The Albany register. [volume] (Albany, Or.) 1868-18??, 1880-03-05
Horrors OF a Lynch Court.
By CALVIN B. M'DoNALD.

| OA WIG AnOAnsa's5 ~ " ulS Otus AoOA
there were some five thousand people
in and about the town Of Downieville
traders, packers and gamblers throng-
ing the village, industrious miners at
work in the silver-beds and banks and
among these was engaged on branch
OF the river, . mile or so from the GEN.
ter of activity. The gold seekers were
scattered along SO close together that q
continuous line of vocal telegraph was
available for several miles. Abou: 10
o'clock in the morning the cry OF "Mur-
der !" came mp the river, quickly re-
peated from oneato another, and, as the
out-cry was unusually earnest and start
ling, all the miners dropped their tools
and made for the river bank 10 observe
things. Everybody was running to-
ward town, tour or five hundred in
sight aud all under full headway. OF
course, our party went, too. At The
scene of action we found q vast thToDg
surrounding a small clapboard shanty,
and within miner was lying dead
happened to be one of the few who
crowded in. The man was lying on
the puncheon floor, and had breathed
his last. The floor sloped little in
the rude structure OF the tenement, and
broad stream of blood had flowed
| from his breast as much as ten feet.
There was hardly any perceptible ex.
element until after the murdered man
had expired, and then began that om;n-
ous deathly buzz which is SO express
sive and threatening on the Border,
where there is no law but that of supe-
rior strength and no Justice but that OF
popular impulse.
"WIo was he ?''
"Who killed him p''
"Where is the murderer ?'' were the
inquiries repeated q thousand times
over, and presently the crowd began to
surge in particular direction, indicat-
ing that tile homicide had becu dis
covered.
The man killed was Joseph Cannon,
an Englishman, who had come from
Australia "a man of giant stature and
strength, considerably above Six feet in
hight, ,and weighing perhaps 23O pounds
The person who killed him was little
Mexican woman, from Mazatlan, unusu-
ally small even for her diminutive race.
Cannon was . good-natured, carousing
miner, and very popular with his asso-
ciate', who were chiefly English and
Scotch sailors with the usual proper.
ton of "Sydney ducks" as Australian
people were then called On the night
OF the 4th, Immediately preceding the
murder he had been on . spree, and
''ran all night" with his rough friends,
who in their hilarious iutoxication,
went about knocking at peoples doors,
and making them get mp 10 drink no.
body mInding that, then; the sailors
had plenty of money and were disposed |
TO throw it around lavishly. In the
course OF their raid Cannon and his ca
rousing friends kicked at the door OF
certain clapboard shanty, which baving
only frail, leathern hinges, fell in, and
The rude visitor ran away. The cabin
was inhabited by young Mexican and
his reputed wife. The man dealt monte
n neighboring saloon, and the woman
took in washing. In the state of eocie-
y at that time tho two were living
and by their united exer.
lions were making money. The wife
was rather pretty little woman, show.
ing the Indian features very dis5inctle
and was about "a years cid. Il was
paid she had been of loose character,
and had Killed two other men !; but of
that | never had any authentic. Informs.
lion, and 80 far as their ,ieighbors said.
The pair were living honestly and repn.
laby, with no more scandle than gener-
Ally fell to the lot of young and good.
looking woman in those fough old
lines
On the following morning having
somewhat recovered from his debancf.
Cannon heard he had broken into
.he faTnily'S door. and sfSrtAd of .o1