Don't Fear the Reaper, Runnin' from the Marysville Sexton (Advertisement)

March 23, 2019

Don't Fear the Reaper, Runnin' from the Marysville Sexton (Advertisement)

Papers of the 19th century were known to be riddled with gimmicky editorials written by bias editors or others of the general public, with the intentions of swaying their readers into either buying something, voting a certain way, etc., etc. This editorial is a good example of this.

Blue Oyster Cult's "Don't Fear the Reaper" came to mind when reading this, you'll soon see why.
For your amusement:

Feeling emaciated? YOU NEED SEA AIR! AND A STAY AT THE JONES HOTEL!

This kind of a cheesy piece boasting of the health benefits of sea air. I'm not sure what the editor of the Marysville Daily Herald has to gain here, but it wreaks of "snake-oil-salesman" if I ever saw such a thing. The BOLDNESS of the JONES HOTEL might be a HINT. Perhaps he had shares in the place, who knows. But I doubt that the intentions were to speak of the miracle of sea air for an emaciated frame.

THE JONES HOTEL was found in directories 115-119 California St. San Francisco in 1852-1853.
Perhaps this blog gives a better idea of what THE JONES HOTEL was really like back then?

"“the Jones Hotel, a four-story ‘portable’ on Sansome Street, built in Boston or Baltimore and shipped in sections around the Horn, as were many of San Francisco’s wooden buildings. From a balcony that skirted the top floor, it was possible to see, across the roofs slanting up the hill on which the town was built, the frame hotels and gambling halls around the plaza, Portsmouth Square....”

“[t]he Jones Hotel was no longer socially acceptable"

The author describes it as a "Flophouse". Hmpf?
Totally therapeutic.

The addresses are different, but who knows with historical documentation.

And a little light investigating of some historical records shows that the two are indeed the same building -

"Reuben and Ellen went off to the Jones Hotel at the corner of California and Sansome Street the next day for a two-day honeymoon. The large wooden structure was a favorite about town known for its "very clean" bedrooms and bedding, and for its spacious balconies on every side of the building."

Pretty conflicting views of the place, if I must say so. I still don't know the editor's hand in the concern for it. But it was front page, first article.

I have a feeling that the Jones may have comped rooms in exchange for advertising, per this 1852 advert-

Daily Alta California, Volume 3, Number 161, 10 June 1852

Anyways- enough hot air, let's hear from the Editor and how a stay at the JONES HOTEL, CHANGED HIS LIFE! -

Marysville Daily Herald, Number 95, 25 November 1853

DAILY EVENING HERALD. JAMES ALLEN, EDITOR. Friday Evening, Nov. 25, 1853

"We Bow to the "Union."

"At the risk of forfeiting all reputation for modesty, we cannot help copying the following complimentary notice of the senior editor of the Marysville Herald, from the Sacramento Union of Wednesday:

PERSONAL.—We were pleased to receive a visit from Gen. Allen, yesterday, of the Marysville Herald, on his way home, after a visit of two weeks at San Francisco, whether he had flown to escape the grip of the village grave-digger, who had for some time past been eyeing him askance, as he beheld the General's blanching cheek and dimming eye, and listened to the tones his sepulchral cough. Thanks to the glorious climate of California, in even the short space of two weeks, under the influence of a change of skies and airs, the pale cheek has resumed a portion of its bloom, the dimmed eye grown brighter, and the hacking cough been almost entirely vanquished. From the effects of this complete revolution in his health. Gen. Allen returns to Marysville a restored man—which, for the sake of the many excellent qualities he possesses, may be long continue to remain.

Ebenezer Hamilton, Marysville Sexton.
1850's-1870

The hearty good will evinced towards us by our much esteemed friends of the Union, furnishes us with an opportunity, not only of expressing our thanks for their kindness, but of saying something of "the glorious climate of California," so justly praised by the Union.

In California, as far as our experience goes, every locality has its climate. A valetudinarian of San Francisco seeks change of air, as his medical adviser or his own caprices may dictate, either in the southern valleys, in the plains of the Sacramento, or in the gulches and canyons of the Sierra Nevada. We, of the interior, seek health on the sea-coast— and our first experiment is most commonly made at San Francisco. In our case, after foolishly exposing ourself for two months, to the official interference of the sexton of the Marysville Cemetery, we did, what we ought to have done at first—crawled on board of a steamboat, and had our emaciated frame, with all its premonitions of consumption, freighted for the Bay City. It was a very sensible act, and we felt it to be so. Every revolution of the steamer's wheel—it was that excellent craft, the Governor Dana, and she is a stern-wheel boat---seemed to place a wide gulf between us and the Marysville sexton, who, for two months, had been regarding us as a sure customer.

At Sacramento the Bragdon took us on board, and, on the morning of the seventh of this current month of November, we found ourself in that giant city of the Pacific, San Francisco.

As we trudged along the streets, in search of JONES' HOTEL, whether it was the sea air, or whether imagination had some agency in it, or whether it was the result of both these causes, we began to experience a sensation to which, for two months, we had been a stranger—a rather keen desire for breakfast.—To be brief. and wind up a tedious and rather egotistical story—what with Jones' superb culinary productions, the bracing air of the bay, the novelties which were everywhere presented in this city of magical growth, and the numberless kindnesses we received from the many new friends we made— we grew apace in health, if not in grace; at the end of two weeks, with the consent of our noble and generous host, of whom we shall have something to say hereafter, we took our departure from San Francisco a very different looking affair from what we were on our arrival.

And, here we are, again at our post from which we have been a deserter since the ninth of September, and where we hope to remain a long time, without being compelled to run away from the Marysville sexton."

As if that sucking up weren't enough....more boasting from the Marysville Daily Herald -