The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-08-10
COSTLY FOOD.
LuXuries Were Expensive in Early
California Days.

San Francisco Chronicle.
If life was not all "cakes and ale'
among the fOrty-ninerS If among the vast
majority the daily menu was limited to
"slapjacks,' hard tack" coffee and
BEANS" occasionally diversified by an un-
fortunate Jackrabbit or quail, whose mis-
placed confidence in mankind brought them
too early to the pot of the hard miner,
neither was it entirely devoid of luxuries in
living for those whose appeutes were on a
par with their financial ability to crafty
them. 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 yet brought to market in sufficient
quantity to make them other than luXur1eS.
OF vegetables there were practically none.
To put it writer in the Annals OF san
Francisco" sententiously stated 1t, in lS49
the announcement OF real caDDage ior
dinner would have set half of the popula-
ton frantic with strangely stirred appe-
titesA The justification of this seemingly
exaggerated remark will be found in the
perusal of some of the hotel bills of fare
of that day, where the potato hgures OF
Hesperides and a plate of cabbage cost
80 cents. In one sense, at least, cabbage
heads were far less common in those days
than they are now, saying nothing ABOUT
the other slang sense of the expression
since nickel will buy whole one, SOLD at
retail big enough to feed whole modern
boarding house, if fairly supplemented by
it's legitimate ally, the toothsome corneu
beef
The old adobe City Hall, when Stooq
on the southwest corner of Kearny and
Clay streets, was the first hotel of preten-
tious proportions and character erected IN
San Francisco. 1t was built in 1886. In the
DAYS of it's greatest glory-in lS49-lts Dill
of fare embraced ducks and quail. at from
81 to s. each, salads 81 to g. and eggs from
rs cents to 81 each.
The Parker House, which stood on
Kearny street, where the new Hall OF Jus
tice is about to be erected, was built IN
1859 by Robert a. Parker. 1t was Two
and-a-half-stOry wooden building, the luIno
Der in it's construction costing S60O per 1VOO
feet 1t went down in the great nre Oh Dec
"a 1849 while under rental mainly 10 gam
bIers. at 900 a month. Rebuilt IN the
spring of 1850 it went down once agar,
ami firally. on May A. 1885, in the second
great confagration, that being the very Gay
upon which it was completed.
While the name was literally region
of the Italian osteries, German Wlrths-
chafts French cabarets, Spanish nr1daS'
Chinese chOw-chows, American, EnghsRi
and other restaurants, at every one Vi
which prices were charged that would staIs AZ
ger the rich and well-kept habitues OF the
PALACE of to-day, the so-called tirst-stop
hotels were neither conspicuous IN dlmen,,
sions nor numerous. Top high-water
mark was supposed to have been reacne9
when the Ward House was bulIt anu op9Heu
in the autumn of 1S49 1t was sltudteu 3l ~
CLAW street, opposite the mlddle OF the GU
plaza and, although then re8aFu99 dS an
inspiring and luxurious aftalf, Woulu lo-ueS
bardIv mass for a third-rate beer saloon.
n was the faVOrite place OF resort ana III
diligence for the elite of that day. now
ever.