374 RESOURCES OF CALIFORNIA. 
patch the offender while their blood is still hot. These scenes 
have been comparatively rare of late, but they happen at least 
several times in the course of a year. In thé year 1855, no 
less than forty-seven men were executed by mobs in Califor- 
nia, twenty-four for theft, nineteen for murder, one for arson, 
one for rape, and two Indians, for being spies to watch the 
movements of some white men who were making war on their 
tribe in Northern California. In nearly every instance when 
a man is executed by mob law in California, he gets his deserts. 
There may be exceptions, of course, but all the probabilities 
are against the victim. Though the mob are excited, they are 
by no means unreasonable; they frequently give a man a for- 
mal trial, hear the testimony against him, and do not execute 
him until a jury has rendered a verdict against him. Some- 
times the execution is hasty, but in such cases either the crime 
is great and indubitable or there is danger that the offender 
will be rescued by the officers of the law. The method of 
procedure at alynching is simple. The people collect about 
the place where the prisoner is kept; if he is in jail and the 
jailor refuses to give him up, they break the door open with 
crowbars, and take the prisoner out toatree. If they have 
leisure, a jury is organized and put under oath or promise to 
give the accused a fair trial. Some one, no matter whether a 
lawyer or not, is appointed to examine the witnesses for the 
prosecution, and another for the defence; and after a brief 
hearing of the testimony a verdict is rendered, and in nineteen 
cases out of twenty, the accused must swing. Hanging is 
always used as the mode of execution. The main excuse for 
these lynchings is, that the law is so badly administered that 
there is no security that a criminal will be punished ; but as the 
population becomes more permanent, there is less foundation 
for this plea, and the lynch executions Become less frequent. 
They are confined altogether to the remote places in the state, 
and in a few years they will entirely cease. 
§ 263. Squatter Leagwe.—There is now, and has for years 
been, a squatter league secret society, with hundreds of mem- 
