Any one who could improvise anything,
even a bare substitute, to satisfy any of these needs, was sure of
immense returns. In addition, the populace was so busy--so
overwhelmingly busy--with its own affairs that it literally could not
spare a moment to govern itself. The professional and daring politicians
never had a clearer field. They went to extraordinary lengths in all
sorts of grafting, in the sale of public real estate, in every
"shenanigan" known to skillful low-grade politicians. Only occasionally
did they go too far, as when, in addition to voting themselves salaries
of six thousand dollars apiece as aldermen, they coolly voted
themselves also gold medals to the value of one hundred and fifty
dollars apiece "for public and extra services." Then the determined
citizens took an hour off for the council chambers. The medals were cast
into the melting-pot.
All writers agree, in their memoirs, that the great impression left on
the mind by San Francisco was its extreme busyness. The streets were
always crammed full of people running and darting in all directions. It
was, indeed, a heterogeneous mixture. Not only did the Caucasian show
himself in every extreme of costume, from the most exquisite top-hatted
dandy to the red-shirted miner, but there were also to be found all the
picturesque and unknown races of the earth, the Chinese, the Chileno,
the Moor, the Turk, the Mexican, the Spanish, the Islander, not to speak
of ordinary foreigners from Russia, England, France, Belgium, Germany,
Italy, and the out-of-the-way corners of Europe.
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