Page:California Inter Pocula.djvu/580

 selves the vengeance of desperate men. " The evidence so far," says a telegram of Thursday, "implicates two Irishmen, one having boasted that he helped to get away with three Chinamen." And writes another, "Let those at a distance not be too hasty in passing judgment in this matter. These acts of atrocity were perpetrated by a comparatively small number of men, of the very worst class in the community." The grand jury of Los Angeles indicted thirty-seven persons for riot. Two of them were also indicted for assault with deadly weapons, two for assault to commit murder, and twenty-five for murder.

They stated in their report that the parties engaged in the disgraceful scenes of the 24th of October were "the worst elements of society, and in their cruelty, and savage treatment of unoffending human beings, their eagerness for pillage and blood-thirstiness exceeded the most barbarous races of mankind. No attempt was made by any officer to arrest persons engaged in the taking of human life even in their pretence. Hundreds of law abiding citizens, who were unwilling witnesses of the sad spectacles of that night, would have quickly and cheerfully assisted in ending the anarchy had some resolute man, clothed with authority, placed himself at their head.

One dark, rainy night in December 1876, fifty or sixty men, most of them armed with guns and pistols, met in the woods near Chico for the purpose of adopting measures for the extermination of the Chinese in that vicinity. Their immediate plan was to fire the Sierra mill, where Asiatics were employed, and to burn both Chinatowns. During the session their emissaries were out, gathering with guarded intimations recruits from among those known as favorable to the cause, who as they approached the assemblage cried "You" and were answered "You" such being the pass-word. After some parley they began to divide into three parties for the three proposed burn