California and Californians, Vol. 2 BARTLETT [p.204] CHAPTER XX ABOUNDING LIFE IN EARLY SAX FRANCISCO Under the military rule that continued in California from the seizure of Monterey in 1846 until the news of the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848, the pueblo was under a succession of alcaldes,Washington A. Bartlett from August, 1846, to February, 1847; Edwin Bryant to May, George Hyde to March, 1848: John Townsend to August: and T. M. Leavenworth through the remainder of the year. The first city charter for San Francisco, having received the approval of the State Legislature, was adopted May 1, 1850, and Colonel John W. Geary, last of the alcaldes, was elected mayor by a large majority of votes. and thus the city government of the American municipality was instituted. [p.204] CHAPTER XX ABOUNDING LIFE IN EARLY SAX FRANCISCO If San Francisco was the resort of many evil men, it always possessed the power of casting out devils on occasion; if it was over-complacent in the presence of social and political sinning, it was ever capable of being aroused into puissant and virtuous activity; if here and there appeared an eccentric character, like Emperor Norton, it is better remembered for its William T. Coleman, Washington Bartlett, James King of William, and a legion of other such men of rugged virtue and robust valor. Take it all in all, it may well be doubted whether there was ever in the world another such city as was exuberant, tumultuous San Francisco during its first decade as an American municipality. THE REDISCOVERY OF CALIFORNIA'S NATURAL RESOURCES page 404 A bounteous natural resource in whose possession California stands unsurpassed and which has been hitherto too little appreciated consists in her many and varied mineral springs. These are of a very wide geographical distribution, from Siskiyou to San Diego, and of various qualities of healing. Lake County is particularly rich in the number and variety of its mineral waters. Some of the best known springs of the Stateto mention only a fewinclude Bartlett and Hot Borax Springs [p.404] of Lake County, the Geysers and Skaggs' Hot Springs of Sonoma County, Calistoga Hot Springs and Geyser of Napa County, Arrowhead Springs of San Bernardino County, Elsinore Hot Springs of Riverside County, and El Paso de Robles Springs of San Luis Obispo County. In everincreasing numbers the people from near and far are discovering the beneficial results as well as pleasurable experiences to be attained by a sojourn at some one of the myriad of California's mineral springs. POLITICAL HISTORY TO 1901 page 413 In the campaign of 1886 there appeared an almost bewildering number of parties and candidates. Besides the regular Democrats and Republicans, the Prohibitionists, the United Labor Party, the Farmers, and the American Party made their respective bids for the suffrage of the citizens, while the Anti-Chinese and the Irrigation conventions were far from being devoid of political significance. The State election held [p.413] November 2 resulted in a victory for the Democrats in governor, secretary of state, attorney-general, and several other officers, while the Republicans elected the lieutenant-governor, superintendent of public instruction, and a few other officers. Washington Bartlett, Governor-elect, a pioneer of 1849, had served as San Francisco's first American alcalde and was Mayor when elected to the governorship. On his death, September 12, 1887, Lieutenant-Governor R. W. Waterman (Republican) succeeded him as governor. I.LITERATURE. page 537 More fully than any other of the literary periodicals of the State, the Overland Monthly has earned the right to be recognized as the typical magazine of California. When Anton Roman, a San Francisco publisher and book seller, decided to undertake the publication of a magazine devoted to the development of California and the great West, [p.537] he turned to Francis Bret Harte, whose writing had already attracted considerable attention and whose exacting literary ideals marked him as one in a multitude, as editor and guide. At first hesitant and beset with misgivings about the enterprise, Harte was reassured by promises of contributions from the best writers on the Coast, the consent of Noah Brooks and W. C. Bartlett to join him in an editorial board, and most of all by mutual agreements with Charles Warren Stoddard and Ina Donna Coolbrith; he therefore engaged to become pilot of the new literary ship, whose name he himself suggested, and defended in his first editorial, July, 1868. The grizzly bear, also, associated with the Overland from the beginning, was suggested by Harte, who wrote: