Higher up the street we come to a better class of buildings than the miserable little shops we have just left, and we get a fair view of the permanent and attractive architecture of San Francisco—the brick and stone structures. Many of these buildings are beautifully designed and symmetrically proportioned, and have fire-proof walls varying from sixteen to twenty-four inches in thickness. They are usually from two to four stories in height. One hotel is five stories high, being the tallest house in the State.
Probably no city in this country can boast of buildings so substantial and thoroughly fire-proof as those of San Francisco. Besides making the walls very thick, every care is taken to have the doors, window-shutters and roofs equally stout and incombustible; nor is this precaution at all surprising, when it is remembered that this city alone has lost more than twenty-five millions of dollars by fire.
Owing to the unusual dryness of the weather, the prevalence of winds in summer, and the inadequate supply of water possessed by the city, all combustible matter is rendered so inflammable that it is quite impossible to keep it from burning after fire is once communicated; hence the necessity of using brick and stone instead of wood. The amount of money invested in this durable kind of improvement, as will be seen by reference to the following statistics which I borrow from the Herald, is something over thirteen and a half millions of dollars—the number of buildings being six hundred and thirty-eight:
| No. of buildings. | Value. | |
| Mason street | 4 | $ 35,000 |
| Powell street | 13 | 156,500 |
| Stockton street | 35 | 423,500 |
| Dupont street | 37 | 450,000 |
| Kearny street | 23 | 535,000 |
| Montgomery street | 55 | 3,500,000 |
| Sansome street | 46 | 1,036,000 |
| Battery street | 63 | 1,106,000 |
| Front street | 39 | 612,000 |
| Davis street | 3 | 85,000 |
| Geary street | 2 | 16,000 |
| Sutter street | 3 | 30,000 |
| Bush street | 5 | 144,000 |
| Pine street | 9 | 144,500 |
| California street | 47 | 1,230,750 |
| Sacramento street | 52 | 778,000 |
| Commercial street | 21 | 462,000 |
| Clay street | 28 | 593,000 |
| Merchant street | 15 | 348,500 |
| Washington street | 37 | 608,500 |
| Jackson street | 19 | 308,000 |
| Pacific street | 7 | 107,000 |
| Broadway | 10 | 145,000 |
| Vallejo street | 3 | 36,000 |
| Green street | 2 | 16,000 |
| Union street | 6 | 92,000 |
| Greenwich street | 3 | 35,000 |
| Lombard street | 2 | 12,000 |
| Chestnut street | 2 | 20,000 |
| Francisco street | 1 | 36,000 |
| Market street | 2 | 40,000 |
| First street | 5 | 76,000 |
| Brannan street | 10 | 50,000 |
| Third street | 4 | 44,500 |
| Miscellaneous | 55 | 307,000 |
| Total | 638 | $13,618,750 |
It is a remarkable fact, however, that less than half of these improvements have been made with California gold. Ask the proprietors where they got the money which they have expended in the erection of these buildings, and they will tell you it came from the Atlantic States and from Europe. Those who occupy them, the merchants and business men from New York, London, Paris, Hamburg, Bremen, and other places, will testify to this fact. California gold is to the world much what Southern cotton is to the North; it is not retained at home to supply the wants of the people, to afford them employment, to enrich or embellish the country, but is passed into distant hands, and afterwards brought back at a premium. Thus the producers are continually drained, and the commonwealth necessarily impoverished by this unthrifty management.
These buildings are erected upon the most eligible and convenient sites, and form what is properly termed the business portion of the city—covering, probably, about one-sixth of its superficies. Almost all of the residences or private dwellings are built of wood, and are very frail and inelegant. It is the intention, however, of a large number of the citizens to take down the wood and substitute brick or stone, as soon as they get able, if that is ever to be the case.
To acquaint ourselves with the character of the speculators and business men in San Francisco would be a curious and interesting task. They are certainly the shrewdest rascals in the world, and a straight-forward, honest man, who acts upon principle and adheres to a legitimate system of dealing, can no more cope with them than he can fly. But notwithstanding their shrewdness, and I might say, in some instances, their excellent business qualifications, they exhibit less method and system in their transactions than any class of traders I ever saw. Whatever they do is done in a helter-skelter, topsy-turvy sort of way, as if they had just fallen out of their element, and were scrambling to get back again. They never take time to do a thing well, but are always going and coming, or bustling about in such a manner, that one would suppose they were making preparations for some calamitous emergency, rather than attending to the every day routine of an established occupation.
This restless disposition is characteristic of the inhabitants of every part of the State; the mind seems all the time to be intently engaged upon something in another place, and the body is always pushing forward to overtake it.
Pursuing this digression a little further, it may be remarked of San Francisco that, although she is indebted to California for her existence, she is no longer dependent upon the State for her support. San Francisco can now claim to be as much the city of the Pacific, or of the world, as of California. The commercial advantages she enjoys, her inviting harbor and central position, are far superior in importance to any benefit she is likely to receive from the interior. The profits she will gain from the whale-fishing fleet of the North Pacific, and from her trade with the islands of the South Pacific, with China, Oregon and Russian America, will place her in a more prominent and enviable position than it is possible for the State ever to attain.