and a small cooking stove was valued at one hundred dollars. A cook
commanded three hundred dollars a month, a clerk two hundred dollars a
month, and a carpenter received twelve dollars a day. Lumber sold for
four hundred dollars per thousand feet, and for a small dwelling house
you had to pay a rental of five hundred dollars per month. It must be
remembered that people were pouring into San Francisco from all parts
of the world in search of gold, that there were few if any persons to
till the ground, and that many of the articles in demand for life's
necessities were brought either across the Isthmus of Panama or around
by Cape Horn. In consequence the cost of living was necessarily high.
To-day you can live as cheaply in San Francisco or any other city of
California, as Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, or San Diego, as in any
eastern city or town. Rooms with board can be secured at the Palace
Hotel, corner of Market street and New Montgomery, at the rate of
three dollars and a half per day up to five dollars. Without board you
can obtain a room for the sum of one dollar and a half up to three
dollars. The Grand Hotel, the annex to the Palace, and just across
the street, offers the same rates as the Palace. The Lick House, the
corner of Montgomery and Sutler streets, will take you for three
dollars up to five per day. The Occidental, corner of Montgomery and
Bush streets charges also from three dollars up to five per day for
board and room. The California Hotel, an imposing structure, on Bush
street, supplies rooms at the rate of one dollar per day and upwards.
The Baldwin, corner of Market and Powell streets, charges for board
and room at the rate of two dollars and a half up to five per day; and
the Russ House receives guests, giving room and board at the rate of
one dollar and a half up to two dollars and a half per day--this hotel
is situated on the corner of Montgomery and Pine streets. There are
many other hotels where the traveller can be made comfortable at a
moderate cost. It is the same with many private houses which are open