The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, January 23, 1898, Page 19

THE N FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, JANUARY 23, 1898. 19 WHEN THREE TAPS ON A BELL SUMMONED 4000 MEN TO A HANGING. By A. M. EBBETS, Chief Aid, Vigilance Committee HE first record of the Vigilance Committee of this city was the action of its citizens, who In July, 1849, put in prison members of a gang of ra and robbers called the ample wo To my know- merchan: was left in 1d never disturbed. In the fall of , with the return of disappointed gold seekers and the ad- vent of a rough element in vessels from forelgn ports, robbery and murder, the knife and slung-shot became so com- mon that it was found necessary to or- ganize a committee of safety. We had our night patrols to guard our build- inst fire and rob- characters were known. ledge valt front of stores curred until the ar- r who was caught with a small safe concealed in a sack. He was given a falr trial, convicted and hanged from the rafters of the adobe building jus ide the northwest cor- ner of Pc jouth Square. The rope was long, and many of the committee had hold of {t, while the balance kept back the opposing crowd. Findir t this committee, of merchants, was not in its organization to robberies and murders, com- rested taken to the committee Battery, near California Among the number was a man ed Stuart, who, upon his trial, con- fessed to more than one murder. For one of these murders a certain Berdeau Marysville was under sentence to be hanged. Through our committee his life was saved. We hanged Stuart on a derrick for small boats at the foot of California-street wharf, then near Da- He died game, refusing to black silg handkerchief put over his face. August rooms on the same year, Whittaker sentenced to ' be riff and his deputies rooms and took s to the County.Jail on they were recaptured by e jafl doors and ta- s action stopp 1t and this cor urned sine die to meet hree the executive never necessary, ps of the bell of the Monu- house on Brenham place the signal, and it was not killed James King ot n in 1856. The excitement was intense and in i we had trouble to get to- the three members of the exe- committee and the secretary. n this was nplished the bell tapped and the old committee met the California Ploneers street, opposite the al room was set aside the and soon William T. oleman arrived and was made chalr- Next morning headquarters were ed on Sacramento ’ nt, and the enroliment arted of the famous Vigilance tee of 1836. is of names were signed and Lcec gs ers issued for days, until the bepship reached nearly 4000. After the formation of an executive com- mittee the folowing officers were sen: W. T. Coleman, president; ac Bluxume, secretary; Charles Doane, marshal; Colonel Olney, assist- ant marshal, and myself as chief aid Companles of 100 each, together with an artillery and cavalry company, were enrolled, and a police and detective force was appointed. The executive committee of selected men and the rent captains met and issued all orders arrest and tried all cases, appointing attorneys to defend the prisoners. Numerous rooms were set aside for the arrested, and a password, new every day, was necessary to get in or out of the building. At one time there must have been 100 prisoners. Among ber was Yankee Sullivan, who ed suicide in his cell, and Judge “AS THE RUSHING CROWD CAME IN SIGHT OF FORT GUNNYBAGS IT i - a‘m_ Py 2R e W e o Terry, arrested for stabbing one of the arresting officers, named Hopkins. Dr. Beverly Cole saved Hopkins' life, and 80 Terry was not hanged. Many & night have I stood over him and al- lowed his wife to visit him. As the different trials progressed men were sent out of the State in steamers, with the prospect of death if they re- turned, and the death sentence was passed on Casey, Cora, Hetherington and Brace. Casey and Cora were in the County Jall, where they had fled for protection, but on the tap of the committeee's signal several thousand men formed and marched to the jail and surrounded it. Resistance was useless. The prl oners were taken to the com building, and while James King’ was being taken to the grave Casey and Cora were hanging. Casey broke down just before he was hanged, and begged and pleaded like a child to be tion as to territory that had been therefore almost terra incognita. The dissimilarity between the Califor- nia and Fraser River excitements was In the ending. The golden wealth of the California mines proved inex- haustible; that of the Fraser placers an empty vision. Fraser River.is the principal stream of British Columbia, that after a flow of 800 miles empties into the gulf of Georgia just north of the International boundary. When the first news was received