The west shore., November 01, 1887, Image 13

VIGILANTE TIMES IN WALLA WALLA.
THE great rush to the Idaho mines
during the few years immediately
following their discovery, in 18C0,
carried with it some of the most lawless
and desperate characters which the pe
culiar conditions of the Pacific coast had
drawn hither. There were murderers
and desperadoes who had fled from jus
tice in the Eastern states, outlawed
" Greasers," from Mexico, and " Sidney
Ducks," from the penal colonies of Aus
tralia, and, in fact, outcasts from nearly
every land beneath the sun. Their nat
urally vicious characters had been de
veloped almost abnormally by the dis
ordered condition of society in the Cali
fornia mines, and emboldened by num
bers and exemption from punishment,
they carried things with a high hand
wherever they went Generally denom
inated " Sports," they were of all grades
of humanity, from the well educated to
the ignorant, from the most gentleman
ly and honorable gambler, so far as hon
or can be said to appertain to so degrad
ing a business, to the most depraved
and vicious of the human species.
Walla Walla was on the route of trav
el to and from the mines, the last great
supply point before reaching them, and
was a favorable and favorite place for
hundreds of them to spend the winter
season, whose rigors in the mines they
were anxious to escape. With such an
element among its population, the re
pression of crime and enforcement of
law were always difficult, and often im
possible. Lawlessness was rampant,
and the officers struggled against it in
vain. Thousands of men roamed round
the country embraced in Idaho and Eas
tern Oregon and Washington Ter., hav
ing no permanent abiding place. Every
town and mining camp was overrun
with a transient element, of whom it
was impossible for the officers to keep
track. Miles of unsettled and unclaim
ed land stretched out in all directions,
offering secure range upon which stolon
cattle could bo grazed; and strangers
with bands of horses and cattlo were
constantly coming in, whoso title to tho
property had to bo assumed as good.
Camped along the routes of travel and
in the shanty hotels of towns and min
ing camps, were hundreds of men whoso
sole visible property was a roll of blank
ets. In such a condition of society
there was little chaoco for tho detection
of criminals, and but little hope, for
their punishment when caught; for tho
migratory habits of tho people general
ly carried the witnesses beyond tho jur
isdiction of the court long beforo tho
case came up for trial. Only when men
wero caught in the act of robbery, or
when shooting occurred as tho result of
a sudden quarrel, and in the fow coses
whero it was easily ascertained who
were the guilty parties, was there any
hopo of inflicting punishment, and then
it was but slight
Tho plea of self defense was a very
flexible one in thoso days, when men
went armed and looked to themselves
alone for protection. Disputes were
settled with tho revolver and knifo, a
custom not wholly dispensed with at tho
present day, and in tho many quarrels
that aroso it was not difficult for tho sur
vivor to prove that ho was defending
his life. Sometimes there was no sur-