likewise paused to consider the effect the proposed remission of duties
would have on certain members and their lumber and steel friends. Thus a
hundred days passed by, and with some relief half a hundred more.

Outside capital was still ready, but San Franciscans seemed to have
sufficient for present needs. Capital is conservative and Californians
independent. Even from the government they never asked much, though well
aware that since the gold discovery California has given a hundredfold
more than she has received. Her people were accustomed to take care of
themselves, and managed on the whole to get along. A general
conflagration was not a new thing. Four times during gold-digging days
San Francisco was destroyed by fire, and each time new houses were going
up before the ashes were cold. True, there was not so much to burn in
those days, but it was all the people had; there was not so much to
rebuild, and there were no insurance companies to keep them back. San
Francisco would be grateful, and it would be a graceful thing for the
government to do, to keep away the sharks until the people should get
their heads above water again, not as charity, but for the general good.
The exaction of duties on lumber from British Columbia was simply taking
money from the San Francisco builders and thrusting it into the
plethoric pockets of the Puget Sound people, who at once advanced their
prices so as seriously to retard building and render it in many cases
impossible. Even as I write word comes of another advance in the price
of lumber, owing to the apathy at Washington and elsewhere, after twice
before raising the price to the highest limit.

Meanwhile, in and around the burned district, traffic never ceased. The
inflow of merchandise from all parts continued. Upon the ashes of their
former stores, and scattered about the suburbs, business men established
themselves wherever they could find a house to rent or a lot to build