The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-03-23
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James p. Casey in broad day and in princl-
pal thoroughfare walked up to Mr.. James
King of William and shot HIM dead with
navy revolver The provocation to the crime
was an article in the Eoening Bulletin, of
which the murdered man was editor, and
which reflected upon misdeed of which
Casey had been guilty. Now, the people of
San Francisco knew very well that if brought
to trial in the ordinary way the murderer
would escape; for he was closely allied with
khe numerous and influential body of thieves,
Bhoulder-strikers and ballot-box suffers who
mt that time reigned supreme in the Golden
CITY, whose representatives sat on its bench,
controlled its treasury, held the Keys
pf its Jail, and even welded its constabulary
Htaves. Consequently, after briefly rejecting
upon the peculiarities of the situation, and
sorely outraged that one of the purest and
best of their number should have been slain
like dog for doing what he believed to be
his duty, the citizens of San Francisco rose
in their might, forced the prison where Casey
was confined, and summarily hung him
very much to his own astonishment and that
Df his friends. The magistrate who officiated
on this occasion was, of course, Judge Lynch,
and the Jurors and executioners were the
Famous Vigilance Committee. Now, this was
contrary to law, but it was not contrary to
order 1t was at a time when no mans life
nnd no mans property were safe In San
AN organized band of plunderers, not
altogether unlike our own New York
~tring, who kept in their pay nearly all the
bad characters of the city, rode rough-shod
over the whole of the rest of the community.
The merchants and other men of business
were too much engrossed with their own
nffairs to pay attention to municipal, or, in
deed, to any other duties. Hence things went
unchecked from bad to worse. The dis
Of ty
from the bench, lawyers used their clients
Becrets to enrich themselves and cheated them
right and left without fear of public opinion,
gamblers decoyed people into their dens,
drugged, robbed and tumbled them into the
Street, and society was fast sinking into a
Btate of ferocious barbarism. Dead men were
Found lying in the gray of the dawn in the
gutters or floating about among the wharves.
Desperadoes who belonged to the San
Franoisco ring of the period knocked down
Rnd trampled upon unhappy outsiders with
whom they disagreed, and laughed at the
Edea of retribution. The Vigilance Commit
lee had risen once before, but its deeds had
been forgotten. Impunity seemed to stimu-
late rufhanism into sort of craze. The fever
pf daredevil rascality rose higher and higher.
Ejaculation developed into unconcealed rob-
berry, and still the patient public endured.
But when unpunished assaults on the person
developed into open murder the temper of
fhe community could bear suppression no
longer. 1t broke fercely forth, and the gal
lows-tree of Casey was not only the exp iator
of his own crime, but the token of popular
wrath over a long roll of outrages that had
gone before.
We submit that it is fitting occasion for
The people of New York to ponder with Sc
robustness upon the significance of the San
Francisco Vigilance Committee, not with a
view of initiating it, but to take warning by
Its example. There is a manifest distinction
between seeking to adopt and seeking to
avoid the occasion for so terrible a remedy.
Dur readers do not need to be told in what
respects the foregoing narrative finds its
analogy in the New York of to-day. Nor
would any good end be obtained by the exag-
geration that should represent things to be as
bad here as they once were in San Francisco.
Happily this is not the case but there are
points of similarity, such as justify grave
apprehension. The people are used to
being robbed by their unfaithful servants,
and are perhaps not ready to fly to despe-
rate measures to remedy that. But promis-
Cuous assassination or the custom of way
laying men in the streets, with intent to
mutilate or murder them, is unlikely to be
long relished among ourselves to-day any
more than it was on the Pacific twenty years
ago. If public property is not to be pro-
fected, it may be taken for granted that
public safety must be. But what becomes OF
public safety if the dastardly assaults that
have recently so fearfully multiplied are to
go on not unpunished alone, but undetected?
If bravos like those who attacked Mr.. Eaton
escape, who among us is safe, and whose life,
limb, or reason may be destroyed next ?
The laws forbid us to carry concealed
weapons, but the laws are made for men
and not men for the laws, and we can
hardly blame people for relying on self
protectionif if there is to be no other. We say
nothing about the motives, whether obvious
or concealed, for the tiger-like attacks which
we have again and again recorded-the latest
having occurred no further back than Satur-
day night. Regardless of these motives the
perpetrators should be tracked and dragged
forth into the light of day, df free use of
money or the utmost stretch of human in
genuity can do it.; and when found their pun
kshment should be swift and sure. There is
feeling in the public mind that all is not
done that might be done for the detection of
fhe miscreants who commit or what is worse,
who instigate these abominable crimes; and
fhe authorities will be wise if they labor early
Rnd late to remove that impression.
We take occasion to say-for the present
Is an excellent time to say it-that the public
rnind has not itself been in the best possible
state to repress through it's own potential in
huence the abuses that have grown SO giant
like; and here the parallel with San francisco
&s complete. Our people have been too busy
I'm getting additional property to watch ovel
1hat which they already have, and this LaisSei
fdire habit has extended to a laxity of pro
lection for person and character as we'll. The
low journalism that beches forth 'sblacl
scandal and foul-faced reproach" has hear