For Honor’s Sake Read Online Free Page B

who had jumped ship to join the gold rush. It was an eerie sight to see the empty hulks bobbing up and down, waves slapping against their hulls.
    From her vantage point on deck, Julie could see a filthy clutter of small, crude buildings sprawled haphazardly along deeply rutted roads. It was not exactly what she had expected. Even Polly, standing next to Julie, appeared dismayed. They had assumed that San Francisco was a thriving city, but from what they could make out it was little more than a sprawling, overgrown slum.
    It was several hours later before the thirty young ladies, led by a beaming Julius Goddard and his pleasant wife, disembarked. The group walked sedately through crowded streets to a hostel type hotel where they would be housed until the next day when they met their husbands for the first time. Their trunks were to follow in a horse-drawn wagon.
    People of every nationality crowded about the area: Englishmen, Irishmen, Spaniards, Frenchmen, and evenChinese and Negroes. Raised voices proclaimed loudly in every language imaginable. Never had Julie seen so many Chinese gathered in one place. Their shiny black hair was nearly as long as long as hers, hanging in neat queues down their backs. Their colorful robes nearly hid their yellowish skins and their dark eyes slanted upwards. She almost burst out laughing at the odd little hats perched atop their heads. Many of the Chinese carried passengers in two-wheeled vehicles Mr. Goddard called “rickshaws.”
    Julie was dismayed by the hordes of grimy, unshaven men filling the streets. It seemed like thousands of would-be miners had come to San Francisco too late to get rich and now roamed about listlessly, their dreams of riches shattered, their money depleted. Julie could not help but wonder if her father was among those broken men camped in tents where no buildings had been erected.
    As they passed by, Julie could hear many of these men hawking their supplies along the roadside. Tin pans went for the amazing sum of five dollars or more, shovels for ten or twelve. The entire scene was like something out of a bad dream.
    Soon Julie was forced to focus her full attention on keeping her feet on the wooden sidewalk skirting both sides of the street lest she slip and find herself devoured by a sea of mud. Julie and Polly stayed close and managed to get beds next to each other. The rest of the day was spent making themselves presentable for their presentation the next day and selecting their wardrobes for the all important meeting with their bridegrooms.
    Julie chose her best dress that really wasn’t very new but one she knew flattered her slim-waisted figure and golden coloring. The blue of the full-skirted dress nearly matched her eyes. The tight-fitting bodice with insets of beige lace buttoned demurely to her throat, the cut accentuating the high, upthrust tilt of perfectly proportionedbreasts. Long sleeves hugged well-shaped, slender arms ending with a froth of lace at Julie’s delicate wrists. Aunt Lavinia’s velvet-lined cape added an elegant touch that pleased Julie.
    To set off her cloud of black hair Polly chose a pale yellow confection sprigged with green embroidered flowers to match her eyes. A square neckline and high waist outlined and defined her trim figure. Neither girl owned a decent bonnet so they opted to go hatless, letting their hair serve as their crowning glory.
    The next day when they nervously approached the large building hastily constructed of raw, untreated wood where they were to meet their future husbands, neither Julie nor Polly were prepared for the huge mass of cheering, shoving men of all types and description that awaited them. Not only was the street outside the building teeming with humanity but inside Julie thought she would suffocate as the jostling crowd made way for the nearly terrified women.
    The thirty hapless girls were led to a low platform while Mr. Goddard tried unsuccessfully to quiet the whooping men aroused by the