San Andreas independent., 1856-10-25
The Fate of the Desperado!

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So much has been said and published ofTom
Bell, that we almost refrain from again referring
to the subject; yet the following from the Alta,
is so true and may be so useful, that we copy it.
if only for the benefit of those whose ambition
may have criminal tendency:
eve have been, at times, in reading the
accounts of the deeds of this parsonage,
very much inclined to the belief that he
was of a mythical character, or that there
were at least number of desperate men,
who, emulous of the fame which he had
attained, had assumed his name. But.
whether this be so.or not, certain that it
is that a highway robber, one Of the 'sTom
Bells" has been arrested and executed;
and whether he be the original Tom. or
one of his imitators, does not at all detract
from the force of the lesson which his
fate should teach
Good and evil effects, arising from the
same cause, are SO mingled in this world,
that in estimating the magnitude of the
former we are apt often to forget that of
the latter. But when we look around us
and see what is every day and every hour
before our eyes, we are led into train Of
thought in relation to the evil which has
come from the immense discoveries of gold
in California, the eager chase after the
butterfly of wealth, the impatience exhibi-
ted on every hand to grasp it. This dis
covery has not only opened to the world
field where honest, honorable labor, prop
erly applied, will surely produce, if not
absolute wealth, competency, but it has
been the means of making men ayaricious,
Of making them reckless, of making them
desperate. This is not necessarily so, nor
does it necessarily follow that men should
become 50 in California; on the contrary,
the reverse of the proposition would seem,
from our peculiar condition, to be the case,
for here where labor and enterprise have
field before them such as no other coun-
Try in the world possesses, it would appear
that there need be no necessity of resort
ing to criminal means to obtain wealth.
Men come to California in the hope of
speedily becoming rich. Bright visions
of big Jumps of gold and large quantities
of them, to be gathered withoutany severe
labor, haunt them night and day before
they reach here. Here they hope to find
a land where the inevitable law of God,
that "man shall earn his bread by the
sweat of his BROW has been repealed, or
at least for time suspended. They come
here with this hope, and it takes but few
short week to dispel it. They are disap-
pointed; their impatient desire for the at
tainment Of speedy wealth seems to have
no prospect of qualification. Temptations
are about them on every hand. They drink
and they gamble. They associate with
men who, in their Eastern homes, would
be Stunned by them as the worst of their
kind. They forget the admonition Of
mothers and sisters given them at parting.
They forget the purity of their early youth,
the hopes of their ripper manhood. They
sink lower and lower, till they become
thieves, robbers and desperadoes.
The confessions Of many OF the robbers
who have been captured and executed, are
but the relteration Of this same story
Tom Bell, in his last dying words, adds his
testimony to the volumes which have gone
before it, to the same effect. Will not all
this be a warning to our young men? A
warning to restrain them from the indul-
gence in the evil courses which have been
the cause of the existence of so many
amateur robbers and desperadoes in Cali
fornla? From ali we can gather, this
man Bell, who has recently met with an
lgnomlnlous fate, was one of liberal edu-
cation and good family; one who, probably,
on his departure from his home, left with
high hopes and good determinations, and
mothers blessing on him. A mothers
prayers have doubtless often been sent up
to Heavens throne in behalf of the poor
wanderer, and mothers hopes have
often risen in her heart that she should
soon see her son again. How manv mothers
are there yet to be doomed to like disap-
ment, to like sorsow, from like causes.
The " fate of the desperate in Cali
fornia is becoming certain one The
people of the interior are aroused to the
necessity of self-protection, and although
the robber may at first succeed in eluding
their vigilance, their career will, in ma
jority of cases, be as sudden Y, as unex-
pectedly ended, as was that OF Tom Bell
Let Tom Bells admonition be warning
to all who to-day are treading in the path
which led him to the gallows.
HUMAN GLoRY.-Tho temple of .Ieru-
salem passed away; and of its magnif-
eenoe only few crumbling, pilgrim-kissed
stones remain. The Parthenon, the bright
est gem on the zone of the earth, is now
a heap of ruins. The Roman Forum is
now a eow-market; the Tarpeian Rock a
cabbage garden; and the Palace of the
Caesars rope-walk. The Pyramids them
selves-those gigantic memorials of gi-
gantic age-are all fastening to decay
The Tiber, once so celebrated. is a muddy