CHAPTER XX.
SOME CHINESE EPISODES.
Bom.—So have I heard on Afric's burning shore A hungry lion give a grievous roar; The grievous roar echoed along the shore. Artax.—So have I heard on Afric's burning shore Another lion give a grievous roar, And the first lion thought the last a bore.
— Bomhastes Furioso.
In the annals of our coast there is no fouler blot than the outrages perpetrated at various times and places upon Indians, Mexicans, and Chinese. Viewed from any standpoint the aspect is revolting. As a free and forward nation we fling over the walls of a close despotism sentiments which would have disgraced feudalism. As a progressive people we reveal a race prejudice intolerable to civilization; as Christians we are made to blush beside the heathen Asiatic; as just and humane men we slaughter the innocent and vie with red-handed savages in deeds of atrocity.
Let the diabolism rest where it belongs, with unprincipled demagogues and our imported rulers from the lower social strata of Europe; such is surely not the sentiment of true, high-minded American citizens. It is hifamy enough for our people to bear, that such things are permitted in our midst. Since our first occupation of these shores the better class of citizens from the eastern United States have discountenanced impositions upon foreigners. The foreigners themselves, and chief among them the low Irish, are the ones who must bear the blame. To question a right guaranteed by constitution and treaty, to punish the innocent, to prosecute the unoffending, cruelly to en tertain the weak, and despitefully to treat the poor is no part of Anglo-American character. I have yet to find the first instance where atrocities upon the Chinese were not condemned by the community, by ninetenths of them, and by those who opposed by every fair and humane means the presence of Asiatics in our midst. Accursed be the day that made from the distempered slums of European cess-pools the first American citizen, and gave him power so to influence for evil our politics !
Prominent among the outrages in California upon the Chinese are those at Los Angeles in 1871, and in Chico in 1877. There are thousands of minor impositions, from the stoning of a pig-tail by school boys, to the massacre of a Chinese mining-camp by badblooded diggers, many of which I have given elsewhere, but most of which were unrecorded, save by the aveng^ingf an<j:;el. Yet these two instances illusirate the extreme to which this spoliation has been carried in California.
Negro Alley was the Barbary Coast or Chinatown of Los Angeles. The alley itself was a small street connecting this hotbed of human depravity with the business portion of the city. The two quarters, so near and yet so socially distant, were in marked contrast, as marked as the Five Points and Broadway, or as St Giles and Piccadilly ; old-fashioned, low, one-storied, whitewashed, tiled, windowless adobe buildings standing amidst filthy and unkept surroundings characterizing the one, and brick warehouses, banks, and gay shops the other. The denizens of Negro Alley comprised the dregs of the nations. Asiatic, African, and European, Latin and Indian there lived in unholy association, and for vocation followed thieving and murder. This was the nest, the city quarters of that large fraternity of crime that fed on southern California, Arizona, and northern Mexico. It was the rendezvous of bandit, burglar, petty thief, and gentlemanly highwayman, of men of all
sorts, to be bought with money, and some for a very small amount.
In this the lowest of terrestrials made their abode, adding their full quota to the general fund of filth and demoralization. One of their institutions alone, the brothel system, occupied about two-thirds of a block. As elsewhere amontr the Chinese in California there were two rival companies whose antagonisms otteii broke out in battles of greater or less degree, from fisticuff to firearms. A case arose concerning a woman which excited unusual animosity between them. As a rule the Chinese were able to manage their own trials and punishments, and administer justice among themselves after their own fashion, even to the execution of offenders capitally, and to keep their proceedings covered from the eyes of the law. But their women, almost all of whom were held as chattels and for vile purposes, were sometimes too much for them. By throwing off the yoke for the purpose of marrying or other object, and appealing to the law they were of course protected from their owners, though their lives were endangered thereby.
