The Trinity journal., 1856-04-26
Incidents of Early Days.

each man constituted himself his own bank
cr and deposited or buried his gold in some
safe (?) place, two men were working to-
gether on whom fortune had smiled a little
more propitiously than usual. They buried
their money and each knew the place where
the other had placed his dust One Of them
having obtained as much Of the precious ore
as he thought would answer bis purpose,
gathered together his pile and started for
the States After he left, the other thought
he would examine his deposited treasure and
see if it was all right lie accordingly re-
paired to the spot where he imagined he had
buried it, and To-! it was gone-he could not
find it. The conclusion jumped at by him
forthwith was that his partner who had just
left, had taken his dust also. Off he posted
after his supposed dishonest partner, over
took him in the valley, and accused him of
the theft, which he of course very stoutly
denied. Fortunately for the homeward
bound, we had no sheril's, constables, or
other limbs Of the law in those early days,
and as the loser had no direct proof that his
partner had taken his money, he could get
no assistance in the valley to bring him
back, and was accordingly obliged to let
him go The loser returned to Weaver Civ
ing up all hopes Of ever recovering his lost
treasure; went to work again and ere long
had made another raise, and started for the
States. Some months afterwards, another
person who had dust buried in the immedi-
ate vicinity of where this mans dust was
supposed to have been stolen from, in search
ing for his own, dug up the lost money
amounting to about $l700. 1t appeared
the man had forgotten the exact spot where
he buried his dust and had dug in searching
within one foot Of it. 1t was fortunate
thing for the suspected man that he had got
ten without the limits of WeayerviIlc before
the supposed loss was discovered, for had he
been suspected and arrested here suspicion
would have been so strong against him he
would very likely have been initiated into
the arts and mysteries Of the laws as admin
istercd by the court Of Judge Lynch; for
in those days, if the community believed a
man guilty, but very little proof was re-
CURED to cause the administration ofpunish-
ment Men were sometimes hung and t,led
attercards.
We have heard of an instance in the
Southern mines where the innocent accused
was not so fortunate. A poor man had just
crossed the Plains, with a single yoke of
oxen which he sold for one hundred dollars
in dust, to some persons who left the place
soon after the purchase, About the same
time purse containing just one hundred
dollars was stolen, and good deal of inter
est manifested by the people near by to dis
cover the thief The unfortunate tcamster
took out his purse in the trading post to
pay 70" some article, when man Immediate
ly came forward and accused him of the rob
berry. lie was of course forthwith arrested,
the amount in the purse correSponded eX-
actly with the amount lost, the quality of
the gold was the same, it was known the
tcamstcr had just arrived from the Plains
and had no time to dig that amount from
the mines, the man to whom he had sold his
cattle was gone, he had no proof Of how he
came by the money circumstances were all
against him. A jury was accordingly en-
panneIed on the spot, trial had the Jury
found him guilty and sentenced him to re-
ceive thirty lashes on the bare back, which
was forthwith administered, the unfortunate
man all the time protesting his innocence
After he was whipped, he procured pistol
walked deliberately up to the man who first
accused him, placed the pistol to his head,
and told he believed him the guilty man,
and that if he did not there and then con-
fess he had stolen the money he would blow
his brains out The fellow could not stand
the power of injured innocence, he became
frightened, acknowledged himself the guilty
party, and drew the identical lost money out
of his pocket. The enrOged crowd instant
ly seized upon him, bore him to the nearest
tree and hung him. A subscription was
immediately started and about $500 raised
on the spot for the unfortunate teamster,
who started forthwith for his home in the
east
a FIRE occurred at Placerylle on the
night of the 18th inst, which destroyed
about 30 houses Loss, $4,000