Trail raised the bar for tipplers in old S.F.

[Jesus Malverde]

3. I thought this was fascinating..

At some point along the Route, travelers would send messages to their wives explaining that they were working late. "The American Messenger Service, in the old Nevada Block at Pine and Montgomery, hired dozens of small boys after school, between 4 and 6 o'clock, to deliver messages during Cocktail Hour," Wells writes. "The manager once estimated that 80 percent of these were sent by husbands wandering the Cocktail Route to wives waiting dinner at home. In the days before telephones, a wife could make neither answer nor protest."