On Monday the 23rd of October, 1871, the prologue of the present tragedy was recited. The Ah Choy company accused the Yo Hing company of abducting one of their women, and marrying her Melican fashion to one of their own men, in order to deprive the Ah Choy company of their claim to her. Women were worth then about $400 each, and the outrage was not to be submitted to. Loud caterwauling ensued; then knives were drawn and pistols fired. No damage was done before the contending parties were arrested though a Yo Hing jacket was pierced by two bullets. Next day a preliminary examination was had before a justice of the peace, and bail fixed for appearance in court the following day, in one case $500, and in another case $1,000. The manager of the Ah Choy came forward and proffered security, when, the question arising as to his ability to pay, an officer was sent to
examine his effects. The exhibit of $3,000 in gold and a large package of greenbacks was reported as the result, and the bond accepted. This display of wealth may have had its influence in feeding the fires of violence which followed.
Free again, the Chinamen returned at once to their fio;ht. Their hatred for each other was now tlioroughly aroused; fighting men had been brought from a distance, and to death or any other consequence they had become ravingly indifferent. Renewal of the contest having been anticipated, scarcely were their shots again heard when mounted officers were on the spot attempting new arrests. But the Chinese, infuriated by the interference of law, as well as by their own quarrel, pointed their weapons at the approaching officers, and firing fled to their dens. Spectators coming to the rescue, the officers again advanced, and were again fired upon, this time with more fatal effect. An officer, and a citizen, Robert Thompson, were struck, the latter dying in an hour and a half Others were also wounded. The assailants retiring, the Asiatics for a moment were masters of the field.
Thus far the Chinamen were wront^ and deserved punis:hment, while the officers and the people acted rightly. But now followed one of those outbursts of demoniacal passion but too common in countries where the people are accustomed to tliink and act for themselves. Attracted by the firing, a crowd had gathered. Houses in the neighborhood had been closed, and iron shutters fastened. And now at the sii>ht of blood, quicker than it takes to write it, a chain of men was thrown around the block so that none mioht escape. The evil element of the place, some in hope of plunder, others from love of slaughter, rushed to the front and assumed the offensive. Scores of pistols were drawn, and for a moment the shot rattled briskly against the Chinese tenements; then all was still. But it was the murderous stillness of the monster making ready its death grip. Then low curses were heard, hissed and whispered at the first, but rising into louder denunciations against the whole heathen brotherhood as it ran along the line. Fire was proposed to burn them out; but fear of general conflagrations brought forward those whose property would be endangered, and the plan was abandoned. Good citizens interposed their cooler counsel, but without avail. The opportunity for blood and plunder was too good to be lost. Revenge upon a weak and helpless race, upon those who had never injured them, upon those whose only crime was a too plodding industry, was likewise uppermost in the minds of many.
Presently one of the besieged attempted escape. With a hatchet in his hand he issued from one of the houses, and running along the front a short distance endeavored to cross the street, when he was captured by an officer, and led away toward the jail. The crowd followed crying "Hang him!" "Take him from Harris!" "Hang him!" One of the mob tried to plunge a knife into his back. He was a little Chinaman for such big revenge. Finally when half way or more to the prison he was taken from the not unwilling officer's hands and hanged, hanged to the crossbeam of a gateway convenient, bungingly hanged until the little fellow was very dead.
The dance of death was now fairly opened. Like the flames of a city burning, the conflagration of fiendish passion roared and surged round the hapless inmates of the Chinese block, as the crowd with brutal ferocity fell afresh to their sanguinary task. The sheriff with all his assistants sought now to divert the fury of the fiends. The citizens likewise lent their aid. But all in vain. Satan himself was piping for his own to dance.