in California “that rich dig- gings had been found on the bar of the river, and that there were large tracts of excellent placers in the up- per basin of the stream,” there had been but one complete survey and map made of tHe region north of 49 degrees between the mountains and the sea. The most curious of all the coinei- dences respecting Fraser River region was that it was the scene of Bacon's New Atlantis. And, if this were not enough to make it fmmortal in his- tory, Dean Swift also loca[ed_ here his The yleld from the mines of this State had decreased; the piloneers of the Golden State were of adventurous cast; they were restless, and longed for a change to more promising flelds. Within four months 18,000 men, nearly one-sixth of all the voters in the State, went to Fraser River, and many thousands of others were pre- paring for an early start. The confl- dent belief was that “the good old times” of '40 were to come again. Servants threw up their positions, farmers and miners left their valuable properties, wages rose, houses and land fell in value and many believed that California would soon be left without a tenth of her population. All this excitement arose, too, before any gold had been received in San Francisco, and before there was any direct and trustworthy evidence of the existence of paying diggings. The re- gion, too, was comparatively distant and inhospitable; the privations and dangers were only a little less than those encountered in this day by the voyagers up the Yukon. “Clang! Sounded the Alarm Bell and We All Ran From the Church to Fort Gunnybags.’ N all the exciting movements of the early '50’s there was none more striking nor dramatic than the hanging of Casey and Cora by the Vigilance Committee. Casey had killed James King of Willlam, and Cora had murdered United States Mar- shal Richardson. The thrilling alarm bell of the Vigilance Committee rang out and the execution took place just as the funeral services of James King of William w ng on. It was generally known that Casey and Cora had been condemned to death, but it was not known when the execution was to be carried into effect. The city was in mourning such as it 4 never been before and never has :n since. With the exception of a very few buildings that were controlled by individuals who were favorable to the Law and Order Party, an insigni- ficant organization that openly de- clared itself opposed to the methods of the Vigilance Committee, every house displayed emblems of mourni The day for the funeral of James King of William, who had been a member of the Vigilance Committee of '51, was set for M. 22, and the place where the services were to be held was the church on the west side of Stockton street, between Clay.and Sacramento. 1 was among the thousands of peopla gathered there to witness the funeral. The street was crowded and all who could be were admitted {nto the church edifice. Organized bodies of men rep- BY AN EYE-WITNESS. resenting various socleties were ranged in line around the church. During the time of the solemn services there was a hush that was not broken until there was a movement at the church door and 1t became apparent that the pall bearers were advancing with the cas- ket contalning the remains of the hon- ored dead. All who could, moved to obtaln a better view. At that very moment when sands of men stood with to show thelr reverence for the depart- ed, there rang out on the still air a sound that electrifled ev: one. Then followed a scene I shall never forget. A bell rang out, thou- heads bared deep-toned, clear. Every one understood its meaning. It was struck with measured blows, one- two-three—and as the echoes of the last stroke were sounding there, in that vast crowd, face turned to face with a look that was full of signifi- cance. Eve man who w a member of the Vigilance Committee knew that it was the alarm sounded by the alarm bell on the roof of Fort Gunnybags, the headquarters of the Vigilance Commit- tee. They knew it was the call to duty. In a moment every man who was a member of the committee t 1 his re galia to some non-member, stewa cast aside their wands and all started on a mad run for Sacramento street. Joining the crowd I turned into Sac- ramento street just in time to see two bodles drop from windows at the west- ern end of the Vigilance Committee rooms. It needed no herald to announce to the crowd rushing down Sacramento saved. A short time afterward Hetherington and Brace were hanged on a scaffold erected on Davis street, near Sacra- mento; and so ended the work of the Vigilance Committee of 1 A. M. BBETS. —_———— FRASER RIVER GOLD RUSH HERE have been remarkable coincidences in the various gold mining “rushes” so far as re- late to their perfodicity and