The Churchill county standard. (Fallon, Nev.) 1908-1920, 1909-12-02
RANKEST KIND or VANDALISM
Wonder Property Owners Suffer
Many Losses From Organ
lied Band of Thieves.

camps is lately marked Dy VANDALISM,
for it often happens that owners of
personal property in making their exit,
leave various articles of value stored,
which are subsequently never claimed
and those who remain to the last to see
the camp complete its dying struggles
justify simon pure burglary by the
fact that the owners of the chattels
which they steal, may never return.
But it sometimes happens that an
absence of year or two cannot be
taken as total abandonment of personal
effects. Leastways, there are some
residents of the Wonder mining district
who are squirming about and wondering
if warrants will be sworn out for their
arrest, since Albert Jacques. formerly
proprietor of the Denver Club saloon,
but now resident of San Francisco,
returned after an absence of one year
and found his saloon building and resi-
dence completely dismantled and many
of his personal effects pilfered.
Included in. the stolen articles are an
expensive gasoline lighting plant, Mrs.
Jacques trunk of clothing, blankets
and many other things of value, in
cluding many gallons OF fine liquors,
which were stored in the saloon base
ment Indeed, the condition of the
buildings lead Mr.. Jacques to believe
that following the time when he left
his property, with boar nailed over the
windows and doors of both his residence
and saloon, high jinks have been held
on more than one occasion. Glasses
have doubtless clinked times without
number and in the excitement of these
occasions it is barely possible that the
unwilling host was remembered by
Here's TO you, Jacques, may you
never return" But he did return to
find his loss at around a thousand
dollars and he is now determined to
prosecute anyone in whose possession
he may happen to find any of his be-
longings. He cannot condone the acts
that dismantled his property on the
ground that it has come to be CO nmon
practice, for he naturally feels that
such crimes should not go unpunished.
As illustrative of the methods in
vogue in the decadent mining districts,
few of the stolen articles, including
gasoline stove and sweaters were re-
turned to the porch of Mr.. Jacques
property on the night Of his arrival,
while he slept. But this only made
him know that someone of the few who
still remain in Wonder are implicated
in the burglaries and he refuses to
accept the articles returned as peace
offerings. He is now offering liberal
reward for the arrest and conviction of
the guilty parties.
In the meantime, those whe have
heard of the matter, are wondering if
the much vaunted Wonder police,
was bound and gagged while build
ings were being torn down and stripped
of belongings, or whether like some of
the city police it stood blindly by and
shared in the spoils.
But people who own property in
Wonder pay taxes and are entitled to
property protection. IF no taxes are
paid the county falls heir to the prop
eity involved and in any event the
county authorities should take measures
to stop the vandalism that is known to
have been common practice in the
Wonder district for two years past.
In connection with this subject it is
hard to conceive of low precinct Of
ficials, and Wonder has its full quote,
can live in a town of around fifty souls
and fail to see the wholesale depreda-
tion in progress. Certainly, they can
not avoid knowing, even if they are
stone blind aud deaf aud dumb that
plundering has been in progress for a
long time. Here in Fallon fifty miles
away, it has been common knowledge
and the burden of the blame for lack
of criminal prosecution certainly falls
in an endless mantle upon the shoulders
of those who are expected to adminis-
ter the law.
Its far cry from the chivalrous
mining camp days of 40, when con-
venient limbs were decorated with
those who trespassed in the slightest
manner on the precepts laid down by
the Golden Rule, to modern mining
camp thievery, but it seems to have
remained for this county to furnish the
uenviable extreme.
Contractors Hammond, Wildes e