princely fortune in a night. The gambling houses were located chiefly
around the Plaza or Portsmouth Square, of which we have already
spoken. They were filled, as a general thing, all night, with an eager
throng, especially on Sunday. Indeed everything then had its full
course on Sunday. There were various sports; drinking and gambling ran
riot. Blasphemous words filled the air. Men swore without the least
thought. But profanity is not alone restricted to a frontier or border
community, where laws and a sense of propriety are wanting. One may
hear it in old and civilised towns, as he walks the streets, and
sometimes from the lips of boys. In these saloons people of all ages
congregated from youth up to hoary hairs. Here were the Indian and the
Negro, the American and the Mexican, the Spaniard and the Frenchman,
the Italian, the Dutchman and the German, the Dane and the Russian,
the English, the Irish and the Scotchman, the Chinaman and the
Japanese. One of the most noted of the saloons was the Bella Union, a
Monte Carlo in itself. Woe betide the miner from the mountains with
gold who entered it. Here was a richly appointed bar to tempt the
desire for drink, while costly mirrors were arranged in such wise as
to reflect the scenes of revelry, and pictures that were worth large
sums of money hung on the walls. The silverware too would have done
credit to a royal board. Both the tables and the bar were well
patronised at all times.

Naturally with such elements of society, with the mad thirst for gold,
with the loose morality which prevailed to a large extent, there
would be great lawlessness. It must be borne in mind however that the
Christian Church was at work in those perilous times, which live only
in memory now, and was gradually leavening the whole lump. There were
devout men and true women in early San Francisco, who, in the midst of
"a crooked generation," kept themselves pure and "unspotted from the