5th March
2011
We found ourselves in a large bar and billiard-room . . . Here I saw Lieutenant Derby, of the Topographical Engineers, an elderly gentlemen of emaciated appearance and serious cast of features. . .
The story of Lt. Derby, Army engineer and the man Mark Twain would call “the first great modern humorist” : George H. Derby
If I could go back in time and meet one person in San Diego’s history, George Horatio Derby is the man. My all time favorite Derby prank: switching all the babies at a fandango. Imagine the networking that had to have gone on in the middle of the night amongst the mothers to get the babies back to the proper mothers. And did they even notice before morning?