 It's very interesting, you know, the story of Emperor Norton that has sort of come down to us, this sort of received version, does talk about his proclamation, and he's sort of known as being someone who wrote these proclamations. But very few of them actually get discussed. There are, by my educated guess, probably some 400 of these that are done, that were done during his lifetime. But the accounts that you read sort of online and in books generally focus on maybe a half a dozen, you know. And the way the stories sort of came down in the 1920s and 30s, it was a period of the sort of forging of the Emperor Norton myth that we sort of know about. And a lot of the people who were writing as historians during that time were really functioning more as folklorists. And they weren't necessarily very sanguine or savvy about how actually the media was treating Emperor Norton and how very often during his lifetime editors would write sort of prank proclamations, hoax proclamations, which were not his at all. And it wasn't really until the mid-80s, there was a book by William Drury called Norton I, which still is sort of recognized as the authoritative biography where he really started to kind of drill down and kind of look at some of this stuff and try to sort of think through which ones are probably his and which ones really aren't. It turns out that in the 1860s, there was sort of an initial period after Emperor Norton declares himself, Josh Norton declares himself Emperor in September of 1859. There was an initial period for about three years where his proclamations were being published in the evening bulletin, which was where the original proclamation was published. And that's where you get the proclamation, you know, abolishing Congress and abolishing Democratic and Republican parties, you know, these kind of very sort of dramatic proclamations get a lot of attention, and then after a couple of years, you know, the joke kind of wears a little thin and the bulletin is not really interested in that anymore. There's a paper called The Daily Altar to California, which was another sort of leading paper of San Francisco at the time, and the editor there, a gentleman named Albert Evans, he thought it would just be hilarious to write all these proclamations, you know, in the Emperor's name that were not his at all. And at a certain point, the Emperor gets tired of this and he forged a relationship with a paper called The Pacific Appeal. The Pacific Appeal was an African-American-owned and operated abolitionist weekly, and he basically sort of went to them and said, you know, hey, if you'll sort of write, publish only what I say and not what you think I said or should say, then we'll have an arrangement. And it really is during that period, from December of 1870 through May of 1875, that is the Emperor's really sort of most prolific sort of proclamation delivering period, but these proclamations almost never get talked about. And so that's going to be the focus of our discussion this evening, which is really more about, it's more show than tell, and that's just because, you know, these things sort of never, ever get seen, and so just to kind of get them circulated and kind of in the public atmosphere is a good and helpful thing. So we're going to have a run at about 50 of these, and we're just going to go very quickly just kind of clip through them and not have a whole lot of discussion about each one, but just to kind of give you a really good illustration of the full range of his thought, you know, because other than those first few about abolition of Congress and et cetera, et cetera, you see the proclamations where in 1872 he sort of set out and popularized the vision for the Bay Bridge. Those proclamations were written in the Pacific Appeal. You see the stories about how Emperor Norton is supposed to have called the word Frisco abominable. That actually seems not to be accurate at all. It seems to be just a totally apocryphal tale and doesn't have any documentation at all, you know, but the ones where he really is sort of making himself into a real early champion of the spirit of tolerance and fairness and the common good and self-determination that came to be the symbol of San Francisco, this is the paper where he's writing them. So we're going to look at some of these proclamations and you'll see exactly why he has that reputation and kind of why we've been focusing on sort of that aspect in this particular bicentennial season. Here is the first one right there, I hope you can see these. I know we were supposed to have a somewhat larger screen but I will read them out and this one appeared on 7th of January, 1871. He writes, being anxious to have a reliable, weakly imperial organ, we Norton the First de Gratia, Emperor of the United States, in other words by the grace of God, Emperor of the United States, and Protector of Mexico, do hereby appoint the Pacific Appeal our said organ conditionally that they are not traitors and stand true to our colors. So this is the context, you know, he's tired of having the papers that are not true to his colors and he wants one that is. And so he has gone to the editor, Peter Anderson, and says, you know, if you'll, if we understand each other then we have a deal and we'll keep on doing this and you'll have something nice for your front page. And in this period between 1870 and 1875 there was almost always a proclamation every week and often there were two and three on the same day, it came on Saturdays. And so here's one that came out on the 15th of March, 1873. This actually appeared previously in a magazine called The Torchlight, which was a Jewish publication, the emperor was Jewish originally and as some of you may know he actually would attend the congregation manual on Saturdays, but then on Sundays he would rotate amongst the other churches. So he was really kind of an ecumenical sort of guy, but he still sort of maintained his roots to the Jewish community. And in this proclamation which he heads up, many, many take all you parson, which is from an Old Testament story about the handwriting is on the wall, that's the sort of the basic translation of the phrase. And he says, give us a constitution which will engender good laws and one which will enforce their proper administration and thereby get the Americans eventually a good instead of a bad name. Here's one from September 1874, the authorities of Washington are held responsible and much to blame for their neglect to consolidate the constitution or frame a new one abolishing the state constitution by which neglect the present southern difficulties have been engendered. Many, many take all you parson, same phrase. So the emperor was, he was a topical guy, he lived for most of his reign on commercial street between Montgomery and Kearney, a small boarding house called Eureka Lodgings. And in the mornings he had a routine where the lodging house next door, actually called the Empire Lodgings, had the one thing that his own place didn't have, which was a reading room. So he would go every morning and next door he would wake up and he would go read the papers. So he kept himself a surprise of what the issues of the day were. And so what you have across all these proclamations is really a kind of a policy brief for the Norton government. I mean he's really sort of talking about what he thinks should happen both on issues of national scale but also increasing on issues of sort of local and more topical interest. So here's one from the 2nd of March, 1872. The emperor congratulates the city of San Francisco on the laying of a cornerstone of the new city hall in hopes that the nation will now take a new departure and lay the foundation of honor and justice and thereby ensure a future glory for the Bay City. So all these proclamations they have a very, they have a very serious high formal tone and it really is, it's one of the ways that it seems possible to sort of separate the wheat from the chaff and sort of figure out which ones are more likely his and which ones aren't. A lot of the ones that were published by the papers in his name were very jokey, pranky, I had lots of slang language, there was one that the Alta published, one of the rival eccentrics was a guy who styled himself, Stelifer the King. And the Alta tries to sort of gin up this rivalry between the emperor and Stelifer the king and the editor writes, down with usurpers, down with imposters and the first line of proclamation is off with his head. And this is just, when you read the other proclamations it doesn't seem like the sort of thing that he actually would have said, mostly they were much more sort of formal and circumspect. Here's one from the 10th of August 1872 and you start to get a sense of how modern his concerns still are when you read these things today. This one is a piece about election bribery and political corruption. He writes, understanding that one party is spending money to