considered themselves safe. A deputation of the committee from
the fort placed a cannon at proper distance from the entrance to the
jail. With a watch in his hand, the captain of the squad gave the
keepers ten minutes to open the doors and deliver the culprits. I well
remember the excitement that increased in intensity as the allotted
period diminished; the fuse lighted, and two minutes to spare; the door
opened; the delivery was made, and the march to Fort Gunny began. A
trial court had been organized at which the testimony was taken, verdict
rendered, and judgment passed. From a beam projecting over an upper
story window, used for hoisting merchandise, the convicted criminals
were executed.

The means resorted to for the purification of the municipality were
drastic, but the ensuing feeling of personal safety and confidence in a
new administration appeared to be ample justification. Much has been
said and written in defense and in condemnation of revolutionary methods
for the reformation of government. It cannot but be apparent that when
it is impossible to execute the virtuous purposes of government, the
machinery having passed to notorious violators, who use it solely for
vicious purpose, there seems nothing left for the votaries of order than
to seize the reins with strong right arm and restore a status of justice
that should be the pride and glory of all civilized people.

But what a paradox is presented in the disregard for law and life today
in our common country, including much in our Southland! It is a sad
commentary on the weakness and inconsistencies of human nature and often
starts the inquiry in many honest minds, as a remedial agency, is a
republican form of government the most conducive in securing the
blessings of liberty of which protection to human life is the chief?

For the actual reverse of conditions that existed in California in those
early days are present in others of our States today. All the machinery
and ability for the just administration of the law are in the hands of
those appointed mainly by the ballot of the intelligence and virtue of
these States, who, if not participants, are quite as censurable for
their "masterly inactivity" in having allowed thousands of the most
defenceless to be lynched by hanging or burning at the stake. That there
have been cases of assault on women by Negroes for which they have been
lynched, it is needless to deny. That they have been lynched for
threatenin