Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-08-11

colossal fortunes and grew up with the
country that has now not only become the
garden spot of America, but which has
no equal in fertility of soil, wealth of natu-
raj resources or delightfulness of climate
on the face of the globe.
But there is another side to the picture.
Many who started from their Eastern
homes full of life and promise found shall
low graves on the trackless prairies, while
others who succumbed to disease on the sea
never reached the goal of their ambition,
but their bodies were cast upon the cruel
waves amid the sad requiem of an ocean
burial Others were planted in rude graves
beneath the dark shadow of the pine for
ests throughout the mines, and their graves,
long since forgotten, are occasionally
turned up by the busy husbandman, who
views the remains with as much curiosity
as if they were those of some prehistoric
race.
While the adventures, in many instances
were romantic, full of interest and excite
ment, they were often accompanied by
great danger TO life and limb, and not I'M
frequently resulted in death.
The mountains were full of wild Indians,
who became treacherous because of the
cruelties often practiced against them by
the whites, and many an innocent individ-
uaI suffered at the hands of those whose
The gold belt, especially that portion
which was first worked, were the placers
in the lower attitudes or foothills of the
Slerras. They were well wooded and
watered, and abounded in all kinds of
game, and huge grizzly bears roamed at
will up and down the ravines gulches and
canyons, and many hand-to hand contest
took place between the argonaut and this
monarch OF the forest, which too often re-
suited in victory for the ferocious beast.
DR.. Nelson met one of these grizzled mon
sters in narrow ravine near Greenwood,
but bullet from the doctors trusty rifle
pierced the brutes heart just as Brun was
going TO embrace the young doctor-a
hug" that would have crushed every bone
in the latter's anatomy. This bear weighed
over two thousand pounds, and its
slaughter made the doctor the hero of the
hour.
A man by the name of Jabine came
suddenly upon grizzly in Mosquito Cam
yon, some ten miles from Placerville. Both
were surprised at the sudden meeting.
Jabine drew his dirk as the grizzly rose on
his hind legs to strike him. The next day
they were found lying in the bottom of the
canyon. The bear was dead, Jabine's knife
having penetrated his heart. Jabine was
unconscious, the right side of his face be-
ing entirely torn away and his eye gone.
He was taken to Placerville where medical
attendance was secured. When he recov-
cred he was SO badly disfgured that his
most intimate friends would not know him.
He was a man of superior education and
ability, but his terrible designation seemed
to have broken his heart, and SO far as pos
sible afterwards he lived retired and Sc
cluded life. The incidents connected with
his sad and lonely death, some ten years
ago, are still fresh in the memory of many
of the residents of Ell Dorado county.
a few days ago number of ladies and
gentlemen from Sacramento were resting
at the base of the Marshall monument on
the summit of Ma. shall Hill, when ex-Sen-
ator Mailer related some of the stirring
incidents in the history of Coloma, the
little town on the American at the foot of
the mountain.
He said the first settlers of Coloma were
men of more than ordinary ability. They
were in many instances young men fresh
from college, adventurous spirits who, on
the receipt of the news of the discovery of
gold, threw aside their sheep-skins and
started for the Western wilds to carve out
their fortunes in the new Ell Dorado.
The town of Coloma soon had cosmo-
politan population representative of every
nationality and every State in the Union
The Southern planter, fresh from the cot
Harvard, the sons of the first families of
Virginia, and the Hoosier and Sucker slept
on the same bed of pine boughs, threw
gravel in the samelong tom, and partook
of the same mess of pork and beans in the
| little log cabin, which was common prop
erty.
There was no law, but the best OF order
prevailed. There were no thieves nor rob-
| bers. The little disputes regarding loca-
| tons of mining property were settled by
| what was called miners meetings whose
| decisions were final.
There was no such thing known in those
| days as tramps. The miner left his cabin
door unlocked his pan of gold dust sat
upon the shelf, in sight of all, and was
never disturbed.
The miners as a rule were young, indus
trious, ambitious generous to fault, and
! their purse strings were always open to re-
| iieve the needy, to care for the sick and
distressed, and those who succumbed to
disease were given decent and Christian
| burial.
Among the early pioneers were youn
men with brilliant minds, who afterwards
| made their mark in State and national DO
| litics.
| One thing that deferred crime in those
days was the swift and nerited punish
ment dealt out by the community TO all
evil-doers. There were no iails, no peni-
tentiaries, and criminals were hanged for
petty larceny offenses. Every mining camp
in the country had its hanging trees, and
many man who failed to observe the divine
command, Thou shalt not steal" dangled
from the end of rope, an execution by
the people" and one looked upon in those
days as the proper way of dealing with
criminals.
| You know, perhaps, that Placerville was
| originally called Hang.own, from the fact
that hanging took place in that camp a
few days after its first settlement.
From where we are now sitting can
point you to four spots, within quarter of
mile of the base of this monument, where
| eight executions took place. Six of them
were judicial, and Eo OF them by what we
would nowadays term a mob.
/ just northwest of US, not more than
three hundred yards, a negro and an Irish.
man were hanged from the limb of live
oak tree, in plain sight of the entire camp.
| Over thousand miners assisted in their
execution.
The negro had entered cabin while the
owners were at work in their claim and
stole a gallon can half filled with gold dust.
| He was captured, admitted his guilt. and
showed the place where he had buried the
treasure. On the same day an Irishman
/ picked up rope and walked off with it.
1t happened there was mule attached to
the other end of it, and he was followed,
captured, tried and convicted by a miners
meeting held under big white-oak tree
that stood just on the outskirts of town.
| Both of the condemned men were given
an hour TO arrange their earthly affairs
At their dictation letters were written to
their relatives in the East telling them of
their populations and of the swift vengeance
that was to be summarily visited upon
them. They were led up the hillside, and
launched into eternity. In cutting the
rope The hangman had not made allowance
for its stretching and the pegro's toes
touched the ground and be was slowly
straugled to death.
] Under yonder scrubby pine, which is