Researching History

by Susan Saperstein

When you research your tours, you find more information than you can possible use for your hour and half walk, and it travels in many directions and tangents. Most guides probably have enough information for a five-hour tour.

This piece began as a story about Bummer and Lazarus, the two faithful dogs of Emperor Norton--and about the intriguing fact that Mark Twain wrote an obituary for Bummer in the Daily Morning Call. Joshua Norton, who declared himself Norton I, Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico, came to San Francisco in 1849, had financial success as a commodities merchant, but went bankrupt and somewhat crazy. For twenty years he roamed the city, and it was reported he was accompanied by two dogsóBummer and Lazarus.

Samuel Dickson, a San Francisco magazine and radio writer in the late 1940s and 1950s, wrote in his series This is Your Home, "Bummer and Lazarus went everywhere with him. No theatrical performance opened in San Francisco from 1855 to 1880 that three complimentary tickets for the first row of the balcony were not put aside for Bummer and Lazarus and Norton I, Emperor of the United States."

Further research led to Samuel Langhorne Clemens's obituary for Bummer in San Francisco's Daily Morning Call. After Clemens became known to everyone as Mark Twain, some accounts say he based the character of the King in Huckleberry Finn on the eccentric Norton. Malcolm E. Barker notes in his collection More San Francisco Memoirs, 1852–1899: The Ripening Years that stray dogs were quite a problem in San Francisco's early years. There were a large number roaming the streets, barking and biting people. An ordinance was passed in 1862 banning from the street dogs that were not licensed, leashed, and muzzled. Roaming dogs were caught and, if not claimed within 48 hours, killed. Bummer and Lazarus were two strays exempted from this law because they killed rats.

San Franciscan's have always had a love/hate relationship with dogs. In the process of researching the stray dog story, I found that a 1949 city ordinance permitted dogs to ride city buses for a ticket costing ten cents. The San Francisco Municipal Railway's current policy says that working dogs--guide dogs, signal dogs, or service dogs--may ride free at any time. However, other, non-working dogs boarding with their human companions must pay the same fare as humans and are only allowed on Muni at specific hours.

But back to Bummer and Lazarus. A cartoonist named Edward Jump, who came to California in 1852, made his living drawing labels for whiskey bottles, cartoons of contemporary issues, and caricatures of prominent citizens. His series of drawings showing notable San Franciscans included Emperor Norton and the two dogs. Apparently Norton hated the picture and was very angry about it. But years later the dogs continued to be associated with him.

Both dogs met terrible deaths. In 1862 Lazarus was poisoned after biting a boy. Bummer was kicked to death three years later. The dogs were stuffed, exhibited in a bar, eventually given to the museum in Golden Gate Park, and later destroyed.

And Mark Twain: while working in San Francisco, he met a fireman named Tom Sawyer, used his name in one of his books, and dedicated the book to his friend.

Information from: The Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco website; San Francisco Municipal Railway Website; Malcolm E. Barker: San Francisco, Memoirs, 1852 – 1899, The Ripening Years; Gladys Hansen: San Francisco Almanac.

Historic photos reprinted with permission, SF History Center, SF Public Library

Emperor Norton had little connection with dogs.

Mark Twain wrote Bummer's obituary.

March 22, 1949 - Canine tickets cost 10c

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