190 EAST PRUSSIA TO THE GOLDEN GATE 



whole outfit, numbering more than thirty, and sent every 

 one of them the following notice on the same day: "Five 

 days after date you will have to leave the city of San 

 Francisco and Upper California forever. Passage has 

 been paid for you on board of the vessel 'N,' Captain 

 l N,' in this harbor, bound for Sydney. Ticket herewith 

 enclosed. "The Vigilance Committee." 



No further signature was attached to this laconic noti- 

 fication of their banishment but so panic stricken were 

 the recipients by the order of the all-powerful committee 

 that all but one hastened to comply without making an at- 

 tempt at delay by contradiction. One, however, thought 

 himself immune, pretending that nobody would be able to 

 prove his actual guilt and— he remained. To his amaze- 

 ment he found his house one fine morning surrounded by 

 two hundred well armed men. Every particle of his be- 

 longings were packed on a wagon, whereupon he himself 

 was given a free ride to the building of the vigilance com- 

 mittee on Battery street, where he was held prisoner for 

 eight days, i. e., until the departure of another Sydney 

 bound vessel, when he and his belongings were taken on 

 board and he was bidden farewell. This man had suf- 

 fered veritable death agony during the eight days of his 

 involuntary imprisonment in the Battery street jail, 

 which inmates in those days were seldom known to have 

 left— except to ascend the scaffold. No wonder that he 

 was happy to have saved his neck, even in this manner. 

 The municipal authorities, for weighty reasons of their 

 own, dared not interfere, and thus the vigilance commit- 

 tee held full sway until the former commenced to feel 

 the sting of public disdain, as well as chagrined that their 

 presence and offices cut so small a figure in public opin- 

 ion. They then planned to regain the power which, in 

 their opinion, the vigilance committee had usurped. An 

 opportunity for their intended action seemed to have 

 come. With the beginning of August the arduous work 

 of the purification by the vigilance committee seemed 

 to have been nearly completed. There remained, how- 

 ever, among a few others a band of very dangerous 



