1 6 Reminiscences of 



discovered that his interest had expired, and that his 

 orders at the bar were ignored. Surprised and dis- 

 pirited and restricted to free lunch, a conviction 

 gradually formed in his breast that his experience 

 had been a dream, and that his wakefulness should 

 consist of another turn at the sluice boxes. Fights 

 and murders were common; forty murders were said 

 to have been committed in San Francisco in 1852 

 and only one murderer hanged Jose* Fornie, whose 

 body we on the good ship Polynesia saw hanging in 

 plain sight on Telegraph Hill the day we rounded 

 the Golden Gate to dock. 



Times were stirring; the roughs terrorized the 

 citizens. A band calling itself "regulators" preyed 

 upon the people instead of protecting them. One 

 Casy, a gambler, shot in cold blood James King, of 

 William, a prominent editor of the newspaper Bul- 

 letin, for exposing his crimes. Thugs and ballot- 

 stuffers controlled the polls. The bell tolled one day 

 and the vigilance committee was formed of good 

 citizens, with its mysterious and unknown secretary, 

 otherwise than No. 33, whose mandates became law. 



Arrests were made right and left; Casy and Cora 

 were hanged; Yankee Sullivan, a noted prize-fighter 

 and ballot-stufler, committed suicide in his cell upon 

 arrest, fearing that he would be hanged. Roughs 

 were largely banished and prohibited from returning. 

 I saw a lot leaving on a departing steamer Billy 

 Mulligan, Charley Duane, and others. I saw one day 

 hanging on the hoisting tackle of a commercial house 

 on a principal street the bodies of Whittaker and 

 McKenzie, hung by the vigilance committee. Order 

 was soon largely restored. 



