Litchfield enquirer., 1868-04-23

From the Galaxy A CASE OF MISTAKEN IDENTITY. During residence of eleven years in California, dating from the year 1S46 to 1857, I had some strange and rude experi. ences and was witness of some remarkable scenes. Not the least extraordinary oi these dramas of real life, Was one i2 which an innocent man narrowly escaped execu- tion upon the gallows, simply because he had the misfortune 10 closely resemble a guilty man.
 In the early Spring of 1851, the city of San Francisco was tbrowu into great state of excitement, one morning, upon its resi- dents reading the detailed account of a bold robbery which had been committed. with the accompaniment of b brutal as- sault, OF the previous evening. About six o clock in the evening. when his clerks had gone to dinner, Charles Jansen, the pro- prietor of dry goods" establishment on Montgomery street, was alone i'll his count ing-room, when two men entered the door Addressing him some common place re- mark, one approached him, and, with q bar of iron. felled him to the floor, while
  in few minutes, both had escaped, carry coin and gold dust. Upon the return of less and bleeding on the floor. He was re- moved to his residence, and the next morn ing had so far rallied as to make tolerably clear statement of the occurrence, and to give description of the two men who had off To oko6 him. and r,po., bo ctropoth of this latter, two men, supposed to be the guilty parties, were arrested on the follow ing day, just as they were stepping on 6 steamboat bound up the Sacramento.
 The occurxenee created great excite. ment in San Francisco. Robberies and murders were. at that time, by no means unfrequent, and it was known that an or ganized gang, composed in great part of . gang of Australian convicts, were burrow- ed among the sand-hills of the neighbor- hood, and most of the nightly burglaries and outrages were attributed to its mem- bers. This gang was under the leadership of one James Stuart, desperate scoun- drel, whose name was terror throughout the entire State; and many crimes had been fixed upon him, and among others, the murder of the sheriff of Tuba County. By hls great skill and fnesse, however, Stu art had always succeeded in eluding the search of both the regularly-constituted police, and the sharper, more lynx eyed de- tectives of the Vigilance Committee
 The description given by Jansen of the man who struck him down, was immediate ly recognized by the police authorities as a plain and accurate portrait of James Stu art. The police fearing the formation of a Committee of Vigilance" determined to use every effort to arrest the guilty par ties, and, at four o'clock in the afternoon following the night of the assault, they were satisfied they held in custody the re. doubtable Jim Stuart, and his companion, Jo. Mildred, the undoubted perpetrators of the assault and robbery in Jansen's shop.
 was at that time the local reporter on the leading morning journal in San Fran cisco, and, as such, had every facility of following up, through its different stages, to it's most unexpected termination, this remarkable case. Greater than ever was the excitement when tine journals amour ced in the morning that Stuart and his companion had been arrested. Crowds be- gan to gather at an early hour on the pla- "a, and the citizens rather freely expressed their opinion that, unless the authorities acted with unusual promptitude in this case, they would save the authorities the trouble of acting at all, and "do for" Stu art and Mildred themselves.
 At elven o'clock in the morning, I was informed that preliminary examination of the two men would take place that af- ternoon before Q magistrate. Jansen, it appeared, had become worse, and it was feared that he would die. It was, there fore, highly important that the men should be confronted with him as speedily as pos sjble, and his testimony taken. This was done. Soon after noon the men were pri- vately conveyed to Jansen's apartment, and, in the presence only of the examin- ing magistrate and his clerk, Jansea's med- ical attendant, another witness, two police men, and myself, Jansen's testimony was taken, with the warning from his physician that he might be upon the verge of the grave. When the men were introduced, Jansen looked carefully at both of them, scanning thoroughly their features, and then unhesitatingly stated that he recogni- zed the smaller, known as Jim Stuart) as the man who felled him with the bar of iron; of this he could have no doubt, but was positive that he was the man. As to the other. he was not so sure; but about him his doubts were light. He fully and firmly believed, in short, that the two men who had committed the crime were then before him; and from Jansen's room, with Jansen's testimony, then supposed to be that of dying man, they were taken be fore the examining magistrate, whose office was in the plaza, in what was then known as the "Adobe" building.
 The plaza was filled with an excited pop ulace, and it was evident that trouble was brewing: The prejudice in San Francisco at that time, against all persons who had come to California from Australia, was very strong. Some very bad men had undoubt- edly arrived from there, and much of the crime committed in the State might legiti- nately be charged upon them. All the immigrants from Australia were chased un- der the general title of "Sydney Ducks, D and were regarded with great suspicion i; and many, indeed, and among them some very respectable people, had been warned away, and obliged to leave California.
 When the two men were brought before the magistrate, they gave their names. as Thomas Berdue and Joseph Wilared. Der due, named in the complaint 'Stuart, | dtias Berdue," was man of about forty years of age, of medium size, with pc culiar sharp face, black piercing eye, and a heavy. bushy black beard. He stated that