Dreams of El Dorado by H. W. Brands

Author:H. W. Brands
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Basic Books
Published: 2019-10-21T16:00:00+00:00

THE WARNING WORKED; THE HOUNDS DISBANDED. BUT THE crime problem increased, as the demise of the Hounds gave room to an even more violent gang, the Sydney Ducks, sometimes called Sydney Coves. They were from Australia, and found California appealing. “The voyage from Sydney to San Francisco was neither a very tedious nor an expensive one; and great numbers of ticket-of-leave men and old convicts who had served their time early contrived to sail for California,” Frank Soulé explained. “There the field seemed so rich and safe for a resumption of their quondam pranks that they yielded to the temptation, and forthwith began to execute villainies that in magnitude and violent character far exceeded those for which they had been originally convicted. Callous in conscience, they feared nothing save the gallows. But that they had little reason to dread in merciful, gentle, careless California, where prosecutors and witnesses were few, or too busy to attend to the calls of justice; where jurors, not knowing the law, and eager to be at money-making again, were apt to take hasty charges from the bench as their sole rule of conduct; where judges, chosen by popular election, were either grossly ignorant of law, or too timid or careless, corrupt or incapable, to measure out the full punishment of crime; and where the laws themselves had not yet been methodically laid down, and the forms and procedure of legal tribunals digested into a plain, unerring system.”

The Sydney Ducks ruled Sydney Town, a neighborhood of bars and brothels. They extorted protection money from the bar owners and madams; they robbed non-customers reckless enough to be passing through. They killed any who challenged their right to engage in nefarious activities. The police steered clear of Sydney Town, judging that those who ventured there were up to no good and deserved what befell them.

Reputable San Franciscans ignored the Ducks as long as they stayed in Sydney Town. But when the activity of the Ducks began to touch the rest of the city, and especially when evidence of arson in the later fires pointed toward the Ducks, civic leaders mobilized again.

This time their vigilance activity was better organized. A mass meeting was advertised; those who attended drafted a charter for a formal “Committee of Vigilance.” The charter avowed its signees’ devotion to the rule of law but complained that the law was being suborned by bribery of the police, intimidation of witnesses and other modes of malfeasance. The committee would fix that. “We are determined that no thief, burglar, incendiary or assassin shall escape punishment, either by the quibbles of the law, the insecurity of prisons, the carelessness or corruption of the police, or a laxity of those who pretend to administer justice,” its charter said.

The committee soon had a chance to show its resolve. A storeowner reported a small safe missing. Shortly thereafter, a Duck named John Jenkins was seen exiting the waterfront neighborhood with something heavy and awkward under wraps—something that looked like a safe. Confronted, he stole a boat and made off into the bay.

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