Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-04-16
KEARNEY.
An Interview with the
Sand-Lot Agitator.
History Of the Honorable BilkS !"
and the New Constitution.
The Workingmen's Party and
It's Origin.
A New Party to be Formed
Transportation Problems.

upon the surface of public affairs-which ere
long ripened into gale, and before the close
of single year augmented in force until it
became a hurricane that shook society to its
foundations and Swallowed the land with the
gloom Of threatened revolution. The chief
actor in the troublous scenes of the three sue
ceeding years was Denis Kearney, dray-
man, who, upon the accidental wave of
popular clsInor, rode into power which
made the great city sway before his breath,
and riveted the eyes of all the people OF the
State upon his movements. With the most
meaningless catch words for a war-cry, and
the discontented and readily-inclined tumult-
uous classes at his beck and call, he hurled
anathemas broadcast from his improvised
throne upon the
SAND LOTS.
No despot ever welded greater power than
he for time, save only in matters of life and
death. and even in this the king of the sand
lot forum pronounced anathemas against citi-
zens, and coupled with them threats of speedy
and ignob]e death upon those against whom
his ire was directed. Aided by the timorous
character Of the local press in some cases and
its selfish ends in others, Kearney succeeded in
gaining publicity for his utterances and en-
gaging q larger auditory than has fallen to
the lot of any man on the Pacific coast. He
organized party with the widest and most
rambling declaration of principles leavened
with sufficient worthy articles OF faith to
give l. character demanding attention, and
sufficient Of vain and revolutionary demands
to call to its support class whom he had led
to believe was in the bonds of political
slavery and the embrace of unsympathizing
moneyed power. 1t is unnecessary to enter
into detail Of his methods of procedure, or
the tumultuous scenes which characterized
his brief but disastrous reign-a reign which
resulted in the stsgnation of business,
the depreciation of values, the division of
political power among three or four parties, and
the elevation to office of many wholly unrepre-
sentative people, except so far as they repre-
scented Kearney and his following, which was
largely composed of an unthinkiug and in
fammable foreign element, ready to forward
any measures that would pull down their
more fortunate and industrious neighbors,
or that would plant in the soil Of this State
the seeds Of
SOCIALISM AND COMMUNISM.
But the agitator was shrewd enough to
temper all his efforts with enough of real re-
form movements to draw to his support alarge
number of worthy people, and large numbers
of the classes engaged in manual labor, to give
his party an apparent strength of character
which in fact it never possessed. Withal he
exhibited in his career remarkable skill,
f,17c RI ha pOyUardice. nv Othpra
bravery by others, knaveTy; but by which
he held his followers so absolutely the slaves
of his will that he restrained them from the
actual deeds of violence TO which his words
constantly invited them. There arose, how
ever, as in all such cases, other ambitious
spirits Jealous subalterns who in time divided
power with him, broke the ranks Of his fol
lowing, weakened his influence and forced
him at the last to retire from the public gaze.
This result was fastened by the damagogery
of some who had been his supporters, the
greed Of Others who would have used him for
their own selfish ends, and found at the last
that the man, despite ali his follies was too
honest to be their tool, too independent to
become the medium of their chicanery.
STIRRING WERE THE TINES
During which Kearney reigned; eventful
were the scenes which trod upon each others
heels but the profoundest of al, the most
awful and threatening Of the times, were
those which shadowed and darkened the sum
Iner sun Of the year 1879, and at the same
time they presented in the strongest light the
unquesticned power of the man and his I'M
doubted generalship, in the display of which
he atoned for many of his former errors, for
he held the bowling army of his recruiting
by the throat when it was ready to spring
upon the peace of the State and overwhelm
the commonwealth in horrid scenes of civil
strife. Kearney was then at the zenith of
his power; subordinate to his influence was
that Of the very Executive of the State
From that time his declension began, until,
III a briefer time than had marked his rise,
ne sank back into the obscurity of private
life. It was on Saturday, the 23dday of August,
that Charles De Young of the Chronicle shot
down his fee, l. S. Kalloch, the nominee of
Kearney's party for the Mayoralty of San
Francisco. The news spread like wildfire,
and universal CONSERVATION prevailed. The
great mass Of the people were stirred as they
had not been before since that awful day
which bore the record of the death of Abra-
ham Lincoln. Alarm seized upon the eiti-
gems, the arm of authority seemed paralyzed,
the city, stupefed with terror, was at the
mercy OF the mob. 1t surged through the
streets, it howled a6 the gates OF the prisons,
and il guashed its teeth in helpless fury at
the restraint which held it back from deeds
Of blood from grssping the incendiary torch
and welding the mercilesS weaponry of riot.
What was that power The potent influence
of an absent leader. Immediately on the
receipt O! the news in Sacramento repre-
sentative of the RECORD UNION was dis
patched 20 San Francisco to make
HATEFUL AND IMPARTIAL RECORD
OF the stirring events of the hour. On the
steamer plying between Vallejo and San
Il - h n.,f,,r
slowly up and down the aisles of the main
saloon. There was painful hush among the
two or three hundred passengers. They were
awed by the possible so'emnity they were
hurryinc forward to-they were approaching
a city which perhaps they would ind in the
hands of blood-stained mob. There were
men aud women there whose panied anxious
countenances told too plainly of their loved
ones IN the metropolis for whose safety they
feared. There was o restless anxiety, re-
pressed esgerness to reach the destination :;
and could fear and hope have lent wings to
the steamer the vessel would have gone to
her wharf with the speed of light. Amidst
the crowd kearney paced diminutive,
low-browed exceedingly ordinary appearing
man. His slouched hat was drawn over bis
face and his head bowed upon his breast.
There was no deceit in that counten-
ance, II depicted so plainly that all
could read it, the anxiety, care and
responsibility which weighed upon his soul.
There was not man or a woman upon that
boat who did not realize to the fullest extent
that the agitltor in their midst held the fate
of San Francisco in his hands, and the uni
versal verdict that spoke It's judgment in
every conference acknowledged that here
was the man of all others who, in less than
an hour, would be called upon
TO SPEAK PEACE
To the multitude on the not far distant
wharves, or by single wave of his hand let
loose murder and destruction upon the de.
voted city. Every moment increased the
agony of the situation. Kearney still paced
the saloon, pausing now and then to consult
in low tones with the heutenants of the
sand lots. who had come up TO meet him and
receive his orders. The lights of the city
now flashed upon the turbid waters
of the bay; the boom of distant bells
were heard signaling the nilitia.men
to their arInories; the roar Of the angry
crowd upon the MaIkst'street landing already
was audible. when the reporter touched hear-
ney on the shoulder.
''Well, what viii you do! he under
stood the full purpors of the question;
al don't want to say" and then he went
on under pressure Of questions to add that
De Young ought to be hung; that the laws
were not sufficient for the times, and that has
Jay,sr.f t,nou what he