Boards whenever a new announcement was made of the condition of the
sufferer. From five o'clock on Tuesday morning it became apparent that
he was sinking; and the public anxiety became momentarily more intense.
At half past one P. M. the dreaded intelligence was communicated that
Mr. King was dead. Immediately every demonstration was made of the
deepest feeling and most profound grief by all classes of the community.
Stores, offices and other places of business were immediately closed.
Hotels, public buildings and many private dwellings were, in an
incredibly short time draped in mourning; and mourning badges were
assumed by a large portion of the population. The bells of the churches
and engine houses were tolled until a late hour. The different
flagstaffs, and the shipping at the wharves and in the harbor displayed
their colors at half-mast. Never did a more general, spontaneous,
heartfelt sadness oppress a whole people, or manifest itself in a more
touching manner. The news was telegraphed in all directions, and from
every part of the State came back responses showing that the whole
people felt as deeply as the citizens of San Francisco, the loss they
had sustained: But sorrow was not suffered to expend itself in
respectful but unsubstantial mourning emblems; and while a great
multiture, from five o'clock in the afternoon to a late hour in the
night, were slowly and sadly passing through the room in Montgomery
Block in which their friend lay cold in death, taking a last look at
that face long so familiar upon the streets, but soon to be seen no more
on earth; a Committee was appointed by the citizens, consisting of
Messrs Macondry, Park and Patterson, to receive subscriptions for the
benefit of the widow and six young children of Mr. King, left but
slenderly provided for. The object was nobly accomplished, and the sum
of thirty thousand dollars placed in trust for them. The claim for the
widow and the fatherless having been thus met; a sterner duty was
believed to rest upon the citizens of San Francisco. Formal and