It loses all control except the fulmination of useless orders.
Local organization occurs by the pressure of numbers. Quaint names
and queer local institutions are born of necessity.
At San Francisco the tower of Babel is duplicated. Polyglot crowds
arrive in the craziest craft. Supplies of every character pour
in. Shops and smiths, workmen of all trades, appear. Already an
old steamboat wheezes on the Sacramento River. Bay Steamers soon
vex the untroubled waters of the harbor. They appear as if by magic.
A fever by day, a revel by night, San Francisco is a caravansera
of all nations. The Argonauts bring with them their pistols and
Bibles, their whiskey and women, their morals and murderers. Crime
and intrigues quickly crop out. The ready knife, and the compact
code of Colonel Colt in six loaded chapters, are applied to the
settlement of all quarrels.
While Valois blisters his hands with the pick and shovel, a matchless
strain of good blood is also pouring westward. Young and daring
men, even professional scholars, cool merchants, able artisans, and
good women hopeful of a golden future, come with men finally able
to dragoon these varied masses into order.
Regular communications are established, presses set up, and even
churches appear.
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