Vol. \1U] IX MEMORIAM: THEODORE HESRY HITTELL 7 



on the face of- the earth. Twenty years before, Yerba Buena 

 was not even a village, and had no existence. Nine years be- 

 fore. Yerba Buena had started on its career and had two hun- 

 dred people. Eight years previously, the name was changed to 

 San Francisco. The discovery of gold created a city almost 

 overnight, and San Francisco now had a population of 50,000. 

 Five great fires had successively destroyed it. but the build- 

 ings were now more numerous and enduring than ever. In 

 such a seething mass of gold seekers, adventurers and real 

 pioneers there were inevitably mingled much lawlessness and 

 crime. At least a hundred murders had been committed in 

 the previous year without a single execution. It was not safe 

 to walk the streets after dark, while by day and night incen- 

 diarism and burglary were common. Allied with this indi- 

 vidual crime was political corruption. Though the city had 

 been partially purged by the Vigilance Committee of 1851, the 

 baser elements were again in control. As usual in modern 

 times, the good men did not vote and the bad men never 

 failed to vote. In his History of Califorma Hittell phrased 

 the situation thus : "There probably had never been in the 

 United States a deeper depth of political degredation reached 

 than in San Francisco in 1854 and 1855." In spite of bad 

 government and prevalent crime, nothing was able to prevent 

 the town from forging ahead. The golden stream from the 

 mines, the dawning realization of the immensely varied agri- 

 cultural resources of the State, the first fruits of foreign com- 

 merce, revealed to the sagacious eyes of the pioneers the 

 splendid destiny of this city and State. These good citizens 

 could not yet control the development of the civic and mate- 

 rial resources ; but they were dazzled by the vision of the 

 future, and hopefully consecrated their souls and energies to 

 the building up of the new community. 



When he started for California from the East, Mr. Hit- 

 tell intended to go to the mines. As soon as he reached San 

 Francisco, and saw its activities and gauged its prospects, he 

 was easily convinced by his advisers that this city should be 

 the theatre of his future career. Though a thoroughly edu- 

 cated lawyer, he seems at first to have avoided the practice 

 of his profession, and with his literary tastes and training he 

 naturally gravitated towards the newspaper business. The 