With yells of savage blasphemy in answer to the cry for more blood, another rush was made upon the buildings. Mounting the roofs, they tore away the tiles and fired upon the inmates, an exultant yell following each successful shot. Wherever it was possible about the tenements to open with axe, or bar, or sledge an aperture through which to fire, it was done. For three hours this continued at sickening length. At last the doors of the charnel-house were broken open and a sea of horror, shrouded by the dismal night, rolled stifling over the senses. Sprawding in their gore, crouching in corners, and under banks were the mangled forms of moaning men, and women, and children upon whom this terrible destruction had come thus suddenly. Little respite the rabble gave them. Dragging from their, hiding places the trembling inmates, one by one they brought them to the door, where others halted and hurried them to execution. A cluster of three were hagred to the end of a gutter-spout overhanging a corridor; other three were dangled from the edge of an awning; four were strangled at the sides of a wagon: four were taken to the gateway where the first was executed and suspended from the same beam. When the rooms were emptied of their living occupants, the bodies of three who had been shot to death remained, and many others wounded. Of those hanged one was a mere child, and children assisted at the execution. "Most of the whites engaged in the hanging," writes an eyewitness to the San Francisco Bulletin, "were men of Hibernian extraction, men in whose countenance you could easily distinguish the brute nature that controlled all their actions, but none of that face divine we are so often delighted in looking upon. And these men had all their brutal passions wrought to the highest pitch. But were any stronger evidence necessary of the utter demoralization of this mob than that already adduced, we find it in the fact that the city gamins were sprigs of humanity not yet having entered their teens, and alas! women participated in the night's hellish proceedings. Instances of both actually came under my own observation. At the place of execution on Los Angeles street, a little urchin, not over ten years old, stood on the top of the awning from which the Chinese were hanged. He was as active as any one in doing the hanging. His childish voice sounded strangely at that time and place, as he called aloud for more victims to sacrifice to the demon-god; and it was a stranger and sadder sight still to behold him lay his hand to the rope, and help them haul them up. And in the background was a woman looking on. Her brogue betrayed her extraction. She loudly congratulated the lynchers on the performance of their diabolical work, and encouraged them to continue." Three of the four Chinamen who fired at the officers escaped, and only one of those killed is known to have in any wise offended the law. It was a most inhumane massacre of innocent men.
Satiated somewhat with blood, the mob now permitted the sheriff to drive such unslaughtered Asiatics as he could find to prison for safe-keeping. Then the work of robbery began, which action stamps at once the character of those by whom the murdering was done. Locks were broken and general pillage followed. Every room of the Chinese houses in Negro alley was ransacked, and every shelf, trunk, and drawer cleared of its contents. Even the pockets of the murdered men were picked, and from one, a Chinese doctor, the clothes were stripped while he was yet hanging. From one was taken $400 while on his way to jail; $7,000 was found in the money-box of a store; the amount secured by the mob was estimated at from $20,000 to $30,000, The whole affair occupied about four hours, closing with half-past nine on the night of Tuesday the 24th, At 11 o'clock all was quiet in Negro alley, but it was the quiet of death and desolation.
Attempts were made to bring the murderers to justice; but law is poor and puny, in such a case it did what it could. At the coroner's examination witnesses were extremely careful how they testified lest they should implicate a friend or bring upon them selves the vengeance of desperate men. " The evidence so far," says a telegram of Thursday, "implicates two Irishmen, one having boasted that he helped to get away with three Chinamen." And writes another, "Let those at a distance not be too hasty in passing judgment in this matter. These acts of atrocity were perpetrated by a comparatively small number of men, of the very worst class in the community." The grand jury of Los Angeles indicted thirty-seven persons for riot. Two of them were also indicted for assault with deadly weapons, two for assault to commit murder, and twenty-five for murder.
They stated in their report that the parties engaged in the disgraceful scenes of the 24th of October were "the worst elements of society, and in their cruelty, and savage treatment of unoffending human beings, their eagerness for pillage and blood-thirstiness exceeded the most barbarous races of mankind. No attempt was made by any officer to arrest persons engaged in the taking of human life even in their pretence. Hundreds of law abiding citizens, who were unwilling witnesses of the sad spectacles of that night, would have quickly and cheerfully assisted in ending the anarchy had some resolute man, clothed with authority, placed himself at their head.