bribe voters for the ensuing elections and also that the opposition party are spending large amounts for the same purpose and whereas we believe that persons who accept offices under such auspices are totally unfit to make laws which will effectually reward merit and punish a crime and if they do by chance occasionally make good laws yet they are not the proper persons to enforce them. Now therefore we know in the first, the US and the protector of Mexico do warn the American people against continuing such corrupt parties in power as it will end in their ruin. Seems pretty contemporary, right? Here's one from the 12th of October 1872, whereas we are determined that the people of the United States of Mexico shall have a good constitution and by which party strife shall be obviated as also one that the laws can be enforced and not biased by party. Now we, nor in the first day, grotty amper the United States and the protector of Mexico, do hereby decree that there shall be no further elections for presidents until the nation can have a national convention and frame government by which said difficulty can be properly prevented. In the meantime, the laws on nor in the first can be made use of. He's a very generous guy. Here's one from the 21st of November 1874. Whereas it is necessary to the honor of the American name that an inch be put to bribery and fraud. Now there for we nor in the first day grotty amper the United States and protector of Mexico do hereby decree disenfranchisement and loss of office to any member of Congress in the United States Senate who shall prevent, who shall be proven guilty of purchasing votes or using money to obtain his office and further do hereby decree his estates to be confiscated to the empire. He's right on the nose, isn't he? But again, these proclamations, it's very interesting that he is as legendary as he is, and yet it seems that for so long these proclamations, which for me personally are really the meat of what he was about, have not really gotten a lot of attention. So it's good to sort of see these things and see what he was really trying to accomplish. Here is one from the 18th of May, 1872. This one gets a little more personal. He says, on the seven o'clock ferry with a passenger for the overland train, a tallish, navish-looking fellow representing himself as Mr. Short, short of honesty. A grain merchant of Chicago who fraudulently got possession of the following document written in pencil. And the document said, San Francisco May 6th, 1872, received Mr. Short 50 cents the amount with interest to be convertible to 7% bonds in 1880 or payable by the agent of our private estate in case the government of Norton, the first, does not hold firm. In testimony where we have to fix our Royal Seal and signature Norton the first emperor, to which Norton responds, any person who will catch the fellow and make him pay something to the poor and return our receipt will do a service to the honor of Norton the first emperor. So his idea is that somehow this guy has gotten a hold of one of these promissory notes, which he started issuing sometime around late 1870, but that hadn't paid his money and was representing... Brooklyn, that's a good catch. Brooklyn was actually Oakland, basically. Brooklyn was a township. It was just to the southeast, I think, of Lake Merritt. Neighborhoods now sort of Clinton around that sort of area, the Brooklyn Basin, the Jingletown, that sort of area, and that's where he, in 1872, that area was annexed to Oakland. So Oakland got about twice as big as it had been. But when the emperor would go every week by ferry and hang out, whether for day trip or for a couple of days if he had a longer stay, that's where he was. In fact, the proclamations in 1872, there were three of them where he's sort of setting out the vision for what became the Bay Bridge. There is a fourth proclamation in June of that year, a date-lined Brooklyn, where he is calling for an underwater railroad communication. Trans Bay Tube. So there you go. He was on it. Here is one from the 22nd of June, 1872 about stop market fraud. Whereas we were desirous that the board of brokers of the stock exchange of this city should conduct their business on an honorable and solid basis. Whereas there is a class of individuals who frequently cause the inflation and depression of the market by false representations, thereby gouging those who are uninitiated. And whereas there are companies allowed to put stock on the market through the connivance or tacit consent of the board of brokers, which possess no title or right to the land on which their mining operations are to be conducted. And some of the said companies having their mines located in the quote, invisible aisles, thousands of miles away from realization, thereby causing the circulation of a lot of spurious stock in which will inevitably cause serious loss to a number of unsuspecting purses. Now therefore we do hereby command the board of brokers to purge their list of stocks of all such fraudulent stock under penalty of ordering the chief of police to close their rooms in the appointment of a new board. So Emperor Norton, the master of the run-on sentence. Like all those dependent clause, they just keep coming. Usually the proclamations were fairly pithy. This is one of the longer ones. Usually they were very, very short, just like a few. Yeah, he was not happy. It's amazing to think what he would have done with Twitter. This is when he had to limit himself to once a week and only had that much column space. So here's one from the 15th of November, 1873. Whereas it is extremely probable that the Supreme Court of the United States will hold that no sale of overflowed lands is good unless under our royal authority and personal seal and signature during our reign as emperor, whereas it is dangerous precedent to establish the giving away of public lands to private corporations for nothing. Now therefore we nor the first to hereby order Mayor Alvord to veto the bill granting the China Basin to Booth et al. So again, very modernist concerns. And it just sort of shows how long these concerns have been around, right? Here's one from the 14th of November, 1874. Again, a smaller concern. Whereas the use of postage stamps more than once has become too general. Now therefore we nor in the first day grant to the emperor of the US and protector of Mexico do hereby order the detectives to make diligent search and arrest all and every person guilty of such practice of fraud upon the public treasury. You can only use them once. You can't use them two and three times. That was his problem. That was, yeah, that was, that was, that was, that was feeding the public, the public treasury by, by sort of getting more value for your stamp that you really should. I don't know. I don't know. Perhaps. Let's see. All right, here's a good one. 27th May, 1871. Whereas we ordered the color people some years back to be permitted to ride the street railroad cars, but in order to prevent collision and future disturbance, we hereby command the arrest of all who violate that decree and then a separate, a separate issue. So he's, this is in 1871 and 1874. Now this is 90 years before the advent of the modern civil rights era and the Civil Rights Act. Emperor Norton is insisting that African-Americans be able to ride public street cars and attend public schools, as we'll see. The next one, 7th March, 1874. Whereas the American nation, having acknowledged the citizenship of the color people of their children are entitled to admission in the public schools and all the privileges of citizenship, you must either take this citizenship away and exclude or admit them and grant them their privileges. So either have the rights or they don't. And so we have the emancipation proclamation and let's keep on moving. Here's one from the 26th of April, 1873. And this concerns Native American people, which were another source of concern for him. Whereas it is our intention to have publicly punished before as many Indian chiefs as can be assembled together, all the Indian agents and other parties connected with frauds against the Indian tribes and the government. In order to satisfy the Indians at the future, the American people intend acting justly toward them. Now, therefore, we Norton the first day, Igratia Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico do hereby command the arrest and imprisonment of said parties and all the chiefs get together when we intend to be present with a large force. It's very interesting. All these proclamations, what's hard to know is to what extent we should be sort of thinking of Emperor Norton as a civil rights advocate in the way that we sort of understand that term. Because it's worth remembering that when the Emperor's writing these things in the 1860s, 1870s, it's a pretty chaotic time in San Francisco and in the West in general. And so I think for him, a lot of this is just about what