I had never visited San Francisco. Being close to the city of the Golden Gate--within fifty miles--I decided to "take a look." So one evening, in the late Fall of 1904, I packed my grip and within two hours was comfortably housed in the old Palace Hotel.
The first man I met on entering the lobby was W. J. Arkell, formerly one of the owners of _Frank Leslie's Weekly_ and of _Judge_.
"Hello, Bill!" I exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"
"Same as you," he answered. "Morse trimmed me in American Ice, and I'm broke. I am in hock to the hotel. They think I am worth $2,000,000. I haven't 20 cents."
During the evening we consoled each other over a series of silver gin fizzes, several of which Arkell paid for with the stub of a pencil. My companion promulgated a scheme for the quick putting on their feet of two Eastern rovers adrift in the big Coast city, and that night there was formed the W. J. Arkell Advertising Agency. Then the horse-tipping firm of "Jack Hornaday" was established. I declared that I preferred to have little to do with it except to show "Willie" how it had been done in New York by Maxim & Gay.
"I will do it for you, Bill," I said; "but no more for me--I've had enough."
"Jack Hornaday" advertisements appeared daily in all the San Francisco papers. Capable clockers and handicappers were hired and some excellent information was obtained. Race-goers got a run for their money.
But something happened. The race-track trust, which enjoyed a big pull in the San Francisco _Examiner_ office, soon realized that somebody outside of the inner circle was getting the public's money, and every day that "Jack Hornaday" tipped a loser the _Examiner_ carried on its sporting page a notice to the effect that "Jack Hornaday's" tip had resulted very disastrously to his clients.
I began to like San Francisco and the Coast. Being thrown among Arkell's associates in the Palace Hotel lobby, from time to time I naturally heard a great deal of talk about the new Nevada mining camp of Tonopah.
"Rice," said Arkell one evening, "come with me up to Tonopah and be my press agent. We will get hold of a mining property up there, promote a company and make a barrel of money."
"Well, I've lost enough in 'em to know a great deal," he answered.
