get. It cost me two dollars. A solitary dollar was, therefore, all the
money in the world I had left, but I was in no respect despondent over
my financial condition. It was a beautiful day, much like an Indian
Summer day in the East, but finer. There was something exhilarating
and exciting in the atmosphere which made everybody cheerful and
buoyant. As I walked along the streets, I met a great many persons
I had known in New York, and they all seemed to be in the highest
spirits. Every one in greeting me, said "It is a glorious country,"
or "Isn't it a glorious country?" or "Did you ever see a more
glorious country?" or something to that effect. In every case the word
"glorious" was sure to come out. There was something infectious in the
use of the word, or rather in the feeling, which made its use natural.
I had not been out many hours that morning before I caught the
infection; and though I had but a single dollar in my pocket and no
business whatever, and did not know where I was to get the next meal,
I found myself saying to everybody I met, "It is a glorious country."
The city presented an appearance which, to me, who had witnessed some
curious scenes in the course of my travels, was singularly strange
and wild. The Bay then washed what is now the east side of Montgomery
street, between Jackson and Sacramento streets; and the sides of
the hills sloping back from the water were covered with buildings of
various kinds, some just begun, a few completed,--all, however, of
the rudest sort, the greater number being merely canvas sheds. The
locality then called Happy Valley, where Mission and Howard streets
now are, between Market and Folsom streets, was occupied in a similar
way. The streets were filled with people, it seemed to me, from every
nation under Heaven, all wearing their peculiar costumes. The majority
of them were from the States; and each State had furnished specimens
of every type within its borders. Every country of Europe had its
representatives; and wanderers without a country were there in