of them. Many new streets were planked for the first time, and some of the old ones replanked. Planking has served well in the infancy of the city, but it is probable that so perishable a material will soon give place to cobble-stones or Macadamized paving, or even square dressed blocks of granite or whinstone. San Francisco, like Rome, cannot be built in a day. Already, portions of Montgomery and Washington streets are finely laid down with cobble-stones. Meanwhile, the streets in general have gradually been getting into clean and regular order, and have a pleasant appearance. They and the buildings lining them are in many respects equal, and in some respects superior to the streets and buildings of long established and populous cities in the Atlantic States. The San Franciscans are proud of their noble city that sits enthroned beside calm waters, and as Queen of the Pacific receives homage and tribute from all seas and oceans. Richly freighted ships from every land visit her harbor. Her buildings are becoming palaces, and her merchants, princes. Wealth, gayety and luxury characterize her people. She is fast approaching that peculiar and regal character which in days of old was borne by the great maritime cities of the Mediterranean, in more recent times by Venice and Genoa, and perhaps at this date by Amsterdam and St. Petersburgh. Like the great mercantile cities of the past, San Francisco may fall in her pride; but centuries shall first pass. She is very young yet, and has a long age of growing grandeur before her. The commerce of the Pacific is only beginning, and with its certain increase will San Francisco certainly wax greater and more marvellous. Her spirit is GO AHEAD! We have seen her, but a few years since, only a barren waste of sand-hills-a paltry village-a thriving little town-a budding city of canvas, then of wood, and next a great metropolis of brick. In a few years more, if she be not changed into marble, like Augustan Rome, she may be turned into as beautiful and enduring substance, into Chinese or rather Californian granite. After the wonders we have already seen, and part of which we have described, nothing seems impossible in the progress of San Francisco. Her future will be far more glorious than even the present. As the lover expatiates rapturously upon his mistress, whose perfections, though nature may have been

+

bountiful, he chiefly himself creates, so do the San Franciscans speak of their beloved city, whose magnificence is principally the work of their own hands. Some glorification is natural and allowable on the subject.

To give a general notion of the condition in some respects of the city at the close of 1853, we here present a variety of miscellaneous statistical facts. These have been drawn from the columns of various newspapers of the day, from the city directory, custom house and other records, and from personal observation.

San Francisco, at the close of 1853, is divided into 8 wards for municipal purposes, and has nearly 250 public streets and alleys open, many of which are graded and substantially planked. It has 2 public squares formed and already surrounded by buildings. Besides an immense number of handsome and commodious edifices of frame, there are 626 brick or stone buildings, already erected or in course of erection, within the limits of Broadway and Bush street, Stockton street and the water front. Of these 350 are two stories in height; 154, three stories; 83, one story; 34, four stories; 3, five stories; and 1, six stories. Many of the houses are very large, and a few rival in size and grandeur the finest buildings in the United States. Nearly one half of the whole number were built during 1853, and about two thirds have been constructed in the most substantial manner, and made secure against the hottest fires. The real estate of the city was valued, on the 1st of July, at $28,880,200. As, since that period, this kind of property has risen twenty-five per cent. in marketable value, while extensive improvements were making in the interval, the valuation will justify an increase of $10,000,000 on the estimate made in the summer. There are 160 hotels and public houses with a descriptive name, 66 restaurants and coffee saloons, 63 bakeries, 5 public markets and 43 private ones, 20 bathing establishments, 15 flour and saw mills, 13 foundries and iron works, and 18 public stables.

There are 19 banking firms, of which more than one-half are extensive establishments of the highest credit; and the operations of a single one, including its agencies, have been +- $80,000,000 in one year. There are 9 fire, life and marine insurance companies. There are 10 public schools, with 21

teachers, and 1250 scholars, besides several private educational establishments. There are 18 churches, and about 8000 church members. There are 6 military companies (one of them, however, being chiefly for target practice), with 350 members in all, of which number about 260 are on active duty. The companies have a common armory and drill room. There are 14 fire companies, numbering about 840 members, with 12 engines, and 3 hook and ladder trucks. There are 38 large public cisterns for the use of the fire companies. There are 2 government hospitals, 1 hospital in the course of erection by a benevolent society, and an alms-house, all having together about 600 patients, besides private establishments of the same nature. There are 8 lodges of secret benevolent associations, and 4 public benevolent societies, connected with different races. There is a fine law library, and, be it said, about 200 attorneys. There are all the usual public buildings which are required in a city of the size, a handsome city hall, a jail, post-office, custom-house, and city, county and state court rooms of various denominations. There is also a mint erecting. There are a great number of societies for mercantile, professional, literary, social and religious purposes, among which are the Chamber of Commerce, a gas and water company, a plank road and various wharf companies, the Mercantile Library Association, the Christian Library Association, Bible and tract societies, several asylums for orphans, the California Pioneers, the Philharmonic Society, the Medical Society, the New England Society, the Turnverein (Gymnastic Society), the Saengerbund (Singer's band), the San Francisco Verein, and the German Club. There are resident consuls for 27 foreign governments. There are 12 daily newspapers, of which 8 are morning papers, 3 evening papers, and 1 a German morning paper. There are 2 tri-weeklies, both of them French; and 6 weeklies, of which 3 are religious, 1 commercial, 1 French, and 1 a Sunday paper. There are 2 monthly publications, of which 1 is an agricultural journal, and the other literary. Among places of public amusement, there are 5 American theatres (generally three or four of which are at all times open), a French theatre, a musical hall for concerts, balls, lectures, exhibitions, &c., a gymnasium and two race courses. During the year, there were open,

