The Alta announces the fact in the following
article :
" A man was executed yesterday for murder, after
a due compliance with all the forms of law.
" That he had been guilty of the crime for which
he suffered there can be no doubt ; and yet it is
entirely probable that, but for the circumstances
which have occurred in San Francisco within the
past three weeks, he never would have paid to the
offended law the penalty affixed to his crime.
" It is a very remarkable fact in the history of this
execution, that the condemned man, at the time of
the murder of Mr King, was living only under the
respite of the Governor, and that that respite was
obtained through the active interposition of Casey,
who little dreamed that he would suffer the death-
penalty before the man whom he had laboured to
save.
" This is the third execution only, under the forms
of law, which has ever been had in San Francisco
since it became an American city. Murder after
murder has been committed, and murderer after
murderer has been arrested and tried. Those who
m
were blessed with friends and money have usually
succeeded in escaping through the forms of law be-
fore a conviction was reached. Those who failed in
this respect have, with the exceptions we have stated,
been saved from punishment through the unwarranted
interference of the executive officer of the State. So
murder has enjoyed in San Francisco almost a certain
232 AMOUNT OF CRIME.
immunity from punishment; and the consequence
has been, that it has stalked abroad high-handed and
bold. Over a year ago, we understood the district
attorney to state, in an argument before a jury in a
murder case, that, since the settlement of San Fran-
cisco by the American people, there had been twelve
hundred murders committed here. We thought at
the time the number stated was unduly large, and
think so still ; but it has been large enough, beyond
doubt, to give us the unenviable reputation we have
obtained abroad.
" And yet, in spite of these facts, but three criminals
have suffered the death-penalty awarded to the crimes
of which they have been guilty. These Avere all
friendless, moneyless men. A sad commentary this
on that motto, ' Equal and exact justice to all/ which
we delight to blazon over our constitution and laws.
" Was it not time for a change time, if need be,
for a revolution which should inaugurate a new state
of things which should give an assurance that
human life should be protected from the hand of the
gentlemanly and monied assassin, as well as from the
miserable, the poor, and the friendless \ Such a revo-
lution has been made by the people, and it has been
the inauguration of a new and bright era in our his-
tory, in which an assurance has been given, that
neither the technicalities of a badly administered law,
nor the interference of the Executive, can save the
murderer from the punishment he justly merits. It
has been brought about by the very evils it is intended
CLASSIFICATION OP MURDERS. 233
to remedy. Had crime been punished here as it
should have been had the law done its duty, Casey
would never have dared to shoot down the lamented
King in broad daylight, with the hope that through
the forms of law he would escape punishment. There
would have been no necessity for a Vigilance Com-
mittee, no need of a revolution. Let us hope that in
future the law will be no longer a mockery, but be-
come, what it was intended by its founders to be, * a
terror to evil-doers/"
The number of murders here given is no doubt
appalling, but it is apt to give an idea of an infinitely
more dreadful state of society, and of much greater
insecurity of life to peaceable citizens than was
actually the case.
If these murders were classified, it would be found
that the frequency of fatal duels had greatly swelled
the list, while, in the majority of cases, the murders
would turn out to be the results of rencontres between
desperadoes and ruffians, who, by having their little
difficulties among themselves, and shooting and
stabbing each other, and thus diminishing their own
numbers, were rather entitled to the thanks of the
respectable portion of the community.
It is very certain that in San Francisco crime was
fostered by the laxity of the law, but it is equally
reasonable to believe that in the mines, where Lynch
law had full swing, the amount of crime actually com-
mitted by the large criminally disposed portion of the
community, consisting of lazy Mexican ladrones and
234 MAJESTIC SLOWNESS OF THE LAW.
cutthroats, well-trained professional burglars from
populous countries, and outcast desperadoes from all
the corners of the earth, was not so great as would
have resulted from the presence of the same men in
any old country, where the law, clothed in all its
majesty, is more mysterious and slow, however irre-
sistible, in its action.
CHAPTER XV.
