I said: "What a beautiful cravat you wear!"

"It is yours!" he exclaimed, quickly unbuckling it; and I could not
induce him to take it back again.

I am glad I did not tell his sister, who was with him and with whom
I was lucky enough to get acquainted, what a beautiful white hand
she had. She might have given it to me on the spot; and that, as
she had soft eyes, a queenly form, and a half million or so in her
own right, would have made me feel bad.

Reports reach us here of high-handed robberies by the banditti all
along the road to the City of Mexico. They steal clothes as well
as coin. A few days since the mail coach entered the city with all
the passengers stark-naked! They must have felt mortified.

4.4. CALIFORNIA.

We reach San Francisco one Sunday afternoon. I am driven to the
Occidental Hotel by a kind-hearted hackman, who states that
inasmuch as I have come out there to amuse people, he will only
charge me five dollars. I pay it in gold, of course, because
greenbacks are not current on the Pacific coast.

Many of the citizens of San Francisco remember the Sabbath day to
keep it jolly; and the theatres, the circus, the minstrels, and the
music halls are all in full blast to-night.

I "compromise," and go to the Chinese theatre, thinking perhaps