266 EAST PRUSSIA TO THE GOLDEN GATE 



us but a wide expanse of blackened soil, with here and 

 there the blackened walls of a burned out brick building, 

 ready to fall at any moment, and from some of these 

 smoke and even flames would still at times shoot up. In 

 the fullest meaning of the word, the whole city was in 

 ashes, because only one side of one single street had 

 partly escaped destruction by a change in the wind, and 

 if I were to say that there were forty houses standing, 

 my estimate might be too high. 



It being 2 o'clock p. m. when we arrived at Sacra- 

 mento, and the boat for Marysville having left long be- 

 fore that time, I was compelled to wait here until the 

 next day, much against my will. I was hungry as a wolf 

 and for a wretched bit of a beefsteak with a few potatoes 

 and a cup of black coffee— just enough to sharpen my 

 appetite— I had to pay two dollars. 



The night I had to pass in the open air like thousands 

 of others who had lost their house and home; but I took 

 advantage of the situation : in the ruins of a brick build- 

 ing I found a corner, where, protected against the wind, 

 I slept on the warm ashes as in paradise! 



It was daylight when I awoke; but when I opened my 

 eyes I thought I was still dreaming. Where I had seen 

 the angry flames shooting up on the evening before, there 

 stood now (the sun had not risen yet), rows of tents and 

 shanties, which had been constructed during the night 

 by the light of lanterns ; and when at noon I took the boat 

 for Marysville, long continuous rows of these tents and 

 frame houses formed well-defined streets,— a temporary 

 city had sprung up. Where in the world can you see 

 anything like this, except in America? In any other 

 part of the world a city like this, after such a catastrophe 

 — being wiped off the ground as this city has been— 

 would have been deserted by the inhabitants, certainly by 

 most of them; and years afterwards one might yet have 

 seen the traces of the disaster while here they will have 

 completely disappeared within a few months. 



San Francisco too has changed wonderfully in this one 

 year since I first saw it; one can hardly believe his own 



