CHAPTER 48
The first twenty-six graves in the Virginia cemetery were occupied by murdered menⒺexplanatory note. So everybody said, so everybody believed, and so they will always say and believe. The reason why there was so much slaughtering done, was, that in a new mining district the rough element predominates, and a person is not respected until he has “killed his man.” That was the very expression used.
If an unknown individual arrived, they did not inquire if he was capable, honest, industrious, but—had he killed his man? If he had not, he gravitated to his natural and proper position, that of a man of small consequence; if he had, the cordiality of his reception was graduated according to the number of his dead. It was tedious work struggling up to a position of influence with bloodless hands; but when a man came with the blood of half a dozen men on his soul, his worth was recognized at once and his acquaintance sought.
In Nevada, for a time, the lawyer, the editor, the banker, the chief desperado, the chief gambler, and the saloon-keeperⒶemendation, occupied the same level in society, and it was the highest. The cheapest and easiest way to become an influential man and be looked up to by the community at large, was to stand behind a bar, wear a cluster-diamond pin, and sell whisky. I am not sure but that the saloon-keeper held a shade higher rank than any other member of society. His opinion had weight. It was his privilege to say how the elections should go. No great movement could succeed without the countenance and direction of the saloon-keepers. It was a high favor when the chief saloon-keeper consented to serve in the legislature or the board of aldermen. Youthful ambition hardly aspired so much to the honors of the law, or the army and navy as to the dignity of proprietorship in a saloon.
To be a saloon-keeper and kill a man was to be illustrious. Hence the reader will not be surprised to learn that more than one man [begin page 319] was killed in Nevada under hardly the pretext of provocation, so impatient was the slayer to achieve reputation and throw off the galling sense of being held in indifferent repute by his associates. I knew two youths who tried to “kill their men” for no other reason—and got killed themselves for their pains. “There goes the man that killed Bill Adams” was higher praise and a sweeter sound in the ears of this sort of people than any other speech that admiring lips could utter.
The men who murdered Virginia’s original twenty-six cemetery-occupants were never punished. Why? Because Alfred the Great, when he invented trial by juryⒺexplanatory note, and knew that he had admirably framed it to secure justice in his age of the world, was not [begin page 320] aware that in the nineteenth century the condition of things would be so entirely changed that unless he rose from the grave and altered the jury plan to meet the emergency, it would prove the most ingenious and infallible agency for defeating justice that human wisdom could contrive. For how could he imagine that we simpletons would go on using his jury plan after circumstances had stripped it of its usefulness, any more than he could imagine that we would go on using his candle-clockⒺexplanatory note after we had invented chronometers? In his day news could not travel fast, and hence he could easily find a jury of honest, intelligent men who had not heard of the case they were called to try—but in our day of telegraphs and newspapers his plan compels us to swear in juries composed of fools and rascals, because the system rigidly excludes honest men and men of brains.
I remember one of those sorrowful farces, in Virginia, which we call a jury trial. A noted desperado killed Mr. B., a good citizen, in the most wanton and cold-blooded way. Of course the papers were full of it, and all men capable of reading, read about it. And of course all men not deaf and dumb and idiotic, talked about it. A jury-list was made out, and Mr. B. L.Ⓔexplanatory note, a prominent banker and a valued citizen, was questioned precisely as he would have been questioned in any court in America:
“Have you heard of this homicide?”
“Yes.”
“Have you held conversations upon the subject?”
“Yes.”
“Have you formed or expressed opinions about it?”
“Yes.”
“Have you read the newspaper accounts of it?”
“Yes.”
“We do not want you.”
A minister, intelligent, esteemed, and greatly respected; a merchant of high character and known probity; a mining superintendent of intelligence and unblemished reputation; a quartz mill owner of excellent standing, were all questioned in the same way, and all set aside. Each said the public talk and the newspaper reports had not so biased his mind but that sworn testimony would overthrow his previously formed opinions and enable him to render [begin page 321] a verdict without prejudice and in accordance with the facts. But of course such men could not be trusted with the case. Ignoramuses alone could mete out unsullied justice.
When the peremptory challenges were all exhausted, a jury of twelve men was empaneledⒶemendation—a jury who swore they had neither heard, read, talked about nor expressed an opinion concerning a murder which the very cattle in the corrals, the Indians in the sage-brush and the stones in the streets were cognizant of! It was a jury composed of two desperadoes, two low beer-house politicians, three barkeepersⒶemendation, two ranchmen who could not read, and three dull, stupid, human donkeys! It actually came out afterward, that one of these latter thought that incest and arson were the same thing.
