The San Francisco call., 1895-07-14
it, belonged to Michael Reese. 1 presume


you have heard of him? ?"
Eyes, [ have heard his name"
''This same Michael Reese, ! heard while
/ was away, died in Germany while on a
visit there. He was one of the first, if not
the first, of San Franciscos millionaires.
My first recollection of him goes back to
1851, when he was a commission merchant
and had an office on the second floor of
house on California street, between ieideS-
dorff and Montgomery. He was a shrewd
fellow, always on the lookout to turn few
hundred dollars with profit to himself, but
that was not the way be made his fortune.
During the Fraser River excitement in 1858,
when this City was filled with reports of
the new gold mines discovered on the
banks OF that river and in the surrounding
country, the people believed that an Ell
Dorado greater than California had been
found, and every one who could get away
believed it his duty to rush to the new
mines to take up claim. They all got the
fever bad, although many had been taken
Ill during the Gold Bluff and Kern River
gold excitements in the earlier days.
Why, [ can recollect that during the
Gold Bluff excitement mechanics who
were earning from $l2 to SIC day
threw up their positions to go to that
place to learn that it was impossible to
make landing and that if there was any
gold at the base of the bluff, as rep
resented, it would cost three dollars for
every dollar obtained. Well, as l was
saying, they got the fever so bad they al
most fought at the offices of steamers and
sailing vessels for places on the north
ward-bound vessels. Everything that
turned into a passenger craft and
fabulous prices were paid for pas
sage to Esquimalt Bay. One of
the steamers, the OriZaba, that had
accommodations foI 600 passengers, carried
away on one trip 1900 fortune-seekers.
Some of these poor fellows, | afterward
learned, who had paid for cabin passage,
never got down further than the hurricane
deck during the passage of seven days,
there being no chance to get below, and if
they got there they would have found that
some other fellow had jumped their claims.
The people were crazy to get away; they
offered their businesses for anything they
could get for it; realty was offered at less
than half of its value, spot cash; every
thing was sacrificed in order to get out of
San Francisco to the new land of gold.
But Michael Reese was not one of those
who caught the fever. He wanted gold.
but he did not want to dig for it. He
placed his right forefinger to the side of
his nose, as he had habit of doing when
in deep study. and said to himself, This is
another Gold Bluff and Kern River hum
bug, and they'll all come back, so I'll buy
their property and keep it until they want
it.
at was not long before the bubble did
burst and sure enough the disgusted for
tune-seekers came back. They wanted
stores to go into business again, and
Michael Reese lease them at an
advanced rate of rent. They wanted
business property and he sold it to them,
getting three times what he paid for it,
and thus he made money, so rapidly that he
hardly realized that his fortune was creep
ing to the seven-fgure mark-in fact he
became a millionaire without hardly an
effort. He was sharp and close, and kept a
strict watch on his affairs, as he did
not believe in trusting his business to 9TH
ers. As a result of that prudence, there
never was a defalcation in his office. For
many years he was in the habit of coming
to this place to take a saltwater dip near
where the Dolphin boathouse is now. He
would come here, rain or shine, for his
bath, and he told me many times that
there was nothing to keep man in good
condition like q saltwater bath at early
morn. And believe he was right, for al
though pretty well advanced in years, he
was stout, hardy and as rugged as cow
boy of %"
Colonel Strong turned his gaze in
the direction of Bay street until his de-
lighted eyes rested on an old tumble-down
shanty-like structure that looks az if it was
standing because too tired to fall. "Ahn'
he exclaimed joyfully as he caught sight
old-timers that reminds me of old days.
Not quite so nice as those they build to-
day, but in the way back it was pretty COM
Portable | tell Won -