San Diego to San Francisco 193" 



the deck of the steamer, the most quiet place I 

 could find, re-read my old letters, and went about 

 my business with a heavy heart. 



San Francisco. December 2^th l84g. Christ- 

 mas Day! Happy Christmas! Merry Christmas! 

 Not that here, to me at any rate, in this pandemon- 

 ium of a city. Not a lady to be seen, and the 

 women, poor things, sad and silent, except when 

 drunk or excited. The place full of gamblers, 

 hundreds of them, and men of the lowest types, 

 more blasphemous, and with less regard for God 

 and his commands than all I have ever seen on the 

 Mississippi, [in] New Orleans or Texas, which 

 give us the same class to some extent, it is true ; but 

 instead of a few dozen, or a hundred, gaming at a 

 time, here, there are thousands, and one house 

 alone pays one hundred and fifty thousand dollars 

 per annum for the rent of the "Monte" tables. 



Sunday makes no difference, certainly not 

 Christmas, except for a little more drunkenness, 

 and a little extra effort on the part of the hotel 

 keepers to take in more money, 



I spent the morning looking over my journal, 

 and regret it has been kept so irregularly, yet, as I 

 read it, and recall my experiences since last March, 

 I wonder that I have been able to keep it at all. 

 I dined with Havens, Mr. McLea, Lieut. Brown- 

 ing and Henry Mallory, and you may be sure 

 home was in our thoughts all the time, even if 



