ot. Blasphemous words filled the air. Men swore without the least
thought. But profanity is not alone restricted to a frontier or border
community, where laws and a sense of propriety are wanting. One may
hear it in old and civilised towns, as he walks the streets, and
sometimes from the lips of boys. In these saloons people of all ages
congregated from youth up to hoary hairs. Here were the Indian and the
Negro, the American and the Mexican, the Spaniard and the Frenchman,
the Italian, the Dutchman and the German, the Dane and the Russian,
the English, the Irish and the Scotchman, the Chinaman and the
Japanese. One of the most noted of the saloons was the Bella Union, a
Monte Carlo in itself. Woe betide the miner from the mountains with
gold who entered it. Here was a richly appointed bar to tempt the
desire for drink, while costly mirrors were arranged in such wise as
to reflect the scenes of revelry, and pictures that were worth large
sums of money hung on the walls. The silverware too would have done
credit to a royal board. Both the tables and the bar were well
patronised at all times.

Naturally with such elements of society, with the mad thirst for gold,
with the loose morality which prevailed to a large extent, there
would be great lawlessness. It must be borne in mind however that the
Christian Church was at work in those perilous times, which live only
in memory now, and was gradually leavening the whole lump. There were
devout men and true women in early San Francisco, who, in the midst of
"a crooked generation," kept themselves pure and "unspotted from the
world." And is it not true that men can hold fast their crown, that no
man take it from them, if only they will make use of the grace of God?
God has His faithful witnesses in every place, in every age, no matter
how corrupt. There are the "seven thousand" who do not bow the kneel
to Baal, there are the faithful "few names" even in Sardis who do not
defile their garments with the world. San Francisco had them in those
days of special temptation, brave and noble souls who could say with
Sir Galahad:

"My strength is as the strength of ten,
Because my heart is pure."

In this strength they rose up and purged the place, even though as
difficult as a labour of Hercules. The men of the Vigilance Committee
will ever live in song and story. Even up in the mountains in the gold
mines of El Dorado county and elsewhere the spirit of the men of
San Francisc