use she presumed to demand payment for
his washing; whereupon the Pioneer Society, learning of the affair, took
upon itself the charge of meeting all little expenses of this nature.

The Californians have a jolly, good-natured way of regarding
idiosyncrasies, and a kind of lavish generosity in the distribution of
their alms, quite different from the careful and judicious method of the
Eastern people. We hear that some of the early miners, passing along the
streets of San Francisco, just after it had been devastated by one of
the terrible fires that swept every thing before them, and seeing a lone
woman sitting and weeping among the ruins, flung twenty-dollar gold
pieces and little packages of gold dust at her, until all her losses
were made good, and she had a handsome overplus to start anew.

I noticed in Oakland a man who drew the whole length of his body along
the sidewalk, like an enormous reptile, moving slowly by the help of
his hands, unable to get along in any other way, holding up a bright,
sunny, sailor face. On his back was a pack of newspapers, from which men
helped themselves, and flung him generally a half or a quarter of a
dollar, always refusing the change. That such a man could do business in
the streets, was a credit to the kindliness of the people incommoded by
him. I hardly think he would have been tolerated in New York or Boston;
but his pleasant face and fast-disappearing papers showed that he was
not made uncomfortably aware of the inconvenience he caused.

One day, while waiting at the ferry, I saw two men employed in a way
that attracted the attention of every one who passed. One of them, who
had in his hand a pair of crutches, ascended some steps, and, crossing
them, nailed them to the wall, close to the gateway where the passengers
passed to the boat. The other arranged some light drapery in the form
of wings above them. Below they put a small table, with the photograph
of a little newsboy on it. All the business-men, the every-day
passengers crossing to their homes on the Oakland side, appeared to
understand it, and quietly laid some piece of money beside the picture.
It seems that it was the stand of a little crippled boy who had for a
year or two furnished the daily papers to the passengers passing to the
boat. The money was for his funeral expenses, and to help his family. It
was very characteristic of the Californians to take this dramatic and
effective way of collecting a fund. Men who