a. m.
21	Neap	5.6	4:36 p. m.	0.7	11:46 p.m.
29	Spring	5.3	11:16 p.m.	0.4	5:04 a.m.
Sept. 6	Neap	5.3	4: 14 p.m.	0.6	11:43 p.m.
12	Spring	6.0	10:35 p.m.	0.1	4:06 a. m.
20	Neap	5.0	5:00 p.m.	2.9	10:59 a. m.
28	Spring	5.3	11:17 a. m.	0.8	5:22 p.m.

ALMANAC for THIRTY-MINERS 121

High Low

Tide (feet) Hour (feet) Hour

Oct. 5 Neap 5.1 3:39 p.m. 0.2 11:07 p.m.

12 Spring 6.1 10:38 a. m. 0.2 5:00 p.m.

19 Neap 4.6 4:17 p.m. 0.5 11:21 p.m.

27 Spring 5.6 10:25 a. m. 0.1 5:02 p.m.

Nov. 4 Neap 4.8 5:49 a.m. 0.2 11:35 p.m.

10 Spring 6.3 10:05 a. m. 0.8 4:50 p.m.

18 Neap 4.8 5:42 a. m. 0.9 11:18 p.m.

26 Spring 6.0 10:14 a.m. 0.6 5:20 p.m.

Dec. 3 Neap 5.2 5:12 a.m. 0.4 11:00 p.m.

10 Spring 6.3 10:21 a. m. 1.0 5:23 p.m.

18 Neap 5.0 5:25 a. m. 1.5 11:00 p.m.

26 Spring 6.3 10:31 a.m. 1.1 5:42p.m.

Tidal Differences

from the Golden Gate

Fishermen, navigators, and bathers can compute the tides at nearby points by adding or subtracting from the above tables:

Time Height

Location (hrs. min.) (feet)

Alcatraz Island + 0:10 + 0.1

Angel Island (Quarry Point) + 0:20 — 0.1

Bay Point + 3:05 — 0.3

Benicia, Army Point + 2:25 + 0.3

Bolinas Bay — 0:20 + 0.1

Crockett +2:05 +0.3

Dumbarton Highway Bridge +1:15 + 2.6

Monterey, Monterey Bay — 1:05 — 0.5

Napa, Napa River + 2:50 + 1.6

Navy Yard, Mare Island Strait + 2:00 + 0.8

Oakland Harbor, Park Street Bridge +0:40 +0.6

Oakland Mole + 0:35 + 0.3

Petaluma Cr. entrance (R. R. Bridge) +1:55 +0.4

Point San Quentin + 0:55 + 0.2

Point Richmond + 0:40 + 0.2

Point Reyes — 0:50 + 0.1

Point Arena — 0:35 0.0

San Francisco, Mission Street +0:30 +0.3

Santa Cruz, Monterey Bay — 1:10 — 0.5

Sausalito + 0:20 — 0.2

Yerba Buena Island + 0:30 + 0.3

122 ALMANAC for THIRTY-NINERS

California Fish and Game Laws

LICENSE PROVISIONS

(License buttons must be displayed)

HUNTING TRAPPING

License Year July 1-June 30 License Year July 1-June 30

Residents under 18 $ 1.00 Citizens $ 1.00

Resident citizens 2.00 Aliens 2.00

Non-resident citizens 10.00 Under 18 no license required.

Declarant aliens 10.00

Other aliens 25.00 DEER TAG

ANGLING License Year Jan. 1-Dec. 31

License Year Jan. 1-Dec. 31 Everyone (2 tags) $ 1.00

Resident citizens $ 2.00

Non-resident citizens 3.00 COMMERCIAL HUNTING

Aliens 5.00 CLUBS

Under 1 8 no license required. License Year July 1 -June 3 0

Owners of launches transporting Citizens . .> . » $21.00

fishermen in coastal waters must se- Aliens 100.00

cure a yearly permit (fee $1.00) and Operators, citizens 5.00

keep a report of all fish caught. Operators, aliens 25.00

IT IS ALWAYS UNLAWFUL

1. To hunt birds or mammals, excepting predators, without a hunting license.

2. To trap for profit: pine marten, fisher, wolverine, mink, river otter, fox or muskrat, or to kill these animals during the closed sea- son except when destroying property.

3 . To use any animal other than a dog to stalk wild birds.

4. To shoot game from a power boat, sailboat, auto, or airplane. To possess any device capable of or to be used in the silencing of the report of any firearm.

5. To shoot resident game between J^ hour after sunset and l/2 hour before sunrise, or migratory game between sunset and l/2 hour before sunrise. To use a spotlight in hunting game.

