After breakfast we accompanied him to the CHRONICLE office, which
at that time was located on the corner of Kearney and Pine
streets, and here we met all three of the DeYoung brothers. After
being introduced to them and spending some two hours with them,
Charles DeYoung, the eldest of the three brothers, gave us a
cordial invitation to take dinner with him at his own residence,
saying that dinner would be ready at six o'clock. This, I think,
was the first time in my life that I had ever heard a six o'clock
meal called dinner. Thanking him for the kind offer I excused
myself as I was in my traveling suit, and the very thought of
entering the private residence of one of the popular men of the
city almost paralized me. But my excuses were all fruitless. He
would not even consider "No" as answer, and some of them were with
us until time for dinner, as he termed it, but what I would have
called supper.
With as bold a front as possible we accompanied Mr. DeYoung to his
residence, which we found to be a fine mansion on California
street. On arriving at his residence we met there some ten or
twelve other guests, both ladies and gentlemen. Now the reader can
have a faint idea of the embarrassing position in which we were
both placed at that moment, and I can truthfully say that at the
moment I entered that mansion I would have given three months'
wages to have been away from there.
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