is necessary for a well-ordered society? And to have a well-ordered society, you've got to be fair to everybody. So whether it was necessarily an altruistic, civil rights-ish sentiment, it's hard to know. But the upshot certainly is clear. Let's see. Next one. This one came out on the 7th of June, 1873. There was a conflict that summer. There was a group of Native Americans who were occupying some land in Northern California as a current Amador County as a protest against what the government was doing to their lands. And so this created a whole sort of conflict. And there was a leader of this group of Native Americans who was known as Captain Jack. And so some of this next few sort of proclamations kind of deals with what the Emperor thought should happen with him and what the government should be doing. In this one, he says, now that the Motox are subdued, and that was the tribe, we are anxious the nation should continue in its determination to civilize and reclaim from barbarism all the natives within its territories. And whereas there is no savage, so wild or treacherous, but that can be reclaimed by kindness. And if he believes you were his friend, now therefore we, Norton the first day, grew out to emperor of the United States and protector of Mexico, do hereby command that Captain Jack, his braves and his squalls be placed in charge of Goat Island to guard the interests of the city of San Francisco against the attacks of foreign war vessels. It's interesting, you know, you do have this sort of note of people who need to be civilized. So you do see that there is a sense in which Emperor Norton still is a person of his time. He's not totally outside of where he lives. Here's one from the 10th of August, 1873, where as the execution of Captain Jack and the other Indians condemned by the court marshal will tend to bring on a general Indian war as also have an injurious effect on the prestige of the American government by those not in the court with its best phrase, considering also that the Indian agents have always been on the make and grab as also of other Indian lands. Now therefore we, Dey, grotty emperor of the United States and protector of Mexico, do hereby prohibit the carrying out of the court marshal that our imperial decree in their case be enforced. So they were being brought up for death penalty, basically, and which did eventually happen. Emperor Norton just thought that wouldn't do any good. So he was advising against the death penalty in this case. Here is a series of proclamations about the Chinese. And of course in Emperor Norton's day, it really was the Chinese who were, in many respects, sort of the lowest on the social strata. They were the immigrants of their day. And he took up their cause in many proclamations. Here's one from the 24th of August, 1872, whereas we were desirous of preventing any outrage and wrong against good law abiding Chinese as also to prevent ruinous competition to the other laboring classes and bring also desirous of protecting our commerce and treaties with the gigantic empire of China. And now therefore, we Norton the First Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico do hereby command that a standing committee of both Chinese and other labors be appointed who shall regulate the powers of labor and endeavor to alleviate any difficulties which might arise on that subject. So I mean, this was a very, this was a presenting issue, you know, the whole issue of the Chinese and labor and how do you deal with that? And of course, you know, it was around this time that you had Dennis Kearney and the Sandlot riots and all that stuff, you know, that Emperor Norton thought was just not sort of good for the country and not good for the community, but it also, he understood was not good for labor either. So he had his eye on the big picture of what the consequences might be. Here's one from February 1st, 1873. Whereas unprincipled demagogues are constantly harping on the injury done to labor by the influx of the Chinese and whereas we believe that the employment of great numbers of Chinese is beneficial to labor and giving more work and regular employment. For even if they have to sacrifice something on a day's labor, it is made up by the increased value of their other interests and the prosperity of the manufacturers of the United States. And whereas we are desirous that our treaties and commercial relationships, relations with that large and influential empire shall be properly respected, know therefore all whom it may concern that the eyes of the emperor will be upon anyone who shall counsel any outrage or wrong on the Chinese. Here's one from the 10th of January, 1874. On the same issue, for the better protection of the health of all of our citizens, we Norton the first day grotty emperor of the United States and protector of Mexico do hereby order and decree that a separate locality in the several cities respectively be appropriated by the city councils of each city to be termed the Chinese quarters and that the board of supervisors in the city and county of San Francisco forth was set apart some separate locality for that object thereby settling a much vexed question. Of course you read that, it's sort of hard not to, the word ghetto kind of rises up in your imagination but in my own reading I think he was just trying to sort of think through what was the best way to keep these people safe. When you have people just sort of willy-nilly who are coming on the attack at all hours of the day, what's the best way to kind of keep them from being the subjects of that kind of violence? So that was one idea that he had to try to make things a little better. Here is a piece from the 26th of September, 1874. To the celestial majesty, the emperor of China, my dear brother, I address you these few lines to the same purport as I did some years ago to your predecessor to request that you will limit as far as possible the immigration of the Chinese, your majesty's subjects to this country as I will not be able to restrain a strong feeling against them which might end in disaster to them if they be permitted to come in unlimited numbers. So he sees what the trends are and he sees again he's sort of looking to see what might be done to ameliorate the problem. Here is a couple of pieces on, oh, not that one. Let's see. That one was taken between the spring of 1871 and the spring of 1872, a firm called Tuttle and Johnson. And there was a photographer named Tuttle who was sort of a peripatetic kind of guy. He had many, many partners over the years and it seems that it was only sort of during this particular period between spring of 1871, 1872 that he had Johnson as a partner and so they took that picture. In fact, Tuttle was living at the time in an apartment building on Kearney Street that was also occupied by a guy named Theodor Kirchhoff who was a German immigrant who wrote some of the earliest accounts of the emperor. So it was kind of interesting to speculate as to whether those people might have had any conversations about their shared interest. Let me get back to my place here. Let's see. Okay. So religion was a subject of a great interest from Northern and he was, as I said, he was an ecumenical kind of a guy and he was very interested in the idea of a universal religion. He was very concerned about the negative effects of sectarianism, puritanism and thought that a universal religion where people didn't get caught up in these issues of doctrine and whatnot was probably a good way to kind of make religion a more unifying force rather than a divisive one. Here's one said of October, 1871 and one of the longer ones that we'll, probably the longest one we'll look at tonight. Whereas there are great commotions in different quarters of the terrestrial globe arising from discussing the question, the purification of the Bible. It's true and false lights. And fears are entertained if the false lights be not expunged that a war may break out at some remote point and spread all over the whole world carrying in its winding course death, pestilence, famine, devastation and ruin. And where such a state of affairs is to be deplored by all liberal minded religionists who oppose bigotry, charlatanism, humbuggery, fraud and whereas religion is like a beautiful garden wherein the false lights may be compared to the poppies which fall to the ground, decay and are no more. The true lights are like the omniscientes, a new word to me, which bloom in everlasting etherealism, blessing forever the creator and the religious world by their love and truth. Now therefore we, nor in the first emperor of the United States and protector of Mexico, do hereby command that all communities select delegates to a Bible convention to be held in the city of San Francisco, state of California, USA on the second day of January 1873 for the purpose of eliminating all doubtful and disputed passages contained in the present printed edition of the Bible and the measures to be inaugurated toward the obliteration of all religious sects in the establishment of an universal religion. I have to wonder whether the emperor was aware of the Jefferson Bible. You know, Thomas Jefferson sort of had his own Bible where he sort of clipped out all the supernatural parts and kept it a purely sort of naturalistic document and I wonder if something like that is what the emperor had in mind. The other interesting note on this one is this came out on the 7th of October, 1871. The weekend before, the exact same proclamation was printed in the paper with this exception. The word religionists originally was Christians. Kind of interesting that he thought it was necessary to broaden it out and not limit it what he was saying just to Christians and so much so that the paper was well-interpreted a second time. Here's one from the 21st of December, 1872. Where is our intention to endeavor to obtain some alteration in the doctrine of the church by which the Hebrew and Christian faith will become united, also by which the foreign churches will become Americanized. Now therefore, we nor in the first day grant to the emperor of the United States and protect our Mexico do hereby the prohibitive enforcement of the Sunday law until our object is obtained and one Sunday established. And of course, the blue laws of course were particularly disadvantage to the Jewish community who were being kept from working and doing business on Sunday. So that was near and dear to his heart. It's also interesting that at that time, even people like the Unitarians who may have been talking in these kind of ecumenical terms, they weren't really talking about bringing the Jews into the party. It was about uniting all the different Christian denominations, but the idea that Christian and Hebrew together should be one religion was a pretty new idea that was not very commonly heard at the time. Here's one from the 20th of February, 1875. Religious liberty, Methodist Church North, Methodist Church South during the war don't have the Lord's Prayer in the schools. Catholicism and spiritualism, Communion of the people. The emperor wants but one church in all his dominions. So there you go. Prayer in public schools, not for the emperor. Here's one from the 13th of March, 1875. Starts out with a little poem. Take three little ropes, red, white, and blue, and they will hang Catholic Protestant or Jew, but unravel the ropes and weave them. And you have the colors which make a beautiful flag, one that blesses and protects all who live under it. This is an allegory the emperor commends to Reverend Mr. Hammond as a subject to preach to children about instead of slandering God and sowing seeds of bigotry and imbecility in the minds of his little subjects. So yeah, Emperor Norton was really, I mean even though he always attended the synagogue on Saturdays, and he did make his rounds to different churches on Sundays, the Unitarians were really his favorite. He was very, he resonated very much with their whole kind of idea of the separation of church and state and that as being sort of, and just in general they're more, I think humanistic approach to religion was something that appealed to him. Here is one from 27th of April, 1872. So now we're kind of going more into modern day for him sort of policy issues, entrepreneurship, et cetera, et cetera. This one, whereas it is imperative that the national welfare that the Central and Union Pacific Railroads be completed with good and solid double tracks and also that they have strong metallic snow sheds and snow-melting apparatuses wherever needed so that now, so the snow blockades hereafter might be avoided and it is hereby commanded that the Western terminus of Central Railroad be in San Francisco. And that was really the idea that the transcontinental railroad, which in 1869 was sort of ending in Oakland, actually should be extended to San Francisco, that was really the animating issues. That was the animating sort of idea behind the whole drive for a bridge across the bay because, of course, San Francisco understood that if the railroad ends in Oakland, then that's where the economic powerhouse is and they're left out in the cold. But if the railroad ends here, then that preserves San Francisco's position and then from Northern, he liked that idea, so. Here is one from 28th of February, 1874. Whereas the railroads of these United States are looked upon as bad, both here and in Europe, just like today. And whereas they will so continue, unless the laws of the empire are absolute and unchangeable, whereas the present constitution being a failure, we warn both state and Congress against any proceedings whereby this important interest, and in fact, the only interest that will have, eventually, the greatest importance in this country will be injured or retarded, meaning the railroads. Interesting in this one, he signs off Emperor US and protector of Mexico, Sandwich Islands and Cape of Good Hope. That's the only one that I've ever seen where he's taking in the Sandwich Islands and Cape of Good Hope under his protective umbrella. Yes, indeed. Here's one from 17th of October, 1874. I'm not sure if this is really his, but it does resonate with others that he did write, but it's written in this kind of dramatic form, titled Pro Bono Publico. Time 11 a.m., place California Street. Citizen, why are the sidewalks not kept clear, Emperor? Emperor, why don't you apply to the mayor and board supervisors whom you have elected to administer their laws justly for address? Citizen, the fact of the matter is, Emperor, they play in humbug us every time. Well, if your elected officials are so biased by the electors, how on earth can you expect the Emperor to rectify the evil, accept a law as passed, commanding all officers to have their bonds approved by the Emperor, and then he will be responsible? I love the form of this one. I don't know if it's real, it's just, it's very curious that little dramatic approach. Here's one from 16th of December, 1871. You know, the Emperor, he had the inventor bug. He had these proclamations about the Bay Bridge, but he also had a few inventions up his sleeve, some of which he actually got patented, apparently. Here's one, 16th of December, 1871, whereas we have invented a snow-melting machine by which pure fresh water can be obtained from the mountains during the winter season, and whereas we observe that it is the intention of the board of supervisors of the city and county of San Francisco to increase that water supply of the city, now therefore, we, Norton the first day, Gratia Emperor, do hereby prohibit the honorable board of supervisors from incurring any further expense therefore until the practicability of our scheme shall have been thoroughly tested, and thereby their wants can be supplied for an expense of about two or three millions instead of 13 or 15 millions as proposed. You know, it's interesting that Emperor Norton, you know, one of his regular haunts in the afternoons was the Mechanics Institute, and the Mechanics Institute, of course, was a place where the celebrated inventors and technologists of the day were always kind of hanging out, photographers and railroad people and all that. So when you see these kind of proclamations, it's obvious why he found that a sympathetic place for him to be hanging out. He would meet those people when he was there. He's, here's one, 14th of September, 1872, starts out with a quote from the Mining and Scientific Press, which is a journal of, like a trade journal of the day, Emperor Norton is invented a railroad switch, a model of which is now being made. It consists of a novel application of a spiral or elliptic spring operated by the weight of the passing train by which the switch is turned off or on as desired, patent applied for. And the emperor's proclamation, the emperor desires that there should be a thoroughly practical and mechanical switch and his ideas to be improved upon so that Europe will be glad to pay money to America for the patent. Yeah, sure, why not? And then he's letting them know that the emperor's rendezvous on Friday mornings for the present will be at city gardens. I think he typically sort of held court on Friday's outside of Woodward's Gardens, which was sort of a public amusement park in the mission, I think bordered by a Mission Valencia 13th and 15th, but he had some run-ins there, which we'll come to in a moment. So maybe he had to change his scene for a while. So here's one from the 18th of October, 1873. On the same issue, whereas the First National Bank refused to honor a small check of $100 to pay the value of a model for a railway switch invented by us, thereby endangering our private personal interest to a large state. And whereas it is publicly notorious that one or two of the directors have large amounts in trust belonging to our private personal estate, now therefore, we, nor in the first day, gratia and for the United States to protect our Mexico, do hereby decree the confiscation to the state of all the interests of said bank, a security to the state for any losses we have or may sustain by reason of their set acts in order that this our said imperial decree may be a warning to those who take up on themselves to refuse as royalty when they think it is most needed and endangering our personal health or dignity. And it really is on this issue of sort of front to his dignity and the money issue. I mean, you know, these are the sort of two places and you see these proclamations where the less publicly minded ones where you get the sense that he never did quite get over the fact of his poverty. It is an abiding concern for him and this is a place where you sense that he's not quite with us when he's saying that the state is holding millions in trust that belongs to him. But the backstory on this one is that he actually had asked Andrew Hallity who was in the process of being the father of the cable car to build this model and Hallity said, sure, I'll build it for a hundred bucks. So Hallity wanted to squeeze the emperor for a hundred dollars and this is why the emperor's gotta go to the bank to get the hundred dollars out because he needs to pay Hallity if he's gonna get the model made. So here's one from 25th of September, 1873 whereas we were informed that the screw which works the Clay Street Railroad, that's Hallity's Railroad, is not strong enough for that purpose and that it is consequently dangerous to the lives of passengers. Also that the dummy is a useless appendage and now therefore the directors of the company are hereby ordered to see that precautions are taken to make travel on Sid Railroad perfectly safe by using a screw with at least 24 inches diameter. So we know about this backstory of the emperor and Hallity. You can imagine he's taken a little bit of pleasure in writing his proclamation saying that Hallity's idea is not quite fully baked yet, so that's kind of fun. Yes, the Clay Street Railroad was sort of the first of Hallity's experiments. In Clay Street, San Francisco. Here's one, let's see, from 21st of December, 1872 whereas the destruction of horses in Europe by the Franco-Prussian War and now again by the epizodic disease in North America is a worldwide calamity in the loss of so many useful animals now. Therefore we Norton the first day, Gratia Emperor of the United States and Preceptor of Mexico do hereby offer a suitable reward for the best mode of treatment to prevent the introduction or spreading of the disease on the Pacific Coast. Yeah, a very publicly minded gentleman. Here is one from the 23rd of August, 1873 whereas the old international hotel and other obstructions continue to retard the progress of New Montgomery Avenue, thereby causing great damage to individuals in the city. Now therefore we Norton the first day, Gratia Emperor of the United States and Preceptor of Mexico do hereby command the commissioners to settle with the rightful owners of the obstructions and have the work push forward rapidly. And I believe that New Montgomery Avenue is not the same as New Montgomery Street. I believe New Montgomery Avenue is what became Columbus Avenue and so that's when that street was being laid and he wants them to be done quickly. Here is one from the 1st of November, 1873. This seems very progressive for his time. In order to arrange the controversy existing among the citizens regarding the fruit and vegetable market and as in our opinion the street where it is at present located is too narrow and altogether unsuited to the wants of the city of San Francisco. Now therefore we Norton the first Emperor of the United States and Preceptor of Mexico do hereby decree that the block bounded by merchant and clay, sands and battery streets be converted into an open square to be used as a stand for market wagons and we further decree that the Board of Supervisors make an appraisal of the property condemned and award such damages to the owners as may be just and proper. So farmer's market, you know, 1873. He's out there, he's out there. Here's one from 16 May, 1874. So long as Congress exacts an import duty on brandies, et cetera and demands a tax from the manufacturer of whiskey, no local net can prevent the sale, their license being paid. It may however be good judgment in Congress to repeal their act. The sale and manufacture of wines and beer is beneficial and should not be interfered with. Interesting because Emperor Norton himself was known to be not a tea totler but something less than a social drinker. He didn't really drink a lot. I mean he would go to these free lunch counters along Montgomery Street where you would be offered a spread of salmon and roast beef and vegetables and crackers and cheese and all these wonders for the price of a drink. Typically he would either just be waved through because it was just good for business to have him there or someone else would pay for his drink. But usually he wouldn't do much drinking himself. So let's see. Here's another one on the same subject from 25th of July, 1874. Whereas the sanitary condition of the people of these United States and Mexico will be improved and life saved by total abstinence from the use of ardent spirits as a beverage and except only for medical purposes. Therefore we Norton the First Emperor of these United States and Mexico decree as follows that from and after 12 months from date it shall be unlawful to manufacture and import or sell any ardent spirits within the limits of the United States or Mexico except for medicinal purposes as here and before designated and allowed. This act shall not be so construed as to interfere with the use of malt liquors for the working man and quote wine for the stomach's sake. So it seems like he's talking about hard liquor there for the most part. Here's one from 7th of February, 1874 on the issue of guns. The emperor commands that the laws prohibiting the carrying of concealed weapons be strictly enforced and see if the attempts at taking life cannot be stopped. That seems timely. Here is one from 26th of December, 1874. The public having been very indulgent in the matter of the murders committed by women. They must now take warning that crime of that nature must be stopped at all hazards. Interesting. Well, I guess it means that it wasn't just men doing the killing but I don't know what the background is. I don't know if there was some particular problem at that time with women shooting people. I don't know what the backdrop is. Yeah. Here's one. There was an incident in 1873 where someone named Matt Tarpe who had come into disagreement with a guy named Nicholson and in the course of a certain disagreement, Tarpe pulls a gun and menace to sort of shoot Nicholson's wife. And there's competing stories as to whether the shooting of his wife was intentional or not but the upshot was that he was taken to a jail and then he was lynched. And he, the emperor writes, whereas the lynching of Tarpe near Salinas, Monterey County on Saturday last as a total contempt and disrespect to the majesty of the law and whereas we determined to bring the nation out of all such heresies. Now therefore, we know in the first day Gratia Emperor of the United States and protector of Mexico do hereby command the arrest and trial for murder of every one of the parties implicated in said transaction and thereby have the laws enforced. Here's one from the 5th of September, 1874. He's talking about sex. Whereas we're informed that 82 and one half percent of the infant population of these United States are lost or destroyed before and after birth, super induced by Ward Beecherism, Victoria Woodholism and licentiousness in high places. Whereby this nation has become demoralized and degenerated and now therefore we, nor in the first day Gratia Emperor of the U.S. and protector of Mexico do hereby command all such persons to desist from their evil practices as is our firm determination to stave off divine vengeance even by fire and sword if necessary. So Victoria Woodhol, do you know the story of Victoria Woodhol? She was someone who at the time was very much a woman's suffragist, was involved in politics and was a particular advocate of what was called free love and the idea was that you had the right to be happy in your marriage. And if you weren't and you were a woman, you ought to be able to divorce just as the guy should. So that was her belief. So this seems to be an index of a place where unsexual politics, maybe the emperor's views lagged a bit. He wasn't quite there. Although there is, in fact, there was a story about how there was some women's suffrage meeting where he shows up and either is invited or just simply takes the imperial prerogative to address the crowd. And he takes to the stage and says that a woman's place is in the kitchen, that's where she should be. At the same time, there was a petition to the California Constitutional Convention in the late 1870s, I believe. And there was a petition for basically guaranteeing women the right to vote. And I've not yet seen the document. There are many stories about how he actually signed this document. So it seems like his record was a little mixed. Here's one from 16th March, 1872. This goes to the Willward's Gardens controversy. The headline is, let the emperor have skates or close up the ranks. That probably was written by an editor, not by Emperor Norton. But the proclamation itself seems to be his. It says, whereas the prescriptive treason against our person, rights and privileges crops out occasionally and has lately shown itself at Willward's Gardens, the superintendent of the skating rink having refused us the use of skates. We will wish to amuse ourselves in that way. And whereas great aches from little tow corns grow and to prevent other acts of a like disloyal nature as now spoken of, we do hereby command the arrest of the aforesaid superintendent if he perpetuates the offense the second time. So he wanted a roller skate. I mean, why not? But apparently the superintendent did not agree. So 20th April, 1871, here's one about the opera house considering that the opera tends to elevate and refine the public taste. And whereas Bianchi's opera buffet are reported to be likely to cave in for one of proper support, now therefore we Norton the first, Dei Gratia, do hereby command all our friends and adherents to do all they can to prevent the opera from being abandoned. So funding of the arts. There he is. Here's one from June 1872. Am I, did I get the wrong one? No, you're the wrong one. No, I'm here. No, I'm here, okay. Thank you. Whereas rebellious subjects take advantage of the absence of our imperial guard and occasionally have the audacity to refuse us admittance to the theaters, now therefore we Norton the first, Dei Gratia, emperor, et cetera, do hereby command the closing of any theater which may persist in insulting the dignity of our office by refusing us admittance. And again, you see the headline there. Let the emperor have his royal prerogatives or close up the theaters. Seems like the same editor, right? And it seems that theaters did frequently reserve seats for him on opening night of their shows. It was good for business. If the expectation was there that the emperor was gonna be in the house, that was one way to guarantee a big crowd on opening night. So it wasn't necessarily just for love of the emperor. But it seems that he did like that. And maybe that was why he was calling for the opera to be saved as well. Because he liked to see the opera every once in a while. Here is one from 7th of February, 1874. Considering a false economy on account of the expense to exclude the teaching of French and German from the public schools and also on the score of utility, it is absolutely necessary to teach the descendants of the foreign born people the language of their parents. Therefore we Norton the first, Dei Gratia, emperor U.S. and protector of Mexico do hereby command the board of education to rescind their order excluding such a lesson from the school instructions. That's good. Here is one to show how even the smallest of things did not escape his notice. 4th of January, 1873. Understanding that there is a lady named Miss Watson living over at Oakland who is being annoyed by the friends of other ladies making her play hide and seek to the danger of her liberty and rights. Now therefore we Norton the first, Dei Gratia, do hereby command all and every person to desist from such outrage and wrong under penalty of our sovereign displeasure. So Miss Watson had a friend and the emperor, a good friend to have. Here's one, we're coming close to the end now from 16th of August, 1873. Whereas we were informed that about 200 families would become for the present destitute by the fire of Portland, Oregon. The emperor does not command but appeals to the generosity of all the churches over the Pacific coast to come forward and give their might for their relief. Here is one from the 27th of February, 1875. This is one of the last ones that he wrote for the Pacific appeal. Whereas we have now been over 22 years emperor of the United States and whereas the United States has never paid us for our services as emperor of said states during all this long period having depended solely on friends outside and in and finding also the state of California through her representative offices have collected a large sum on our account and fraudulently withheld the said sum from us. The general government has warned that the nation is held responsible and commanded to see that they are not defrauded by corrupt officials out of this money. This is interesting, if you do the math, the emperor declares himself September 17th or at least publicly declares himself September 17th, 1859. That's when that original proclamation sort of runs in the evening bulletin. But here he is in February 1875 saying we've now been over 22 years emperor. So you do that math and it gets you to somewhere like in late 1852, which actually turns out to be exactly the time when the rice deal that went south started heading in that direction. So it seems that at least in his own mind he was emperor from then and he was only biting his time for a few years before letting everyone know that in fact they had had an emperor all these seven years. There's another one in 1869 where he does similar math that gets you to that same place, 1852 as being sort of where in his own mind his reign begins. Here's the last one, 20th June, 1874. All good people are hereby commanded to turn on procession, turn in procession to make the most of the ensuing 4th of July. The emperor acknowledges all the rights, et cetera, et cetera and only holds and demands the authority to blend the government into a better and purer constitution, which object being accomplished he desires the acceptance of his resignation. So what I read him saying here is when and if he's able to sort of blend the government into a better and purer constitution then he will resign. He doesn't expect that to happen anytime soon. This is basically a very elegant way of affirming that he expects to be around for a little while longer and that the need for an emperor is still as strong as it ever was. But it's not long after that last one, 1875, that the relationship between him and the Pacific Appeal goes sideways. There was a real estate developer in the South Bay. His name is Peters. I'm blanking on his first name right now but his name is Peters and he had a real estate scheme and in a certain paper in May 1875 there are three proclamations signed by Emperor Norton on the front page, which is where they always were. But you go to page three or four and there's this extra proclamation unsigned in a similar whereas, whereas, whereas resolved, et cetera taking aim at this Peters for the fraud that he is perpetrating on the good people of the South Bay. Well, Peters doesn't like this and so he comes to the editor of the Pacific Appeal, Peter Anderson, who says, you got to do something about this guy and if you don't, you're gonna get sued. So, but it's not clear 100% that that was the Emperor's proclamation, although it seems like the sort of thing he might have written. It seems that at the time, the editor would see the pieces of the paper that were to be printed in pieces. So he never saw the thing whole. So he presented a fragment, a fragment, a fragment, a fragment, which means that anybody who was a prankish type setter had the ability to go in and make some changes on press if he was of a mind to do that. But in any case, it seems that Emperor Norton sort of became the fall guy out of the whole thing and after that, we don't really see a lot of proclamations from him until his death in January of 1880. But that seems like a good place to end. Does anybody have any questions? Yes. I'm curious about the writing. Yeah, he took some bad advice. There was a shortage on rice going on in late 1852 and someone came to him and said, hey, there is a ship full of rice that's called the Glide GLYDE sitting on the harbor and it's yours for the taking. And so the idea was that he was able to sort of buy this rice at four cents a pound, which was just a ridiculously low price, but he speculated that based on the shortage, that it eventually would go up to 36 cents a pound and he and his business partners would make fortune. So he was gonna try to corner the market on rice and there were two or three other partners that sort of went in with him on this deal. And then within, of course, communications in late 1852 are not what they are in 2018. And so you just, I mean, really, these kind of business gambles are not for the faint of heart because you don't know what's gonna come in the next day. And in his case, within a matter of days, ship after ship after ship after ship of rice come in, the bottom falls out of