One dark, rainy night in December 1876, fifty or sixty men, most of them armed with guns and pistols, met in the woods near Chico for the purpose of adopting measures for the extermination of the Chinese in that vicinity. Their immediate plan was to fire the Sierra mill, where Asiatics were employed, and to burn both Chinatowns. During the session their emissaries were out, gathering with guarded intimations recruits from among those known as favorable to the cause, who as they approached the assemblage cried "You" and were answered "You" such being the pass-word. After some parley they began to divide into three parties for the three proposed burn ings, when opposition arose, some saying that they were opposed to Chinese labor, but they were also opposed to burning property. Many were in favor of the most sanguinary measures, which should stop at nothiniT short of killing; all the Chinese too-ethcr with their white employers. The discussion waxed warm, and continued so late that action was postponed, and the conspirators departed to meet openly in the town hall the second night thereafter. At the place named, and at two subsequent open meetings the question was freely discussed, many opposed to violence taking an active part in the proceedings.
But there were those bent on blood whom mild measures would not pacify. These met secretly again at Armory hall; and when those who favored clearing that locality of Chinese by killing and stampeding them were called upon to enroll their names, some sixty or seventy came forward and and signed the compact. Constitution and by-laws were then adopted. The organization was named the Anti-Chinese and Workinscmen's Association. Ofncers were to be elected by ballot to serve for a term of six months, and were to consist of a president, vice-president, secretary, corresponding secretary, treasurer, marshal, inside guard, and outside guard. To be eligible for membership the applicant must be not less than eighteen years of age, and must hold opinions opposed to the presence of Asiatics, and to those who employ, patronize, or advise them, or lease them houses or lands. An initiation fee of one dollar was named, and signs, grips, and passwords adopted. Officers of the law were to be resisted if necessary, and the word "Nine" was the cry of distress. The arm raised over the head with the palm of the open hand forward was a signal for help.
For greater efficiency the management was entrusted to a Council of Nine, consisting of three captains and six lieutenants, who were themselves to execute their decrees, though they might call on any member for assistance, and do all the necessary burning and killing, which latter might include white men as well as Chinamen. Oaths were administered promising secrecy and implicit obedience to the orders of the council of nine, under penalty of death. Over 150 members were enrolled upon this basis. The council of nine had their secret place of meeting, which was over a butcher's shop, where they entered one at a time.
Most Californian towns are satisfied with one Chinese quarter. Chico had two, besides scattered clumps of Celestials in their shingle shanties or white tents wherever they happened to be at work.
The first meeting; of the council of nine was held in February 1877, on which occasion it was proposed to burn old Chinatown. Failing to reach a conclusion, the meeting adjourned to the second night after, when the proposition came up to burn both Chinatowns. As time and the cause progressed the killing of six prominent citizens was seriously discussed. John Bidwell was specially obnoxious for employing Chinese, and opposing coercion. Said Wright the stableman on one occasion, "If the council orders me I will go out and return immediately with Bidwells scalp."
A secret society called the Order of Caucasians had existed for some time on this coast, based upon ignorant and fanatical opposition to JMongolians. This organization was composed mostly of foreigners, with a few American mountebanks, who for the privilege of acting as leaders did not hesitate to pander to the lowest passions and prejudices of the demented fanatics. While affecting great regard for law and order, they bound themselves to principles tending to the most diabolical crimes. Caucasian clubs, or encampments as they were called, were scattered throughout the entire country. Second only to their outrageous measures against Mono:olians was their declared antagonism against American citizens who employed or
befriended the Chinese. Was ever such impudence heard of? By these allen hodcarriers, and the political pimps their associates, such citizens of the United States as preferred to employ Chinese to Irish were denounced as public enemies, whom to injure witliin their coward limit of law was imposed as a duty ! The followincr extract from the Caucasian constitution speaks their condemnation in stronger terms than mine. *' Each camp and every hidividual Caucasian, and every encampment, and the supreme camp, pledges to each and every merchant, manufacturer, and trader, traveler, mechanic, and laborer, thus acting, all their individual and combined influence, power, advertisement, and patronage; and shall oppose to annihilation by every manner and means within the thin gauze of the law all others.
