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sfgate.com Businesses  « Back to Article  134 Years of the
Chronicle  Carl Nolte, San Francisco Chronicle Published
4:00 am, Wednesday, June 16, 1999 Larger | Smaller Email This
Page 1 of 1  In January of 1865, San Francisco was an ugly, raw
boomtown where the memories of vigilantes were still fresh, the
streets were muddy, the ladies wore Paris fashions and the
gentlemen carried pistols. There were only 60,000 people, but it
was the largest city in the wild West.  Onto this stage, on
January 16, 134 years ago, stepped two teenaged boys to announce
they had started a new newspaper. They called it The Daily
Dramatic Chronicle, "a daily record of affairs -- local,
critical and theatrical."  "We make our politest bow," the boys
wrote in their first issue.    One hundred and thirty-four years
later, the little paper they distributed free "in all the
restaurants, saloons, reading rooms, stores, boats, cars and
among the audience at Worrell's Olympic" has bec