On Sunday the populace generally did one of two things:  either it sallied out in small groups into the surrounding country on picnics or celebrations at some of the numerous road-houses; or it swarmed out the plank toll-road to the Mission.  To the newcomer the latter must have been much the more interesting.  There he saw a congress of all the nations of the earth:  French, Germans, Italians, Russians, Dutchmen, British, Turks, Arabs, Negroes, Chinese, Kanakas, Indians, the gorgeous members of the Spanish races, and all sorts of queer people to whom no habitat could be assigned.  Most extraordinary perhaps were the men from the gold mines of the Sierras.  The miners had by now distinctly segregated themselves from the rest of the population.  They led a hardier, more laborious life and were proud of the fact.  They attempted generally to differentiate themselves in appearance from all the rest of the human race, and it must be confessed that they succeeded.  The miners were mostly young and wore their hair long, their beards rough; they walked with a wide swagger; their clothes were exaggeratedly coarse, but they ornamented themselves with bright silk handkerchiefs, feathers, flowers, with squirrel or buck tails in their hats, with long heavy chains of nuggets, with glittering and prominently displayed pistols, revolvers, stilettos, knives, and dirks.  Some even plaited their beards in three tails, or tied their long hair under their chins; but no matter how bizarre they made themselves, nobody on the streets of blase San Francisco paid the slightest attention to them.  The Mission, which they, together with the crowd, frequented, was a primitive Coney Island.  Bear pits, cockfights, theatrical attractions, side-shows, innumerable hotels and small restaurants, saloons, races, hammer-striking, throwing balls at negroes’ heads, and a hundred other attractions kept the crowds busy and generally good-natured.  If a fight arose, “it was,” as the Irishman says, “considered a private fight,” and nobody else could get in it.  Such things were considered matters for the individuals themselves to settle.

The great feature of the time was its extravagance.  It did not matter whether a man was a public servant, a private and respected citizen, or from one of the semi-public professions that cater to men’s greed and dissipation, he acted as though the ground beneath his feet were solid gold.  The most extravagant public works were undertaken without thought and without plan.  The respectable women vied in the magnificence and ostentation of their costumes with the women of the lower world.  Theatrical attractions at high prices were patronized abundantly.  Balls of great magnificence were given almost every night.  Private carriages of really excellent appointment were numerous along the disreputable planked roads or the sandy streets strewn with cans and garbage.