Carson daily appeal. [volume] (Carson City, Nev.) 1873-1877, 1873-06-25
Che carson 4ailp Appral
NEW BOOKS.

Men and Memories of San Francisco in tn,
Spring of 80" BY T. A. Barry and b.
Patt.n San Francisco: A. L. Bancroft
Co. 1873.
This is book made mp of the odds
and ends and frugal savings of faith
full memory which is shared i'll common.
in very marvellous fashion by the
most extraordinary and inseparable pair
of men that We ever experienced, namely.
Barry 4 Patten, the renowned Saloon
keepers Of San Francisco. Rather
might We say that these old associates
(whose names are rs masquerade n
Beaumont aud Fletcher or Day X Mar
tin, have kept, with a surprising unin-
PERMISSION and unerring precision, a
mental rag bag of passing events. little
and big, as they have taken place in San
Francisco since the early part of the
year 1850 and are now overhaulirg its
hoardings. Their book is not by any
means of the character of that dreary
thing called Diary; nor yet is it scrap
book; nor, as they express hope OF
escaping. 'Kimball's Directory for 1885,"
but, rather, as we say, rag bag of use
full scraps cut Of and laid away to be
overhauled and made use of when the
cloth they we're clipped from is grown
old and forgotten, and pas, service. We
shall, indeed, not be misunderstood i!
We change the figure and say that this is
Q surprising instance of keeping the
cases on series of old games whose
dealers even, the most of them. are dead
and gone. this ever So long. This firm
of Barry i Patten is rs much an insti
tuition in San Francisco as Telegraph
Hill. Meisgs' Wharf or Emperor Norton.
Their place of business, their bar room.
and the atmosphere, associations and
memories of it, are as much a feature
of the certain, inevitable. actual and
essential San Francisco life as the Mer-
maid Inn in old, and Almack's in mod
ern, London, was and is. And not
the least remarkable feature of their bar
is themselves. They stepped ashore at
San Francisco from the steam propeller
Columbus on the 9Th of June 1850 with
a certain gentlemanlike cut Of ''lons
toys" and an unmistakable Boston flavor
about them, looking of certain unde-
Unable age; and there they are YET. as
unchanged as the Sphinx! Barry's
hair and Patterns beard: Barry's nose
and Patterns eyes; Barry's belly and
Patterns back, are each and all, and
every minute thing and manner and pc
culiarity about them. just precisely now
what they were in the Spring of so"
They don't keep a rum shop; they take
pay for presiding over the tipplins of |
gentlemen. They always remember
that Bacchus was a god; and that the
gods drank nectar on high Olympus
But we are DRIFTING. getting garrulous
over our tipple, and neglecting the pre-
vious question. This book does for you
what you do for yourself when You sit
down and discuss, across your crackers
and cheese and ale, with your fellow
Pioneer on the other side of the barrel
head, the mellow and sacred. old. old.
ever SO old and marvellous and dreamy
md tender memories which loom up
ike vision-almost like vagary, out
Of the golden past which hovers over
that went to make up the an
,molies and days and nights of romance
N the early and half unearthiy life of
California. 1t is for this reminding and
Tot for any intrinsic literary merits
which this book possesses that it is to
,e priced Still there is some very ex-
,ellent descriptive writing between its
covers especially well told being the
pathetic story of Old H-n., in Chapter
Five. 1t is the feeling which pervades
he book that will find interest and SYM
oafhy amongst the old imers;-and even
is odd smack of scholarship, albeit the
east bit pedantic, is favorous as like
I'D cheese and wine, for it is character