A Colorado Pioneer
By Maggie Magoffin
Nearly every nationality in the civilized world, and every phase of human character were represented among the early miners that found their way into the mountain-locked mining camps of Black Hawk and the portion of Central known as Mountain City. This conglomerate mass of humanity, gathered there from the four corners of the world, was without the usual local laws that govern communities, and remote from the moral and restraining influences of society and religious institutions. Besides this, they were engaged successfully in the most exciting pursuit in the world, gold hunting. It is not strange that, under such circumstances, much lawlessness should exist, and that scenes were enacted characterized by extraordinary recklessness and brutality. Crime walked abroad at noonday, and even murder did not seek the obscurity of night. Gamblers and robbers preyed upon the unsuspecting, and life and property were insecure. But this condition of things did not long exist. Among these pioneer miners were many men, good and true. These soon saw the necessity of organization for mutual protection, and, after effecting such crude organization as the circumstances would permit of, they determined to make themselves the enactors and administrators of laws, and the guardians of the public peace and safety. This was soon accomplished by establishing the Peoples’ Courts. They enacted these laws which were suitable to existing emergencies, and they enforced them most rigidly. Justice demanded life for life. The murderer was hung. Upon all other classes of criminals appropriate punishments were inflicted, and the conglomerate community freed from the grasp of lawlessness and crime. Prominent actors from these stirring scenes, who were most excellent and influential citizens of the county, from their own lips provided detailed accounts of bloody incidents, in which they were actors, thrilling in the extreme.
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