RAPID GROWTH OF CALIFORNIA AMOUNT OF LABOUR PERFORMED
LUXURY AND HARDSHIP A RAGGED MAN THE FLYING
DUTCHMAN FOPPERY IN RAGS A STUDY THE TOWER OF BABEL
FRENCHMEN A " KESKYDEE " " DUTCHMEN " CLIMBING A
MOUNTAIN AN EXTENSIVE VIEW.
WITHOUT having visited some distant place in the
mountains, such as Downieville, it was impossible to
realise fully the extraordinary extent to which the
country had, in so short a time, been overrun and
settled by a population whose energy and adaptive
genius had immediately seized and improved every
natural advantage which presented itself, and whose
quickly acquired wealth enabled them to introduce so
much luxury, and to afford employment to so many
of those branches of industry which usually flourish
only in old communities, that in some respects Cali-
fornia can hardly be said to have ever been a new
country, as compared with other parts of the world
to which that term is applied.
The men who settled the country imparted to it a
good deal of their own nature, which knows no period
236 LABOUR AND
of boyhood. The Americans spring at once from
childhood, or almost from infancy, to manhood ; and
California, no less rapid in its growth, became
a full-grown State, while one-half the world still
doubted its existence.
The amount of labour which had already been per-
formed in the mines was almost incredible. Every
river and creek from one end to the other presented
a busy scene ; on the " bars," of course, the miners
were congregated in the greatest numbers ; but there
was scarcely any part of their course where some work
was not going on, and the flumes were so numerous,
that for about one-third of their length the rivers
were carried past in those wooden aqueducts.
The most populous part of the mines, however, was
in the high mountain- land between the rivers, and
here the whole country had been ransacked, every
flat and ravine had been prospected ; and wherever
extensive diggings had been found, towns and villages
had sprung up.
Young as California was, it was in one respect
older than its parent country, for life was so fast that
already it could show ruins and deserted villages. In
out-of-the-way places one met with cabins fallen into
disrepair, which the proprietors had abandoned to
locate themselves elsewhere ; and even villages of
thirty or forty shanties were to be seen deserted and
desolate, where the diggings had not proved so pro-
ductive as the original founders had anticipated.
Labour, however, was not exclusively devoted to
LUXURY IN THE MINES. 237
mining operations. Roads had in many parts been
cut in the sides of the mountains, bridges had been
built, and innumerable saw-mills, most of them driven
by steam power, were in full operation, many of them
having been erected in anticipation of a demand for
lumber, and before any population existed around
them. Every little valley in the mountains where
the soil was at all fit for cultivation, was already
fenced in, and producing crops of barley or oats ; and
canals, in some cases forty or fifty miles long, were
in course of construction, to bring the waters of the
rivers to the mountain-tops, to diggings which were
otherwise unavailable.
Life for the most part was hard enough certainly,
but every village was a little city of itself, where one
could live in comparative luxury. Even Downieville
had its theatre and concerts, its billiard -rooms and
saloons of all sorts, a daily paper, warm baths, and
restaurants where men in red flannel shirts, with bare
arms, spread a napkin over their muddy knees, and
studied the bill of fare for half an hour before they
could make up their minds what to order for
dinner.
I was sitting on a rock by the side of the river
one day sketching, when I became aware that a most
ragamuffi nish individual was looking over my shoulder.
He was certainly, without exception, the most tattered
and torn man I ever saw in my life ; even his hair and
beard gave the idea of rags, which was fully realised
by his costume. He was a complete caricature of an
238 THE MAN THAT WAS
old miner, and quite a picture of himself, seen from
any point of view.
