Clearfield Republican. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1851-1937, 1870-03-02
THE ROUGH.
Mark Twain Describes that individual
In all his Glory.

IN All MS blofl.
A curious feature about California
life was the breed Of desperadoes she
reared and fostered on her soil, and
afterwatd distributed over adjacent
territories through her vigilance com.
mittces, when she had enough Of their
eSploits. These men went armed to
the teeth with monstrous revolvers,
and prcyed upon each other Their
slightest misunderstanding were set,
lied on the spot by the bullet; but
they very rarely molested pcacable
citizens. They robbed and gambled
and killed people for three or four
years, and then "died with their boots
on" as they phrased it; that is, they
werc killed themselyes---almost inva.
riably-and they never expected any
other fate, and were very seldom dis.
appointed. h.
Sam Brown, of Nevada, killed six
teen men in his time aud was journey
ing toward Esmeralda TO kill a seven.
teenth, who had stopped the breath
of friend of his, when party of
law-abiding citizens waylaid him and
slaughtered him with shot-guns.
Monrners were exceedingly scarce AT
his funeral. 1t is said that Sam
Brown called for drink at the bar Of
the Slaughter House, in Carson City,
one morning Ga saloon so nicllnamed
because so many men had been killed
in I'D and invited stranger up to
drink With him. The stranger said
he never drank, aud wished to be
excused. By the custom of the coun.
try that was deadly insult, and SO
Brown very properly shot him down.
He left him there aud went away,
warning everybody to let the body
alone, because it was his meat. he
said. And ii is said, also, that he
came back after a while and made a
coffin and buried the man himself
though | never could quite believe
that-wlthout assistance
Virginia City is full of desperadoes,
and some of the pleasantcst newspaper
reporting | ever did was in those
days, because ] reported the inquests
on the whole lot of them, nearly. We
had fresh one pretty much every
morning. Toward the last it was
melancholy to sec how the material
was running short. Those were
halcyon days! I don't know what
halcyon days are, but that is the
proper expression TO use in this con.
nection, | believe.
Jack Williams was one of tho luck
lest of the Virginia City desperadoes
lie killed a good many men. He
was q kind hearted man and gave all
his custom to poor undertaken who
was trying to get along But by and
by somebody poked double barreled
shotgun through a crack while Will
liams was sitting at breakfast, and
riddled him at such a rate that there
was hardly enough of him left to hold
an inquest on-and then the poor
undertaker's best friend was gone and
he had TO take in bis sign. Thus he
was stricken in the midst Of prosperity
and happincss-for he was Just on the
point OF getting married when Jack
Williams was taken away from him,
and of course he had TO give it up.
1t is stated that the FIRST twenty-six
graves Ia the cemetery at Virginia
City were those Of men who died by
the bullet. Aud the first six in
another Of those towns contained the
bodies Of a despcrado aud FIVE Of his
victims-and there in the bosom Of
his family, made dear to him by the
ties Of blood, he calmly sleeps the
sleep Of death
At the Rocky Ridge station, 10 the
Rocky Mountains, in the old days Of
overland stages and pony expresses,
j bad the gorgeous honor of break.
fasting with Mr.. Slade, the prince Of
all the desperadoes; who had killed
twenty.six men in his time; who used
TO cut of bis victims ears and send
them as keepsakes TO their relatives
and who bound one of his victims hand
and foot, and praciiced on him with
his revolver for hours together-a
proceeding which seems almost mex
cusable, until we reflect that Rocky
Ridge is away of in the dull solitudes
OF the Mountains, and the poor des
pcradoes have hardly any amuse-
ments. Mr. Sladc afterward went to
Montana and began to thin out the
population as usual-for he took
great interest in trimming the census
aud regulating the vote-but finally
the vigilance captured him and hung
him, giving him just fifteen minutes
toprcpare himself in. This paper said
he cried on The scaffold.
The vigilance committee is whole.
some regulator in the new countries,
and bad charters have a lively dread
of it. In Montana one of these gen.
tlemen was placed on his mule and
Informed that he had precisely fifteen
minutes to leave the country in. lie
said, GENTS, If this mule don't back,
fivoll answer"
But that is sufficient about the dcs.
peradoes. | merely wish to make
passing mention of them as Calfor-
MIA produclion-Bu6olo Express.
Cooking is not only an art, but
4