the market and he's just basically his business partners bay on him and he is left undone. The deal was for $24,000 and he was reported to be worth a good bit more than that, but it seems that he had the gene of just not being able to let go. So it really was over the next three or four years, the appeals, the counter appeals, paying lawyers, just the way it kind of drug out, that really was where he was kind of emptied out of all of his money. And so he declares bankruptcy in late 1856. And for the next year or two, he's still doing some private trade commission deals. There are personal business ads that you see in the papers that he's taking out and then he just kind of becomes seen less and less and less and he is taking up residence in digs that are less and less and less nice and that's just kind of how things go. I think maybe 40,000 was like around 1.2 or so. So it was not small change, certainly. Especially if that's all he had. Yeah. Yes. Did he live well before that? He lived very well. In fact, it's interesting. There was a hotel at the Southwest corner of Bush and Sansom called the Reset House, R-A-S-S-E-T-T-E. And it was written up in the journals and papers today as being one of the finest first class hotels in the city. And that's where he was living when he was at his sort of highest moment. So in late 1852, you know, the rice hill happens and then in June of 1853, the hotel burns down. But because of his financial straits, you know, he's not able to get it into that kind of a place again. But then in 1861, 1862, what happens is the Reset House, the first one is rebuilt very quickly. So there's a new Reset House in the fall of 1853. And then in sometime like 1857 or eight, I think, the Reset House goes under new management, gets renamed the Metropolitan Hotel. And so in 1861 and 62, that hotel, which was once one of the finest hotels in the city, has sort of gone to seed. Well, you know, so is the emperor. And so he actually comes back and stays on that same corner in that same building or at least the new version of the old first-class hotel, just kind of a different time in his life. Anybody else? There are some longer statements at the very beginning of his reign where he kind of talks about about how he thinks that the Constitution is not written in such a way as to sort of prevent the kinds of fraud and corruption that he goes on to talk about in these sort of smaller sort of proclamations. There was actually an address that he was to give because in that first proclamation, he calls on everybody to gather at this musical hall the next February, we're gonna work this out. We're gonna create this empire in a few months time. Well, musical hall burns down as things had a way of doing at that time and a new date and time was rescheduled. The papers made hay about it. Of course, no one came, but the bulletin actually did print the address that he would have given, like a big long, too long columns of the whole address where he sort of spelled it out in great detail. It's very interesting. Yeah, this is actually, this is research for a book that we are working on. We have a small sort of seed grant from the SF History Association to do a book of selected proclamations. I think the idea is not to try to put all 400 proclamations in a book, but to try to produce a printed document that will actually sort of show how they appear as you see them here and give a sort of a sense of the full sort of range of his concerns. So that's a project that is ongoing. Looking for a deal. As far as we know, as far as we know there are about 15, 16 people who we, the campaign, have been in touch with over the last four years who are great, great, great nieces and nephews who are sort of descendants of his siblings, but it seems that he was never married, never had any kids. The only real record that we have of any, you can't even really call them romantic inclinations, but there was a moment in the 1870s where he felt like an emperor really should have an empress. So he was 50 at the time. There was a young woman in Oakland who her name was Minnie Wakeman. She was the daughter of a very prominent sort of military general. And she was a sort of a storied beauty of the time. Young woman accomplished at high school and all that. And so he writes to her asking for her permission to allow her name to be used as his emperor, as his empress, making it clear to her in very elegant language, I'm not asking you to be my wife. You and I both know what those responsibilities are and I'm not asking you to do that, but I would be so honored if I could just use your name because it would just be a very nice thing. And she writes him back, says, it's such a great honor, but I have to decline. And those letters actually are at the Bancroft Library in Oakland, in Berkeley, sorry, yeah. Yeah, yeah, I haven't come across anything that he really had any aspirations in that direction. It seems like the proclamation was kind of his main vehicle of communication. He was a very regular attendee of political meetings, political debates. He was a very regular presence of those. And there are, you see newspaper accounts where often as a matter of humor, an editor will note that the emperor chimed in and said this or that or the other, some interjection. But as far as being a political organizer or a community organizer in the current parlance, it doesn't seem that that was his thing. Was he one of the plan orders? Yeah, sure, yeah. And talking to whoever would talk to him. And by all contemporaneous accounts, he was actually very fluent on the issues of the day, very well-spoken. You can tell he's a great writer. He had command of the language. It really was only on this issue of, am I actually the emperor? And am I to be accorded this respect? That's where things went a little sideways. But on the issues of the day, and as a conversationalist apparently, he was quite engaging. And obviously he had a lot of opinions. He was willing to share. I think that's the assumption. I mean, you get phrases in the papers of the day like he is a holding court, this sort of thing. But there just are not any concrete accounts that survive of exactly what might have happened. It was the same thing in the mornings. A part of his routine was he'd actually read the papers, he would go to Portman Square. And apparently there were people there who perhaps had fallen on similarly hard times and who he knew and they respected his opinions and commiserated over their current state. But there's not a lot of concrete accounts of exactly what might have been said or what words might have been exchanged. Just simply the fact that he made himself available at these places, whether it be at Wolbers Gardens or City Gardens or, I mean, he did know where the people were going to be. He did know where it's like you had the tradition of the promenade. So four o'clock still in the afternoon, Montgomery Street, everyone got out and walked up and down. And he was a regular sort of attendee of the promenade. And that's sort of where he got known by a lot of people because he was a very picturesque, striking figure. And one has to imagine that he was probably frequently stopped and asked for his opinion on whatever the current issues of the day were. Just to have the point that you're in the vote. Yes, so yes. Yeah, I resist the temptation to comment. I mean, just since we're a nonprofit and we're supposed to be sort of publicly do-gooders and all that, we try to kind of keep out of the political fray, but it is certainly, you can't look at Twitter without seeing everybody who knows anything about the emperor at all, making these connections. And so the metaphor is there to be taken up. The emperor has no clothes and all that stuff. So no, I think that is, I think it certainly represents an opportunity for people to sort of learn about the emperor and sort of what he was about. So that's a good thing. Yes. Not a whole lot known about that, but he did spend most of his early life in South Africa. Of course, he was born in... Cape Town. Born in England, actually. Born in England, he was in the East. He eventually was in Cape Town. I think he started out maybe closer to Grams Town, which was a little further to the East, but ended up in Cape Town, was in business with his father. And interestingly, apparently it was not a very good businessman in South Africa. So it's interesting that he... Right, that's right. Which was a pioneer general English settlement of South Africa and a whole history of South Africa. He represented his other people in that group, a very important group there. And there may have been some important formative influences on him from that period. No, I think that is one of the biggest opportunities of research actually in his early life. And those archives are there. I mean, there are archives in South Africa, but they're not easy to get to. So getting the rights and the access to actually read