The Andrew County Republican. [volume] (Savannah, Mo.) 1871-1876, 1876-02-18

convicts, ticket-of-leave men, or had
finished their term of Punishment or
servitude in that vast penal Colony of
Great Britain, who, on their arrival in
San Francisco, seeing the almost entire
absence of law, and the heterogeneous
state of society, began at once their
depredations on the inhabitants of the
u%nprepared and unprotected town, and
up to this time had continued to COM
init theft, arson, robbery, murder and
every other crime known to law, unmo-
Tested. What little of law that existed
was powerless to check in the slightest
degree this reign of crime-in fact, it
had become q matter of ridicule. The
police were few in number, and many
of them were in league with the crimi-
nails, and when n of the rascals was
brought to trial it was impossible to Sc
cure a conviction.
From technical errors, sharp lawyers,
false swearing of witnesses for the pris-
oners, laws i'll understood, and worse
applied, timidity of jurors, and weak
ness and venality of the Judge, the case
generally broke down, and the offender
went free. Not enc criminal had been
executed, yet it was notorious that at
least one hundred murders had been
committed within the space of o few
months in the city limits, while in
stances of arson, burglary, theft and
robbery were of daily occurrence. The
carnival of crime had truly assumed q
fearful and alarming shape. The city
had five times been almost entirely de-
stroyed by fire, and it had become alb
solutely unsafe to walk the streets after
dark. 4 regularly organized band Of
these cut-throats was known to exist,
with its headquarters in San Francisco,
and branches in every town and princi
pal mining camp in the State. In the
spring of 1919 the people had rises en-
massc and made an effort to crush them
out, but the means adopted were too
mil! to subdue the 'hounds." AL
though they were for q time dispersed
and their organizations ~disbanded, it
continued to exist, and, at the time of
which we write, wac q numerous and
powerful band, with q permanent place
and regular time of holding meetings.
A systemized code of signals, passwords
and signs had been adopted. It WAS Off
.cered and led by my Of the most des-
perate and clever scoundrels that ever in
tested Il community, many of whom were
prominent men of the city. The place
Of meeting was at che house of one jim
Edwards, on the south side of Pacific
Street, between Montgomery and Sam
some, in the heart of "Sidney-town,'t
the name by which that portion OF the
city around Clark's Point was then
known. The front portion of the
ground floor of Edwards's house was oc-
cupied as saloon for dancing, drink
ing and gambling, the upper floor was
divided into small apartments and let
as bedrooms to the f%requenters of the
place, or to unlucky strangers who,
either by chance, should wander that
way, or were enticed thither by the fe-
male decoy ducks employed for that
purpose, and who il they ever lett it
alive did so minus cash, jewelry, and
often even clothing. The rear portion
of the building extended out over the
water of the bay, which at that time
had not been filled in as it now is, and
rested on piles driven into the mud.
The floor was placed at a sufficient
height above the water to enable q
small boat to pass at any stage OF the
tide. The rear room was the regular
rendezvous of "The Thugs" Here
was concocted those diabolical schemes
that rendered them so famous, and
which finally drew down upon them the
vengeance of an ~eXasperated and out
ragged people, and led to their oxtermi.
nation five years later by that last great
uprising of the long-suffering citizens of
the town.
By an ingenious c%ontrivance in the
floor of this apartment, ingress and
egress could at any time be had. BY
rowing a boat underneath and touching
a short lever of wood fastened to one of
the piles, a trap door flew open and a
ladder descended that led up through
the floor into the "Thug's Den" which,
after being used, was so effectually
closed as to have no traces of its exist
ence. 1t is told of two detectives of the
Vigilance Committee, about this time,
that they were in pursuit, one night, of
a boat that was known to contain three