The verdict rendered by this jury was, Not Guilty. What else could one expect?
The jury system puts a ban upon intelligence and honesty, and a premium upon ignorance, stupidity and perjury. It is a shame that we must continue to use a worthless system because it was good a thousand years ago. In this age, when a gentleman of high social standing, intelligence and probity, swears that testimony given under solemn oath will outweigh, with him, street talk and newspaper reports based upon mere hearsay, he is worth a hundred jurymen who will swear to their own ignorance and stupidity, and justice would be far safer in his hands than in theirs. Why could not the jury law be so altered as to give men of brains and honesty an equal chance with fools and miscreants? Is it right to show the present favoritism to one class of men and inflict a disability on [begin page 322] another, in a land whose boast is that all its citizens are free and equal? I am a candidate for the legislature. I desire to tamper with the jury law. I wish to so alter it as to put a premium on intelligence and character, and close the jury box against idiots, blacklegs, and people who do not read newspapers. But no doubt I shall be defeated—every effort I make to save the country “misses fire.”
My idea, when I began this chapter, was to say something about desperadoism in the “flush times” of Nevada. To attempt a portrayal of that era and that land, and leave out the blood and carnage, would be like portraying Mormondom and leaving out polygamy. The desperado stalked the streets with a swagger graded according to the number of his homicides, and a nod of recognition from him was sufficient to make a humble admirer happy for the rest of the day. The deference that was paid to a desperado of wide reputation, and who “kept his private graveyard,”Ⓔexplanatory note as the phrase went, was marked, and cheerfully accorded. When he moved along the sidewalk in his excessively long-tailed frock-coat, shiny stump-toed boots, and with dainty little slouch hat tipped over left eye, the [begin page 323] small-fry roughs made room for his majesty; when he entered the restaurant, the waiters deserted bankers and merchants to overwhelm him with obsequious service; when he shouldered his way to a bar, the shouldered parties wheeled indignantly, recognized him, and—apologized. They got a look in return that froze their marrow, and by that time a curled and breast-pinned barkeeperⒶemendation was beaming over the counter, proud of the established acquaintanceship that permitted such a familiar form of speech as:
“How ’re ye, Billy, old fel? Glad to see you. What’ll you take—the old thing?”
The “old thing” meant his customary drink, of course.
The best known names in the Territory of Nevada were those belonging to these long-tailed heroes of the revolver. Orators, governorsⒶemendation, capitalists and leaders of the legislature enjoyed a degree of fame, but it seemed local and meagre when contrasted with the fame of such men as Sam BrownⒺexplanatory note, Jack WilliamsⒺexplanatory note, Billy MulliganⒺexplanatory note, Farmer PeaseⒺexplanatory note, Sugarfoot MikeⒺexplanatory note, Pock-Marked JakeⒺexplanatory note, El Dorado JohnnyⒺexplanatory note, Jack McNabbⒺexplanatory note, Joe McGeeⒺexplanatory note, Jack HarrisⒺexplanatory note, Six-fingered PeteⒺexplanatory note, etc., etc. There was a long list of them. They were brave, reckless men, and traveled with their lives in their hands. To give them their due, they did their killing principally among themselves, and seldom molested peaceable citizens, for they considered it small credit to add to their trophies so cheap a bauble as the death of a man who was “not on the shoot,” as they phrased it. They killed each other on slight provocation, and hoped and expected to be killed themselves—for they held it almost shame to die otherwise than “with their boots on,”Ⓔexplanatory note as they expressed it.
I remember an instance of a desperado’s contempt for such small game as a private citizen’s life. I was taking a late supper in a restaurant one night, with two reporters and a little printer named—Brown, for instance—any name will do. Presently a stranger with a long-tailed coat on came in, and not noticing Brown’s hat, which was lying in a chair, sat down on it. Little Brown sprang up and became abusive in a moment. The stranger smiled, smoothed out the hat, and offered it to Brown with profuse apologies couched in caustic sarcasm, and begged Brown not to destroy him. Brown threw off his coat and challenged the man to fight—abused him, threatened him, impeached his courage, and urged and even implored [begin page 324] him to fight; and in the meantime the smiling stranger placed himself under our protection in mock distress. But presently he assumed a serious tone, and said:
“Very well, gentlemen, if we must fight, we must, I suppose. But don’t rush into danger and then say I gave you no warning. I am more than a match for all of you when I get started. I will give you proofs, and then if my friend here still insists, I will try to accommodate him.”
