Such were the conditions in the realm of criminal law, the realm where the processes became so standardized that between 1849 and 1856 over one thousand murders had been committed and only one legal conviction had been secured!  Dueling was a recognized institution, and a skillful shot could always “get” his enemy in this formal manner; but if time or skill lacked, it was still perfectly safe to shoot him down in a street brawl—­provided one had money enough to employ talent for defense.

But, once in politics, the law could not stop at the sheriff’s office.  It rubbed shoulders with big contracts and big financial operations of all sorts.  The city was being built within a few years out of nothing by a busy, careless, and shifting population.  Money was still easy, people could and did pay high taxes without a thought, for they would rather pay well to be let alone than be bothered with public affairs.  Like hyenas to a kill, the public contractors gathered.  Immense public works were undertaken at enormous prices.  To get their deals through legally it was, of course, necessary that officials, councilmen, engineers, and others should be sympathetic.  So, naturally, the big operators as well as the big lawyers had to go into politics.  Legal efficiency coupled with the inefficiency of the bench, legal corruption, and the arrogance of personal favor, dissolved naturally into political corruption.

The elections of those days would have been a joke had they been not so tragically significant.  They came to be a sheer farce.  The polls were guarded by bullies who did not hesitate at command to manhandle any decent citizen indicated by the local leaders.  Such men were openly hired for the purposes of intimidation.  Votes could be bought in the open market.  “Floaters” were shamelessly imported into districts that might prove doubtful; and, if things looked close, the election inspectors and the judges could be relied on to make things come out all right in the final count.  One of the exhibits later shown in the Vigilante days of 1856 was an ingenious ballot box by which the goats could be segregated from the sheep as the ballots were cast.  You may be sure that the sheep were the only ones counted.  Election day was one of continuous whiskey drinking and brawling so that decent citizens were forced to remain within doors.  The returns from the different wards were announced as fast as the votes were counted.  It was therefore the custom to hold open certain wards until the votes of all the others were known.  Then whatever tickets were lacking to secure the proper election were counted from the packed ballot box in the sure ward.  In this manner five hundred votes were once returned from Crystal Springs precinct where there dwelt not over thirty voters.  If some busybody made enough of a row to get the merry tyrants into court, there were always plenty of lawyers who could play the ultra-technical so well that the accused were not only released but were returned as legally elected as well.