Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1870-02-10
California Roughs.
BY MARK TWAIN.

A curious feature about California life
was the breed of desperadoes she reared
and fostered on her soil, and afterwards
distributed over adjacent territories
through her vigilance committees, when
she had had enough of their exploits
These men went armed to the teeth with
monstrous revolvers, and preyed upon
each other. Their slightest misunder.
standings were settled on the spot by the
bullet; but they very rarely molested
peaceable citizens. They robbed and gam
bled and killed people for three or four
years, and then died with their boots on"
as they phrased it; that is, they were killed
themselves-almost invarably-and they
never expected any other fate, and were
very seldom disappointed
Sam Brown, Of Nevada, killed sixteen
men in his time, and was iourneying to-
wards Esmeralda to kill a seventeenth,
who had stopped the breath of friend of
his, when party of law-abiding citizens
waylaid him, and slaughtered him with
shot.guns. Mourners 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 "a saloon so nicknamed because
so many men had been killed in it), and
invited stranger up to drink with him.
The stranger said he never drank, and
wished to be excused. BY the custom OF
the country, that was a deadly insult, and
so Brown very properly shot him down.
He left him there and went away, warning
everybody to let the body alone, because
it was his meat, he said. And it is said,
also, that he came back after awhile and
made coffin and buried the man himself
though / could never quite believe that
without assistance.
Virginia was full of desperadoes, and
some of the pleasantest newspaper re-
porting / ever did was in those days, be-
cause | 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 see how the ma
terial was runninc short. Those were
halcyon days! don't know what halcyon
days are, but that is the proper expression
to use in this connection, believe
Jack Williams was one of the luckiest
of the Virginia City desperadoes He
killed good many men. He was
kind hearted man, and gave all his GUS
tom to poor undertaken who was try
ing to get along. But by-and-by some
body poked a double barreled shot gun
through crack while Williams was sit
ting at breakfast and riGdled him at such
rate that there was hardly enough OF
him left to hold an inquest on-and then
the poor undertakers best friend was
gone, and he had to take in his sign. Thus
he was stricken in the midst of his pros.
perity and happiness-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 then
II Is said the first twenty.six graves in
the cemetery at Virginia City were those
of men who died by the bullet. And the
first six in another of those towns con-
tanned the bodies of desperate and five
of his victims-and there in the bosom OF
his family, made dear to him by the ties
of blood, he calmly sleeps unto this day.
At the Rocky Ridge station, in the
Rocky Mountains, in the old days OF over
land stages and pony expresses, had the
gorgeous honor of breakfasting with Mr.
Slade, the Prince Of all the desperadoes;
who killed twenty-six men in his time;
who used to cut off his victims ears ana
send them as keepsakes to their relatives;
and who bound one of his victims, hand
and foot, and practiced on him with his
revolver for hours together-a proceeding
which seems almost inexcusable, until we
reflect that Rocky Ridge is way OIL IN
the dull solitudes of the mountains, ana
the poor desperadoes have hardly any
amusements Mr.. Slade afterward went
to Montana and began to thin out the popu'
lation as usual-for he took great inter.
est in trimming the census and regulating
the vote--hut finally the Vigilance Com
mittee captured him and hanged him. CIV
ing him just fifteen minutes to prepare
himself in. The paper said he cried Oh
the scaffold.
The Vigilance Committee is whole,
some regulator in the new countries, anu
bad characters have lively dread oil Il.
In Montana one of these gentlemen Was
placed on his mule and informed that ne
had precisely fifteen minutes to leave lne
country in. He said, Gents, II TINS lnui'
don't balk, five II answer.
But that is sufficient about the despela.
does, Imerely wished to make pssslns
mention Of them as California prouuo'
tion.-Butfalo Express.
IT is stated that a pupil of Baron LieDis