re- sults. The news of the discov- ery of gold by Marshall at Coloma on January 24, 1848, traveled to the East very slowly. It was just a decade of years after- ward, in May, 1858, when the Fraser River excitement broke out. In 1868 came the White Pine rush, and now, in 1898, the Klondike fever has the sway. There 1s a great correspondence in the relation of the three great gold mining fevers — California, Fraser River and the Klondike—both as to order of time and as to circumstances. In each instance there was the same anxiety and eagerness for details, and the same fluctuating accounts from those who ploneered the way. There were the same extravagant stories, the same Incredible hardships, and, more than all, the same ignorance and uncertainty concerning the region where the gold was supposed to lie. Books, maps and newspapers were hunted through in quest of informa- e ag—that if Gulliver 1s t believed. A E count it must ha situa rectly on the Str 1en there was considered the pro- portions of some of .the stories that in the inning by we ent dow the pjone iv ticularly ticle of kitchen llows, which 1 by the Indians for > of eating and f > seemed to be conm time of the Fraser the ter: control "o had r size of a were double the dried the the und trading post at various points in the ir and on the seacoast. On the fi ux of gold-seekers the Governor of Vancouve Island promptly adopted measures to secure to the British Government a royalty v i nse tax on the :d the monopoly ¢y Company by for- bidding the importation of goods ex- cept through the company’s agencies. Foreign ships were > forbidden to igate Fraser Rive The 1 discovery In ived In Call- fornia with a thrill that was felt in every fiber of her political and indus- trial organization. In the spring, when it was reported that rich dig- gings had been found on a bar of Fraser River, that the yield was in large nuggets, and that there, were large tracts of excellent placers in the upper basin of the stream, there was apparent foundation 1in experi- ence and reason for the report. The conditions as deseribed resembled those of the California gold regions. & the north in 1858 was rece news of the street hill that the two men whose bodies were dangling from ropes each at the end of a beam were Casey and Cora. At Davis street was lined up a com- pany of cavalry that covered not only that street but both sides of Drumm street, north and south of Sacramento. and through that line of uniformed men in black suits and blackglazed caps and with drawn s lowed to pass unle countersign. ords none were al- s provided with the Within these lines were 1d patrols of infantry, the piles of sand bags that formed the barricade in front of the fort frowned six-pounders loaded to the muzzle with canister. On the roof of the fort was an armed body of men and one with smoking linstock fn hand stood by a swivel six-pounder that commanded the approach to the fort from three sides. Fronting the fort was a vacant lot used as a city dumping place. Ranged in front is and facing the fort was a compa infantry, vis, Clay and Drumm streets were dis- tributed infan so that these armed men formed a hollow square, while on the Drumm-street side was a troop of cavalry. Thisdistributionof force show- ed that while the mass of the people were at the funeral servicethe vigilance minute men had been quickly sum- moned and stationed and the mandate of the executive council as to the death penalty was carried our. The time and occasion wera chosen so that at the mo- ment of execution there should be but few people present. ERNEST C. STOCK. while on Da- Most of the adventurers outfitted at Victoria with provisions, canoces and mining implements. From there, even in so frall a bark as a canoe, containing three, four or flve men, they set sail for Fraser River, which they ascended to one of the forts, and there, ‘disembarking, turned their faces toward the land of promise, loaded with their stores, and often hiring men to carry their canges in which to cross the several lakes and streams that interposed on their weary journey. Often there were nu- merous portages to be made, over deep gnows In freezing cold weather. These and numerous other difficulties - encountered, in a pleasing hope, *h often turned to despair. Not one man in a hundred, after reaching the gold region, realized his expectations. The smallest number remained in the country, while the great majority, disappointed, dis- heartemed and impoverished, returned to California. WINFTELD J. DAVIS. _———— FAMOUS GOLD RUSHES. HOUGH the people of all na- tions, from the earliest times, have been determined in their search for the precious metal, the gold rush, as we term it now- adays, is but a comparatively modern institution. The ancients were content to take life more easily and to gather in the gold when it came to them, rather than leave their happy homes to endure privation in the search of it. This was a task which the Ro- mans left to the barbarians of Wales of 1856. and Hungary, though there is one rec- ord of a search for gold which history has immortalized. This is the cele- brated voyage of Jason and the Argo- nauts, in pursuit of the gold which ru- mor told them was to be found in the Caucasus. 