The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1878-09-24
LAW IN EARLY CALIFORNIA
How the Court Took the Woods
with q Double-Barreled Shot
Gun.
San Francisco Chronicle.

peu and pencil MS Bret Har,e. joaquin
Miller, Mark Twain, Hill and Bier.
stadt, it has happily come to be. in
the literary and pictorial world, that
if one who is judiciously appreciate &c
of the beauties Of animate or inanimate
nature catch a glance. in cutting a
serial. of the name of either OF sand
artists or Of "Caliiornia, the cutter
wisely reckons the cast of the serial e.
the disconsolate side of thi, worlds
profit and loss account. losses the
magazine overheard. and with com
parative good taste. buys An original
copy Of the Police Reporter or the
Days Happenings. BY reason Of these
loyal and ch-productive labors ol
these limners Of 1.-THE early days" il
has come to be the belief that in those
said days the country WAS irregulArly
divided off into mining camps, that
there were no women and all men in
it that If there ever was woman
she was naughtier than a canal-boat.
mans sweetheart possibly could be
and nicer than Princess of the blood
royal ever IL, that the men wore jack
boots.
RED FLANNEL SHIRTS,
limp and ragged hats, and that their
pants We're invariably patched. where
abrasion most required patches. with
the lettered parts of effete -four sacks.
These are the principal ingredients,
and according as a picture or story is
required skiilful Whitewater or a
school boy intent on his weekly ''com
position" can stir them into a new
and produce new type
of early California. The setting oI
the stage is such as pioneer artists
made it, it is the same which cheap
hebdomadals, probably fishing for an
eieemosynary bite. still adopt, and il
must not be disturbed. In those same
early DAYS there was in what is pow
County mining camp
known as Owens River. on the
locality of which is now the village OF
the sappy and civilized name OF Mont
Montgomery is eminently
liable to remain unknown forever,
but the ci-devant Owens River Mining
Camp has history which, if it had
only been written in ancient Greek
and duly translated into English
doggerel. would smack strongly of the
heroic age. Homer did not do hi-
subject exact justice. He told about
of the ructions and seductions
of his heroes. but he says no word Of
the
JOLLY'Hu.ARITY OF CAMP LIFE
when such distinguished young toughs
as Castor and Pollux and Achilles and
the rest of the boys took to the war
path. One incident of the Owens
River camp life shall ut least be pre-.
served. The camp had a judiciary
and a bar. The former was one Califf.
4 Justice of the Peace, whose jurisdic-
lion in those days may be described as
/ kind of rowing commission through
al law, written or unwrItten, with a
inclusive power from that ia
|ine a man .'the drinks" for contempt
TO ordering him out to be hanged for
q mule. The bar consisted OF
two persons. one of whom is now the
lble presiding Judge of a court OF
jurisdiction in this city, and
he other of whom was Will Hicks
since then well known to the
bar of California. Judge Calf was a
good man, and intended in his heart tn
DO the square thing in the way of
meeting out mining, statutory, com.
mon or uncommon law. equity, chan
cery or Jurisprudence at large. but the
bar was composed of young men who
keenly enjoyed the turbulent hilarity
IF the topsy-turvy period. and they
always managed. whenever they got
my kind of case before His Honor,
10 drive him about million of leagues
beyond judicial or human endurance.
The bar were personally the most at
tached of friends. but by careful pre-
they were professionally the
DEADLIEsr OF ENEMIES, H..
md, of necessity, as they wee the
,nly two lawyers there, they always
appeared in Court on opposite sides of
he suit at issue. As the diggings
,egan to give evidence that their
working WAS eliminating
he bar increased in its recklessncss,
md the torture of mind to which it
ubjected the Court at each new trial
vas evidence that they intended max
ng the Judge decide both WAYS or
BURST the Court wide open. Their
Methods of cross-examining an oppos-
ng witness were particularly repre-
lensible. When Big Bill. Moody
wore polnt-blank at a trial to ascer-
ain the exact line between two claims,
hat he had seen the original stake
lriven in 1852. Mr.. Graham said:
MIR. Moody. do YOU swear that you
aw that stake driven in 1852. Re-
sir. Won are on your oath. "
Moody. Yes, | do.
Mr.. Graham. Could you not, be
mistake Think sir, was it not some
Their stake?
Moody. No, sir: it wasn't.
Mr.. Graham (his hand slowly Gid
NJ round to the back of his belt). Do
GU swear sir, you could not be mis-
AIKEN?
Moody. Well, IL am pretty sure
Mr.. Graham. (firmly, as his hand
rasped something at his back. which
with click. click. Don't
on know it to be fact that you
ever saw any stake in any place
riven into anything by anybody?
A SCENE IN COURT.
Opposing counsel calmly draws a
avv six and examines it contempla-
vely.