The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1897-08-05
FED FORTY MINERS.
WHEN CALIFORNIA RESTAURANTS
CHARGED HIGH PRICES.
Plate of Boiled Cabbage Cost 80 Cents,
and Eggs Were as High as 81 Each-some
of the Great Hotels of san Francisco In
Those Booming Days.

"slapjacks," "hard tack" "ooffee and
beans, ." occasionally diversified by an un-
fortunate jack rabbit or quail, whose mis-.
placed confidence in mankind brought
them too early to the pot of the hardy
miner, neither was it entirely devoid of |
Iuxuries in living for those whose appettes
were ON par with their financial ability |
to crafty them.
In San Francisco the luxuriously i'm
clined were wont to seek habitation, |
whether for legitimate or illegitimate rea-
sons we need not now stop to inquire. |
Opportunity for self indulgence of appe-
tlte was not wanting from the very begin |
ming of things, provided, us already hinted |
ht, that good digestion, while waiting on |
appetite, was supplemented by a sufficient |
supply of "shekols" to give practical rein
to its Indulgence. Where the gambler
flourished 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
wondered at that no limit of price put
upon the good things of life" would pre-
vent men enjoying them.
Even among the adventurous and hardy
gold hunters" the yearning for the flesh
pots which they had left behind them did
not pass unassuaged when opportunity Of
fered, no matter though the rate TO be paid
therefor was one far beyond the bounds of
what they had been reared to believe was
more than the "height of extravaganza.
Recalling a scene in illustration of this
fact, the writer may mention an incident
of the month of July, 1S49. Encamped
with his companions upon the banks OF
the Sacramento where Sacramento City
was just beginning to take on the SEM
blance of q town in the stages of embry
onic form, he witnessed the arrival of n
daring speculator who had come all the
way from the mission of San Jose with
wagon load of potatoes and onions for sale.
In less than 30 minutes every onion and
potato had found purchaser at the upset
price Of 81 per pound, while the venture
some spoculator started back richer but
probably no wiser man than he was when
he conceived the profitable venture.
But it is the hotels and hostelries Of
San Francisco in 1S49 and the early fifties
that this paper is intended to recall, in the
belief that the wide contrast between the
cheap luxurious living Of today and the
prices of that early period may not DO de-
void Of general public interest. Perhaps
in no other aspect nor from any other point
of view was the composite and cosmopoli-
tan character of the population in San
Francisco at that time more strikingly ex-
emplifed than through the national
nomenclature of the restaurants of the day,
as we'll as the national personality of their
enterprising proprietors.
II there was this wide variety Of nation
atty of hotels and restaurants, with their
| concomitant of varied national character
| istics 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 tho fact that there were
| cattle in countless herds upon "a thousand
| hills" in those days, though game was in
abundance and the waters teemed with
| fish. yet all these common needs were not
yet brought to market in sufficient guam
THY to make them more than luxuries.
| OF vegetables there was practically none.
] To put it as writer in the ANNALS OF
| San Francisco sententiously stated it,
| "In 1849 the announcement of a real cab
bage for dinner would have set half the
population frantic with strangely stirred
appetites The justification of this seem
ingly exaggerated remark will 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 ga golden apple
of Hesperides" and 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 boarding
house if fairly supplemented by its legiti-
mate ally, the toothsome corned beef.
The old adobe City Hall, which stood
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 1916. In
the days of its greatest glory-in lS49-its
bill of fare embraced ducks and quail at
from SO to So each, salad from 81 to 81
and eggs from rs cents to 81 each.
The Parker House, which stood on
Kearny street, where the new hall Of jus
tice Is. was built In 1889 by Robert A.
Parker. 1t was az story wooden build
inc the lumber in its construction costing
5000 per / 200 feet. 1t went down In the
first great fire of Dec. "a, 1S49, while un
der rentul Inulnly w u" |'O'VOO
month. Rebuilt in the spring of 1880, Il
went down once again, and finally, on
NAV 4, 1850, in the second great conflagro
tion, that being the very day upon whicf
1t was completed.
While the name was literally legion o
, the Italian osteries, German wirthschafts
French carbarets, Spanish flridas, Chimes
obowchows, American, English and 9th
or restaurants, at every one of which price
were charged that would staqger the ricl
and well kept babitues of the Palace OF To
{ dav. the so called first stop hotels wer
{ neither conspicuous in dimensions no
numerous. "Top high water" mark wa
; sunposed to have been reached when tn
|. Ward House was built and opened in IN
autumn of 1s49. 1t was situated on Ga
street opposite the middle of the old plaza
4 and. although then regarded as an insplr
1 inc and luxurious affair, would toda
4 hardly pass muster for third rate bee
l saloon. It was the favorite place Of resor
q and indulgence for the elite of that DAY
however.-San Francisco Chronicle.
Duststorms That Bury Forests.
> Some Russian travellers in Tibet describ
| 1s,S thaf