Year: 1879

l guess pa ana ma was pretty rich one time, for when they came to Cali fornia it was on their wedding tour, and cost lots-they came by the way of New Y York and Washington and Panama city, in steamboat; and ma brought maid to wait on her, and pa had a servant named Jim; and when we got to Cali fornia-I say we, I'm only fourteen now, but l was not born then, though that don't matter, I guess-pa had lots ofmoney. 1 was born at the Lick House, and you ought to see my baby clothes. Jones x Go. haven't the kind of goods that them was, because Maud. has drag gled them all to pieces. Maud is the baby. Six years old Maud is, and it won't be long before she will be clerk in Jones & Go. First babies always have the incest things. Ma says first babies are like second wives.

 But keep getting away from Jones & Go.

 Well, I am of the opinion that after pa went into his house on Van Mass avenue, he went into stock, whatever that means. Going into stock must be a curious business, and sometimes pa came home looking splendid, and wanted to buy everything, and laughed at ma for being so mean, and not getting better clothes, and then he wanted to drive in the park and to the theater One day he came home with bran-new car riage and span of long tailed horses, and a coachman and footman. Then sometimes pa came home and looked very blue, and talked about stocks, and began to watch pa, and noticed that sometimes when he laughed loudest he looked as if he wanted to cry, and then he sold the horses, and then the house, and the furniture was sent to auction, and ma she felt very bad, and pa wasn't like himself any more, and never told me stories nor kissed me. and once when Maud was asleep in his arms he kissed her and cried, and when l told ma she said she guessed pa did not feel very well, and then she cried.

 After this we went to boarding-house -anasty, musty boarding-house. Every thing was well enough, only boarding house ain't like home.

 Then the baby came, and it died, and ma almost died; and l heard pa say to the man that kept the boarding-house that he was pretty tight up, but it was all coming out right; and the next day pa didn't have any watch nor any sleeve buttons. l didn't seem to notice it be- cause l. seen that maybe~he had sold them to pay his board; and I heard pa and ma talk away in the night, and sometimes ma cried, and pa would look in the morning just as if he hadn't slept a wink, and I don't believe he had. Once it was dreadful. Pa came home tipsy, and never seen ma feel so bad, ever; and then they talked it over, and finally ma went home to grandpapa's, in New York, with Maud, and I stayed with pa to go to school.

 Then pa kept getting worse and worse, and we went to live in rooms and eat at restaurants; and pa stayed out late nights, and I guess he drank more than was good for him, and thought some thing had to be done. So l said to pa one day, "Pa, let's go into business and open a store.o

 And he laughed and said, "What kind of storep"

 And I said, "Oh, candy store, or a stationery store, or thread and needle store, just such as women keep and little girls help in"

 think of 1t, and when he came home that night I asked him if he had thought about it, and he said he hadn't, and I said he had better, and he said he would; and that morning he didn't go out, but stayed at home and wrote ma long letter,

 So next day I went into store on Polk street kept by nice lady who had bad husband, where they sold everything, and she said in French they called it lingerie.

 did not know what she meant, be- cause it was French. and I asked if she didn't want to sell her store, and she said:

 "Do you want to buy a store, little girlp"

 And said; My pa does" And she smiled and said she guessed the sheriff would have a store to sell in few days. I said would tell pa, because he knew Mir. Nunan, the sheriff. It was one of Mir. Nunan's men that sold pas house and furniture for him.

 And the next day I told pa about the store and what nice one it was, and he said he had been dry-goods man once, had had large store, and sold silk dress goods, and velvets and furs, and laces, worth ever so much yard, and India