The Portland daily press., 1896-02-22
HANGENGS By VIGILANTS.
Early San Francisco Scenes Described
by an Eyewitness,

Double observation-disclosures and
Sheriff Brought to Time-The Call on
the Triangle.
From the Springfield Republican
There are probably not many men liv-
ing or dead who can say or could have
said that they went through the wild
days which marked the early develop
ment of the West, armed only with-a
moral principle. principles are all well
enough in their way, but If the other fell
low has q. pistol, want one, too" most
men would say, and that, parhaps, was
the generally accepted philosophy of life
in the days OF the Forty miners. But
there Is one man, at least born and bred
in the Bay State. and resident of this
city for the past thirty years or SO, who
substituted moral principle for a
pistol. lived for eight years in COM
munity In which men were shooting or
hanging each other with charming aban-
don, and then came back to his native
sS00 49, oAAO odchaOW III UQ6 b6rkBQlTb
Hills. unscathed in body and with his
hands free OF human blood. This man is
j. s. Noble, the grain dealer of Lyman
street, And the moral principle was
ATTEND to your own affairs, and allow
other people to attend to theirs.''
Mr.. Noble reached California in 1850.
and stayed there until 1865 During the
eight years he did various kinds of work,
and Of course, he had all sorts of expert
ences. At one time he was employed in
telegraph office in San Jose, and again
he followed the profession of a cowboy
and oastle driver. He lived in Stockton,
San Francisco, and San Jose at differ
emit times, and had plenty of adventures
and experiences such as were to be en-
oountered there. The most dramatic
period of his life In the West was that
which he passed in San Francisco. Ror
it was while he WAS there that the fam
Gus Vigilance Committee took the rsins
of government into its own hands, en-
forcing the laws of common Justice with
relentless vigor and a degree of expe-
dition which struck terror to the hearts
of the murderers and robbers who had
established reign of terror.
Mr.. Noble is very quiet plair-spoken
man, and his very tendency TO state
things oonservatively makes the story of
his experiences doubly interesting. He
saw the public execution in the streets of
San Francisco of Hetherington and
RraOo 1rdo ,Lov +ria c,,l
condemned by the Vigilance Committee;
the massing Of 4, 900 men in front of the
jail where Casey and Corey two other
murderers, were confined, the surrender
OF the men to the committee under
threat of instant bonn bardment of the
jail, and their subsequent swing into
eternity from the windows of the Vigi-
lance Committees barracks.
: Hetherington and Brace were the first
nen to whom the Vigilance Committee
melted Justice. Both had committed cold
piooded murders. and there was every
probability that they would go scot free
because Of the notoriously rotten condi-
ton of the courts and the wheels of
Justice in general. They were seized by
the officers of the Vigilance Committee
and taken to the barracks in Sacramento
street. The building had been barrlcaded
and made into a fortress, whose taking
would have been an exceedingly difficult
matter. A heavy guard OF fearless men
surrounded the building and cannon
were mounted on the roof in such posi-
ton that they commanded the street and
could rake it with grapeshot.
Into this fortress hetherincton and
Brace We're hurried, and received fair
hearing. Both men were desperate CHAR
actors. and the committee were not long
in deciding that they were guilty and
must die. The decision was at once made
kaeNp, and the day for the execution
announced. A scatfold was erected in
the street in front Of the barracks, and
exactly at the hour mentioned the men
were marched out and placed under the
noosas which were ready for them.
NJ. Noble says that the roofs com
msading the gallows were crowded with
people who were eager to see Justice done.
fhe msn were given IN opportunity to
hk3cens 0fdC0 WAS mauQll0 drunk and
his remarks were confined to a few out
bursts Of somewhat incoherent profanity
and vuagarity. Hetherington said simply
that he was not guilty of the charge oil
which he had been convicted, but that be
deserved hanging anyhow for other
crimes which he had committed. After
that the great iron triangle on top of the
barracks, and used to sound the alarm
for the Vigilance Committees forces.
was struck a single blow, the drop fell.
and the men hung by their necks in full
sight Of thousands, who sent up a chez.
Of approval. m
The execution of Casey and Corey was
even more dramatic. Corey had killed a
United States marshal and had been con.
viotod of murder, but had been granted a
new trial, and was still confined In the
JILL ON Broadway. The murder which
Casey committed was peculiarly cold
hiooded and brutal. His victim was
James King. thoroughly upright AMI
H<~H ~