"And it shall be the bounden and solemn duty of every Caucasian, of every camp, encampment, and the supreme camp, to pursue and injure every one while he remains on the list of public enemies, and each and every one forever, in all their walks of life, save religion, morality, and person.
"Every Caucasian, every camp, every encampment, and the supreme camp, shall labor to impede, harass^ and destroy a public enemy by every m-^de and means, and manner, known and unknown, wltliin the reach of brains and thought and act, and within the bounds of law.
"In his business, his means, his substance, his peace and success, publicly, privately, socially, commercially, and above all politically.
"Should property be lost because of such duty, the same not being insured, upon the proper showing encampment shall pay the fullest insurance that might have been secured upon such property ; and insured or not, encampment shall aid the faithful brother financially and in his credit to replace all losses.
"Should loss be occasioned because of the duty of
Caucasians in regard to the property of public enemies, camps shall appraise the loss, pay it immediately to the fullest farthing, and forward receipt and certified copy of such appraisure to the secretary of the encampment.
"A Caucasian who knowingly breaks his pledge as regards public enemies, shall be charged with perjury, and if guilty, declared a public enemy, and if an officer perpetual public enemy."
With no other charge than that an employer had discharged white labor and substituted Chinese, or contemplated doing so, threats were made of fire and death; and humiliating was it to see these free white Americans come forward and disclaim such intention, tacitly admitting the right of the questioners to place them under bonds. The evil effects of this society, besides frequent outbreaks of violence which might be traced directly or indirectly to it, were seen in the bold defiant tone assumed by its members, and in the idlers that crowded the streets and who would not work except at exorbitant wages.
Living at this time in Chico was a launder, John Slaughter, a name significant of celestial achievement, native of Arkansas, born of a Cherokee mother, and aged twenty-three. He was a member of the workingman's association, to join which he discharged all the Chinese in his service, hoping thereby to obtain the patronage of the members. Philip Romles was his partner, and the Chinese w^ashermen ran them a strong opposition.
Not long after John Slaughter had joined the league, a stableman, Henry C. Wright, also a member of the brotherhood, who had killed his man in Nevada, and with H. J. Jones had burned Bidwell's soap factory, informed John Slaughter that he, his brother Cliarles Slaughter, Wright, and F. Conway, were ordered by the council to assist at the burning of the Chinese quarters at a time named, and that all were to take an ironclad oath never to divulge the
plot nor to be taken alive. Meanwhile some difficulty arising between the council and their president A. M. Ames, the adventure was postponed.
After this, meetings of the order were regularly held Monday nights, the council discussing proposed burnings and killings. It was ordered that Ben True should be assassinated for guarding the Chinese quarter after the attempt to burn their houses had failed. On the night of March 8th, Eugene Roberts and John Slaughter met opposite the Cliico hoteh
"Business," ejaculated John.
"What business?" asked Roberts.
"Some of us are going to burn old Chinatown," John replied.
In an open space in the rear of the town they met about twelve o clock that nioht. One of the number, Holderbaum, obtahied three sacks of straw, and saturatino- them well with coal oil started for the Chinese quarter. For half an hour after the dogs barked so loudly they were obliged to keep off, but finally they succeeded in shoving the straw under a house occupied by a Chinawoman and igniting it.
Next, the incendiarism of the Butte Creek Gardens, whose tenements were rented by Chinese was ordered, and this time more distinguished action followed the order. By the council of nine James Fahey was directed to reconnoiter, while the others, armed, should hold themselves in readiness.
"There is a big lot of Chinamen down there," said Fahey on his return.
"It's got to be done, 1 suppose," ejaculated Wright.
"We have to begin some time and somewhere; so far it has been all talk and no cider."
"I didn't know I had to murder men when I joined," said Slaughter.
"The council have to father this job, as I'm out of it," growled Fahey, as he walked off toward the room over the butcher's.