The rim of his old brown hat seemed ready to drop
down on his shoulders at a moment's notice, and the
sides, having dissolved all connection with the crown,
presented at the top a jagged circumference, festooned
here and there with locks of light brown hair, while,
to keep the whole fabric from falling to pieces of its
own weight, it was bound round with a piece of
string in lieu of a hat-band. His hair hung all over
his shoulders in large straight flat locks, just as if a
handkerchief had been nailed to the top of his head
and then torn into shreds, and a long beard of the
same pattern fringed a face as brown as a mahogany
table. His shirt had once been red flannel of course
it was flannel yet, what remained of it but it was in
a most dilapidated condition. Half-way down to
his elbows hung some shreds, which led to the belief
that at one time he had possessed a pair of sleeves;
but they seemed to have been removed by the action
of time and the elements, which had also been busy
with other parts of the garment, and had, moreover,
changed its original scarlet to different shades of
crimson and purple. There was enough of his shirt
left almost to meet a pair of not trousers, but still
less mentionable articles, of the same material as
the shirt, and in the same stage of decomposition. He
must have had trousers once on a time, but I suppose
he had worn them out ; and I could not help thinking
what extraordinary things they must have been on the
TATTERED AND TORN. 239
morning when he came to the conclusion that they
were not good enough to wear. I daresay he would
have put them on if he could, but perhaps they were
so full of holes that he did not know which to get
into. His boots at least had reached this point, and
to acknowledge that they had been boots was as much
as a conscientious man could say for them. They
were more holes than leather, and had no longer any
title to the name of boots.
He was a man between thirty and forty, and, not-
withstanding his rags, there was nothing in his ap-
pearance at all dirty or repulsive ; on the contrary,
he had a very handsome, prepossessing face, with an
air about him which at once gave the idea that he
had been used to polite society. I was, consequently,
not surprised at the style of his address. He talked
with me for some time, and I found him a most
amusing and gentlemanly fellow. He was a German
doctor, but it was hard to detect any foreign accent
in his pronunciation.
The claim he was working was a mile or two up
the river, and his company, he told me, was one of
the greatest curiosities in the country. It consisted
of two Americans, two Frenchmen, two Italians, two
Mexicans, and my ragged friend, who was the only
man in the company who spoke any language but his
mother tongue. He was captain of the company, and
interpreter-general for the crowd. I quite believed
him when he said it was hard work to keep them all
in order, and that when he was away no work could
240 THE TOWER OF BABEL.
be done at all, and for that reason he was now hurry-
ing back to his claim. But before leaving me he
said, " I saw you sketching from the trail, and I came
down to ask a favour of you."
There is as much vanity sometimes in rags as in
gorgeous apparel ; and what he wanted of me was to
make a sketch of him, rags and all, just as he was.
To study such a splendid figure was exactly what I
wanted to do myself, so I made an appointment with
him for the next day, and begged of him in the mean-
time not to think of combing his hair, which, indeed,
to judge from its appearance, he had not done for
some time.
I found afterwards that he was a well-known
character, and went by the name of the Flying
Dutchman.
I passed by his claim one day, and such a scene it
was ! The Tower of Babel was not a circumstance
to it. The whole of the party were up to their waists
in water, in the middle of the river, trying to build
a wing-dam. The Americans, the Frenchmen, the
Italians, and the Mexicans, were all pulling in different
directions at an immense unwieldy log, and bestowing
on each other most frightful oaths, though happily
in unknown tongues ; while the directing genius, the
Flying Dutchman, was rushing about among them,
and gesticulating wildly in his endeavours to pacify
them, and to explain what was to be done. He spoke
all the modern languages at once, occasionally talking
Spanish to a Frenchman, and English to the Italians,
FRENCH MINEES. 241
then cursing his own stupidity in German, and blow-
ing them all up collectively in a promiscuous jumble
of national oaths, when they all came to a stand-still,
the Flying Dutchman even seeming to give it up in
despair. But after addressing a few explanatory
remarks to each nation separately, in their respective
languages, he persuaded them to try once more, when
they got along well enough for a few minutes, till
something went wrong, and then the Tower-of-Babel
scene was enacted over again.
What induced the Flying Dutchman to form a
company of such incongruous materials, and to
take so much trouble in trying to work it, I can't
say, unless it was a little of the same innocent vanity
which was apparent in his exaggerated style of dress.
There was a considerable number of Frenchmen
in the neighbourhood of Downieville, but they kept
very much to themselves. So very few of them, even
of the better class, could speak English, and so few
American miners knew anything of French, that
scarcely ever were they found working together.
In common intercourse of buying and selling, or
asking and giving any requisite information, neither
party were ever very much at a loss ; a few words of
broken English, a word or two of French, and a large
share of pantomime, carried them through any con-
ference.
