DURING the two months and a half when there were no open saloons in San Francisco, the general testimony of press and people was that the duties of the police were merely nominal; there was little to do in the police courts, and the city never was so orderly. A month after the reopening this condition is very much changed. The Chronicle tells of murder and hold-ups, and the doings of "as murderous a gang of footpads as have infested the city during the last decade. The annals of the police contain few parallels to the record," etc. Apparently that the fruitage of the rehabilitated saloon curse might have opportunity to mature, the supervisors cut down the police force before permitting the re-opening of the saloons. There was a plea of lack of revenue to pay the larger force, which was no doubt a good reason, and the reduced force was sufficient during the prohibition days. But the saloon licenses were renewed at a rate about six times the former price, on the express pretext of supplying the needed funds; yet the necessary police force to cope with the increased saloon product has not been supplied, and it has become necessary to withdraw police protection from the refugee camps. This ominous prospect for San Francisco is portrayed by one of that city's reliable journals, the Christian Advocate: Over 2,200 saloons are now in full blast in the stricken city. Less than a half-dozen permanent buildings are now in course of construction in the fire limits. There are as many as four saloons in a single block near Fillmore and California Streets. The saloons and red lights are marching side by side into the residence part of the city. At this rate San Francisco is doomed to be a miserable shanty town for fifty years. This would indicate that the haunts of vice and corruption are being rehabilitated in a far greater ratio than any other feature of the once proud and even now boastful city. Trebly-stricken is the "Queen City of the West"—stricken by earthquake, by fire, and by a saloon-elected administration. According to the testimony of the press and many representative citizens, the city's last state is worse than all before.