66

This was hardly done, when Mr. B, counsel for the prisoner entered, and moved an arrest of judgment. "Oh, yes," said the alcalde, "as the shears and razor have done their work, judgment may now rest." "And under what law," inquired the learned counsel, "has this penalty been inflicted?" Under the Mosaic," replied the alcalde: "that good old rule-eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hair for hair." "But," said the biblical jurist, "that was the law of the Old Tes tament, which has been abrogated in the New." “But we are still living," returned the alcalde, "under the old dispensation, and must continue there till Congress shall sanction a new order of things." "Well, well," continued the counsel, "old dispensation or new, the penalty was too severe-a man's head against a horse's tail!" "That is not the question," rejoined the alcalde: "it is the hair on the one against the hair on the other; now as there are forty fiddles to one wig in California, the inference is just, that horsehair of the two is in most demand, and that the greatest sufferer in this case is still the owner of the steed." "But, then," murmured the ingenious counsel, "you should consider the young man's pride." "Yes, yes," responded the alcalde, "I considered all that, and considered too the stump of that horse's tail, and the just pride of his owner. Your client will recover his crop much sooner than the other, and will manage, I hope, to keep it free of the barber's department in this court;" and with this, client and counsel were dismissed.

SPANISH COURTESIES.

The courtesies characteristic of the Spanish linger in California, and seem, as you encounter them amid the less observant habits of the emigration, like golden-tinted leaves of Autumn, still trembling on their stems in the rushing verdure of Spring. They exhibit themselves in every phase of society and every walk of life. You encounter them in the church, in the fandango, at the bridal altar, and the hearse: they adorn youth, and take from age its chilling severity. They are trifles in themselves, but they refine social intercourse, and soften its alienations. They may seem to verge upon extremes, but even then they carry some sentiment with them, some sign of deference to humanity. I received a cluster of wildflowers from a lady, with a note in pure Castilian, and bearing in the subscription the initials of the words, which rudely translated mean, “I kiss your hand." One might have felt tempted to write her back

Thou need'st not, lady, stoop so low

To print the gentle kiss :

Can hands return what lips bestow,

Or blush to show their bliss!

CHAPTER XXIX.

THE TRAGEDY AT SAN MIGUEL.-COURT AND CULPRITS.-AGE AND CIRCUMSTANCES OF THOSE WHO SHOULD COME TO CALIFORNIA.-CONDITION OF THE PROFESSIONS.-THE WRONGS OF CALIFORNIA.-CLAIMS

CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY.-JOURNALISTS.

ON THE

RETRIBUTION follows fast on the heels of crime in California. Two persons, a Hessian and Irishman, whom I had met in the Stanislaus, left the mines for the seaboard. On their way to Stockton, they fell in with two miners asleep under a tree, whom they murdered and robbed of their gold; with this booty they hastened across the valley of the San Joaquin, and skirting the mountains to avoid all frequented paths, held their course south to La Solidad. Here they fell in with three deserters from the Pacific squadron, who joined them, and the whole party proceeded south to San Miguel, where they quartered themselves for the night on the hospitality of Mr. Reade, an English ranchero of respectability and wealth. In the morning they took their departure, but had proceeded only a short distance, when it was agreed they should return and rob their host. During the ensuing night they rose on the household, consisting of Mr. Reade, his wife, and three children, a I nswoman with four children, and two Indian do

mestics, and murdered the whole! Having rifled the money-chest of a large amount of gold dust, the bloodstained party renewed their flight south, and had reached a secluded cove in a bend of the sea, below Santa Barbara, where they were overtaken by a band of citizens, who had tracked them from the neighborhood of San Miguel. The fugitives were armed, and avowed their determination to shoot down any person who should attempt to apprehend them. The citizens, though few, and badly provided with weapons, were resolute and determined. A desperate conflict ensued, in which one of the felons was shot dead; another, having discharged the last barrel of his revolver, jumped into the sea and was drowned; the remaining three were at length disarmed and secured. Of the citizens several were wounded, and one-the father of a beloved family-lay a corpse! The next morning, as there was no alcalde in the vicinity, the three prisoners were brought before a temporary court organized for the purpose, wherein twelve good and lawful men took oath to render judgment according to conscience. Each person when brought to the bar told his own story, inextricably involving his associates in the guilt of deliberate murder, and who, in their turn, wove the same terrible web about him. Of their guilt, though convicted without the testimony of an impartial witness, no doubt remained to disturb the convictions of the court. They were sentenced to death, and before the sun went down were in their graves! The whole five were buried among the

stern rocks which frown on the sea, and which seem as if there to stay the tide of crime, as well as the storms of ocean. What a tragedy of depravity and despair! Thirteen innocent persons-men, women, and children-swept in an unsuspecting moment from life; and the five perpetrators of the crime, crushed into a hurried grave, under the avenging arm of justice! There is a spirit in California that will rightly dispose of the murderer; it may at times be hasty, and too little observant of the forms of law, but it reaches its object; it leaves the guilty no escape through the defects of an indictment, the ingenuity of counsel, or the clemency of the executive. It plants itself on the ground that the first duty society owes itself, is to protect its members; and to secure this object, it throws around the sanctity of life, the defenses found in the terrors of death. The grave is the prison which God has sunk in the path of the murderer. Let not man attempt to bridge it.

WHO SHOULD STAY AND WHO COME.

The indiscretion with which so many thousands are rushing to California will be a source of regret to them, and of sorrow to their friends. Not one in twenty will bring back a fortune, and not more than one in ten secure the means of defraying the expenses of his return. I speak now of those whose plans and efforts are confined to the mines, and who rely on the proceeds of their manual labor: when they nave defrayed the expenses incident to their position, liqui