When any one capable of acting as interpreter
happened to be present, the Frenchman, in his im-
patience, was constantly asking him " Qu'est ce qu'il
242 DUTCHMEN.
dit?" "Qu'est ce qu'il ditl" This caught the ear
of the Americans more than anything else, and a
"Keskydee" came at last to be a synonyme for
a " Parleyvoo."
The " Dutchmen" in the mines, under which de-
nomination are included all manner of Germans,
showed much greater aptitude to amalgamate with
the people around them. Frenchmen were always
found in gangs, but " Dutchmen" were usually met
with as individuals, and more frequently associated
with Americans than with their own countrymen.
For the most part they spoke English very well, and
there were none who could not make themselves per-
fectly intelligible.
But in making such a comparison between the Ger-
mans and the French, it would not be fair to leave
unmentioned the fact, that the great majority of the
former were men who had the advantage of having
lived for a greater or less time in the United States,
while the Frenchmen had nearly all immigrated in
ship-loads direct from their native country.
About thirty miles above Downieville is one of the
highest mountains in the mines. The view from the
summit, which is composed of several rocky peaks in
line with each other, like the teeth of a saw, was said
to be one of the finest in California, and I was de-
sirous of seeing it ; but the mountain was on the verge
of settlement, and there was no camp or house of
accommodation nearer to it than Downieville. How-
ever, the Frenchman in whose house I was staying
BAD "PACKING." 243
told me that a friend of his, who was mining there,
would be down in a day or two, and that he would
introduce me to him. He came down the next day
for a supply of provisions, and I gladly took the
opportunity of returning with him.
The trail followed the river all the way, and was
very rough, many parts of it being nearly as bad as
" Cape Horn." The Frenchman had a pack-mule
loaded with his stock of provisions, which gave him
an infinity of trouble. He was such a bad packer
that the cargo was constantly shifting, and requiring
to be repacked and secured. At one spot, where
there was a steep descent from the trail to the river
of about a hundred feet, the whole cargo broke loose,
and fell to the ground. The only article, however,
which rolled off the narrow trail was a keg of butter,
which went bounding down the hill till it reached the
bottom, where at one smash it buttered the whole
surface of a large fiat rock in the middle of the river.
The Frenchman climbed down by a circuitous route
to recover what he could of it, while I remained to
repack the cargo. Without further accident W T C
arrived about dark at my companion's cabin, where
we found his partners just preparing supper ; and a
very good supper it was ; for, with only the ordinary
materials of flour, ham, and beef, it was astonishing
what a very superior mess a Frenchman could get up.
After smoking an infinite number of pipes, I
stretched out on the floor, with my feet to the fire,
and slept like a top till morning, when, having got
244 QUARTZ-GKINDING.
directions from the Frenchman as to my route, I set
out to climb the mountain. The cabin was situated
at the base of one of the spurs into which the moun-
tain branched off, and was about eight miles distant
from the summit.
When I had got about half-way up, I came in sight
of a quartz-grinding establishment, situated on an
exceedingly steep place, where a small stream of
water came dashing over the rocks. In the face of
the hill a step had been cut out, on which a cabin
was built, and immediately below it were two " rast-
ers " in full operation.
These are the most primitive kind of contrivances
for grinding quartz. They are circular places, ten or
twelve feet in diameter, flagged with flat stones, and
in these the quartz is crushed by two large heavy
stones dragged round and round by a mule harnessed
to a horizontal beam, to which they are also attached.
The quartz is already broken up into small pieces
before being put into the raster, and a constant sup-
ply of water is necessary to facilitate the operation,
the stuff, while being ground, having the appearance
of a rich white mud. The Mexicans, who use this
machine a great deal, have a way of ascertaining when
the quartz is sufficiently ground, by feeling it between
the finger and thumb of one hand, while with the
other they feel the lower part of their ear ; and when
the quartz has the same soft velvety feel, it is consi-
dered fine enough, and the gold is then extracted by
amalgamation with quicksilver.
A GALE OF WIND.
