Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1882-03-04
A California Trial.

PERSONS IaHlllldT With Tie early MS
tory Of the country are well aware of
the potent influence Of eloquence OH
the uncnltiyated masses and how
they were moved by the fervent Or
atory of Patrick Henry and Clay,
and Webster and Corwin, and Crit
tenden and Tom Marshall, and those
old tiae men of the primitive bar,
which had never been excelled in the
annals of human pleading.
An episode of a similar nature oc-
Cured out in the early days of Cali
fornia mining, of which the writer
was a spectator. The circumstances
were as follows:
A miner had been caught stealing
gold dust. That kind of business
couldn't be permitted in the mines !;
forcible examples had to be made of
all such offenders. Murder regulat-
ed itself; there was rough code OF
honor recognized and based upon
public sentiment. If the man who
killed another had justified provoca-
ton, be went unmolested; but if he
had killed his man without sufficient
cause, he probably paid the penalty
with his own life the first time rel
ative or friend Of the murdered man
" got the drop on him." The only
other public offence was theft; that
was so contemptibly mean and so
vitality affected the interest of the
miners and their sense of safety, that
they rarely ever failed to string up
the offender even after rough courts
were established and trial by Jury
granted.
On this special occasion bag Of
gold dust had been taken from under
miners bunk by one of his working
companions and he had been captur-
ed with it on his way to San Fran
cisco and brought back for quick
and effective trial.
"Have you any counsel - asked
the Judge.
No, amt gou no friends nor any
body to talk for me; so you might as
well cut the chinnin' short and pull
me up.n
of you will allow me to act as
counsel for the prisoner, I'll say a
few words for him." replied a tall un-
calmly miner, who was stranger at
that particular diggin's."
"All right, there's the jury. Bring
up your client and let him plead to
the charge"
The prisoner stood up and admit
ted the theft, and at the request of
the stranger stated the circumstan.
ces which had tempted him to take
the dust. He had just gotten let
ter from his wife in the States, in
which she wrote that her mother and
one of his children had died and she
begged him if he loved her to come
home, even if he had to borrow
the money Of some of his friends,and
she would help him to work and pay
it back. He also stated that as he
had been unable to borrow the
money, he had taken the dust with
the intention of paying it back when
he returned home.
The letter was produced in court to
substantiate the truth of his state
ment and it evidently weakened
some of the jury, but there we're
stern, unmoved men in the crowd,
all belted around with knives and
pistols, who knew that any letting
up on theft would render gold dust
toe unsafe; besides they spoke up
right and left, saying that they got
just such letters from home as we'll;
that the same kind of sorrow in their
own domestic life came up every day
or week to some of them, and the
very mutual condition of depriva-
ton and toll should establish a code
of honesty above everything else.
OF course, said they, the fellow can
have his counsel to chin for him, but