Produced by Richard Hulse, Barry Abrahamsen, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) THE MYSTERIES AND MISERIES OF SAN FRANCISCO. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ THE MYSTERIES AND MISERIES OF SAN FRANCISCO. BY A CALIFORNIAN. SHOWING UP ALL THE VARIOUS CHARACTERS AND NOTABILITIES, (BOTH IN HIGH AND LOW LIFE) THAT HAVE FIGURED IN SAN FRANCISCO SINCE ITS SETTLEMENT. --------------------- NEW-YORK: GARRETT & CO., PUBLISHERS, NO. 18 ANN-STREET. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1853, by GARRETT & CO., In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New-York. THE MYSTERIES AND MISERIES OF SAN FRANCISCO. -------------- CHAPTER I The Alarm—The Flames—The Ladder. San Francisco, on the marge of the sea, with towering hills behind her, lay basking in the sun like a serpent by the side of a rock. The dwellings of the more fortunate classes loomed pleasantly on the side of the large round hills in the distance, and might with the aid of a little fancy, have been metamorphosed into the castellated domains of the feudal barons whose reign succeeded that of absolute barbarism in Europe. Those quiet dwellings amid the solitude of nature, present a vivid contrast to the stirring scenes of the town below, and accordingly all who possess taste and the means of gratifying it, rear a building among the hills to which they can retire, after the fatigues of the day, and solace themselves with the comforts of domestic retiracy, and the grand simplicity of nature.