secure comer? That emphatic gesture with the umbrella! Ah! he has concluded to bury it—banks are mighty uncertain—even banks of earth, but he don't realize that yet. Don't make his acquaintance till he gets naturalized, and has the wire edge taken off, unless you wish to be most essentially bored. He is a harp of a thousand strings, and will vex your ear with a multitude of tiresome yarns about his personal adventures on the route, hard fare on the steamers, indignation meeting of the steerage passengers, what they resolved to do, what they dichi't do, what the captain swore he would do, what the mate said, how an old woman and five children were dreadful sick all the way from New York to Aspinwall, terrible time on the Isthmus, Panama fever, lost his trunk and paid a big nigger five dollars reward for finding it, has no doubt but it was the same identical nigger who stole it. Arrival in San Francisco, feller tried to rope him into a game of chuck-a-luck, too smart to be caught, surprised at finding that five-franc pieces pass for a dollar ; how like thunder they charge for meals on the road from Stockton, and so forth.
" After he has emptied his budget of wonders, he opens his volume of catechisms, and will ask 3^ou more foolish questions than it is pleasant to listen to, or profitable to answer—among which you are sure to hear the following: How long does it take a man to make his pile, s'posin' he's industrious ? How far is it to the northern mines ? Where is the best place for mining in California ? How long does the rainy season last ? Is it necessary for a man to have an oil-cloth suit? How much will the dirt average from the top down, in Mary Posey county ?—and last, unkindest cut of all—wiien will that water company have their ditch completed ? My rule is to stave off his questions, as well as possible, till he comes down to that, which I answer by saying 'next J^ear,' at the same time."
In early times Heinrich Herz came to San Fran
