The morning call., 1893-11-05
JOAQUIN MURIETA.
The Truth About Z
Notorious Outlaw.
HAD NO REDEEMING TRAITS.
A Man Who Was Naturally and
Thoroughly Crimi-
nal.

In all ages and in all climes mankind,
whether civilized OF barbarous, has been a
worshiper Of courage. and crimes bravely
committed are easily forgiven. No sugges-
ton of injustice, no silent appeal of hu-
manity will prevent us from patting the
battle-scarred head of the vicious veteran
of the pit and the EeXt moment administer
ing kick to the starving cur who lacks
the courage to fight for his bone. No
mercy is shown to the sneak thief who
pillages overcOats and umbrellas from hall
racks, but an unavenged wrong or ro-
mantle heart-wound ia generally hunted
up and placed to the credit of the more
courageous scoundrel who plumbers at the
point of pistol and openly defies the law.
To this human tendency. with which it
would be useless to quarrel, may be attrlb-
uted in great measure the glamour OF
chivalry softening down the atrocities Of
the lawless of past generations and max
ing heroes rather than criminals of the
Turpins and Sheppards of enduring noto-
rety. And now, less than thirty years
after his death, an effort Is being made to
lift Joaquin Murieta into an atmosphere
Of romance. A writer in the Octo Der num-
Der of the Californian illustrated Maya
zine" refers TO the noted outlaw as Robin
Hood or Charles de Moor, who was incited
to a career of crime by wrong and insult
Inflicted upon him by party of American
miners in 1850. He is depicted as young
man of absolute courage and attractive
exterior. who at the age of II eloped with
a Mexican girl of rare beauty from the
State of Sonora and found refuge in Los
Angeles. He was followed, of course, "by
Rosta'S irate and revengeful father" who
relnQuIshed pursuit OF the lovers only
after they had crossed the Calitor-
with horse-stealing, he fled to
Calaveras County with his mistress
IN 1850. and engaged in placer mining. on
the Stanislaus He was driven from his
claim ''by a party of some half-dozen
American miners" with the information
that MeXicans were not allowed to mine
in California. Locating elsewhere, he
was "drlven ont again by the all-coveting
Yankee prospector." when he removed to
Murphy's DIggings and became monte
dealer. Shortly after he was found in
possession of a stolen horse, borrowed
from his half-brOther residing in the
neigh borhood. The latter was hanged
for the theft. and Joaquin was fiogged.
He spent the year following in assassin
highway at the head of band of des-
peradoes. He became the terror OF the
State and was finally killed with num-
ber of his gang in 1858, by party sent in
pursuit of the outlaws. He was brave,
fascinating and romantic youth, driven TO
course of crime by persecution, and,
stated with the blood OF his enemies, dying
with a smile on his lips at the age of
twenty-one
This is the substance Of the story given
us by The Californian. To make a hero
of an assassin and horsethief it was
necessary that the writer should present
him a. victim of persecution, and place
his blood-letting and larcenies to the credit
of revenge. The recital of wrongs alleged
to have been suffered by him at the hands
of American miners in 1850 must be re-
garded as pure fiction. 1t is impossible
that parties of American miners could
have violently and illegally ousted him
from claim alter claim simply be-
cause be was Mexican. Three
gang had rendered about every mountain
highway unsafe. and found protection to
some extent among the Spanish American
residents or the mining camps, local COM
mttees in Amador, Calaveras, Stanislaus,
and perhaps some other counties, issued
edlcts of expulsion against the entire race,
and few of the many who remained were
hanged; but previous to that time Mexi-
cans. scarcely 10 be distinguished from
native Californians who had been made
citizens by treaty, were as considerably
treated as any other class of foreigners and
as little liable TO wrong at the hands of
Americans.
And now let me express the opinion
right here that the fifty or more thousands
of American miners, scattered through the
mountains OF California in 1850, were as
just, intelligent and unselfish body of
men, taken as whole, as ever adventured
anywhere in search of fortune. l was of
and with them. ] was familiar with their
hopes and purposes. | ate of their coarse
fare and slept with them under the pines
| saw Chinese miners diSposSesSed of their
claims by violence. but no American
miner was ever among the aggressors;
and never saw the time when
a party of American miners could
not be promptly found to assist in
restoring to the rightful owners the prop
erty of which they had been despoiled.
They liked the little brown man no better
then than they do now, but an innate sense
of justice impelled them to protect him in
the enjoyment Of common privileges for
which he alone paid monthly tax. |
therefore repeat that it is impossible that
parties of American miners could have
ordered Joaquin away from his claims for
no better reason than that he was
Mexican; ard if | have written with
warmth OF my pioneer countrymen it is
because they are charged with acts of n-
justice which they were incapable of
committing.
But something more potential than
American sense of justice protected Joa-
Quin Murieta from the envy and predal
propensites of his neighbors. During his
four years residence in California his
labors as miner were trifling. and he
never owned claim that was worth work
ing or jumping. he was not even skillful
with the horn and b0tea, as were the most
of his countrymen. and was in no sense
miner by occupation. He was thief in
Mexico. thief in Los Angeles. thief In
Mokelumne Hill, tLief wherever he
went: yet we are asked to believe that be
was driven TO 1he highway by the persecu-
tion of American miners. His acts dis
prove any such assumption. They show
that The purpose of his lawlessness was
not revenge, not resentment of personal
wrong, but plunder, to be secured by the
bloodiest methods.
lie was as merciess as a hyena. BE
tied men to trees and left them to perish
in unfreQuented forests. In his raid upon
the little town of Rancheria he spared
neither age nor sex, and without his pro-
tact opa of bis UoDn oaiyad in fap W rho