identity of their victims. A worthy
citizen in going home through Merchant Street between eight and nine
o'clock in the evening was approached from behind by a person who,
pressing his arm over his shoulder thrust a knife into his breast.
Luckily the knife encountered in its passage a thick pocket memorandum
book which it cut through, and but for which, he would have lost his
life. The intended assassin undoubtedly mistook him for another person
whom he somewhat resembled. A few days after a gentleman passing by the
Oriental Hotel heard the report of a pistol, and was sensible of the
passage of a ball through his hat in most uncomfortable proximity to
his head. A person immediately stepped up to him saying, "Excuse me, I
thought it was another man."

The ally of the people in times of difficulty and danger, the Press,
seemed subservient from choice to this vile domination, or overawed and
controlled by it. Experience had proved that its conductors could be
true, bold, effective only at the peril of their lives. More than one
had suffered in his person the penalty of his allegiance to truth and
duty; until at length intimidated and desponding, they had ceased to
struggle with the spirit of evil....

One man upon whom public attention was now turned, and whom the people
of the City and State began to regard as their champion and deliverer,
was James King of William, and he was no common man. He was born in
Georgetown, D. C., in January, 1822, and was therefore thirty-four years
old at the time of his death. Having received a common school education,
he was placed at an early age in the banking house of Corcoran & Riggs
at Washington City where he remained many years. His health at length
failing from steady application to business and conscientious devotion
to his employer's interests, he was induced to seek its restoration in
the invigorating climate of California. He arrived in the country just
previous to the discovery of gold. The marvelous growth of City and
State soon required facilities for the transaction of business, and he
became a resident of San Francisco, and established the first banking
house in that City. For several years he was eminently successful in
business; and his strict honesty and integrity secured for him the
abiding confidence and respect of the business community. But the sudden
and extreme depression in business in 1855 closed his doors as well
as those of many other bankers and merchants. B