At 7 o'clock on the night appointed, near Chico
Creek bridge on the Dayton road, the men again met, and immediately set out through the fields west of the race-track to Edgar slough, and then up the Oroville road to the first Chinese camp opposite which they stopped. Charles Slaughter was now of the party, and also Eugene Roberts, a native of Concord, New Hampshire, twenty years of age, a butcher's butcher by occupation. The latter did not know what infatuation led him into the folly, nor did any one else, unless it was the inspiration of the council of nine that overshadowed him as he sawed bones and cut and chopped meat in the room below. In the vicinity were three Chinese camps; and filled now with the demon of destruction Fahey wished to burn them all; but it was thought best by the others to take the first one that night and leave the others for another time.
Close at hand where they now stood, and near the huts, was a barn partially filled with straw, to which through a crack Roberts applied fire. Then they all ran down behind the banks of the creek near by and made ready their pistols to fire upon the Asiatics as they came out. Rare sport! A dog giving the alarm the fire was put out. Then crawling up to the shanty nearest the barn they began to fire into it. The inch boards of which it was made, with the spaces exposed by the cracks and windows, afiTorded not the safest protection, and the occupants watching their chance opened the door, dodged the bullets, and ran into the bushes. Charles Slaughter then fired the barn for the second time, and it burned to the ground. This was laurels sufficient for the night. Returning to headquarters and reporting, they were commended for the bravery and skill with which they opened the campaign. John Slaughter was made lieutenant and others promoted.
On the Humboldt road two miles east of Chico, at Chris Lemm's ranch, stood a shanty tenentcd on the night of March 14, 1877, by six Chinamen, whose
occupation just then was clearing a piece of ground by contract, which work had been previously offered to white men, and by them refused, at four dollars an acre more than the Mongolians received.
In the afternoon of the day mentioned, Roberts called at Slaughter's laundry and asked John to accompany him to the slaughter-house and assist in turning up beef. John assented. While engaged at their work Roberts paused as if a thought had suddenly struck him.
"Let's go up and burn the China cabin on Lemm's ranch," he said.
"Agreed," replied Slaughter. "Who will go?"
"Fred Conway and I, Thomas Stainbrook, and Charles Slaughter, making five in all," said Roberts.
The party met according to agreement just above the house of Roberts father shortly after 7 o'clock, and proceeded up the Humboldt road toward Lemm's rancho, Roberts and John Slauo-hter marched before, and the others followed. Roberts was captain of the occasion. A wagon passing, all hid themselves behind a looj. Neither Conwav nor Steinbrook knew the exact nature of the work to be done ; hence they were somewhat startled upon Robert's cooly remarking as they neared the hut, "Unless we kill the Chinamen we will be arrested." They did not object to rob them and burn the premises, but they were not prepared to murder. The others were, however, and it was too late now for any to retreat. None of them were disguised. Scaling a fence the party approached the house and entered. Within were six Chinamen lounging off the fatigues off a hard day's work in various attitudes about the room. Instantly every one of them were covered by revolvers in the hands of the assaulting party. They were then ordered to come forward and seat themselves close together on the floor. While three of the assailants stood guard over them, two, Roberts and Charles Slaughter emptied their pockets and examined the
premises, A carpet-bag and valise were broken open but nothing of value discovered. Taking from his pocket a bottle of kerosene Roberts emptied it upon the victims and about the floor. Then calling upon all to make ready, he cried " Fire I " and each selecting his man four of the six unfortunates fell dead, and the other two so badly wounded that they were supposed to be killed. Some of the party fired twice. The murderers then fled, taking different routes back to town, and neglecting in their awe-stricken haste to fire the premises as they had intended.
It was about 9 o'clock that the killing was done, and at ten the murderers were at their homes and most of them in bed. Peaceful nmst have been their slumbers that night. It had been agreed that in case any of them were arrested Wright should swear they were in his stable at the time.