6. To ship game out of State.

7. To place, cause to be placed, or discharge into any waters substances deleterious to fish or plant life.

8. To kill, injure, or capture California sea lions.

ALMANAC for THIRTY-NINERS

123

The Signs of the Zodiac

1. Aries the ram (head) — March 2 1st- April * 19th

7. Libra the balance (reins) — September 23rd-October 22nd

2. Taurus the bull (neck) — April 20th-May 20th

8. Scorpio the scorpion (secrets) — October 23rd-November 21st

3. Gemini the twins (arms) — May 21st- June 20th

9. Sagittarius the archer (thighs) — Novem- ber 2 2nd -December 21st

4. Cancer the crab (breast) — June 21st- July 22nd

10. Capricornus the goat (knees) — December 2 2nd- January 19th

5. Leo the lion (heart) — July 23rd-August 22nd

11. Aquarius the water- bearer (legs) — Jan- uary 2 Oth -February 18th

6. Virgo the virgin (belly) — August 2 3rd -September 22nd

12. Pisces the fish (feet) — February 19th- March 20th

Full

The Phases of the Moon

New Last Quarter First Quarter

124 ALMANAC for THIRTY-NINERS

If You Want to Know More About San Francisco

Asbury, Herbert, The Bar bar y Coast. (New York: Alfred Knopf, Inc., 1933.)

Bolton, Herbert S., Outpost of Empire. (New York: Alfred Knopf, Inc., 1931.)

Clark, Sydney A., A Golden Tapestry of California. (New York: McBride&Co., 1937.)

Dana, Julian, The Man Who Built San Francisco. (New York: Macmillan Co., 1937.)

Davis, William Heath, Seventy-five Years in California. (San Francisco: John Ho well, 1929.)

Dobie, Charles Caldwell, San Francisco's Chinatown. (New York: D. Appleton-Century Co., 1936.)

Dobie, Charles Caldwell, San Francisco: A Pageant. (New York: D. Appleton-Century Co., 1933.)

Eldredge, Zoeth Skinner, The Beginnings of San Francisco. (New York: John C. Rankin Co., 1912.)

Hart, Jerome Alfred, In Our Second Century (1875-1931). (San Francisco: Pioneer Press, 1931.)

Lewis, Oscar, The Big Four. (New York: Alfred Knopf, Inc., 1938.)

Soule, Frank, and others, The Annals of San Francisco. (New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1854.)

Twain, Mark, The Wasboe Giant in San Francisco. (San Francisco: George Fields, 1938.)

Woon, Basil, San Francisco, and the Golden Empire. (New York: Harrison Smith and Robert Haas, 1935.)

Young, John P., San Francisco, A History of the Pacific Coast Metropolis. (Chicago: S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1912.)

ALMANAC for THIRTY-NINERS

125

The Weather in San Francisco

		Average	Average Wind First Day of Month:
	Average	Rainfall	Average	Prevailing	Velocity	Sun Rise!	Sun Sets
Month	Temperature	(inches)	Clear Days	Winds	(m.p.h.)	(a.m.)	(P.m.)
January	49.9°	4.73	11	N	7.6	7:25	5:02
February	52.7°	3.70	11	W	7.8	7:15	5:33
March	54.3°	3.03	12	W	8.7	6:43	6:03
April	55.7°	1.52	14	w	9.7	5:57	6:32
May	57.0°	0.68	15	w	10.6	5:16	6:58
June	58.9°	0.16	17	w	11.3	4:51	7:24
July	58.8°	0.01	15	sw	11.5	4:51	7:36
August	59.3°	0.02	13	sw	10.9	5:12	7:20
September	61.4°	0.29	16	w	9.4	5:39	6:41
October	60.7°	0.96	17	w	7.9	6:03	5:55
November	56.7°	2.45	13	w	7.1	6:35	5:12
December	51.3°	4.42	11	N	7.3	7:06	4:52
Year	56.4°	21.9	165	w	9.2

For the Federal Writers' Project, San Francisco

Editor, W. M. MC£LROY

Writers

HARVEY MULDOON DOROTHY DONN WAGNER MARGARET WELKINS

Contributors MIRIAM ALLEN DEFORD MADELINE GLEASON PAUL C. JOHNSON FRANCES MONTGOMERY BASIL D. VAERLEN

For the Federal Art Project, San Francisco

Cover and Illustrations, LLOYD WULF

The Almanac is indebted to the United States Weather Bureau and the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey for meteorological and nautical data and to the Golden Gate International Exposition for information about the Fair.

126

ALMANAC for THIRTY-NINERS

19	39
S M T W T F S	S M T W T F S
Jan. I 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 II 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 3 1	July 1 2345678 9 10 II 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29
	30 31
Feb. 1234	Aug. 12345
5 6 7 8 9 10 II 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28	6 7 8 9 10 II 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 . .
Mar. 1234	Sep. 1 2
5 6 7 8 9 10 II 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 ..	3456789 10 II 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
Apr. .... 1	Oct. 1234567
2345678 9 10 II 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30	8 9 10 II 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 .. ...... .
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ALMANAC for THIRTY-NINERS 127

Guides and Maps

By the Same Publisher

CHAD WICK EASY SAN FRANCISCO STREET GUIDE Official information on street car and bus routes, theaters, parks, museums, hotels, apartments, public buildings, includ- ing a clear and up-to-date map of San Francisco 25c

ALL ABOUT SAN FRANCISCO

Illustrated map of San Francisco, including access map of Golden Gate Park, in folder for mailing anywhere for IJ^c postage lOc

CHAD WICK GUIDE POCKET MAP OF OAKLAND

Including Berkeley, Alameda, Piedmont, Emeryville, Albany, San Leandro . . 15c

JAMES LADD DELKIN Box 55, Stanford University, California

PRINTED BY

THE RECORDER PRESS

SAN FRANCISCO