missing. In their place were two beautiful brass candlesticks and a note that read: "Very sorry, just had to have the pants!" An amusing ditty of the time surrounded the unscathed whiskey warehouse at the bottom of Folsom (Howard?): If, as they say, God spanked the city because it got too frisky, Why did he shake the churches down and save Hotelings whiskey? Shortly after the earthquake, Walter Johnson gathered the newsboys he knew from his job at the Bulletin and started selling out-of-town newspapers and magazines. His first newsstand stood in the rubble of Fillmore Street. He was soon selling papers all across the city. This endeavor blossomed into a book and stationery store on Fillmore and then on Market Street. In 1911, Johnson and his brother Alfred opened a similar store in Modesto, where their father had relocated. World War I Not satisfied with the life of a merchant, Johnson began to study for entrance into law school. He sold his share of the business to his brother and enrolled at Boalt Hall School of Law, later finishing at Hastings Law School in San Francisco. The very day Johnson became a member of the California bar, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated in Serbia, setting off World War I. Johnson joined the war effort when the US became involved in 1917. He closed his small law practice and spent three months in officer's training at the Presidio. As a First Lieutenant, Johnson was sent to Aberdeen, Washington to disrupt the anti-war efforts of the Industrial Workers of the World, or I.W.W., targeting the local timber industry. As a lawyer and business manager, Johnson used his skills to persuade workers to continue production, and by extension, remove I.W.W members from positions of power. His legal and business skills were again used as the war wound down and he was transferred to New York City to settle government contracts with war-materials factories that were closing down. Johnson had made Captain by the time he left the Army. Big business After the war, Johnson returned to San Francisco and his law practice. On occasion, an old childhood friend by the name of Bert Webster would drop in. Webster was in the wood box business in Stockton with a fellow named Horace Tarter. The three became fast friends and Johnson was convinced to move his family to Stockton where he incorporated