Page:The Tourist's California by Wood, Ruth Kedzie.djvu/151

 SAN FRANCISCO 121 muskets and two field pieces " a gallows was raised in front of the Committee's rooms, and the " fatal rope " attached to a roof beam. Fainting, as he kissed the cross and prayed for his aged mother whom in life he had forgotten Casey felt the noose slip 'round his neck and knew that the stoical Cora was beside him. The enormous throng below uncovered as the platform was cut beneath the murderers' feet. When the deed was done, the Vigilance Committee " stacked their arms and mingled with the citizens as usual." They had put down " a reign of vice long and patiently borne." The Park of the Golden Gate, to which one turns for verdant distraction, was once a waste of dunes and squatters. In 1871 the city took possession of it for a recreation reserve. It had then, so we are assured, nothing but the view to recommend it. But San Franciscans needs must have a park, a noble park, beautiful beyond the beauty of other cities' parks. So they spread loam to cover the sand and they planted the seeds of wiry grasses such as one sees on the Belgian dunes, then blue grass, trees, shrubs, vines and flowers. They fash- ioned hills, and dredged out valleys through which to flow the waters of many lakes ; they brought beasts and birds from mountain-top and desert to roam the hedged sward, and having simulated na- ture's every nuance, they began to erect museums,