ar Ellis. The Golden West Hotel now covers the lot. The
little houses opposite were on a higher level and were surrounded by
small gardens. Both street and sidewalks were planked, but I remember
that my brother and I, that we might escape the drifting sand, often
walked on the flat board that capped the flimsy fence in front of a
vacant lot. On the west of Powell, at Market, was St. Ann's Garden and
Nursery. On the east, where the Flood Building stands, was a stable and
riding-school.

Much had been accomplished in city building, but the process was
continuing. Few of us realize the obstacles overcome. Fifteen years
before, the site was the rugged end of a narrow peninsula, with high
rock hills, wastes of drifting sand, a curving cove of beach, bordered
with swamps and estuaries, and here and there a few oases in the form of
small valleys. In 1864 the general lines of the city were practically
those of today. It was the present San Francisco, laid out but not
filled out. There was little west of Larkin Street and quite a gap
between the city proper and the Mission.

Size in a city greatly modifies character. In 1864 I found a compact
community; whatever was going on seemed to interest all. We now have a
multitude of unrelated circles; then there was one great circle
including the sympathetic whole. The one theater that offered the
legitimate drew and could accommodate all who cared for it. Herold's
orchestral concerts, a great singer like Parepa Rosa, or a violinist
like Ole Bull drew all the music-lovers of the city. And likewise, in
the early springtime when the Unitarian picnic was announced at Belmont
or Fairfax, it would be attended by at least a thousand, and heartily
enjoyed by all, regardless of church connection. Such things are no
more, though the population to draw from be five times as large.

In the sixties, church congregations and lecture audiences were much
larger than they are now. There seemed always to be some one preacher or
lecturer who was the vogue, practically monopolizing public interest.
His name might be Scudder or Kittredge or Moody, but while he lasted
everybody rushed to hear him. And there was commonly some special fad
that prevailed. Spiritualism held the boards for quite a time.

Changes in real-estate values were a marked feature of the city's life.
The laying out of Broadway was significant of expectations. Banks in the
early days were north of Pacific in Montgomery, but very soon t