those things is not easy to do. But there is some things that are known. And apparently his relationship with his family wasn't great. I think things were a bit strained. He didn't necessarily... He wasn't a very good Jew. And that was not okay with his dad. And so that caused some problems. And there are some letters from the mid-1840s when his own father is starting to kind of go under and go bankrupt sort of talking about his feelings about that. So, but yeah, there's a lot of blanks in that part of his life. From the time he's two years old to the time he's 30-some. Yes, not that I've come to life. So, not that I'm not there, but you know. Anybody? I think by that class not taken very seriously and then by the media in general not taken very seriously. Yeah, it's interesting that you have at the end of his life in 1880, you have a reported 10,000 people coming to sort of see his body sort of lying in state. Many there no doubt just out of pure fascination. But others by contemporary accounts, genuinely fond, genuinely sad, leaving flowers, having stories to tell, all of that. You know, he's someone who died basically a pauper and would have had a pauper's funeral and burial, but for the generosity of people who knew him when, who were, some of them were his Masonic brothers who took up a collection and made sure that he had a proper burial in the Masonic cemetery. And rather than a pauper's box, he had a Rosewood and silver trim casket. So, and the leader of that effort was a guy named Joseph Eastland who was a co-founder and officer of the company that sort of went on to be the core of the future PG&E. So, he was known by some very prominent people and you had all these affectionate sort of tributes sort of being given to him. And of course he had access to the Mechanics Institute, the Bohemian Club, all of these places, which were basically, they would have been white male places. By and large. And so I think there's a real question in my mind of how many people were actually reading these proclamations in real time? How many of those white men were reading an African-American-owned and operated abolitionist weekly? Maybe somewhere, but maybe not many. And that may go some way toward explaining why the myth that got created around him in the 20s and 30s and going deep into the 20th century didn't really include a lot of this stuff. So I think there is a bit of a course correction going on. I think it needs to go on, but I think there is a sense in which the fondness in which he's held is, you know, it amounts to a kind of, he's sort of aestheticized. You know, he's picked up for his personal style and just the fact of his pure survival. And of course the photographs go a long way towards advancing that myth, but how much people actually serve and engage with what he actually was trying to say at the time? Political meetings maybe, but not the proclamations perhaps. It's interesting that the account that appears in the SF Chronicle on the 11th of January, 1880, this is the one that is headed up by the headline, Le Roy Amour, you know, The King is Dead, you know, which most people think that that actually appeared in the SF Chronicle the next day. It actually appeared in the article that was covering his funeral and burial proceedings. And that reporter, uncredited, sir talks about how, you know, yeah, there were these 10,000 people estimated who showed up on O'Farrell Street to look at his body at the morgue, but there were only two or three carriages that actually made the way to the Masonic Cemetery. So you had this apocryphal tale about how, you know, the two-mile-long cortege in the entire city was in mourning and all of that, you know, but according to the newspaper account, there was only a couple of carriages and once you actually got to the cemetery, about 30 people. So it's interesting to try to sort of think about, you know, what were the, or all the different motivations and reasons why, you know, those 10,000 people sort of showed up. That was in the city. That was in the city. He wasn't moved to Colmwoods in 1934, but it's interesting that it was sort of the same crowd because in 1880, it was members of the Pacific Club who had taken up the fund for his burial and casket and all of that. And then in 1934, which actually was coming toward the end of this kind of early 20th century sort of cemetery eviction. You know, it was the Pacific Union Club. At that point, the Pacific Union Club had been separate clubs. They had merged many years ago. You know, a few of them came together in an ad hoc way, not officially, but in an ad hoc way and said, hey, we should take care of this. And there's actually a document. There's actually a piece of paper at the California Historical Society that has the whole sort of record of receipts and disbursements from 1934. So you can see exactly like who gave and how much in that beautiful stone that rose granite stone in coma that's at his grave now. In 1934, $74.40. Interesting. At Woodlawn. Oh, no, this is the one at Woodlawn. The one at Woodlawn. But in coma, apparently there, sorry, in the Masonic, you know, here in the city, there was no marker at the time. There are stories that there was a some thought of trying to sort of take up a collection to do one, but the collection was, if it was taken up, was by the Episcopal Church, which, you know, that goes to the whole larger issue of, you know, where was the Jewish community, you know, during that time? That's a whole separate, I think that's fair. Yeah, I mean, someone like James Lick, for example, who, you know, had millions of dollars and was very central in deeds. It's hard to know, though, because it, you know, whether the loss of his money actually, if there was actually a cause and effect. I mean, I don't know that he was known necessarily that much in 1849, 51, 52, of having this very sort of socially progressive mission. However, there is, you know, he was a member of the First Vigilance Committee in 1851. And the one contribution that he made that is recorded is his insistence on habeas corpus. So maybe there is something there that he was someone who had a real feel for fairness from an early time. Not that I'm aware of. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I have heard of those who have claimed such visitations. But I'll keep my eyes open in my ears. Yeah, I mean, Twain did, I mean, Mark Twain did a little bit. You know, he would, you know, there was a sense in which, for a writer like him, of course, who was basically sort of writing in a comic vein, it was almost sort of de rigueur to mention Emperor Norton or sort of throw in a line about the emperor for some humorous effect. But he actually wrote to his editor after Emperor Norton died and with a real strong note of regret that neither he nor Bret Hart nor any of their sort of high level contemporaries really made it their business to, you know, what Twain calls sort of write him up and write the emperor up and really do a proper profile of him that would really sort of get it at sort of what he was about. But yeah, there is actually one, there's a lithograph of one of the jump cartoons that is in the exhibit in the SF History Center on the sixth floor. So if you go there, there's one of the ones that has him and George Washington II and other figures of the time and bummering ladders all hanging out on the street. So, but there is one like that too. Right, and the one people usually talk about is the one called the Three Bummers where he is portrayed sort of at a lunch counter with the two dogs. And of course the implication is that he's a bummer too and he apparently didn't like that very much, so. I think I'm getting the clock. Does anybody, are we done? We need to be done, we need to be done. We are done. He had them printed from 1870 to 1875. It was the same printer for the Pacific Appeal, a printer called Cutty and Hughes, also printed the emperor's notes. And so they sort of struck up that relationship and it seemed like after the relationship with the Pacific Appeal ended, then he struck up a new friendship with another fine printer named Charles Murdoch, someone he met at the Unitarian Church who printed his notes from 1878 until his death. So yeah, there are quite a few of these notes around and many of them are in museums and libraries. Some are in private hands. If they ever do happen to come on the market, you're talking, you know, six, eight, $10,000. They do, there's one at the Wells Fargo Museum on Montgomery Street that is always on display as part of the permanent collection. Thank you so much everybody for coming. This is great, a lot of fun. You can get one of our cards is on the table there that has our website. We are a membership organization. We'd love to have you join and support our work. We call our members emissaries of the empire. So if you wanna be an emissary of the empire, you can give us your cash. Thanks a lot. Hey, thank you.