taken. Excuse me, sir; won't you take a drink?"
The rider dismounted, tied his horse, and the two
found a drinking-saloon near by. Entering it they
called for their respective beverages, talked the affair
over in a cool common-place manner, and parted
friends.
Doctor Ver Mehr gives to C. V. Gillespie the credit of having the only carriage in San Francisco in Sep- tember 1849. Better still, the worthy doctor gives him the credit of taking him and his family up in it wlien he landed on the beach at Montgomery street, after a seven months' voyage round Cape Horn. A lady in a carriage was then no common sight. Pass- ing up Washington street on their way to the residence of Frank Ward, corner of Stockton and Green streets, the new-comers met a group of Frenchmen straggling along the uneven ground composing the sidewalk, when one of them, pointing to the plaza, then a sandy lot, called out to his comrades, "Voila, messieurs, la place royale ! " Just then they spied the carriage with its fair freight, when in an instant off went their hats, and all shouted simultaneously, "Vi vent les dames !"
Many theatres and other places of amusement sprang up, in which the performance and attendance were both good. The stock companies were far above the average in Europe and the east. In California, poor acting, like poor preaching, or poor horse-racing, did not pay ; it required more than ordinary ability among the performers to hold in their seats for two or three hours their discriminatino: and restless audi- ence. Somewhat expensive it was for the young mer- chant or salaried clerk, but what were they to do after work, with no home and no congenial female society? Almost anything was better than loitering about gambling saloons, or other dens of vice, with which the town was filled, and which it was difficult always to escape.
So it was that Callfornians were great play-goers, and in their gatherings might be seen as
