whomsoever might take an interest in the matter.[D] This is our custom
even to-day. Our great cities of the East are practically all governed,
so far as they are governed at all, by civic leagues, civic federations,
citizens' leagues, business men's associations--all protests at
non-enforcement of the law. This protest in '49 and on the Pacific coast
took a sterner form.

[Footnote D: Tuthill: "History of California."]

At one time the city of San Francisco had three separate and distinct
city councils, each claiming to be the only legal one. In spite of the
new state organization, the law was much a matter of go as you please.
Under such conditions it was no wonder that outlawry began to show its
head in bold and well-organized forms. A party of ruffians, who called
themselves the "Hounds," banded together to run all foreigners out of
the rich camps, and to take their diggings over for themselves. A number
of Chileans were beaten or shot, and their property was confiscated or
destroyed. This was not in accordance with the saving grace of American
justice, which devoted to a man that which he had earned. A counter
organization was promptly formed, and the "Hounds" found themselves
confronted with two hundred "special constables," each with a good
rifle. A mass meeting sat as a court, and twenty of the "Hounds" were
tried, ten of them receiving sentences that never were enforced, but
which had the desired effect. So now, while far to the eastward the
Congress was hotly arguing the question of the admission of California
as a state, she was beginning to show an interest in law and justice
when aroused thereto.

It was difficult material out of which to build a civilized community.
The hardest population of the entire world was there; men savage or
civilized by tradition, heathen or Christian once at least, but now all
Californian. Wealth was the one common thing. The average daily return
in the work of mining ranged from twenty to thirty dollars, and no man
might tell when his fortune might be made by a blow of a pick. Some
nuggets of gold weighing twenty-five pounds were discovered. In certain
diggings men picked pure gold from the rock crevices with a spoon or a
knife point. As to values, they were guessed at, the only currency being
gold dust or nuggets. Prodigality was universal. All the gamblers of the
world met in vulture concourse. There was little in the way of home; of
women almost none. Life was as cheap as