3 In more modern timeés the world had to depend largely for its supply upon Africa and India, whence the precious metal dribbled in small quantities, its source being haidly ever traceable. But when the Spanish conquest of South America opened this part of the world to European commerce, Peru and Bolivia, with their slave-worked mines, became the chief contributors to the world's supply, and in lateryears the Ural Mountains in Russia ylelded valuable returns of gold. However, though all these mines must, at one time or another, have been discovered accidentally, nothing like a rush of miners ever occurred. For one thing the old mines, especially those controlled by Russia and Spain, were always proprietary affairs, and these nations would no more have dreamed of sharing the spoil with strangers than they would of abandoning their claim to the land. Another great dif- ficulty was the lack of communication. The gold mines in Peru were worked for many generations before the rest of Europe knew aught of the matter, and Spanish secrets were only disclosed by the rough-and-ready methods of Drake and his fellow-adventurers, who won their gold and silver by the simple process of capturing treasure-laden galleons. If Pizarro's lleutenant, Orel- lana, had ever really discovered the mythical El Dorado, a country of fab- ulous wealth, supposed to lie some- where between the Orinoco and Amazon Rivers, the future of South America miglt have been changed, for the rush of Northern adventurers would doubt- less have compelled even the close-fist- ed Spaniard to d a portion of his jealously guarded territory. When the rush to San Francisco in search of the new EIl Dorado set in, the Australian Government—the place was then but a crown colony—was sorely perplexed. The land was but thinly VR i %fll 193 /] 1 I peopled at the best, the majority of the inhabitants were convicts, and with such a lodestar as California shining in the east, it seemed probable that the whole of the free working population would desert in a body to California. As a matter of fact, many did make the voyage to the Golden State, and one of these adventurous miners, a Mr. Hargraves, was immediately struck by the close resemblance between the placers of California and the ranges of his native colony, New South Wales. So close was the resemblance that he went back to Australia with the fixed assurance that he would find gold. He marched straight to a spot on the Turon, an insignificant creek near Bathurst, and there the very first basin which he washed yielded several small nuggets. This was really the origin of the great Australian gold rush, for, public attention once attracted to the subject, gold was found in great qu tities all through New Scuth Wales and Victoria. Soon there was a return rush from California, Australians who had been tempted to these shores has- tened back to their own country, and many Californians joined them, help- ing in a few years to build up citles like Melbourne and Ballarat, and to convert a sparsely populated sheep run into a wealthy and self-governing col- ony. There have also been gold rushes, though on a smaller scale, to the north. ern territory of Australia, a country almost tropical in its character, whilst SIS even New Guinea has been invaded by the seekers for easily gotten wealth. No doubt there is plenty of gold in New Guinea, but there are also sav- ages of the mest ferocious character, to say nothing of malaria and divers other diseases. The result is that, though many miners have gone into New Guinea, but few have come out of it, and the gold yield from this un- explored country has not greatly add- ed to the statistical returns. The southern porticn of Africa, be- ing temperate in climate and within easy reach of Europe, has also attract- ed many diggers. Gold has been found all through the country, and the Transvaal has proved especially rich, g0 that the mines around Johannes- burg are famous throughout the world. h of gold seekers has swamped abode of the Boer farmers, sident Kruger and his conserv- pite their strenuous resistance, are threatened with being overrun by the more vigorous Uitland- ers. SAW CASEY AND CORA SWINGING FROM BEAMS AND THE VIGILANCE COMMITTEE GUARDING ITS HEADQUARTERS. giiah