The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-06-22
FED THE FORTY MINER
California Restaurants Charged Some
Very High Prices.

not all cakes and ale" among the
fort-niners; if among the vast majority
the daily menu was limited to slap
: jacks hard tack" coffee and beans.
occasionally diversified by an unfor-
tunate jack rabbit or quail, whose mis-
placed confidence in mankind brought
them too early to the pot OF the hardy
miner, neither was II entirely devoic
OF iuxuries in livinS for those Whose
appetites were ON a par with their
financial ability 20 crafty them.
In san Francisco the luxuriousiy in
ciined We're wont 20 seek habitation
whether Tor legitimate or iilegitimate
reasons we need not now stop To in
quire. Opportunity for self-indulgence
OF appetite was not wanting from the
very beginning Of things, provided, as
already limited at, that good digestion
While waiting an appetite, was supple
mented by a sufficient supply OF
'shekels" TO give practical rein to its
indulgence. Where the gambler -four
isiled in all his glory and the CLINT and
glitter of gold passing. from hand to
hand on all sides was TOO common to
excite observation or comment, it need
not be wandered at that no limit OF
price put upon the good things Of
life would prevent men enjoying them.
Even among the adventurous and
hardy gold hunters" the yearning for
the flesh pots, which they had left be-
hind them, did not pass unassuaged
when opportunity offered. no matter
though the rate 10 be paid therefore
was one far beyond the bounds of what
they had been reared 10 believe was
more than the height of eXtrava-
gance."
Recalling a scene in illustration of
this fact. the writer may mention an
incident of the month of July, 1S49. En-
camped with his companions upon the
! banks of the Sacramento where Sacra-
mento City was just beginning to take
on the semb.ance Of n town in the
stages of embryonic form, he witnessed
the arivarl of a daring soeculatOr who
had come all the way from the mission
of San Jose with a wagonlaod Of po
tatoes and onions for sale. IN less
than 30 minutes every onion and po-
tato had found a purchaser at the up
set price of 81 per pound, while the ven
turesome s3eculator started back a
richer, but probably no wiser man than
he was when he conceived the profit
able venture.
But it is of the hotels and hostelries
of San Francisco in 1S49 and the early
sos that this paper is intended to re-
call, in the belief that the wide con-
trast between the cheap luxurious liv
ing of today and the prices Of that
early period may not be devoid of gen
eral public interest. Perhaps in no
other aspect nor from any other point
of view was the composite and cOSmo-
politan character of the population of
San Francisco at that time more stTik-
ingly exemplified than through the ma
tional nomenclature of the restaurants
and hotels of that day. as well as the
national personality of their enterpris-
ing proprietors.
If there was this wide variety of ra-
tionality of hotels and restaurants |
with their concomitant of varied ma
tional characteristics in cookery, there |
was a singular sameness in prices, no !,
matter whence he came or what the !
nationality of the host. Theirs was
tariff for revenue only. (which home |
Industries had to pay for and against /
which there was no protection.
Notwithstanding the fact that there /
were cattle in countless herds upon "a
thousand hills in those days. though
game was in abundance and the water
teemed with fish, yet all these common
needs were not vet brought to market
in sufficient quantity to make them
other than luxurles. OF vegetables
there was practically none. To put II
as a writer in The Annals of San
Francisco" sententiously stated 1T, In
1S49 the announcement of real cab
bage for dinner would have set half of
the reputation frantic with strangely
stirred appetites." The justification CT
this seemingly exaggerated remark VIII
be found in the perusal of some OF the
hotel bills of fare of that day, where
the potato figures of hardly less value
than "a golden apple of Hesperides,
and a plate of cabbage cost half a dol
lar In one sense, at Least, cabbage
heads" were far less common in those
days than they are now, saying moth
ing abou. ene other slang sense of the
nickel will buy a
whole one sold at retail big enough to
feed a whole modern boarding house.
by ITS legitimate ally,
the tocthsome corned beef.
The old adobe City Hair which
stood on the southwest corner of Keer-
ney and Clay streets, was the first
MOTEL of preteatious proportions and
character erected in San Francisco. 1t
vas built in 1916. In the days of IFS.
greatest glory-in 1S49-dts bill Of fare
ducks and quail at from 81
% s. each. salads 81 to 81, and eggs
rom 80 ceIfs to 81 each.
The Parker house, which stood on
xearney street, where the new hall OF
quilt in 1S4S49 by Robert y. Parker.
( was a two-aHd -a-half-story wooden
building, the lumber used in its con-
rtruction costing $500 per thousand feet.
t vert down in the great fire of Dec.
Z. 1S49. while under rental. mainly to
gamblers, at $4,000 month. Rebuilt ,
n the spring of 1850, it went down
nee again and finally on May 4, 1850. \
n the second great conha grafton, that
icing the very day upon which it was
omDleted.
While the name was literally legion
f the Italian hostelries. German 7
French cabarets. Spanish
ondas. Chinese chow-Chows American,
English and other restaurants, at every
ne of which prices were charged that
rould stagger the rich and we'll kept
abftues OF the Palace of today. the
o-called first-stop hotels were neither
0nsptcuous in dimensions nor nCmer-
us Top high water" mark was sup
osed TO have been reached when the
Yard House was built and opened in
ne autumn of 1S49. 1t was situated
n Clay street, opposite the middle of
ne Old plaza. and. although then re-
arded as an inspiring and luxurious
flair, would today hardly pass muster
II O. third-rate beer saloon. Il was
Re favorite place of resort and in :
ulgence for the elite of that day.
owever.
Pulmonary consumption. in its early
ages. may be checked by the use of
yer's Cherry Pectoral. It stops the
stressing cough, sCOthes irritation of
e throat and lungs, and induces
repose. Hundreds have
stified to the remarkable virtues of
is preparation