The Nevada journal., 1856-02-29

Clark & Seely. San Juan
Marcus Fleming ng...................Co Columbia Hill.
o. r. Owen-.... Walioupa.
Ihos Smith. -Montezurna.
VIM L. Gibson Forest City
CALIFORNIA TRAGEDIES. Another trac-
edy has been committed in our county.
Another victim has been added to the
long list of homicides And the event.
as usual, causes no particular emotion.
either of horror or surprise. The very
frequency of these tragedies precludes
the possibility of any peculiar emotion
being felt or exhibited when one occurs.
We are not about to write a long homily
on the sinfulness of California in commit
ting homicides (; but simply to state a
few facts. The homicide statistics of
California, since she was admitted into the
Union, show an average Of over six hun
dred deaths by violent means for each
year. Within the last six years over
thirty-six hundred persons have been sum-
marily sent into eternity by the bowie
knife and revolver. Is this not fearful
catalogue Most certainly it is. All
will admit the fact. No one will deny it.
What, then, are the principal causes of
such huge catalogues of slaughter The
principal cause, in our opinion, is the fact
that we have within our borders over three
hundred thousand persons who came here
for 10 other earthly object but to get gold
Gold first and last. Gold always. Moth
ing but gold. Man intent on one idea
only for series of years lose the higher
characteristics of manhood. This we be-
lieve to be true as general thing. But
there are other causes which tend to pro-
duce these tragedies. What are they p
First and formost, the very nature of our
population is such that the laws cannot be
faithfully administered over the whole
State. y man is left in many instances
at his own discretion whether he will de-
f,nd his own life and property. For in
stance, mans life is threatened. Is there
one man in California who has resided here
four years who has not had a revolver
drawn on him or whose life has not been
threatened If there is such a man we
want to see him, for his life must have
been not onl " peaceable one, but he must
have been surrounded by peculiarly for
tunate circumstances. There may be those
whose lives have not been directly threat
eaed, but who have been threatened in
their property. 1t all amounts to the same
thing. Thousands of miners have been
threatened that they should be dispos-
sessed oftheir claims. Thousands of real
estate owners have been threatened in like
manner in regard to their real estate.-I
And thousands of instances have transpired
in which men have tried to dispossess
others of their property by forciblc means.
Men have resisted, for the law was too
slow to defend their rights, and possession
was "nine points in the law"
To the inordinatc desire for wealth mayI
be attributed a large proportion of hefni-
cides committed among us. But a larger
proportion are the result of a resort to
deadly weapons to settle trivial disputes.
Bad whisky proyokes many quarrels which
result fatally. And to cap the climax, the
inglorious desire for strife pervading such
large proportion of our population leads
too frequently to death.
But if these homicidcs must occur, and
we see no way of preventing them with
such heterogeneous population as ours,
We are glad that when they do occur, as
in the present instance, that the attacking
party is the one to lose his life. The pres
cnt is, we believe, the tenth instance in
our county in which men have drawn re-
volvers to kill others and have been killed
themselves.
Better days are in store for California
yet. The time will come when the slaugh-
ter ground of the Union will be transfer
red to some other locality. With more
wives and children among us we shall hope
for more peaceable days, and may the
good Lord speed the day.