SAN FRANCISCO IN 1854.

Lyttelton Times, Volume VI, Issue 352, 15 March 1856, Page 4

SAN FRANCISCO IN 1854.

San Franciscans can now ask for nothing more on the score of domestic com forts Tier streets and houses are well lighted by a beautiful gas light ; they dwell in elegant ai.d handsomely-furnished houses; their tables ars largely supplied with fish, flesh, and iowi, ivovn the mountains, rivers, and valleys of their . teeming land ; they have pure and limpid water for drink and cleauliness in no slimed measures, and finally, they have discovered, near at home, boundless supply of excellent stone coal, sufficient to satisfy all tbeir demands for fuel in cooking their meals, melting their gold, driviug their steam-engines-, and drying their houses in the wet seasons. Belliugham Bray now furnishes the great demand of the city. Hitherto all the coal used was brought at greai expense, partly from Vancouver's Island, and Chili; but chiefly from such .immense distances as Philadelphia, Liverpool, and other foreign parts. In 1849 and 1850 the townspeople were furnished l>v men chiefly of the lower ciass of Hispanu-Americans, who cut it from the httie. gnarled oaks and thick brushwood growing on the low sandhills, bordering the town —not a stump of which is now to be seen. Wood and charcoal were Drought into the city either on the backs of these men, »r in panniers carried by asses, and two dollars were paid for as much as a man could carry in his arms. The charcoal men are yet features of the place. They, announce their coining by the ringing of a small bell, and ■may he seen in every street offering their little bundles for sale. The old round of business, pleasure, folly, vice, and crime, still went merrily on. Cases of divorce were nearly as common as cases of drunkenness. Cases of political corruption, of party jobbing, of personal scandal, of ruin hy debauchery and gambling, by duelling and smcide, of squatter violence, of vohberv and burglary, of assault and murder— why* these were, as before, nearly " as plentiful as oiackbeirie.-,." It is umiecessaiy to single out particular cases for remark' and reproach. Every day pioduced a new crop of moral weeds. Still Sau Francisco contrived to flourish, and it? people, in their fashion, to enjoy life. To enforce some measure of outward decency the Common Council passed a stringent ordinance regarding Ihh^s of ill-fame, making the keeping of than highly jienal. This ordinance had the effect, (<?r a time, «;f closing a few or the most notorious Mexican and Chinese brothels. Bm it \v rt s sought to be euro ced against the fashionable "\vhiu; Cyprians who bad money enough to employ ab]c council to show the intriusicslly ilk-^u aid t ran -.ous character of its p,>rti-;isi;ir pn,vi<i'.>ns, ami iheu il was found 'to be uMcriy iuiprrtciiciiiie in opeiati a>.. It seemed aii u't once to he (ii>uovereU ihal the impurity ft hie); was hid by call's couid not he put <io\vt; "t, v tnrne 'egi.-iation. ' Duels appnar t- he se th,-mure numer,,,,* In the months of May „v i J i:ne s .-v.--r;>! "aff-irs <,f b..j,,.r" t-.'k place, and :uc, ]n 'xl' t l maijce with swords by » coiij.ie <if I-'.e^.-hincr varied the inoU'itoiix i,J' plsi'ils aii<i nib-- ;t r■■ intr..-iiu!<;.l a new fasSiiuu f,,.- t ! ie :, c .,.^i;' (1 ; future ela'liaior^. Occioioiii.iiy \\ U ; m<-,.'.!i <-,= some wt-li-kiiiiw ci;iz uwo dd in•.:•-.,- i\<,. , r .<-- ntid me puij.u to a h j«Mi.o:!:c Ihi-.r; ..,' i, dignatiuij juhl high-fui'.-d sciitiiiici.t n»:,\,<*t!;e fonli-h and ciuiriPii yv-.i-.tm, ■■( bvliI.! • personal quarrel-, l.y niM.ta: vou-A.-.u. j \ lt . public looked wise, .savage ;<:i.i »ir:.i..ns. n-:<i taiked and drank; then ii io.k'. d n ■%■■,' ■.• u -l 60 on, and talked and dr.iiu; a-aisi. Suh

nothing was done, or perhaps couid be done in the matter. Grand juries occasionally offered a proper presentment on the subject, but their words (ell dead. .Men in California, who generally want ihe peaceful endearing j >ys of home and family, which best make lie we nh living for, set little value on existence, and in their hot rag-e will hazard it for the veriest triflo. Theatrical entertainments have never been so well patronized in San Francisco as during the past half year. A rapid succession ol' musical and dramatic "Stars" attracted cmtiuual crowds to the various " houses." E-iglish, French and Italian versions of the most noted modern operas weve excellently peif rmed in the Metropolitan and Union theatres, where four ladies, who each claimeu the rank of prima donna, successively appeared. U the theatres named, though partieularlv at hs Metropolitan and American, some of the most celebrated American actors and actresses made their regular nightly appearance. These, it is said, have reaped a la rue harvest from their professional visit to the land and the city of gold. The San Franciscans, truly, are no niggards with their wealth.— Sydney Empire.