There is of course crime in San Francisco as in all other cities.
Indeed crime is universal, whether in the Orient or the Occident. The
Chief of Police Wittman accounts for highway robbery, to the extent
in which it prevails, from the fact that San Francisco is a garrison
city. Here are numerous recruits and discharged soldiers, and, as a
seaport, it draws to itself the scum and offscourings of all nations,
Hindoos, Chinese, Malays, and all other kinds of people.

The police force is hardly adequate to patrol the entire city. It
consists only of 589 men all told, and they are fine, manly looking
guardians of the law, always ready to do their duty, always courteous
to strangers, answering all questions intelligently. It is claimed,
moreover, that the criminal element of the country drifts to San
Francisco in the winter on account of the climate and also through the
attractions of the racetrack. The police also find that the places
where poker-games are played are a rendezvous for criminals. In 1887
and 1888 there was an outbreak of highway robbery, but the grand
jury acted promptly in the matter and the courts soon suppressed it.
Property and life therefore are jealously guarded in the City of the
Golden Gate, and bad characters who go thither to prey on the public
soon get their deserts. In this respect then San Francisco is a
desirable place in which to live.

One evening in company with a party of friends, Rev. Dr. Ashton of
Clean, N.Y., Rev. Dr. Reynold Marvin Kirby of Potsdam, N.Y., Rev.
Clarence Ernest Ball of Alexandria, Va., Rev. Henry Sidney Foster of
Green Bay, Wis., the Rev. William Barnaby Thorne of Marinette, Wis.,
and Doctor Robert J. Gibson, surgeon in the United States Army,
stationed at San Francisco, I visited the police headquarters,