brief existence. It was soon converted into the "Tehama House," the rooms of which are rented to lodgers, who obtain their meals at "Alden's Branch" (a restaurant on the lower floor), or wherever they may prefer. The "Oriental" and

"Wilson's Exchange," on Sansome street, near Sacramento, are prominent hotels of the city. The "Rassette House" was also a large and good hotel, at the corner of Bush and Sansome streets. This was destroyed by fire May 2d, 1853. It has been reconstructed of brick, and is one of the most imposing edifices of the city. Early in 1854, an elegant hotel, the "International," was opened on Jackson street, between Montgomery and Kearny streets, under the proprietorship of Messrs. E. S. Peck and Henry Fisher. This is located in a central part of the city, and is quite convenient to the several steamboat landings. It is kept on the European plan, rooms being rented by the day or week to the boarders, who obtain their meals at a restaurant on

the premises. On the principal floor is a ladies' ordinary. The building is five stories in height, fire-proof, and admirably adapted in all respects to the purposes for which it has been constructed. When completed, it will contain two hundred and

fifty comfortable and well furnished rooms. A still larger hotel is about to be erected at the corner of Battery street and Broadway, which is intended to cover an entire fifty-vara lot. Among the ordinary hotels of San Francisco at this time, are the "Portsmouth House," the "Franklin House," the "Mansion House," the "Niantic," the "Crescent," &c.; besides which there are very many of inferior character, where living is obtained at cheaper rates. The prices of hotel boarding have varied but lit

tle since 1849, having constantly ranged from about two to ten dollars per day.

Vast improvements have been made in late days to the general manner of living in San Francisco. The comfortless tents and shanties have given place to neat and pretty buildings. The cheapest lodging-houses are divided into small apartments. Men no longer huddle together by scores in a single room, but every person with moderate means can obtain an apartment to himself. There are also numerous private boarding-houses, kept mostly by respectable ladies, which have all the qualities of desirable homes for single gentlemen and small families; besides which, the vast immigration of the wives of old settlers and new comers have caused the erection and occupancy of beautiful cottages and elegant mansions, which every where exist upon the outskirts of the town. Comfortable and delightful homes are becoming numerous, and domestic enjoyment and happiness increase in proportion to the arrival of respectable females and the growing prosperity of the town.

EVER since all Greece gathered to witness the quadrennial contests of the Olympic sports, and the maidens of Rome wafted kisses to victorious gladiators; or rather, since Thespis, thus made immortal, drove about his cart-load of histrionic pioneers to the delight of gazing Athens, mankind have refused to imitate their primeval ancestors, who, tending their flocks by day, and their families by night, suffered neither from ennui nor atrabilis-but require what they call amusements, to make life tolerable. The theatre, and its derivatives, the opera, ballet, circus and hippodrome, have been called the great instruments of social progress. Whether they deserve this high claim or not, it is at least certain that their advance has been co-ordinate with that of civilization, and that such exhibitions have become essential in the present

day. The mind, like the body, refuses to return to its original nakedness after it has been adorned with the laced trappings of ingenious art. The homespun, the broadcloth, the silk and satin, and the royal purple, have supplanted the fig-leaf and the bear-skin, and their wearers have the same increase of mental foppery. The bloody rantings of the melo-dramatic hero, the absurdities of the pantomimic display, the far-fetched witticisms of the low farce, and the vulgar jibes of a drunken clown furnish laughter and diversion, and excite the envy and emulation of the gawk of the plough and the soap-locked rowdy of the city suburbs. The screechings, yellings, howlings of operatic automatons in sibilant Italian, guttural German, or nasal French, elicit muffled taps from gloved hands of popinjays, counter-jumpers and aristrocrats; while the sublime thoughts and moral teachings of great dramatic historians, are palatable and healthful food for men of genius, talent, and education. For the affected pious, and would-be godly-minded, who shun the evil associations of the theatre, and are disgusted with the necessarily public and hence indecent exposure of female artistes, there are lectures, exhibitions, panoramas, and the like-rational amusementsfairs, where the ladies of a church, publicly stationed, brazenly (not indecently) extort unreasonable prices for worthless goods by sale; where stately Pecksniffs playfully, by lottery (not gambling), amuse themselves by gathering money for a pastor's gift. There are museums, too, where quiet, demure quakeresses may unblushingly gaze at the "Dream of Taglioni," christened 'Temperance Dance," or the "Pas de Quatre Nations,” styled a "Missionary Jubilee."

San Francisco was, and yet is, the very antipode of patriarchal simplicity. Its flocks wore "golden fleece," and dwelt among the mountain streams of the Nevada; its tents had neither wives nor children,—only rough, rugged, savage men. But that guardian angel "self," who follows every one through life, and who had given each of this new race his worldly wealth, had endowed him with the desire, necessity, and means of unlimited enjoyment. At first each sought gayety and pleasure for himself, in wine, women, and the green cloth; but the mind that does not degenerate soon satiates with solitary enjoyments. Public amusements