Weekly Trinity journal., 1878-12-14
REMINISCENCE.
Old Times I'm Trinity County.
from the Eureka STANDARD. ~

most like dream that such things should
have taken place in a community the
members Of which were brought up and
educated under Christian laws and taught
the lessons Of the Divine Master. But
such was the case.
In the Fall of 1851, there was very lit
tie attention paid to the civil law. When
men were accused OF any crime they were
generally tried by jury of miners con-
vened Immediately. remember one
case that came very near proving fatal to
an innocent man.
There were residing in Weavervile two
Englishmen, one by the name of Har-
graves, who came to this State from Hi
nols, and the other, named Seymour,
came direct from Australia. This Sey-
meur generally went by the name of the
"Sidney Duck" a name generally ap-
piled to immigrants who came from Aus
tralia in early days. He wore double
coat, being finished on both sides. One
side was red, with blue facings. Now
the miners used to say that an honest
man would not wear coat with two
sides to it, and it being Sidney Duck :"
it was well to watch HIM.
Well, one night he and Hargraves got
on glorious drunk. Hargraves had
about thousand dollars in dust in a
yeast powder box on his person. Next
morning 1t was missing, and of course
Seymour, the "Sidney Duck" was the
man who robbed him, was the first idea
that entered the minds of the honest
miners. He was arrested by the Sheriff,
but there was a miners meeting called,
and it was resolved to take him out of the
Sheriif's hands and give him fair trial
by the miners court. A committee was
appointed to wait on the sheriff and de-
mand the prisoner, which demand the
sheriff Immediately complied with,
remarking that he could not defend
him against the whole community, and
that one good honest mans life was worth
all the "Sidney Ducks" in the State.
A jury of twelve men were selected to
try the prisoner and the trial proceeded.
Hargrave was the principal witness, but
he was SO drunk when the money was lost
be could give no intelligent testimony
The other testimony was conflicting.
Now in those days we had neither
court houses nor jails, but the court was
generally held under the shade ofa tree,
or by the side of a log where the judge
and jury could be seated. Well, Sey-
mour's trial went on, but the evidence
was not considered sufficient in the minds
OF some OF the jury to hang him. They
compromised by agreeing to hang him n
little, to make him confess the crime.-
They strung him up to the limb of an
oak tree, and then let him down to hear
his confession but he had none to make,
still protesting his innocence. They
lung him up three times, and yet no
confession. The jury then held eau
Gus some were for hanging outright
and others for making him leave town /;
finally they all agreed he had better leave
those digging5. The Foreman Of the
jury was instructed to inform the prison.
er that he was found guilty and would be
hung the next morning, but giving pri-
vate instructions to the guard to let him
escape during the night. The prisoner
was then put into cabin with instruc
tions to prepare to meet his God, for he
would surely die next morning at eight
o'clock.
Poor Seymour thought his time had
certainly come and he offered up some
tervent prayers to God to have mercy on
h is soul. About twelve o'clock, the
writer OF this "reminiscences, who was on
guard over the prisoner, opened the door
of the cabin. The poor fellow was on
his knees beseeching God to have mercy
on him. l said to him:
"Seymour, do not know whether
you are guilty or not, but | do not like to
see a human being strung up when there
is chance of his being innocent there
fore, il you will go and never return to
this place, will let you cut and take
my chances in the morning with the
miners"
To my dying day never shall forget
the look he gave me. He fell on his
knees beseeching me to save his life if
possible. | then told him to leave, but
to be sure to never come back. He as
sured him he had got all he wanted Of
Weaverville.
He was heard OF the next morning on
Trinity mountain, met by two men who
were making their way TO Weavervile.
They saw by his nervous excited manner
that there was something wrong with
Seymour. He asked them where they
were going. They replied that they were
going to Weaverville. Seymour told
them they had better steer clear of that
place for they would surely have to
fight their way or get killed or hung or
run out of the town. But they told him
they thought they would get along by
attending to their own business and Keep
ing civil tongue la their heads. Sey-
mour then started on, telling the two
men not to let any one know they had
seen him.
The two travellers made their way to
Weaverville, but just before getting into
the town they met an individual by the
name of Sam Curry or old Sam, dead
match for old Kaiser of this place, who
was going to the slaughter house to kill
beef.
Now Sam, when in his cups, had
good deal Of com bativeness about hM
He had fight regul ar every day and
always got whipped. Old Sam had on
his arm basket in which were couple
of navy revolvers and three or four
butcher kn ives for the purpose of killing
and dressing the beef. Meeting the two
strangers coming into town he stopped
all OF sudden, while ferocity cleaned
from his eye and look of peculiar saw
.gery covered his face, no accosted them
in very rough manner with:
"Where in h-ll are you going! Can
you fght?"
Then slamming the basket down on
the ground with the fury a very devil in
carnate, and pointing to the murderous
implements, he yelled:
"There, damn yer, take your choice of
weapons and come on and fight, damn
yer, if you ain pair Of towards. And
if you are towards and can't fight, damn
ver Won had better leave town, for no