HORSE-STEALING ANECDOTES 265 



This affair terminated pleasantly for every one 

 except the poor wretch who had to disgorge his ill- 

 gained wealth ; but when Judge Lynch presides over 

 the court before which the horse-thief is brought, 

 the business is finished in such a rapid manner that 

 there is little chance of the culprit escaping ; and it 

 happens occasionally that an innocent man suffers* 

 As an instance of a tragic trial for horse stealing, 

 Mr. Clarence King, of the United States Geological 

 Survey, thus reports a horse-stealing trial in Cali- 

 fornia : 



'Early in the fifties, on a still, hot summer's 

 afternoon, a certain man, in the camp of the northern 

 mines which shall be nameless, having tracked his two 

 donkeys and one horse a half-mile, and discovering 

 that a man's track with spur-marks followed them, 

 came back to town and told " the boys " who loitered 

 about a popular saloon that in his opinion "some 

 Mexican had stolen the animals." 



' Such news as this naturally demanded drinks 

 all round. " Do you know, gentlemen," said one 

 who assumed leadership, " that just naturally to 

 shoot these Greasers ain't the best way. Give 'em a 

 fair jury trial, and rope 'em up with all the majesty 

 of law. That's the cure." 



' Such words of moderation were well received, 

 and they drank again to " here's hoping we ketch 

 that Greaser." 



' As they loafed back again to the verandah, a 



