News & Tall Tales. 1800s.

The October Emigration to San Francisco

January 14, 1850, Alta California, San Francisco, California

The Baltimore American gives a list of all the vessels which sailed from ports in the United States for California during the month of October, appended to which is the following general summary with regard to the emigration of that month:

The list comprises 19 ships, 16 barks, 17 brigs, and 13 schooners, in all 65 sail of vessels. The greater portion are ships of the largest class, but even by putting the average tonnage down at 300 tons, we have an aggregate tonnage of 19,500 tons leaving the Atlantic ports in the short space of one month for our distant possessions in the Pacific. The departure of California-bound vessels has become a matter of such common occurrence that, in many instances, the number of passengers is not given, and therefore the number who have left during the month of October, by the Cape Horn route, can only be estimated.

Allowing but twenty passengers to each vessel, which is a low estimate -- many of the larger vessels which lft eastern ports having been dispatched by large associations, who go out in them -- and we have a total of thirteen hundred persons. Besides these, during the month, the steamships Empire City, Crescent City and Ohio have sailed from New York for Chagres, and the steamships Falcon, Alabama and New Orleans, from New Orleans, for the same port, carrying together at least one thousand passengers. So that it may be safely estimated, that, during the month of October, at least twenty-three hundred persons have left the United States by sea, bound to California.

May 29, 1905, Oakland Tribune, Oakland, California

OUT IN 'FRISCO.

The following verses were written by Sir Collier, the proprietor of Collier's Weekly. He is now in San Francisco, where he penned the lines. They were copied by a friend who is now visiting in Stockton, and it was through him that they came into the hands of a Mail reporter. The verses have not heretofore been published:

There is lots of time to burn
Out in 'Frisco,
There's a devil of a lot to learn
Out in 'Frisco;
Where they make their human matches
To end with single scratches
And husbands mix their latches,
Out in 'Frisco.

There the red light is contagions,
Out in 'Frisco;
And their conduct is outrageous, Out in 'Frisco.
In the famous French cafes.
With their naughty little ways.
That's the place where Cupid plays,
Out in 'Frisco.

You get next at Sanguinetti's,
Out in 'Frisco;
Where the girls forget their pretties,
Out in 'Frisco;
And the blood-red native wine
Mixes up the clinging vine
And she calls you "Baby Mine,"
Out in 'Frisco

Next day you meet at Zinkand's
Out in 'Frisco;
And you hold the dear girl's hands.
Out in 'Frisco.
Dry Martini, then another,
Then she telephones to mother
She'll take dinner with her brother,
Out in 'Frisco.

If in Poodle Dog a crowd
Out in 'Frisco
Disturbs your nerves with noises loud,
Out in 'Frisco,
You will go just one floor up,
And in privacy you'll sup.
Close beside your buttercup.
Out in 'Frisco.

Or if in the elevator,
Out in 'Frisco.
In parlance of the waiter,
Out in 'Frisco,
You more quiet wish to be.
You will ask to stop at three,
Just to see what you can see.
Out in 'Frisco.

There you find the rooms en suite
Out in 'Frisco,
And the "outfit's" hard to beat
Out in 'Frisco;
But if your conscience becomes rife
Because it's another fellow's wife,
Just remember this is life
Out in 'Frisco.

When you finally cash in
Out in 'Frisco,
And you end this life of sin,
Out in 'Frisco,
They will gently toll a bell.
Plant your carcass in a den.
No need to go to hell.
You're in 'Frisco.

Stockton Evening Mail.

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