Book excerpt: The seventeen stories Schwartz tells here remond us of an often-overlooked reality: that the face of humanity of the past is the same as our own. Although the world of these colorful characters inhabit is in so many ways different from ours, their spirit rings true to our modern sensibilities, Eccentrics, Heroes, and Cuttthroats of Old Berkeley shows how deeply we share the emotions and motivations of our ancestors...whetehr she's a Native American girl trapped as a Berkeley domestic, a Civil War veteran gossiping and reminiscing his way down Shattuck Avenue in a horse-drawn wagon, or an African American dairyman whose keen observations and inventive skill bring him riches in a community that embraced him as a town founder. Schwartz brings forth these long-forgotten people from their resting place, and does so with such skill as a storyteller that we can, for a time, straddle two worlds and sense their profound continuity.