or. It was a long-continued downpour, a
complete surprise, and for many a year a happy tradition.

In Platt's Hall wonderfully fine orchestral concerts were held, under
the very capable direction of Rudolph Herold. Early in the sixties
Caroline Richings had a successful season of English opera. Later the
Howsons charmed us for a time. All the noteworthy lecturers of the world
who visited California received us at Platt's Hall. Beecher made a great
impression. Carl Schurz, also, stirred us deeply. I recall one clever
sentence. He said, "When the time came that this country needed a
poultice it elected President Hayes and got it." Of our local talent
real eloquence found its best expression in Henry Edgerton. The height
of enthusiasm was registered in war-time by the mighty throng that
gathered at Lincoln's call for a hundred thousand men. Starr King was
the principal speaker. He had called upon his protege, Bret Harte, for a
poem for the occasion. Harte doubted his ability, but he handed Mr. King
the result of his effort. He called it the "Reveille." King was greatly
delighted. Harte hid himself in the concourse. King's wonderful voice,
thrilling with emotion, carried the call to every heart and the audience
with one accord stood and cheered again and again.

One of the most striking coincidences I ever knew occurred in connection
with the comparatively mild earthquake of 1866. It visited us on a
Sunday at the last moments of the morning sermon. Those in attendance at
the Unitarian church were engaged in singing the last hymn, standing
with books in hand. The movement was not violent but threatening. It
flashed through my mind that the strain on a building with a large
unsupported roof must be great. Faces blanched, but all stood quietly
waiting the end, and all would have gone well had not the large central
pipe of the organ, apparently unattached, only its weight holding it in
place, tottered on its base and leaped over the heads of the choir,
falling into the aisle in front of the first pews. The effect was
electric. The large congregation waited for no benediction or other form
of dismissal. The church was emptied in an incredibly short time, and
the congregation was very soon in the middle of the street, hymnbooks
in hand. The coincidence was that the verse being sung was,

"The seas shall melt,
And skies to smoke decay,
Rocks turn to dust,
And mountains fall away."

We had evening services at the t