lb 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 kmch, a conviction 

 gradually formed in his breast that his experience 

 had been a dream, and that his wakefulness shovild 

 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 — Jos^ Fomie, 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 mN^sterious 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-stuffer, 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. 