besides the American and French theatres, a German theatre, a Spanish theatre, and a Chinese theatre. The billiard rooms, and the public and private places at which gambling is carried on, can scarcely be counted; and the same may be said of the places where vast quantities of intoxicating liquors are daily consumed.

ere are 18 ocean steamers, of which 8 run to Panama, 4 to San Juan del Sud, 2 to Oregon, and 4 to points on the coast of California; and there are 23 river steamers, which ply to different parts on the bay and its tributaries. There is one line of daily stages to San José, another to the Red Woods, and one thrice a week to Monterey. There are regular lines of omnibuses on the plank roads, which run to the mission every half hour. There is a magnetic telegraph eight miles in length, from Point Lobos, for reporting vessels; and another, extending altogether upwards of three hundred miles, to Marysville, through San José, Stockton and Sacramento. There are 2 great, and some smaller express companies, which convey letters and packages to all parts of the Union, and to many foreign countries. The great Atlantic mails leave twice a month, via Panama; and there are daily mails to all places of importance around the bay or on the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers. For nearly two months, in the summer of 1853, a weekly mail left for the Eastern States, but this, not being sufficiently supported by government, came abruptly to an end. About 1,000,000 of letters were sent during the year to foreign and Atlantic ports.

The settled portion of the city covers about three square miles. The principal part of the business is carried on in houses erected on piles, or built on earth filled in where the waves of the bay rolled three years ago. There are 2 plank roads to the mission, and one across the hills on Pacific street, on the way to the presidio. There are 12 large wharves projecting directly into the stream, besides nearly as many small cross ones. About 2 miles of streets and wharves are made on piles over the water.

During 1853, there were, in round numbers, imported into San Francisco, 100,000,000 pounds of flour and meal, worth $5,000,000; 20,000,000 pounds of butter, worth $4,000,000; 25,000,000 pounds of barley, worth $500,000; nearly 80,000,000

feet of lumber, worth $4,000,000; 29,500 casks, and 12,000 packages, of hams; 8,400 tierces, hogsheads and casks, 700 barrels and 9,400 boxes, of bacon; 51,000 barrels of pork; 16,000 barrels of beef; about 40,000 barrels of refined, and 160,000 bags, 3,000 barrels and 4,000 boxes, of raw sugars; 100,000 boxes of soap; 170,000 cases of candles; 1,100,000 pounds of tea; 115,000 bags of coffee, (not including some 13,000 boxes of the article ground); 2,300, tierces, and 14,000 barrels of Carolina rice, and over 400,000 bags of foreign rice; and, of unspecified provisions, 50 tons and 55,000 packages. There were also imported, among a variety of other articles, 67,600 cases of boots and shoes; 31,000 bales, 20,000 cases and boxes, and 6,000 packages, of dry goods; 80,000 tons of coal, and 550,000 packages of unspecified merchandise. Likewise, whiskey equal to 20,000 barrels, and 400 barrels of rum; 9,000 casks, hogsheads and pipes, 13,000 barrels, 2,600 kegs and 6,000 cases, of brandy; 34,000 baskets of champagne; and, of other wines, 9,150 hogsheads and casks, 2,500 barrels, 1,800 kegs and 156,000 cases. To complete the long list of "drinks," there were also imported, of beer, 24,000 casks and hogsheads, 13,000 barrels, and 23,000 cases and boxes; and of "unspecified liquors," 5,000 pipes and casks, 6,000 barrels, 5,000 kegs, 8,000 cases and 1,600 packages. These importations were to supply the wants of fewer than four hundred thousand persons, resident in California and Oregon, and some of them in the Sandwich Islands. The total imports of the year were about 745,000 tons of goods, and were valued at upwards of $35,000,000; or, on an average, two tons, and about $100 for every person in the State of California. and Territory of Oregon. The freights to vessels coming into San Francisco during the year were $11,752,084; and the duties collected at the custom house were $2,581,975. The only exports worthy of notice were about $65,000,000 of gold dust (part only of which was manifested), and 18,800 flasks of quicksilver, valued at $683,189.

The arrivals of the year were 1028 vessels, of 558,755 tons (though carrying about one-third more), and the departures were 1653 vessels, of 640,072 tons. Of the entrances, 634 vessels, of 428,914 tons, were American, and 394 vessels, of 126,880 tons.