Nevada, the Anglo-Californian Bank, the London and San Francisco Bank, the Bank of California, and other powerful institutions of that class, occupy stately buildings in the district; and here also are the halls of the three exchanges, the San Francisco, the California, and the Pacific, which are popularly known as the Big, the Little, and the New Exchanges. The first-named is the oldest and most select in its membership, and a seat therein costs £6,000. There are hundreds of brokers in the vicinity, many of whom stand outside the exchanges-the curbstone-brokers so-called, who during the hours of business are possessed with the same wild frenzy which holds high carnival within the halls, when the street is crowded with apparently infuriated men. The chief object of speculation is mining shares; and there is no class of society which does not dabble in this dangerous business. The clergy of the city are not exempt from the mania; the merchants continually yield to its allurements; even the women make speculative investments in shares, and feel the full excitement of the rising and falling markets. Thousands have been ruined in this fascinating gambling, and hundreds have won fortunes. The new State Constitution, enacted two or three years ago, has already driven from California £10,000,000 of capital, two-thirds of that sum having been withdrawn from the banking capital of San Francisco alone. Just before that date the assessors of the city reported that there were thirty individuals there whose fortunes exceeded £250,000-five of them being worth from £600,000 to £900,000 each, one worth £2,000,000, and three worth not far from £4,000,000. Several of these millionnaires have erected palaces in the aristocratic quarter of New York, side by side with other new and superb mansions owned by the grain and pork princes of Chicago and Cincinnati. Many a strange romance might be told of these Californian favourites of fortune. Four of the wealthiest were village shopkeepers, until the vast subsidies given by the Government to the Central Pacific Railway fell into their hands. An engineer on an ocean steamship landed here, and in a few years accumulated millions of dollars. A vendor of milk, who left his cans and measures to become a curbstone-broker, is now worth £1,500,000. Two butcher-boys, abandoning the commerce in shoulders and briskets, have acquired landed estates large enough for principalities. Messrs. Flood and O'Brien were bar-tenders in San Francisco, and Messrs. Fair and Mackay worked in the mines at Virginia City. Honest, earnest, and laborious men, of humble origin and moderate ambitions, the Fates brought them together as partners, and delivered into their hands a silver-mine of small apparent value, which had never paid a dividend. With indomitable patience they bored and dug away in the barren shafts, until suddenly a vast deposit of rich ore opened before them, and the shares, which they had bought for less than a pound sterling, rose to a market valuation of over £2,400 each. Within ten years, £25,000,000 in treasure has been taken from this marvellous Consolidated Virginia Mine. Mackay, the friendless little Dublin boy, now owns two-fifths of this mountain of silver, and keeps his wife and children in a splendid palace near the Champs Elysées in Paris. Not long since, when General Grant was in the French capital, and the American colony prepared brilliant fétes in his honour, it is said that Mrs. Mackay wished to have the great Arc de Triomphe illuminated, and upon receiving the amused refusal of the Parisian officials, she sent a messenger to the municipal authorities, offering to buy the arch, and asking them to name their price for it.

Nevada, the Anglo-Californian Bank, the London and San Francisco Bank, the Bank of California, and other powerful institutions of that class, occupy stately buildings in the district; and here also are the halls of the three exchanges, the San Francisco, the California, and the Pacific, which are popularly known as the Big, the Little, and the New Exchanges. The first-named is the oldest and most select in its membership, and a seat therein costs £6,000. There are hundreds of brokers in the vicinity, many of whom stand outside the exchanges-the curbstone-brokers so-called, who during the hours of business are possessed with the same wild frenzy which holds high carnival within the halls, when the street is crowded with apparently infuriated men. The chief object of speculation is mining shares; and there is no class of society which does not dabble in this dangerous business. The clergy of the city are not exempt from the mania; the merchants continually yield to its allurements; even the women make speculative investments in shares, and feel the full excitement of the rising and falling markets. Thousands have been ruined in this fascinating gambling, and hundreds have won fortunes. The new State Constitution, enacted two or three years ago, has already driven from California £10,000,000 of capital, two-thirds of that sum having been withdrawn from the banking capital of San Francisco alone. Just before that date the assessors of the city reported that there were thirty individuals there whose fortunes exceeded £250,000-five of them being worth from £600,000 to £900,000 each, one worth £2,000,000, and three worth not far from £4,000,000. Several of these millionnaires have erected palaces in the aristocratic quarter of New York, side by side with other new and superb mansions owned by the grain and pork princes of Chicago and Cincinnati. Many a strange romance might be told of these Californian favourites of fortune. Four of the wealthiest were village shopkeepers, until the vast subsidies given by the Government to the Central Pacific Railway fell into their hands. An engineer on an ocean steamship landed here, and in a few years accumulated millions of dollars. A vendor of milk, who left his cans and measures to become a curbstone-broker, is now worth £1,500,000. Two butcher-boys, abandoning the commerce in shoulders and briskets, have acquired landed estates large enough for principalities. Messrs. Flood and O'Brien were bar-tenders in San Francisco, and Messrs. Fair and Mackay worked in the mines at Virginia City. Honest, earnest, and laborious men, of humble origin and moderate ambitions, the Fates brought them together as partners, and delivered into their hands a silver-mine of small apparent value, which had never paid a dividend. With indomitable patience they bored and dug away in the barren shafts, until suddenly a vast deposit of rich ore opened before them, and the shares, which they had bought for less than a pound sterling, rose to a market valuation of over £2,400 each. Within ten years, £25,000,000 in treasure has been taken from this marvellous Consolidated Virginia Mine. Mackay, the friendless little Dublin boy, now owns two-fifths of this mountain of silver, and keeps his wife and children in a splendid palace near the Champs Elysées in Paris. Not long since, when General Grant was in the French capital, and the American colony prepared brilliant fetes in his honour, it is said that Mrs. Mackay wished to have the great Arc de Triomphe illuminated, and upon receiving the amused refusal of the Parisian officials, she sent a messenger to the municipal authorities, offering to buy the arch, and asking them to name their price for it.

