Page:California Inter Pocula.djvu/634

 recognition. The gambler of 1849, other attributes being equal, was not so immoral a man as the gambler of 1889.

I find nowhere in the early records of jurisprudence on the coast anything which strikes me as so utterly humiliating to lovers of judicial decency, or which brings law into such low abasement, as a signboard which as late as 1877 disgraced the intelligence of the good citizens of Vallejo. Upon it was inscribed the words "C. W. Hiley, Dealer in Imported Wines and Liquors, and Choice Cigars; also Justice of the Peace,"

Law and liquor; happy union! Let not their former association be confounded with the later one. The interpretation of this sign-board of One-eyed Riley, as he was called, may be given in these words: American politics seek the low haunts of vice rather than the more retired paths of virtue. There is something radically wrong in the system which places the administration of justice in the hands that mix poisonous drinks for their fellows; that place the political power of a community at the disposal of the class that frequents and patronizes drink ing-saloons. In this instance the bar of justice and the bar of vile potations occupied adjoining rooms, communicating by a door which offered easy access one to the other.

As to the workings of this mongrel institution I offer a single illustration, which should be sufficient to incite the intelligent and enterprising citizens of Vallejo to a healthy reform. It happened one night during the early part of the year before mentioned, that two officers belongino; to a Russian war vessel then lying in the stream off Mare island had spent the evenincr ashore, and about eleven o'clock set out to return to their ship. Arrived at the wharf, they hailed a boat to take them off; and while waiting its appearance they were attacked and knocked senseless with a slungshot by a ruffian named Hollis Rand,