As soon as I got my bearings in San Francisco, I saw at once what a vital question was involved and what a grand opportunity was there to win not alone fortune, but fame. I carefully surveyed the situation from every standpoint and finally hit upon a scheme which would carry out the original design of “Montgomery street straight,” and avoid the opposition hitherto evolved. As what follows forms one of the interesting bits of San Francisco’s history, hitherto untold, and the city’s present status was greatly influenced by my plans, which, however, were only carried out in part, I will give an outline of one of the largest real estate transactions, of a far reaching character, ever conceived and partly completed in the history of San Francisco. CHAPTER XV. FIRST SPECULATOR TO FIGURE THAT MARKET STREET HAD FUTURE BUYS SEVERAL CHOICE LOTS FOR A PITTANCE. _Earthquake Plays Important Part in Big Deal; Timid Citizen Sells Out in Hurry and Loses $350,000._ In the early 60’s no one thought of Market street except as a disfigurement to the city and a broad impediment to its progress. It began almost nowhere, at an unfrequented section of the waterfront, where the dullness was relieved only by the arrival and departure four or five times a day of a ferryboat owned by Charles Minturn, which transported a few straggling passengers between San Francisco and the small village of Oakland, across the bay. If I recollect aright, the fare was 50 cents each way. It terminated--so far as traffic and settlement were concerned--exactly nowhere, in the desolate sand hills beyond where the Flood Building now stands. The “gore” streets, like Post, Geary and O’Farrell, that now pour a human tide into the city’s big artery, were settled only for a few blocks westward; beyond that there was solitude. The roadway of Market street was an abomination even in the old days before “good roads” became a slogan. The sidewalks, if any, were wooden, and mighty poor at that. I was about the first real estate investor, to which business I turned my attention, who realized in a sort of vague way that Market street had a future. I had a shrewd idea that the insistent plan for “Montgomery straight,” on which so many based their hopes, was doomed to disappointment, but as I said in the last chapter, I saw a way out of the dilemma. With this in view, I began to pick up Market street frontage from First street west till I owned 800 feet. I also bought the Sutter-street gore, where the skyscraper has since gone up, at a public auction, paying $86,000 for the same in hard cash, which was considered a top price.