way--the Zinka, where, at one time, every one went after the theatre,
and Tate's the Palace Grill, much like the grills of Eastern hotels,
except for the price; Delmonico's, which ran the Poodle Dog neck and
neck in its own line, and many others, humbler but great at the price.

The city never went to bed. There was no closing law, so that the
saloons kept open nights and Sundays, at their own sweet will. Most of
them elected to remain open until 3 o'clock in the morning at least.
Yet this restaurant life did not exactly express the careless,
pleasure loving character of the people. In great part their pleasures
were simple, inexpensive and out of doors. No people were fonder of
expeditions into the country, of picnics--which might be brought off
at almost any season of the year--and often long tours in the great
mountains and forests. And hospitality was nearly a vice.

[Illustration: =CHRONICLE BUILDING.=

(An old landmark.)]

[Illustration: =ST. FRANCIS HOTEL, SAN FRANCISCO, CAL.=

(Destroyed by fire.)]

[Illustration: =FERRY HOUSE, WHERE INJURED ARE LEAVING CITY.=

This is the station of the greatest ferry in the world, just outside
the fire belt in San Francisco. Hundreds of refugees have been taken
from it to Oakland and other points.]

As in the early mining days, if they liked the stranger the people
took him in. At the first meeting the local man probably had him put
up at the club; at the second, he invited him home to dinner. As long
as he stayed he was being invited to week end parties at ranches, to
little dinners in this or that restaurant and to the houses of his new
acquaintances, until his engagements grew beyond hope of fulfillment.
There was rather too much of it. At the end of a fortnight a stranger
with a pleasant smile and a good story left the place a wreck. This
tendency ran through all grades of society--except, perhaps, the
sporting people who kept the tracks and the fighting game alive.
These also met the stranger--and also took him in.

Centers of men of hospitality were the clubs, especially the famous
Bohemian and the Family. The latter was an offshoot of the Bohemian,
which had been growing fast and vieing with the older organization for
the honor of entertaining pleasing and distinguished visitors.

The Bohemian Club, whose real founder is said to have been the late
Henry George, was formed in the '70s by a number of newspaper writers
and men working in the ar