In search of stories (Preface) -- Call it Frisco! -- A city matures (Introduction) -- The 50's : Shampoo, shave, and oysters / Frank Marryat -- A bloody confrontation / Theophile de Rutte / "To the beach!" / Henry Vere Huntley -- Foreign quarters / Charles Warren Stoddard -- A day of discovery / Charles Warren Stoddard -- Shanghaied! / William Taylor -- Vigilante justice / William Orville Ayres -- "It looks very like war" / Mary Jane Megquier -- The first of the Mohicans / Eliza Woodson Farnham -- The Apollo balls / Amelia Ransome Neville -- Luxury and decay / Louis Laurent Simonin -- "Two years" plus / Richard Henry Dana, Jr. ; The 60's : Homes, humble and haughty / Charles Warren Stoddard -- California women / Louis Laurent Simonin -- Broken reverie / T.A. Barry and B.A. Patten -- Civil war! / Amelia Ransome Neville -- An Englishwoman's view of the war / Isabelle Saxon -- The Emperor Norton / Oscar P. Fitzgerald -- The zealous poundmaster / Albert S. Evans -- Bummer & Lazarus / Isabelle Saxon -- The last days of Bummer / Mark Twain -- Early morning at the Cliff House / Mark Twain --

"The cussedest place for women" / Samuel Bowles

Earthquake! / Amelia Ransome Neville

A bath interupted / Louis Laurent Simonin

Mortal terror / Edward Bosqui

A second Birmingham / William Fraser Rae ; The 70's : The Barbary Coast / Albert S. Evans

Steamer from China / Albert S. Evans

A London parson comes to town / Harry Jones

"There is little or nothing to see" / Anthony Trollope

Hoodlums and hash-houses / Samuel Williams

Tourists in a opium den / Mrs. Frank Leslie

City of enchangment / Guillermo Prieto

Lost in the big city! / Guillermo Prieto

Feverish activity / Guillermo Prieto

Sunday in the park / "Simple Simon" ; The 80's : The matinee parade / Anonymous

Tea with the natives / Rudyard Kipling ; The 90's : "The dumps" / James Fell

A true breath from the sea / James Fell

Fin de Siecle / Amelia Ransome Neville.