Chapter IX: Sunday in California

The Sabbath in California is kept, when kept at all, as a day of hilarity and bacchanalian sports, rather than as a season of holy meditation or religious devotion. Horse-racing, cock-fighting, cony-hunting, card-playing, theatrical performances, and other elegant amusements are freely engaged in on this day. If I remember correctly, it was about two months after my arrival in the land of gold and misery, that I had the misfortune to become acquainted with a renegade down-east Congregationalist preacher, who invited me to accompany him, on the following Sunday, in a deer-chase. Throughout the country, and in the mines, shooting-matches and bear-hunting afford pleasant pastimes; gambling is also practiced to a considerable extent, though not so much as on other days. But we shall probably learn more of the manner in which Sunday is spent, if we confine our attention to one of the larger cities, San Francisco, for example. Here regattas, duels and prize-fights are favorite diversions; and the Lord’s day seldom passes without witnessing one or the other, or both. Here, too, for a long time, gaming was licensed on Sundays, as it is yet on week days; but recently the city fathers have passed an ordinance prohibiting the desecration, and I believe their example has been followed by three or four of the other cities. There is no State law upon the subject.

Connected with a tippling-house, on the corner of Washington and Montgomery streets, there is one of the finest billiard-saloons in the United States. It is very large, and magnificently decorated, has twelve tables, and is furnished, I am informed, at a cost of twenty-five thousand dollars. To this place hundreds of infatuated men betake themselves every Sunday; and it is an unusual thing, at any time, to find one of the tables unoccupied. Every day of the week, from breakfast time in the morning till twelve o’clock at night, this saloon, like many others of a like kind, is thronged; but the crowds are particularly large on Sunday, because people have more leisure on that day. Though, in this particular place, they are not allowed to gamble publicly on the Sabbath, they lose and win as much money in the way of secret wagers as they do openly on any other day.

What can we expect but an abuse of the Sabbath, when we take into account the contrariety of characters, tastes, dispositions and religions here huddled together? When we scrutinize society, we find that some of its members, the Chinese and other pagans for instance, know nothing at all of our system or division of time, and that they are, therefore, absolutely ignorant of the meaning of the word Sunday. There is no unity of thought, feeling or sentiment here; no oneness of purpose, policy or action. There is no common interest; every man is for himself, and himself alone. Society is composed of elements too varied and dissimilar;--it is a heterogeneous assemblage of rivals and competitors, who know no sympathy, and recognize no principle, save that of personal profit and individual emolument. Nearly all colors and qualities of mankind are congregated here. The great human family is, as it were, sampled and its specimens formed into one society, each communicating to the other his own peculiar habits, and each contending for the same object--the acquisition of gold. It is manifest, therefore, that there can be but little concert or harmony of action. Masquerade balls, cotillion parties and jig dances fill up the list of Sunday diversions. On Pacific street alone, the most notoriously profligate thoroughfare in the city, there are from twelve to fifteen dance-houses, in which the terpsichorean art is practiced every night during the week, but usually with greater zest and animation on Sunday nights. These fandangoes are principally under the superintendence or management of Mexican girls, of whom there is no small number in San Francisco and other cities of the State. Before I ever saw any of the Mexican ladies, I had heard the most glowing descriptions of their ravishing beauty; but I must either discredit the accounts, or else conclude that my ideas of female beauty are very imperfect, for I have never yet beheld one of them who, according to my standard of good looks, was really beautiful. Their pumpkin hues and slovenly deportment could never awaken any admiration in me, even in California.

Bonnets among them are quite unknown. Half the time they go bare-headed through the streets and to church, just as they do about their premises; but most of them have a long, narrow shawl, which is sometimes worn over the head, as well as the shoulders. This shawl is, in fact, an almost indispensable article of apparel, especially with the better classes, who never appear in a public place, whether in winter or summer, without it. They wrap it around their face, head and shoulders so ingeniously that spectators can not obtain a glimpse of any part of their features, save the forehead, eyes and nose; the mouth, chin and cheeks are cautiously concealed. There is a gross lack of consistency among these women. Notwithstanding they engage in the lowest debaucheries throughout the week, they are strict attendants of the Catholic church; and dozens of them may be seen any Sunday on their way to matins, mass or vespers, clad in habiliments of the greatest possible variety. If they can only get one fine, fashionable garment they think it makes amends for the bad material and ill shape of all the others. Nor are they particular to have their whole person clothed at the same time. I don’t think I have ever seen one of them fully attired in my life; something was always wanting. Sometimes they may be seen promenading the streets, robed in the richest silks that were ever woven in Chinese looms, but when you gaze down at their lower extremities you discover them stockingless, their feet thrust into a pair of coarse slippers, which expose to view a pair of rusty heels that look as if no ablution had been performed upon them for at least three moons. The Mexicans, however, in most cases, are fond of aquatic exercises; and they have several bathing establishments in San Francisco, for the accommodation of the public, (at one dollar per head for each bath,) as well as for their own convenience and gratification. Unless I have been misinformed, it is a custom with the proprietors, when a gentleman retires to take his bath, to dispatch a female servant to his room to scour and scrub him off! As I resided near an American bath-house, I always patronized it in preference, and did not acquaint myself with Mexican usages in this respect.

Lately, however, women of pure and lofty characters have emigrated to California, and, since their arrival, there has been a gradual and steady improvement of morals among the people, and the Sabbath is now much better observed than it used to be. Soon after their arrival, schools and churches began to spring up, and social circles were formed; refinement dawned upon a debauched and reckless community, decorum took the place of obscenity; kind and gentle words were heard to fall from the lips of those who before had been accustomed to taint every phrase with an oath; and smiles displayed themselves upon countenances to which they had long been strangers. Woman accomplished all this, and we should be ungrateful reprobates indeed if we did not honor, esteem and love her for it. Had I received no other benefit from my trip to California than the knowledge I have gained, inadequate as it may be, of woman’s many virtues and perfections, I should account myself well repaid; and I thank heaven that I was induced to embark in an enterprise which resulted in such a collateral remuneration. This I am constrained to say, because I fear I should never have had a full appreciation of her merits, had I not witnessed her happy influence in this benighted land. It was only after leaving a home where her constant presence, her soothing and animating society, appeared as a matter of course, and removing to a sphere where she had a better opportunity of displaying her power, that I could estimate her real worth.

“From woman’s eyes this doctrine I derive:
They sparkle still the right Promethean fire;
They are the books, the arts, the academies,
That show, contain, and nourish all the world.

O, then,
For wisdom’s sake, a word that all men love;
Or for love’s sake, a word that loves all men;
Or for men’s sake, the authors of these women;
Or for women’s sake, by whom we men are men,
Let us love women, and ourselves be true,
Or else we harm ourselves, and wrong them too.”

With the generous assistance and co-operation of the gentler sex, the various religious denominations have succeeded in establishing for themselves suitable places of worship in most of the cities and larger towns throughout the State. San Francisco now contains fourteen churches, two of which are Presbyterian, two Congregational, one Unitarian, three Methodist, two Baptist, two Episcopal, and two Roman Catholic. The Swedenborgians, Universalists, Mormons, and sundry minor sects occasionally hold service in public halls; and, if I recollect aright, the Jews have two synagogues. There is also a pagan temple, where the Chinese pay their adorations to Boodh, or to some other imaginary deity, whenever they experience a religious emotion.