By the sides of the wharves, and anchored in different parts of the commodious and noble bay, we see magnificent ships, barks and brigs from every nation of commercial note. But of all these majestic palaces of the deep, none are equal in beauty of design and finish, in grace, symmetry and elegance, or in excellence of quality, to our own American clippers. Thinking that it might be of interest to some of my readers, as a specimen of American marine or naval nomenclature, I have taken the pains to collect a majority of the names of these oaken chariots of old Neptune that have from time to time entered the Golden Gate, freighted with merchandise from Atlantic ports. Some of the names are truly appropriate and poetic. Ten of them, as will be seen, have, as a prefix, the word “Golden.� I have arranged them in the subjoined list in alphabetical order:
Antelope,
Archer,
Atalanta,
Aurora,
Bald Eagle,
Belle of Baltimore,
Celestial,
Challenge,
Champion,
Climax,
Comet,
Contest,
Courser,
Dancing Feather,
Dashing Wave,
Dauntless,
Defiance,
Don Quixotte,
Eclipse,
Empress of the Seas,
Eureka,
Fearless,
Flying Arrow,
Flying Childers,
Flying Cloud,
Flying Dragon,
Flying Dutchman,
Flying Eagle,
Flying Fish,
Game Cock,
Gazelle,
Gem of the Ocean,
Golden Age,
Golden City,
Golden Eagle,
Golden Fleece,
Golden Gate,
Golden Light,
Golden Racer,
Golden Rule,
Golden State,
Golden West,
Gray Eagle,
Gray Feather,
Gray Hound,
Herald of the Morning,
Highflyer,
Hornet,
Honqua,
Hurricane,
Ino,
Invincible,
John Gilpin,
King Fisher,
Mystery,
National Eagle,
Neptune’s Car,
Northern Crown,
Ocean Pearl,
Ocean Spray,
Olive Branch,
Onward,
Oriental,
Orion,
Pampero,
Peerless,
Phantom,
Queen of Clippers,
Queen of the Pacific,
Queen of the Seas,
Rattler,
Raven,
Red Rover,
Reindeer,
Ring Leader,
Rip Van Winkle,
Rover’s Bride,
Sea Serpent,
Seaman’s Bride,
Shooting Star,
Simoon,
Light Foot,
Living Age,
Mandarin,
Matchless,
Messenger,
Meteor,
Monsoon,
Morning Light,
Mountain Wave,
Sirocco,
Skylark,
Snowsquall,
Southern Cross,
Spitfire,
Stag Hound,
Storm King,
Sun Beam,
Surprise,
Sword Fish,
Siren,
Tam O’Shanter,
Telegraph,
Tinqua,
Tornado,
Trade Wind,
Typhoon,
Viking,
Waterwitch,
Western Star,
Westward Ho!
West Wind,
Whirlwind,
White Squall,
White Swallow,
Wide Awake,
Wild Duck,
Wild Pigeon,
Wild Ranger,
Winged Racer,
Wings of the Morning,
Witch of the Wave,
Witchcraft,
Wizard,
Zoe.
Leaving the vicinity of the shipping, we wend our way towards the heart of the city. As we proceed, we observe many objects of interest that deserve more attention than we can bestow upon them at this time.
Degradation, profligacy and vice confront us at every step. Men are passing to and fro with haggard visages and heads declined, muttering to themselves, and looking as hungry and ferocious as the prowling beasts of an Asiatic jungle. Before us on either side, we see a group of boys, clad in slouched hats, dirty shirts, ragged pants, and shabby shoes, without socks, who have no regular business. Sometimes they sell newspapers in the morning, and in the middle of the day engage in various occupations, as, for instance, in peddling fruits, nuts and toys. At this time several of them seem to have met by chance, and they have stopped to discuss the times and the progress of events. If we were near enough, we should probably hear the right hand party criticising Madame Anna Thillon’s last performance of the opera of La Somnambula, or of the Daughter of the Regiment; and those on the left giving their opinions upon the merits of Madame Anna Bishop’s last oratorio or ballad concert. After disposing of all the actors and actresses in music, opera, pantomime, tragedy and comedy, or, perhaps, after bragging of the successes of certain amours or other youthful depravities, they rally together, and entering the nearest groggery, one calls for a brandy smash, another for a whiskey punch, a third for a gin cocktail, and so on, until all are served. Then, bowing to each other, they drink to the prosperity of Young America, to which school they all belong; and dashing their glasses upon the counter with as hideous and vociferous anathemas as ever passed the lips of an East India pirate, they separate, segar in mouth, and return to their respective avocations. Not unfrequently these vicious youths repeat their potations so often that they become thoroughly inebriated, and may be seen quarreling, fighting, and lying about the streets like hardened and inveterate topers.
