# A La California

QUI VIVE LA?
À LA
CALIFORNIA.
SKETCHES OF LIFE
IN THE
GOLDEN STATE.
By COL. ALBERT S. EVANS.
Author of "Our Sister Republic."
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY COL. W. H. L. BARNES, AND ILLUSTRATIONS FROM ORIGINAL DRAWINGS BY ERNEST NARJOT.
SAN FRANCISCO:
A. L. BANCROFT & COMPANY,
Publishers, Booksellers and Stationers.
1873.
Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1873,
By A. L. BANCROFT & COMPANY,
In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
CONTENTS.
DEDICATION.—INTRODUCTION.—AUTHOR'S PREFACE.
CHAPTER I. MY FIRST PASEAR.
The Sierra Morena, and the Redwood Forest of San Mateo and Santa Cruz.—The Sportsman's Paradise.—Looking back at the Golden City.—Yesterday and To-day.—Along the Bay of San Francisco.—The Valley of San Andreas.—Harry Linden's Speculation in Oats.—Good Resolutions and what came of them.—A Dream of Tropic Life.—An Evening in the Mountains.—A Scene of Wonderful Beauty.—The Avalanche from the Pacific.—Descending the Mountain by Moonlight.—The End of my Pasear.
CHAPTER II. IN THE MISTS OF THE PACIFIC.
The Crystal Springs.-The Music of the Night.—The California Night Singer and the Legend of the Easter Eggs.—The Cañada del Reymundo.—Over the Sierra Morena.—Down the Coast.—Pescadero and its Surroundings.—Pigeon Point and the Wrecks.—A Shipwrecked Ghost.—The Coast Whalers and their Superstitions.—An Embarcadero on the San Mateo Coast.—Ride to Point Año Nuevo.
CHAPTER III. IN THE MISTS OF THE PACIFIC.
CHAPTER IV. PESCADERO TO SANTA CRUZ.
Down the Coast toward Santa Cruz.—The Moss and Shell Beaches of Pescadero.—A Disgusted Hunter.—A Grizzly Bear Procession.—A Mutual Surprise and Double Stampede.—The Bear Fever.—The Buck Fever and the Prairie-Hen Fever.—How Jim Wheeler killed the Buck.—How Old S. killed three at one shot.—A Spanish-American Gentleman of Scientific Attainments and Undoubted Veracity.—View of the Bay of Monterey and the Valley and Mountains of Santa Cruz.
CHAPTER V. SANTA CRUZ AND ITS SURROUNDINGS.
The Bay of Santa Cruz and its Surroundings.—The Natural Bridge.—Mussel men, their Dangers and Delight.—Adventure with a Sea-Lion.—Uninvited Guest at a Picnic.—An Embarcadero.—Sea Bathing.—Big Trees of Santa Cruz.—Caves.— Mountain Rides.—Supposed Ruins.—Up the Valley of the San Lorenzo.—The Mountain Honeysuckle and Madroño.—Over the Mountains again.—The Redwood.—And what a Fall was there my Countrymen!—How they broke Jail.—Down the Valley of Los Gatos.—Strange Rise and Fall of the Streams of the Coast Range,—Out of the Wilderness.
CHAPTER VI. IN THE STREETS OF SAN FRANCISCO.
Cosmopolitanism of San Francisco.—Its Street Panoramas and Pictures and Sounds.—An Autumn Morning.—The "Barbary Coast."—The Chinese Missionary.—Factory Hands on Holiday.—Funeral of Ah Sam.—A Chinese Faction-fight.—An Equestrian Outfit.—The Poundmaster's Van.—General Stampede, its Cause and its Course.—The Pine-apple Plant.—The Passers-by.
CHAPTER VII. TAMALPAIS.
Where it is Situated.—Some Speculation as to the Signification of the name and its Possible Origin.—Our Start for the Mountains.—The Trip to San Rafael and Adventures by the Way.—Ascending the Mountain.—First Blood.—The View of the Bay and City of San Francisco.—Mount Diablo puts in an Appearance.—At the Summit.—A Bear-faced Fraud.—Fine Study of a Fog-Bank.—A Faithless Guide.—Wandering in the Mist.—Out of the Woods.—An Afternoon's Sport.—A Painful Subject.—Adios, Tamalpais.
CHAPTER VIII. NAPA VALLEY AND MT. ST. HELENA.
From San Francisco to Vallejo.—What we saw while crossing the Bay of San Pablo.—The Valley of Napa.—A Moonlight Evening in the Mountains.—Calistoga by Moonlight and Sunlight.—The Baths.—Hot Chicken Soup Spring.—The Petrified Forest of Calistoga.—The Great Ranch and Vineyards.—Ascent of Mount St. Helena.—What we saw from the Summit.—Reminiscences of the Flood.—Story of the Judge and the Stranger.—Presently, sir! Presently!—Good Joke on the Robbers.—What happened to me in Arizona.—A Good Story, but too appreciative audience.
CHAPTER IX. WAITING UNDER THE MADRONO.
Dreaming of the Tropics Again.—The Honey Bee.—In California.—A Good Joke on the Bear.—On the Red Desert.—In the Valley of Shadow.—Fair Alfaretto.—Burning of the Mezquites.—The Curse of the White Man.—A Wild Night's Ride in the Sierra.
CHAPTER X. AROUND THE MOUNTAIN CAMP FIRE.
The Fountain of Youth.—Hunting for Trouble.—Mike Durfee's Snake.—The Dogs of '49.—A Tragedy in the Redwoods.—When shall we three meet again?—Story of the Champion Mule of El Dorado.—How a Green Down-Easter struck it rich.—Result of Misplaced Confidence.—Sensational Reports Depreciated.—Out-door amusements in Arizona.—An Album in Camp.—The Mountains by Moonlight.—Parting under the Madroño.— Adios!
CHAPTER XI. THE CHINESE FEAST OF THE DEAD.
Weird and Ghastly Scene in a Chinese Temple at Midnight.—The Story of Concatenation Bill.—The True History of the Great Indian Fight on the Gila. p.246
CHAPTER XII. A CRUISE ON THE BARBARY COAST.
Night Scenes in San Francisco.—Low Life.—Scene in a Recently Suppressed Gambling House.—Visit to the Chinese Quarter.—How John Chinaman loses his Money.—The Thieves and Rounders of San Francisco.—How they Live and where they Lodge.—The Dance-Cellars.—Opium Dens and Thieves' Ordinaries of the Barbary Coast.—How the San Francisco Police treat old offenders, etc., etc.
CHAPTER XIII. FROM THE ORIENT DIRECT.
Arrival of a China Steamer at San Francisco.—Her Passengers and Cargo.—A Horseback Trip to Mount Diablo.—Ascending the Mountain.—The Magnificent View from the Summit. p.305
CHAPTER XIV. EARLY TIMES.
The Days of '49 and '52.—How they administered the Law in Tuolumne County, and Justice in Sierra.—Old Put and Judge Hollowbarn.—Pike's "Sasherarer."—Peart Times on Rabbit Creek.—A Game that was Spoiled.—An Appeal that wouldn't hold, and Prediction that it wouldn't do to bet upon.—Stories of Wagers.—Insulted Dignity Avenged.—Base Ingratitude.—Dead or Alive?—Drowned or Not?—A Glass-eye Bet.