Page:The Tourist's California by Wood, Ruth Kedzie.djvu/149

SAN FRANCISCO 119 wooed and left her. The stone which commemo- rates Don Luis, first-born of California's famous sons, divides interest with the ornate monument of a gangster and assassin whom the Vigilantes of the Second Committee brought to boot. The San Francisco Evening Bulletin, edited by James King, affirmed in its edition of May 14, 1856, that the hoodlum leader known as James Casey had been an inmate of Sing Sing prison, and that during certain recent elections, he had " stuffed himself through the ballot-box as elected to the Board of Supervisors from a district where it is said he was not even a candidate." The word hoodlum, be it known, was originally contrived to describe the California rough or bully. Hoodlumism in San Francisco had reached its apogee when these words left King's pen. By this measure can one gauge the quality of his citizenship. A day had not passed following the appearance of his brave, nay, rash editorial, when he met Casey near the corner of Washington and Montgomery Streets. Cast- ing off his cloak and levelling a navy revolver, the latter sent a shot through the editor's breast. The militia were called to quell the riot of those who would have lynched Casey, though his victim was not yet dead. Armed citizens met on the plaza and were dispersed, according to the ac- count of the Alia California of May 15th, by the