(1) [Note:] Incomplete letter - begins with 2nd sheet; no salutation or addressee; apparently written about the third week of February 1853 [page 2] You would perhaps like to know what changes are found to have taken place in my Condition as the Spring opens. I am still boarding at the house of the family whom I aided on the night of the fire. I have found them to be very pleasant people, and I have enjoyed more of the comforts of home in their house than I saw during all my prior stay in the city. They have no children, but an unmarried sister of Mrs. Frink - a very pleasant young lady of eighteen - is staying with them, and I have two young companions boarding with me, — Mr. Moore, my former partner, and a Mr. Boier of New Jersey, --so that we have just exactly company enough; at least, we think that to have one young lady to only three young gentlemen is better fortune than falls to a great many Californians. Mrs. Frink is extremely sociable and I think takes pleasure in our society, so we have made ourselves perfectly at home, and are as free and easy as we please to be. There are plenty of books in the house and there is a piano in the parlor, upon which Miss Laura frequently plays, and as every body is sociably inclined we enjoy ourselves highly. Miss Laura is a young lady of much vivacity, and though her education is not as thorough as that which many young ladies in the eastern states enjoy, yet she has a fine native talent, and converses and writes with a good deal of intelligence and good sense. She is a regu- (1) -lar contributor to a weekly Religious paper printed here, and has written some practical effusions which have gained her considerable praise. Mr. Frink is a sedate quiet man, with a heart full of good nature, and a brain full of dry, concise selective (?) and rich humor. He is a New Yorker by birth and has not forgotten the native sturdiness of his race. He owns a "ranch", a mile or two below the city and has stocked it with 150 or 200 cows whose milk he brings to the city every day and disposes of at $1.00 per gallon. With no accidents to mar his prosperity, he is undoubtedly in the track of a fortune. I dissolved partnership with Mr. Moon [Moore] soon after entering (?) my office, and he has now united with him another gentleman from Ohio, one of his former acquaintances there. They are both good lawyers & as they become known to the community will have their hands full of business. My own business continues as good as I ever expected it to be. I find that it has produced an income of $300 a month, on an average, and I have every reason to think that it will increase with the coming in of a more settled state of things in the city. I have four lawyers and a constable constantly in my office and they manage to keep themselves all pretty busy. My office is still in the Court House, and is a very comfortable room; but when the rainy season has entirely passed, I shall probably seek a location (1) some what nearer the centre of the city. The road it is true will cost the trifling sum of $1,200,000, but from the present indications the whole sum will be soon subscribed, and the work prosecuted to successful competitors. The flood which covered this city when I last wrote, passed away, about the last of January, and for the last three weeks the weather has been very pleasant. The mud however dried up very slowly, and even now, but few of the streets are passable by loaded trains. And for a day or two back, the clouds have been gathering again and the aspect of the heavens has threatened rain. I hardly think that we can have a great deal more of rain this season, but the melting of the snows on the mountains may bring down a flood sufficient to test to the utmost the strength of the Levee, which has lately been repaired and put in order to meet it. Confidently expecting the final overthrow of Sacramento by the elements. Some speculators, Capitalists of San Francisco, have bought a tract of high ground a few miles below the city, near the river, and are trying now to lay the foundation of a port that shall draw the trade away from Sacramento and leave her a silent and deserted ruin, tenantable only by the prowling coyots. [sic] Already a plank road to reach from the river's brink back to the high land and to be above all overflows, is in progress of construction, and it is said that the contracts are about to be made for the erection of any number of magnificent brick warehouses, and that in short a proud and elegant city will from these now lonely heights soon throws a blighting shadow over poor, fading, Sacramento. (1) But we deluded Sacramentans will not believe this and the most active and vigorous steps are being taken by our citizens to build a plant road of our own to the mountains that will ensure the trade of the whole northern mines and places the 'fin & water" Queen on a basis that no rival can shake. The road it is true will cost the trifling sum of $1,200,000, but from the present indications the whole sum will be soon subscribed, and the work prosecuted to successful competitors. But enough of this about the city. You will excuse the haste in which I have written this, for I have been surrounded with a noisy (?) laughing circle who have not aided me to keep my thoughts in the most regular train. I hope to hear from you again very soon, and also from the rest of my home correspondents some more letters to them but I do not know whether I should be able to write them in time for this mail. It closes at 12 on Monday, and Mr. Frink is now winding the clock, while the hands point at ten this Saturday night. So now an affectionate forever. Your's ever, Elisha. Love to all.