least for the time being,
cowed.

Spasmodic efforts toward coherence were made by the criminals, but these
attempts all proved abortive. Inflammatory circulars and newspaper
articles, small gatherings, hidden threats, were all freely indulged in.
At one time a rescue of two prisoners was accomplished, but the
Monumental bell called together a determined band of men who had no
great difficulty in reclaiming their own. The Governor of the State,
secretly in sympathy with the purposes of the Committee, was satisfied
to issue a formal proclamation.

It must be repeated that, were it not for the later larger movement of
1856, this Vigilance Committee would merit more extended notice. It
gave a lead, however, and a framework on which the Vigilance Committee
of 1856 was built. It proved that the better citizens, if aroused, could
take matters into their own hands. But the opposing forces of 1851 were
very different from those of five years later. And the transition from
the criminal of 1851 to the criminal of 1856 is the history of San
Francisco between those two dates.

CHAPTER XII

SAN FRANCISCO IN TRANSITION

By the mid-fifties San Francisco had attained the dimensions of a city.
Among other changes of public interest within the brief space of two or
three years were a hospital, a library, a cemetery, several churches,
public markets, bathing establishments, public schools, two
race-courses, twelve wharves, five hundred and thirty-seven saloons, and
about eight thousand women of several classes. The population was now
about fifty thousand. The city was now of a fairly substantial
character, at least in the down-town districts. There were many
structures of brick and stone. In many directions the sand-hills had
been conveniently graded down by means of a power shovel called the
Steam Paddy in contradistinction to the hand Paddy, or Irishman with a
shovel. The streets were driven straight ahead regardless of contours.
It is related that often the inhabitants of houses perched on the sides
of the sand-hills would have to scramble to safety as their dwellings
rolled down the bank, undermined by some grading operation below. A
water system had been established, the nucleus of the present Spring
Valley Company. The streets had nearly all been planked, and private
enterprise had carried the plank toll-road even to the Mission district.
The fire department had been brought to a high state of perfection. The
shallow