Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1867-11-23
WE ARE NO WORSE THAN THEY.

The record Of crime among us of the
Pacific Coast will compare very favora-
bly, with that of our Atlantic friends ;
in fact, the comparison is rather in our
favor; yet the opinion of US generally
entertained by a vast number Of the good
people of that section is that w are a
rough, semi-civilized sort of people,
reckless as to consequences, ready to
cut, shoot, hang or otherwise slaughter
anybody and everybody with whom we
may happen TO have a difficulty, and, at
best, much behind them as TO moral tone
and general good behavior. They have
read Of the doings of the Vigilance Com
mittees of San Francisco, Aurora and
other places; stage robbcries in the
Sierra Nevada, and here and there q
genuine murder DR. other aggravated
capital crime committed somewhere
about the country. Were we to tell
them that thus far, Notwithstanding all
the cutting and shooting that has been
done among US, no one has ever been
hung in this county of Storey, they
would look upon it as only another evil
dence OF our moral %turpitude, aud will
full neglect to punish crime, induced by
great familiarity with it.
Now, the fact of the matter is, that we
are, if anything, rather ahead OF them
as regards moral status. There is no
as much crime and iuiquity among us,
considering the relative number Of pop
ulatiou, as there is among them. We
are u stirring, active, energetic people,
| and when we do any killing, robbing OF
anything of that sort, we generally go
about it like as we do anything else, and
not in the deep-planniug, deliberate style
of Eastern professionals. In their cities,
too, exist hotter beds of crime and deeper
sinks Of iniquity than we may hope to
acquire in years of experience. We arc
better posted, even, than they, in that
we have q better knowledge Of them
than they have of US. True, they read
our newspapers, but not to the extent
that We do theirs.
In making up newspaper here, we
have plenty Of Pacific coast exchanges
to select from, all prolific and constantly
pregnant with matters of interest rela-
tive to new and exciting discoveries,
sensational accidents, robberies, elope-
meuts, rich mineral yields, etc. Our
readers, however, in addition, require q
| goodly supply of b~lood-curdling new:
items every day, such as will induce
their eyes to protrude with horror, and
| their hair to rise on end in o healthy
manner; single murders, double sui
| cides, whole families with Threats cut
aggravatipg rapes, sensational seduc'
tons, wholesale burglaries, bank rob
berries, prize fights, riots, and all thai
sort of thing. For these we scissorize
our eastern exchanges, and never fail in
obtaining a plentifully desirable supply
to suit all. If We had to look at home
for such choice morsels we should often
be in a state of utter despair. When
we do manage to dish up an original
shooting or cutting scrape, a big dog
fight, a stage robbery, or even n real
murder or q suicide among us, we feel
| that we have struck a rich lead, and pub.
lish glowing accounts with full details
thereof, well displayed, with sensations
al headings in large type, exclamation
points, etc. Oh, they can compare re
cords with US if they choose they'll
find us q more moral, decent, peaceablt
and upright people than they arc them
selves, and possessed of as many
churches. They can keep their mis-
sionary ~revivalists at home; they neet
them more than VIC do. Wen compare
records with them any time they wish
and do not fear the result either, in com
pairing our present state of society with
theirs.