doc241 - Schoenherr Home Page in Sunny Chula Vista

flats near his residence, having a small outlet with a net attached, from which he daily
makes a haul almost equalling the miraculous draught on Lake Gennesaret.
"The old town of San Diego is pleasantly situated on the left bank of the little river
that bears its name. It contains perhaps a hundred houses, some of wood, but mostly of
the adoban or Gresan order of architecture. A small Plaza forms the center of the town,
one side of which is occupied by a little adobe building used as a court room, the Colorado
House a wooden structure whereof the second story is occupied by the San Diego
Herald, . . . and the Exchange, a hostelry at which we stopped. This establishment is
kept by Hoof (familiarly known as Johnny, but whom I at once christened 'Cloven') and
Tibbetts, who is also called Two-bitts, in honorable distinction from an unworthy partner
he once had, who obtained unenviable notoriety as 'Picayune Smith.' On entering, we
found ourselves in a large bar and billiard room, fitted up with the customary pictures
and mirrors.... Here also I made the acquaintance of Squire Moon, a jovial middle-aged
gentleman from the State of Georgia, who replied to my inquiries concerning his health
that he was 'as fine as silk but not half so well beliked by the ladies.' After partaking of
supper, which meal was served up in the rear of the billiard room, al fresco, from a
clothless table upon an earthen floor, I fell in conversation with Judge Ames, the talented,
goodhearted but eccentric editor of the San Diego Herald, of whom the poet Andrews,
in his immortal work, The Cocopa Maid, once profanely sang as follows:
'There was a man whose name was Ames,
His aims were aims of mystery;
His story odd, I think, by God
Would make a famous history.'
"I found the Judge exceedingly agreeable, urbane and well informed, and obtained
from him much valuable information regarding San Diego and its statistics. San
Diego contains at present about 700 inhabitants, two-thirds of whom are 'native and to
the manor born,' the remainder a mixture of American, English, German, Hebrew and
Pike County. There are seven stores or shops in the village, where anything may be obtained,
from a fine-toothed comb to a horse-rake, two public houses, a Catholic church
which meets in a private residence, and a Protestant ditto, to which the Rev. Reynolds,
Chaplain of the military post six miles distant, communicates religious intelligence every
Sunday afternoon.
"San Diego is the residence of Don Juan Bandini, whose mansion fronts on one
side of the plaza. He is well-known to the
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[Present appearance of house in Old San Diego where Richard Henry Dana....]
early settlers of California as a gentleman of distinguished politeness and hospitality. His
wife and daughters are among the most beautiful and accomplished ladies in our State."
In 1859, Richard Henry Dana revisited the place he had known and written about
so charmingly, twenty-three years before. He was deeply touched by renewing his associations
with old scenes.