But Perhaps More Did Remember
Me Than I Was Inclined At First To Believe, For The Novelty Of A
Collegian Coming Out Before The Mast Had Drawn More Attention To
Me Than I Was Aware Of At The Time.
Late in the afternoon, as there were vespers at the Roman Catholic
churches, I went to that of Notre Dame des Victoires.
The congregation
was French, and a sermon in French was preached by an Abbé; the music
was excellent, all things airy and tasteful, and making one feel as if
in one of the chapels in Paris. The Cathedral of St. Mary, which I
afterwards visited, where the Irish attend, was a contrast indeed,
and more like one of our stifling Irish Catholic churches in Boston
or New York, with intelligence in so small a proportion to the number
of faces. During the three Sundays I was in San Francisco, I visited
three of the Episcopal churches, and the Congregational, a Chinese
Mission Chapel, and on the Sabbath (Saturday) a Jewish synagogue.
The Jews are a wealthy and powerful class here. The Chinese, too,
are numerous, and do a great part of the manual labor and small
shop-keeping, and have some wealthy mercantile houses.
It is noticeable that European Continental fashions prevail generally
in this city, - French cooking, lunch at noon, and dinner at the end
of the day, with café noir after meals, and to a great extent the
European Sunday, - to all which emigrants from the United States and
Great Britain seem to adapt themselves. Some dinners which were given
to me at French restaurants were, it seemed to me, - a poor judge of
such matters, to be sure, - as sumptuous and as good, in dishes and
wines, as I have found in Paris. But I had a relish-maker which my
friends at table did not suspect - the remembrance of the forecastle
dinners I ate here twenty-four years before.
August 17th. The customs of California are free; and any person who
knows about my book speaks to me. The newspapers have announced the
arrival of the veteran pioneer of all. I hardly walk out without
meeting or making acquaintances. I have already been invited to
deliver the anniversary oration before the Pioneer Society, to
celebrate the settlement of San Francisco. Any man is qualified
for election into the society who came to California before 1853.
What moderns they are! I tell them of the time when Richardson's
shanty of 1835 - not his adobe house of 1836 - was the only human
habitation between the Mission and the Presidio, and when the vast
bay, with all its tributaries and recesses, was a solitude, - and
yet I am but little past forty years of age. They point out the
place where Richardson's adobe house stood, and tell me that the
first court and first town council were convened in it, the first
Protestant worship performed in it, and in it the first capital
trial by the Vigilance Committee held.
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