ALO^Q THE SACnAMENTO. 527 



future on paper;" but by April of that year, 1849, 

 building lots were selling at from one thousand to 

 three thousand dollars a piece ; at that time there were 

 twenty-five or thirty stores upon the embarcadero, and, 

 in the vicinity of the Fort, eight or ten more. There 

 was a hotel, a printing office, bakery, blacksmith's 

 shop, tin-shop, billiard room, and bowling alley. 



In that month of April, the city had the honor of 

 becoming a port of entry. 



By June of the same year, one hundred houses 

 graced the city. 



A few months later the city hotel was completed at 

 a cost of one hundred thousand dollars, and rented to 

 Messrs. Fowler and Fry for five thousand dollars per 

 month. 



In 1850, the scourge of cholera broke out, carrying 

 off one-fifth of those remaining in Sacramento. The 

 city was full to overflowing with a transient popula- 

 tion. Accommodations were scant and primitive, vice 

 and disorder prevailed. The disease became rampant. 

 Patients at the hospital were charged sixteen dollars 

 per day. Then it was that the order of Odd Fellows 

 came nobly forward, setting to that plague-stricken 

 district an example of charity and philanthropy long 

 to be remembered, and accenting the fact " that sim- 

 ple duty has no place for fear ! " 



On February 25, 1854, Sacramento was designated 

 as the seat of government of California. The dignity 

 of being the State capital gave new life to the 

 city. Her growth is instanced by the assessment on 

 real estate, which rose from $5,400,000 in 1854, to 

 J 13,000,000 in twenty years. 



When I rode through, the population was 21,400. 



In 1853 the s<^reets were planked, and provided 



