ponders. Philip Hardin is about to accept a place on the Supreme
Bench of the State. Not to advance his personal fortunes, but to
be useful to his beloved South.

While the banks, business houses and factories are controlled
by Northern men: while the pothouse politicians of Eastern cities
struggle in ward elections, the South holds all the Federal honors.
They govern society, dominate in the legislature and in the courts.
They dictate the general superior intercourses of men. The ardent
Southrons rule with iron hand. They are as yet only combated by the
pens of Northern-born editors, and a few fearless souls who rise
above the meekly bowing men of the free States.

All see the approaching downfall of lawless pleasure and vicious
license in San Francisco. Slowly the tide of respectable settlement
rises. It bears away the scum of vice, swept into the Golden Gates
in the first rush. The vile community of escaped convicts and mad
adventurers cannot support itself. "The old order changeth, yielding
slowly to the new."

At the head of all public bodies, the gentleman of the South, quick
to avenge his personal honor, aims, with formal "code," and ready
pistol, to dragoon all public sentiment. He is sworn to establish
the superiority of the cavalier.

The first Mayor of San Francisco, a Congressman elect, gifted
editor Edward Gilbert, has already fallen in an affair of honor.
The control of public esteem depends largely on prowess in the
duelling field. Every politician lives up to the code.