l?" said an affable youth on a dray.
"What in hell are you doing here, then? This is about the lowest ward in
the city. Go six blocks north to corner of Geary and Markey, then walk
around till you strike corner of Gutter and Sixteenth, and that brings
you there."

I do not vouch for the literal accuracy of these directions, quoting but
from a disordered memory.

"Amen," I said. "But who am I that I should strike the corners of such
as you name? Peradventure they be gentlemen of repute, and might hit
back. Bring it down to dots, my son."

I thought he would have smitten me, but he didn't. He explained that no
one ever used the word "street," and that every one was supposed to know
how the streets ran, for sometimes the names were upon the lamps and
sometimes they weren't. Fortified with these directions, I proceeded
till I found a mighty street, full of sumptuous buildings four and five
stories high, but paved with rude cobblestones, after the fashion of the
year 1.

Here a tram-car, without any visible means of support, slid stealthily
behind me and nearly struck me in the back. This was the famous cable
car of San Francisco, which runs by gripping an endless wire rope sunk
in the ground, and of which I will tell you more anon. A hundred yards
further there was a slight commotion in the street, a gathering together
of three or four, something that glittered as it moved very swiftly. A
ponderous Irish gentleman, with priest's cords in his hat and a small
nickel-plated badge on his fat bosom, emerged from the knot supporting
a Chinaman who had been stabbed in the eye and was bleeding like a
pig. The by-standers went their ways, and the Chinaman, assisted by the
policeman, his own. Of course this was none of my business, but I rather
wanted to know what had happened to the gentleman who had dealt
the stab. It said a great deal for the excellence of the municipal
arrangement of the town that a surging crowd did not at once block the
street to see what was going forward. I was the sixth man and the last
who assisted at the performance, and my curiosity was six times the
greatest. Indeed, I felt ashamed of showing it.

There were no more incidents till I reached the Palace Hotel, a
seven-storied warren of humanity with a thousand rooms in it. All the
travel books will tell you about hotel arrangements in this country.
They should be seen to be appreciated. Understand clearly--and this
letter is written after a thousand