The 1 6th of March a public meeting was held at which it was agreed 'that the citizens of Chico view with horror the assassination of peaceful Chinamen, and the indiscriminate destruction of property which has prevailed recently in our midst, and we pledge ourselves to use our utmost power to bring to justice the perpetrators of these outrages, and to this end will cheerfully second any eftbrts of our officers." Indignation ran high on the afternoon of the same day, when it was discovered that a notice had been posted on the office door of the Keefer rancho cautioning the proprietor against the employment of Chinese under penalty of destruction of the premises. Two men were arrested on suspicion.
Next day the excitement was still more increased by the receipt by many citizens of threatening notices, all mailed after eight o'clock the night previous. " Get rid of your Chinese help within fifteen days or suffer the consequences." Signed "Committee." A threat was sent to an officer by mail that if he took any measures for the detection of the murderers of the Chinamen, he himself would be killed. The question of
forming a vigilance committee was seriously discussed by the citizens. The law seemed petrified; if anything was to be accomplished the people must do it. A reward of $1,500 was offered by the people of Chico, $500 by the Chinese association called the Six Companies of San Francisco, and $1,000 by the governor of the state. By the 27th eleven arrests had been made, one of a man caught mailing an anonymous letter to an officer threatening death if he attempted to arrest the incendiaries. All were members of the workingmen's association, and six were reputed Caucasians.
The first arrest was that of Conway who was detected maihng threatening letters. Shadowed for two days he was finally arrested, and after two days confinement exposed the whole plot. Wright, and the brothers Slaughter, each confessed on being brought to prison. After a preliminary examination at Chico the prisoners were moved to Oroville for trial the 27th of March. An attempt at rescue by the fraternity was feared on the day of removal, and eight men armed with Winchester rifles acted as escort. Four thorough-brace wagons conveyed them from the Chico prison to Oroville. A large throng gathered to witness their departure. The prisoners were in fine spirits. They seemed to feel the sustaining presence of the brotherhood, and that the people were with them. Not one of the five murderers manifested the sllghtest fear of punishment, though by their own confessions guilty of most dastardly villainy and doubly worthy death.
Arrived at Oroville, the prisoners were met by a large concourse of people. Here for the first time they began to show signs of fear. They noticed the change in the atmosphere; there were few admiring or sympathetic glances from that crowd; and the same guard which so lately kept them from their friends, now stood between them and, perhaps, more summary justice. All the Chinese at Oroville gath ered round the jail to see the murderers of their countrymen, heavily ironed, taken from the wagons and thrust into jail. It did their hearts good thus to behold the brave Caucasians, and they went immediately to work gathering friends to give them a severe prosecution at the trial. Conway, he who first confessed and thereby betrayed them all, was kept at a safe distance from the other prisoners; he was brought over in a separate wagon and confined in a cell apart, lest they should tear him to pieces.
At half-past ten on the 30th of March the Chico stage drove up to the Oroville courthouse, and seven more of the incendiaries and murderers, closely guarded and heavily ironed, were added to the first. This completely filled the jail, and most of the cells contained two occupants. By this time all the bravado of the prisoners had left them ; that which at first they regarded as a good joke now assumed the gloomy aspect of death. Roberts was the coolest of any ; he believed he should be hanged, he said, and spent much time reading his bible. Conway was regarded as half idiot; he appeared indifferent as to what became of him. Ames, first president of the workingmen's association, was wild with excitement, and it was feared he would become wholly insane.
The 2d of April a grand jury was impanelled at Oroville, and the town was filled with people. Meetings were held by citizens and farmers of Butte county, who were determined to rid the country of the class then in prison. All members of the order of Caucasians and of labor unions were excluded. The 5th of April the grand jury came into court and reported true bills found against seven for murder and seven for arson. Among those indicted for murder were the five perpetrators of the Lemm's rancho villainy. Yet, as too often happens in the annals of crime, the most guilty, the instigators of the outrages were permitted to escape. To obtain their own discharge, members of the council of nine had but to
ignore participation in or sanction of the murders. The people of Butte county were indignant when they learned that the arch-conspirators had been so quickly liberated, and gjod men everywhere were dissappointed. But this is the old, old story. Instead of canonization, our courts need renovating, revolutionizing, remodeling. They are a disgrace to civilization. We want twice the efficiency, twice the detection, conviction, and punishment of crime for one-half the money it now costs
On the 7th of April those indicted for arson alone were arraio'ned. Amono- these was the stableman H. C. Wrio;ht, the coolest and most reckless of them all.
