The scene now shifted to San Francisco, where Mr. Ralston had the situation well in hand. A company was regularly organized under the laws of California, entitled the San Francisco and New York Mining and Commercial Company, with a capital stock of $10,000,000, divided into 100,000 shares. Its powers were of the largest possible description; not alone to engage in the business of mining and owning mines and their accessories, but also to engage in every class of commercial business, including the preparation of precious stones for the general market. The apparent intention of the organizers was to move the great lapidary establishments of Amsterdam to the Pacific Coast, and the truth is that this design caused no small concern in the Low Countries, where the cutting of gems is an industry hundreds of years old. San Francisco was certainly ripe for the new company. Hardly a business man of any considerable wealth would not have considered it a rare privilege to be admitted to participation in the enterprise on the ground floor. It was only a case of choosing the highest class of names in the community, to launch the great undertaking under the most brilliant auspices. Twenty-five gentlemen, representing the cream of the financial interests of the city of San Francisco, men of national reputation for high-class business standing and personal integrity, were permitted to subscribe for stock to the amount of $80,000 each, and this initial capital of $2,000,000 was immediately paid to the Bank of California. [Illustration: THOS. S. SELBY Founder of Selby Smelting Works, director Diamond Co.] At a stockholders’ meeting the following board of directors were elected to manage the affairs of the corporation: Wm. M. Lent, A. Gansl, Thomas Selby, Milton S. Latham, Louis Sloss, Maurice Dore, W. F. Babcock, William C. Ralston, William Willis. George B. McClellan and Samuel P. Barlow were at the same time elected directors, with headquarters at the City of New York. Mr. Lent was then chosen president, W. C. Ralston, treasurer, and William Willis, secretary. David D. Colton resigned from his position with the railroad to become general manager. Only old timers can recognize what these names meant. All the owners of them are long since dead. Some of them went into a financial eclipse before they died. But in 1872 they stood as the last word in the financial and commercial world of the Pacific Coast. I might mention here for the benefit of the later generation that A. Gansl was the representative of the House of Rothschild on the Pacific Coast.