The United States tried to buy California in 1835, but Mexico was not in a trading mood; and an American exploring expedition under Captain Wilkes (the same who afterwards unlawfully captured the British mail-steamer Trent) soon afterwards reported this bay to be "one of the finest, if not the very best harbour in the world." Bad feeling had existed between Mexico and the United States for many years, and the latter determined to seize California on the first opportunity. Hearing a false rumour of war, in 1842, the American commodore in the Pacific captured the capital of the provinceand apologised for it very quickly. But it was only four years later that the frigate Savannah appeared off Monterey, and the Portsmouth at Yerba Buena, bearing in garrisons of American marines. There was war between the two Republics, and California became one of the prizes won by the northern victor.

The population of Yerba Buena was soon greatly augmented by the arrival of a ship-load of active and enterprising Mormons, from New England, who brought with them a printing-press and all manner of mechanical tools. The little settlement was then under the rule of a naval lieutenant, bearing the Spanish title of alcalde. It was not long before the citizens found that the name of their town-Yerba Buena-offered serious obstacles to the Anglo-American pronunciation, and was suggestive of nothing, so they rechristened the infant metropolis with the name of SAN FRANCISCO.

To the newly-named town an era of wonders was drawing rapidly near. In January, 1848, the men who were building a saw-mill at Coloma, about 200 miles from San Francisco, discovered bits of yellow metal in the flume, and fancying that it might be valuable, sent a half-ounce down to the Bay, where experts pronounced it gold. In the early summer months, the people at the coast began to realise that there was treasure in those inland hills, and then suddenly a wild stampede began, and the town was practically deserted. The newspapers stopped publication, because editors and compositors had joined in the rush to the mines; shops were closed, for clerks and proprietors had disappeared; abandoned ships rocked idly in the Bay, their sailors having fled; the children played about their locked school-houses, for the pedagogues were away among the Coloma hills. After their brief escapade in the mining country, the San Francisco editors returned to the Bay, and founded the great daily newspaper called the Alta California, afterwards the organ of the Vigilance Committee, and still one of the chief journals of the Pacific States. The merchants also returned, weary of the rough life of the camps, and realising that an immense flood of immigration was about to pour into California, through its chief port. The result surpassed their expectations. In 1847 the town had 300 inhabitants; and at the end of 1849 it had 20,000. Within seven months 700 vessels had entered the harbour; and steamboats were panting up and down the Bay in all directions. The residents of the city were nearly all men; and their dwelling-places, rising on every side, were plain canvas tents, or rude shanties lined with white cloth. In the year 1852, seven vessels a day entered or left the port. Thus for years the fortune-seeking myriads poured in from all parts of the world; and the great, uneasy community, a thousand leagues from Christian civilisation and strong government, rapidly descended from bad to worse, until utter anarchy was threatened. The political administration of San Francisco became altogether corrupt and shamelessly venal, and the elections were carried, year after year,

San Francisco.

by armed ruffianism and lavish bribery. between is a
had been committed in the city, and but seVEL C
last James King, who had denounced this anaren wa
the Bulletin newspaper, was shot down in to strec
who was at that time a municipal official. This was th
saw that they must despise law, and enact justies

in a secret lodge-hall, and formed the famous Vigate Umane swiftness became organised into military companies.

Business was suspended, and the proceeding of the

terrifying sence and secrecy.

A few days later. twent

surrounded the prison, and removed the assassin of Kg nu they trie, with all due formality, and hanged from the Many other tesseradoes were seized, tried, and punisiet. I tie sale and the daily records of crime dwindled to binuks elaimed San Francisco in a state of insurrection aut authorities to subize it. But the Vigilazie asily memHAVE T called Law-and-Order militia; and the Uate rates feet! resumed, but the companies rushed to arms as often is quarters building pealed out its solemn tones.

After out

the peace of the city was deemed secure, and the Committee
four murderers, and banished twenty-five riminals
had fled far away, in abject terror.

The entire me a le