To those of you who have already read this fanfiction (prior to January 2019, chapters 1 through 6), I have changed the setting of the story from 1898 New York City to 1890 San Francisco due to a personal belief that the change in setting would greater benefit the plot and the characters. If you no longer wish to read the story, thank you for your time. If you do wish to continue reading the story but don't wish to reread any of the old chapters, feel free to PM me, asking for a summary. If you couldn't care less either way, do what suits you.

To those of you who are new here, I welcome you. Here is an 1890s AU of a childhood cartoon; obviously what everyone has been lacking in their lives. I use sarcasm, of course, but I truly am excited as to where this story is heading. I hope you feel the same way.

Either way, here is a bit of historical background that I deem necessary in order to understand this story properly (of course, I define "necessary" much different than the average person, so feel free to skip this preface.)

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1890: ten years before the next century was due to start. Everyone could feel the excitement in the air. New technology was constantly being developed; telephones were slowly becoming more ubiquitous and more and more homes (mostly those of the wealthy) were being fitted with the new electric lighting fixtures. Factories and sweatshops were growing in size and in number as production of consumer goods became more efficient both in time and in cost. Children often worked once they had reached their teenage years (or even younger), helping assemble paper flowers, selling newspapers on the street, or shining shoes.

Entertainment took the form of vaudeville for the masses and more sophisticated arts like opera, the ballet, or "legitimate" theatre for those wealthy enough to pay for the tickets. In 1892, the popular song "After the Ball" sold over 2 million copies in sheet music, essentially making it the birth of American pop music. Like most other songs of its day, "After the Ball" was a sentimental waltz about love and loss. I quite like it, but it is very unlike music today.

As for politics, most local governments were quite corrupt, with characters like Boss Tweed leaving a bad taste in everyone's mouth. In 1898, the U.S.S. Maine was sunk, igniting the Spanish-American War. It was the first major conflict for the U.S. since the Civil War and there wouldn't be another big conflict until the US joined World War I in 1917.

Things seemed to be looking up for Americans in 1890 and a few economic recessions over the course of the decade weren't going to dampen America's excitement for the dawn of a new century; a century of industry and of progress. But, do not think of the United States as a monolith. Instead, our story is set in one particular city in one particular state (one that is quite close to my heart): San Francisco, California

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California had only been a state for thirty-nine years in 1890 and most Americans either saw it as a popular vacationing region (with its gargantuan redwoods and Yosemite's Half Dome) or a Wild West of sorts (with its missions, old Californio families, and a lack of a strong law-enforcement bureau).

San Francisco in 1890 was quite unlike its East Coast counterparts. While the city was the largest on the West Coast of the United States at the time, and would be until the 1906 earthquake and Los Angeles' population growth around the 1920s, San Francisco was very different from other cities such as Boston or New York.

For one thing, it just looked different. Boston had its federal and colonial-style houses while New York had majestic brownstones and ornate mansions alongside squalid and sprawling tenements. San Francisco, on the other hand, had what seemed to be infinitely many hills, many of which were covered with wooden false-front houses and stores. Some streets, like Market, had tall department stores and looked more like the average 19th-century American city. And as the century ended and the next began, the rest of the city would soon follow, growing taller and taller until it would resemble nearly every other major metropolitan area in the United States. The earthquake and fires of 1906 also helped to modernize the city, as much of San Francisco had to be rebuilt.

Crime in San Francisco during this era wasn't like the gang-ridden criminal underworld of New York City. While old Gotham had its Cherry Hill Gang and figures such as Monk Eastman, San Francisco was far more disorganized, although crime did seem to largely be centered in the Barbary Coast, Tenderloin, and Chinatown neighborhoods. The San Francisco police department, too, was less developed than its New York counterpart. The police in San Francisco weren't necessarily assumed to be corrupt and in the hands of the big bosses over in Tammany Hall, so to speak. However, San Francisco did have its own host of problems, such as opium dens and racially-segregated brothels. Indeed, the racial make-up of San Francisco was what set it apart from, for the most part, the rest of the United States.

The Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882 essentially put a halt to all Chinese immigration to the United States and wouldn't be abolished for another few decades. Bred from nativist sentiment and a fear of the "other", the Chinese Exclusion Act helped to solidify bigotry and xenophobia within California (and, indeed, the rest of the United States). Most of the Chinese in the United States were male; the few women that did arrive on America's shores were often presumed to be prostitutes and risked deportment. These immigrants spoke Cantonese and, to the white Americans at the time, appeared to be something exotic.

Thus, the Chinatowns that sprang up around the country both served as ethnic neighborhoods and as tourism points for the middle-class. The opium den was both a place to be a drug addict and a place to gawk at said drug addict. Houses of prostitution were also subjected to exoticism and bigotry; a map of San Francisco's Chinatown from 1885 labels the brothels in two distinct terms: white prostitutes and Chinese prostitutes.

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It is clear that the ideas and mindsets surrounding race in the 1890s differed greatly from the values that we hold today. This story of mine is not intended to enforce those thoughts or biases, but to instead give a mostly-accurate depiction of life back then as it relates to our protagonists. Some of the racial slurs of the time are not those that I feel comfortable writing and, as an author, I feel that it is necessary that I "sanitize" my writing just a little in that respect. Let it just be said that my writing will not resemble that of Mark Twain's "Huckleberry Finn" in that regard.

Gender roles have also greatly changed since the 1890s. Women did not have the right to vote yet nationwide (and wouldn't for another thirty years). Most middle and upper-class women did not work outside of the home, especially once they were married. As is such, the characters in this story of mine have had their lives and their backgrounds altered slightly so as to match the ideals of masculinity and femininity of the era. It is not my intent to write any of the characters as being inferior to their canon counterparts solely because of their sex, but to instead show what their lives would most likely resemble had their stories taken place nearly 130 years ago.

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A note on the historical accuracy of it all: I am a complete history nerd, especially with 1890s America. It's a favorite era of mine for several reasons (one of which is the sheer ridiculousness of women's fashionable sleeves). I have done and am still doing an incredible amount of research for this story. I am constantly reading contemporary newspapers, researching the California Penal and Civil Codes at the time, and cross-referencing all of the locations in my story with census records, street directories, and maps of the city. However, I am (clearly) not perfect and I will miss some things. Perhaps there really was no druggist on that one particular street or there was no streetcar that ran from point A to point B without a detour through point C.

If there are any glaring errors such as fax machines being used (I joke) or something just seeming completely off, please do let me know.

As for clothing, you can bet that I have accurately researched what outfits each individual character would have worn. In fact, I am an amateur historical costumer (the 1890s and the 1830s are my favorite time periods to sew for).

For example, the working-class individual without an eye for fashion would most likely wear a skirt and jacket from five to ten years earlier with slight alterations made to fit the current decade. That person's blouse might be more recent, as those tend to wear out faster, and the shoes and hat would be most recent of all. Hats were insane with their decorations and it was also relatively inexpensive to change up the trim of a hat to suit a particular occasion. Meanwhile, the woman who cares a bit more about fashion but cannot necessarily afford to buy something custom-made each week would have a few old favorites, constantly made-over to look newer and more in-season, along with perhaps a new wool "crape" walking suit with sleeves and a skirt in the fashionable style.

Menswear would be similar. If I were to be honest with you, menswear didn't change much since probably the 1850s. Just imagine a "Victorian" gentleman in a matching suit jacket and trousers, probably with a bowler hat. That's what most of the men in this story would wear on a day-to-day basis, although the fabrics and prints of their clothing would vary slightly depending on social class and occasion.

And, it should be noted, the bustle was on its way out. Do not picture those huge bustles nor the cage crinolines of earlier eras. If you are as interested in late 19th-century clothing as I am, feel free to PM me for pictures and resources that I have gathered.