A considerable amount of work had been done at
this place. The quartz vein was several hundred
yards above the rasters, and from it there was laid a
double line of railway on the face of the mountain,
for the purpose of bringing down the quartz. The
loaded car was intended to bring up the empty one ;
but the railway was so steep that it looked as if a
car, once started, would never stop till it reached
the river, two or three miles below.
The vein was not being worked just now ; and I
only found one man at the place, who was employed
in keeping the two mules at work in the " rasters."
He told me that the ascent from that point was so
difficult that it would be dark before I could return,
"and persuaded me to pass the night with him, and
start early the next morning.
The nights had been getting pretty chilly lately,
and up here it was particularly so ; but with the aid
of a blazing fire we managed to make ourselves com-
fortable. I lay down before the fire, with the prospect
of having a good sleep, but woke in the middle of the
night, feeling it most bitterly cold. The fact is, the
log-cabin was merely a log-cage, the chinks between
the logs having never been filled up, and it had come
on to blow a perfect hurricane. The spot where the
cabin stood was very much exposed, and the gusts of
wind blew against it and through it as if it would
carry us all away.
This pleasant state of things lasted two days, during
which time I remained a prisoner in the cabin, as the
246 HARD CLIMBING.
force of the wind was so great that one could scarcely
stand outside, and the cold was so intense that the
pools in the stream which ran past were covered with
ice. The cabin was but poor protection, the wind
having full play through it, even blowing the tin
plates off the table while we were at dinner ; and
heavy gusts coming down the chimney filled the cabin
with smoke, ashes, and burning wood. Two days of
this was rather miserable work, but with the aid of
my pencil and two or three old novels I managed to
weather it out.
The third day the gale was over, and though still
cold, the weather was beautifully bright and clear.
On setting out on my expedition to the summit of
the mountain, I had first to climb up the railway,
which went as far as the top of the ridge, where the
quartz cropped out in large masses. From this there
was a gradual ascent to the summit, about four miles
distant, over ground which was stony, like a newly
macadamised road, and covered with wiry brushwood
waist-high. This was rendered a still more pleasant
place to travel over by being infested by grizzly bears,
whose tracks I could see on every spot of ground
capable of receiving the impression of their feet. At
last I arrived at the foot of the immense masses of
rock which formed the summit of the mountain,
and the only means of continuing the ascent was by
climbing up long slides of loose sharp-cornered stones
of all sizes. Every step I took forward, I went about
half a step backward, the stones giving way under
AN EXTENSIVE VIEW. 247
my feet, and causing a general commotion from top
to bottom. On reaching the top of this place, after
suffering a good deal in my shins and shoe-leather, I
found myself on a ledge of rock, with a similar one
forty or fifty feet above me, to be gained by climbing
another slide of loose stones ; and having spent about
an hour in working my passage up a succession of
places of this sort, I arrived at the foot of the immense
wall of solid rock which crowned the summit of the
mountain. To reach the lowest point of the top of
the perpendicular wall above me, I had some fifteen
or twenty feet to climb the best way I could, and the
prospect of any failure in the attempt was by no means
encouraging, as, had I happened to fall, I should have
been carried down to the regions below with an
avalanche of loose rocks and stones. Even as I stood
studying how I should make the ascent by means of
the projecting ledges, and tracking out my course
before I made the attempt, I felt the stones beginning
to give way under my feet; and seeing there was no
time to lose, I went at it, and after a pretty hard
struggle I reached the top. This, however, was not
the summit I was only between the teeth of the
saw ; but I was enabled to gain the top of one of the
peaks by means of a ledge, about a foot and a half
wide, which slanted up the face of the rock. Here I
sat down to enjoy the view, and certainly I felt amply
repaid for all the labour of the ascent, by the vast-
ness and grandeur of the panorama around me. I
looked back for more than a hundred miles over the
248 A CLEAR ATMOSPHERE.
mountainous pine-clad region of the " Mines," where,
from the shapes of some of the mountains, I could
distinguish many of the places which I had visited.
Beyond this lay the wide plains of the Sacramento
Valley, in which the course of the rivers could be
traced by the trees which grew along their banks;
and beyond the plains the coast range was distinctly
seen.
On the other side, from which I had made the