In no blaze of glory did Burning Daylight descend upon San Francisco. Not only had he been forgotten, but the Klondike along with him.
Several months passed in San Francisco during which time he studied the game and its rules, and prepared himself to take a hand.
There was only so much of a food reserve in San Francisco, and at the best it could not last long.
It was estimated that at least 200,000 had deserted San Francisco, and by that much was his food problem solved.
* It took but a few minutes to cross by ferry from Berkeley to
San Francisco. These, and the other bay cities, practically composed one community.
This young man was the nephew of one of the Nob Hill magnates, who run the
San Francisco Stock Exchange, much as more humble adventurers, in the corner of some public park at home, may be seen to perform the simple artifice of pea and thimble: for their own profit, that is to say, and the discouragement of public gambling.
"For New York tomorrow evening--for
San Francisco next morning."
Once the idea had germinated, it mastered him, and the return voyage to
San Francisco was like a dream.
Victor, for instance, said that immediately he landed in
San Francisco he would pass right through the water- front and the Barbary Coast, and put an advertisement in the papers.
"Why, if your pa'd only got laid up in
San Francisco, he would a-ben one of the big men of the West.
In thirty-six hours she had covered that distance; and on the 14th of December, at twenty-seven minutes past one at night, she entered the bay of
San Francisco.
The
San Francisco steamer was announced to leave that very evening, and it became necessary to find Passepartout, if possible, without delay.
In this volume I have used portions of letters which I wrote for the Daily Alta California, of
San Francisco, the proprietors of that journal having waived their rights and given me the necessary permission.
"Share--WHAT, sir?" Daughtry queried, though well he knew, the other steward having cursed to him the day he sailed from
San Francisco on a blind lay instead of straight wages.
This is a story told by the late Benson Foley of
San Francisco: