180 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



find that there ai'C no less than two liundred and nineteen of tliat name, 

 ■who are individualized for directory purposes. If we allow every name 

 in the directory to represent five of those who bear the same name, we 

 Avill have one thousand and ninety-five persons of the Brown family', who, 

 notwithstanding Hetty's dereliction, accumulated in San Francisco in the 

 short space of eighteen years — six hundred and thirty^-six more than the 

 entire po])ulation of this city when it began to feel that expansive power 

 — that resistless energy which is an inherent and ineradicable element of 

 American citizenship. 



From th.s single family the City of San Francisco has grown in pop- 

 ulation, in productive jiower, in commercial and political importance, 

 with a rapidit}' that sinks into insignificance the etfort of two hundred 

 years under tiie patronage of monarchical Spain. The progress of the city, 

 front the increase of the Browns alone, in the last eighteen years, sustains 

 a respectable relation to the growth of the general towns and cities of 

 the globe. But if a contemplation of the irrepressible Brown family 

 excites surprise and astonishment, who can read without amazement the 

 almost interminable record which has been made by the still more pro- 

 lific Smiths ? 



Mr. Langley gives ns three hundred and ninety-one directory names 

 of this family. This, b}* the same representative proportion, would 

 yield an increase of one thousand nine hundred and fifty-five in eighteen 

 years, or one thousand four hundred and ninety-six persons more than 

 the total white population of this city in eighteen hundred and torty- 

 seven. 



In eighteen hundred and forty-seven, there was one minister; there 

 are now hundreds. There were then three doctors; there are now two 

 hundred and thirty-eight. There were then three lawyers; there are 

 now three hundred and seventy-one. There were then seven groceries; 

 there are now four hundred and ninety. There were then two carpenter 

 shops; there are now ninety. There were then two hotels, which were 

 probabl}^ boarding houses and drinking places; there are now, of hotels 

 we cannot say the number, but there are four hundred and twenty-eight 

 boarding houses, and one thousand six hundred and fifty-four drinking 

 establishments. Of watchmakers and jewelers, the ornate Buckelew 

 had the field ; there are now one hundred and seventy-three. And then 

 a beach and water lot, which sold in eighteen hundred and forty-seven 

 for fifty dollars to five hundred dollars, would now bring from five thou- 

 sand dollars to fort}" thousand dollars or fifty thousahd dollars. A fiftj'- 

 vara lot, which sold then for fifteen dollars and sixty-two and one half 

 cents, would now sell for fiff}^ thousand dollars, or one hundred and fiftj^ 

 thousand dollars. And a one hundred vara lot would now brin<); from 

 one hundred thousand dollars to four hundred thousand dollars. There 

 were then six inland and* one oceanic navigators; and in eighteen hun- 

 dred and si.xty-three the steam tonnage alone entered at San Francisco 

 was one hundred and twenty-six thousand eight hundred and three; and 

 our rivers and inland bays are now alive with steamers, schooners, and 

 sloops ; and in addition we have nearly thi-ee hundred miles of \vorking 

 railroads. Then the total population of the city was four hundred and 

 fitty-nine; now it is one hundred and twelve thousand seven hundred. 

 Then there were a few shanties, frame buildings, and adobes; now there 

 are fourteen thousand four hundi-ed and forty-three buildings, of Avhich 

 eleven thousand five hundred and thirteen are frame, and tM'O thousand 

 nine hundred and thirt}' are brick. People do not now build adobes, and 

 the recognition of shanties has become an obsolete idea. 



