"The city of San Francisco is eight hours behind London in the matter of time, and one turns this to good advantage. When her corn-merchants go down to their offices in the morning they find on their desks a report of the Liverpool market of that morning; each morning paper has two or three columns filled with telegrams of the preceding evening from all parts of Europe, and not unfrequently there appears among these telegrams a notice of the following kind:--'The _Times_ of to-day has an article in which it says,' &c., &c., giving the substance of that morning's leader." The present writer can illustrate this point by an actual occurrence in his own experience. Every reader will remember the terrible explosion in the Regent's Park, which did so much damage, and which happened about half- past three in the morning. He was then occupying the post of "telegraphic editor," &c., on the staff of the _Alta California_, the oldest journal published on that coast. The news of the explosion reached him by telegram at 11.30 the _evening before_, that is, _apparently_, before it happened! The _Alta_ therefore was able to give the sad intelligence to all its readers--some few of them as early as four o'clock--the next morning, while the London newspapers of the early editions could naturally have nothing about it, as they were printed before its occurrence.
Mr. W. F. Rae, a writer before quoted in regard to the character which the city unfortunately acquired in early days, says of it:--"From being a bye- word for its lawlessness and licentiousness, the city of San Francisco has become in little more than ten years as moral as Philadelphia, and far more orderly than New York." The fact is that one must obtain a "permit" to carry a revolver at all, and that permission cannot properly be obtained by anyone of dissipated or dangerous character. A heavy fine is inflicted on any one wearing a pistol without having secured the necessary authority. The same writer says:--"That the Golden State is of extraordinary richness is well known to every traveller. To some, as to me, it may have been a matter of rejoicing to discover that California is also a land teeming with unexpected natural beauties and rare natural delights." He quotes approvingly Lieutenant-Governor Holden's speech at a festive meeting held in Sacramento, California, on the completion of the Pacific Railway. "Why, sir," said the Lieutenant-Governor, a gentleman who had himself done much towards the successful consummation of that grand enterprise, "we have the bravest men, the handsomest women, and the fattest babies of any place under the canopy of heaven!" Baron Hübner, in his published work,(13) says of the climate, "It is a perpetual spring;" and then, alluding to the decreased yield of gold, remarks truly, "Its real riches lie in the fertility of the soil." And once more, Margharita Weppner, the German lady-traveller before mentioned, says, speaking of a fruit-show she visited:--"What I saw there could only be found in California, for I have never seen anything to equal it, even in the tropics." She adds, enthusiastically:--"This beautiful city of the golden land I prefer to any other in America. My preference is due to the agreeable kind of life which its people lead, and to the extraordinary salubrity of the climate." The present writer has preferred to collate from these independent sources rather than from his own long experience; but he can testify to the truth of every one of the above statements. One of the grandest features in San Francisco's present and assured future success is the fact that the steamship companies of the whole Pacific make it their leading port.