Litchfield enquirer., 1881-03-31
Kalloch.


 Isaiah M. Kaloch has just been acquitted in California of the murder of Charles De Young The murdered man had but shortly before attempted to kill Isaac $. Kallock, father of the person by whose pistol he was slain Each of these men had history and as the story of the one runs into that of the other, the mixture is so foul that we can hardly wonder at the tragedy that resulted. achusetts church when he first achieved gen. eral notoriety through a scandal which, quarter of century since, filled the papers as did the Beecher case some half dozen years ago. Whether by full acquittal, or by disa- greement, we forget which, Kalloch escaped conviction. but at the expense of his reputa- tion. He went west, and lived in Kansas where new scandals arose about him, and he emigrated, this time as far as California. In the chaos of parties which accompanied the great labor agitation in that State, Kalloch, who was very able speaker, came to the sur- face as labor reformer, and became the candidate of that party for Mayor of San Francisco.
 Charles DeYoung was a man of Southern birth, who found his way after the war, if we are not mistaken, to San Francisco. This fel- low and his brother edited an Ishmaeltish paper of Democratic politics in that city, which had made itself extremely obnoxious to men of all parties, by system of promiscu- ous labelling.
 No sooner did Kalloch become prominent in California politics than the DeYoungs opened upon him in a style that for once seemed ap- propriate. They raked up the old Massachu sets scandal; they found additional material ln Kansas; and they were making California extremely warm for Kalloch, when he began retaliating. In speech he not only abused the DeYoungs, but he accused their mother of being prostitute. Charles DeYoung, at once attempted the life of Kalloch, under c.rcum- stances of peculiar atrocity. The immediate result was the choice of Kalloch, Mayor of the city, and the indictment of DeYoung for at- tempt to murder. At this point the younger Kalloch, 8 minister of the gospel, appears on the scene, and kills DeYoung. At his trial last week, it was evident to every one that he had shot down DeYoung without giving him chance of defending himself, much as De Young had attempted to kill the elder Ka- loch. To be sure, there was show of ev .dence to the fact that DeYoung had fired the first shot, from 8 man who said he was look ing through the window and saw it. It was proved. on the other hand, by several persons present, that such was not the case; and, moreover, DeYoung's revolver was found to have every chamber charged. The only reply to this latter fact was that of conspiracy on the part of some of DeYoung's friends to manufacture evidence by reloading his revol- yer.
 The jury probably actea upon 8 rule that cannot be found in any law book-the rule of retaliation. DeYoung had been killed exact ty in the way he had tried to kill another. He had never been punished for his attempt; and it was not generally thought, perhaps, that he would be. Yet this decision. with others like it; tue acqulttal of Lama Fair; and, recently, that of the man who murdered the French dentist who had seduced his wife, ,-tend to make men rely more on themselves than upon the law for protection. In acquitting mur- derer after murderer, California juries are placing premium on murders of certain class. In effect, they tell men who have suffered certain species of injury that they can take the law into their own hands with