"Have you a lawyer ? " asked Judge Saftbrd of him.
"No sir."
"Do you want one?"
"No sir."
"Are you guilty or not guilty?" then asked the clerk.
"Guilty," said Wright.
Adam Holderbaum pleaded guilty to arson in the second degree. Five were convicted of arson in the second degree and sentenced, one to twenty years, two to ten, and one to five years in the state prison. The 18th of April H. T. Jones was brought into court and convicted of arson in the first degree.
While this trial was in progress a barn was fired by the incendiaries and burned to the oround. Charles Slaughter then pleaded guilty to arson in the second-degree. Next John Mahoney was tried for arson, and John Slaughter attempted to assist him by false swearing. Thomas Stainbrook's case was called for trial the 23d of May, and was followed by those of Charles and John Slaughter, E. B. Boberts, and E. Conway. Stainbrook was sentenced to twenty-seven and a half years' imprisonment, and the others to twenty-five years each.
Berhaps we should be satisfied with an aggregate
of little less than two centuries of servitude for the killing; of three Asiatics, and the burning; of a few buildings. The presence of too many low Mongolians in our midst is not conductive to the hio^hest civilization; and yet these Chinese were men; they were coolly and wilfully murdered ; the assassination was as foul and deliberate and unprovoked as any to be found in the annals of crime ; the law makes such killing punishable by death; and yet these murderers were not so punished.
About this time M. Atherton was tried at San Jose for the murder of Edgar May at Santa Cruz, while the latter was in a state of helpless intoxication, and the murderer likewise drunk, Atherton was sentenced to twenty-five years imprisonment. Now these sentences, all of them, done into English, sin>ply say that the killing of Chinamen, and killing done l;>y drunken men is not murder. It is difficult to understand why courts and juries any more than vigilance committees have the right to break the lavv^, or to subvert its just operation.
During these proceedings a Citizen's Safety Committee had been organized at Chico, of which Mr Theil was appointed treasurer. Hung upon the shutter of Mr Thiel's store on Second street the night of April 8th was found the following missive written on a half sheet of dirty note paper. It is hardly up to the standard of average communications of this sort, though it caused much uneasiness, particularly among owners of grain-fields.
"The devil dreeme on the Chinese question. There are three or four men in this city has been making dam fools of themselves in regard to the darned Chinese that will get anufe of it before the first of August. You must remember it seldom rains hero after the first of June, and when everything is dry a match will burn without sacks of straw or karseen either, and we will also give the farmers of this country notice to look out this season for everi grain. Every
mans ranch reaped or stacked by the Chinaman is liable to tak fire from the Heat of the sack or the spark from the smoke sack. It looks bad to do such work but if our state oficers done do somethino: in pertection of the poore we will half to carry it out ourselves and it will be in a ruif manner to from
T. O. MUGINS.
"To the Public."
The instruments of the Chico outrages were less fanatics than fools. Individually they had nothing to gain and everything to lose by becoming the blind tools of those who had nothing to lose and everything to gain by warring on a non-voting class. The antagonism of the stableman and the butcher's clerk to Chinese laborers was inspired neither by race antipathy, fanatical hatred, nor industrial interest. Vulgar brutality seems to have been the primary instinct prompting them, and next to this petty plunder. Believing themselves safe from punishment by reason of their secret associations, flattered by those who set them on, they flung forward the bridle rein of their evil natures, and let their low tastes lead them whither they would. Secret societies organized for the accomplishment of a pretended public good, and then lending themselves to the commission of crime, cannot be too severely denounced by every lover of honest law and open liberty.