The bales and stacks of hay and straw piled upon some of the wharves, deserve a passing glance, since they form the sleeping apartments of dozens of penniless vagabonds who are always wandering about the city in idleness and misery, and have no other place to rest, no bed to sleep upon, except these out-door packages of provender, into which they creep for shelter and slumber during the long hours of the night.
Continuing our perambulations in a westerly direction, we find ourselves at the foot of Commercial street, which runs almost due east and west through the centre of the city. This street we will pass up, paying attention as we proceed to some of the irregularities and peculiarities which distinguish San Francisco from other cities, and California from other countries. The first houses we see are from one to two stories in height, and are built of red wood, a very light combustible kind of timber that resembles the spruce or cedar. Oregon produces nearly all the building materials out of which these and most other houses and tenements in California are constructed; and I have been credibly informed that the red wood and fir trees in that territory grow from two hundred and fifty to three hundred feet high, and proportionally thick. In some of the remote and comparatively inaccessible parts of California these varieties of timber are also found, and are said to acquire the same gigantic bulk.
Most of the buildings in this part of the street are tenanted by those mysterious and avaricious characters whose arrival in this, as well as in other places, is always as inexplicable as that of the flies in summer, and whose exit is equally as unceremonious as that of the swallows in winter—no one knowing whence they came or whither they go—the Jews, those nomades of civilization. These erratic and money-loving descendants of the ancient biblical patriarchs seem to follow in the wake of all adventurous Christians and gentiles who wear those convenient articles of apparel denominated ready-made clothes. Preferring to travel the way after it is once opened, they are seldom known as the pioneers of a new country; and claiming to be conservative in their principles and opposed to aggression, they profess disinclination to encroach upon foreign territory; but after the battles are fought with the forest, the wild beasts, or the biped enemy, and peace and security established, they are ever ready to come in and partake of whatever advantages may have been attained. So it has been in California, so it is yet, and so it will always be here and every where else, with these homeless and migratory people.
They do not employ any of their time or means in advancing the permanent and substantial interests of the country. None of them engage in any sort of manual labor, except, perhaps, that which is of the most trivial and unmanly nature, such, for instance, as the manufacturing of jewelry and haberdashery. Mining, the cultivation of the soil, in a word, any occupation that requires exposure to the weather, is too fatiguing and intolerable for them. The law requiring man to get bread by the sweat of his brow, is an injunction with which they refuse to comply. It is a tax they are unwilling to pay—an enigma beyond their comprehension—they will not sweat. Dealing in ready-made clothing appears to be their peculiar forte; and this is about the only thing they follow in San Francisco—as I think it may be said to be their principal pursuit wherever they go, when they have not the means to set themselves up as pawn-brokers or note-shavers.
We observe that they have presumptuously usurped or occupied from four to six feet of the way on either side of the street, by building little wooden racks and projections in front of their stores, for the purpose of making a more conspicuous display of their marketable vestments in dry weather. In any other place than California such unjust appropriations of the streets of a city would not be tolerated; but here, where usurpation, illegality and confusion reign supreme, no attention is paid to it.
It has ever been the misfortune of the Jew to undergo the scorn and contumely of self-styled Christians, and indeed of all nations. Since the destruction of his ancient capital by the Romans, he has been an outcast in the world, the standing butt of the Gentile’s scoffs. California is no exception to this general rule. But little respect is shown him there; and he is continually jeered by having applied to him such annoying epithets as Christ-killer, ham-hater and anti-pork-eater. But few of them have signs over their doors, as most men have who transact business upon their honor and reputation. Some of them buy and sell under assumed names; but in general their business is anonymously conducted. Bidding adieu to the cosmopolitan issue of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and leaving them in the peaceable possession and enjoyment of their “too or tree towsand monnies,� we will take a glance at matters of more importance.