The table we were sitting at was about five feet long, and unusually cumbersome and heavy. He asked us to put our hands on the dishes and hold them in their places a moment—one of them was a large oval dish with a portly roast on it. Then he sat down, tilted up one end of the table, set two of the legs on his knees, took the end of the table between his teeth, took his hands away, and pulled down with his teeth till the table came up to a level position, dishes and all! He said he could lift a keg of nails with his teeth. He picked up a common glass tumbler and bit a semi-circle out of it. Then he opened his bosom and showed us a net-work of knife and bullet scars; showed us more on his arms and face, and said he believed he had bullets enough in his body to make a pig of lead. He was armed to the teeth. He closed with the remark that he was Mr. [begin page 325] —— of CaribooⒺexplanatory note—a celebrated name whereat we shook in our shoesⒺexplanatory note. I would publish the name, but for the suspicion that he might come and carve me. He finally inquired if Brown still thirsted for blood. Brown turned the thing over in his mind a moment, and then—asked him to supper.
With the permission of the reader, I will group together, in the next chapter, some samples of life in our small mountain village in the old days of desperadoism. I was there at the time. The reader will observe peculiarities in our official society; and he will observe also, an instance of how, in new countries, murders breed murders.
Farmer Pease] Actually Langford (“Farmer”) Peel, known as Virginia City’s coolest, most gentlemanly gunman. Born in Liverpool, Peel had lived in Kansas and Salt Lake City before he fled to California in 1858 after killing a man in a duel. In 1863 he arrived in Virginia City, where on 30 September he seriously wounded the prize fighter Richard Paddock in a shoot-out following a saloon argument. About a month later, on 24 October, he shot and killed John (“El Dorado Johnny”) Dennis, who had challenged him to a gunfight; Peel was acquitted on the grounds of self-defense. On another occasion he severely beat a judge who had sentenced him, and then walked calmly out of the courtroom when none of the officers present dared to apprehend him. According to Goodman, the next morning William Wright (Dan De Quille)
[begin page 674] took occasion to review the whole career of Peel in the local columns of the Enterprise. . . . He did not mince matters. He pictured the character of the desperado in its true light, spoke of his misdeeds in the plain and forcible terms they deserved, and called upon the authorities to overcome this terror and bring him to summary punishment.
When Wright’s friends, as a joke, led him to believe that Peel was seeking vengeance for this column, Wright went looking for the desperado and found him in a saloon. He grabbed Peel, held a knife to his throat, and said, “I understand you are hunting for me. If there is any grudge we will settle it right here.” Peel responded, “There’s no hard feeling on my part, I assure you. . . . You wrote nothing about me but what was true and deserved, and I admire a man who is brave enough to say publicly what he thinks about a character like me” (Goodman 1891). Peel left Virginia City in 1867; in July of that year, at the age of thirty-six, he was killed in Montana by a former partner (Langford, 2:270–87; Angel, 345, 357; Gillis, 42–46; “Shooting at Virginia City,” San Francisco Alta California, 1 Oct 63, 1; “Fatal Shooting Affray,” Gold Hill News, 26 Oct 63, 3; Considine 1923a).
a little printer . . . celebrated name whereat we shook in our shoes] The bellicose printer was Clemens’s good friend Stephen Edward (Steve) Gillis (1838–1918), known as a scrappy fighter. Gillis grew up in Mississippi and Tennessee, where he was trained as a typesetter. [begin page 676] He went to San Francisco in 1853 with his mother (his father had been there since 1849). By 1862, when Clemens joined the Enterprise staff, he was the paper’s foreman. Over the next thirty-two years he worked as a foreman, typesetter, and writer, first on the Enterprise and later on the Virginia City Chronicle. In 1894 he retired to live with his brothers James (see the note at 412.1–3) and William at Jackass Hill, California ( L1 , 291–92 n. 3; see also Goodman 1892a). The table-lifting, glass-biting stranger has been identified as Tom McNabb, brother of the desperado Jack McNabb (see the note at 323.18):
Of the three McNabb brothers, Tom was the only one that didn’t die with his boots on. In a row with another San Francisco sport he received a bullet in his brain. It didn’t kill him, but it seemed to change his nature. From that time on he was as docile a man as could be found in the city. (Considine 1923c)
By the time of his death in June 1872 at age forty-nine, McNabb had been “shot, stabbed and otherwise wounded over and over again” (Sacramento Union, 28 June 72: “Died,” 2; “By State Telegraph,” 3).