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.

With the proper officials in charge of the executive end of the
government and with a trained crew of lawyers making their own rules as
they went along, almost any crime of violence, corruption, theft, or the
higher grades of finance could be committed with absolute impunity. The
state of the public mind became for a while apathetic. After numberless
attempts to obtain justice, the public fell back with a shrug of the
shoulders. The men of better feeling found themselves helpless. As each
man's safety and ability to resent insult depended on his trigger
finger, the newspapers of that time made interesting but scurrilous and