panied by his constable and clerk, made periodical trips through all the mining camps, going down the Tuolumne river and returning up the Stanislaus, stopping at every bar, hearing all cases at shortest notice which came before him, and dealing out justice, plain or fancy, according to the wealth and social position of the litigants, as long as there were any complaints preferred, or there was even a moderately remote chance of his services being called for. Township lines were nothing to him; no pent-up Utica should contract his powers. Putting up a canvas for an awning, and setting out his table with pens, ink, paper and a few law books, ostentatiously displayed thereon, he would call out in a loud voice, "Oh, yis! Oh, yis! Oh, y-i-i is! This yere Honorable Circuit Justice's Court of Tuolumne County is now legally opened for transaction of bizness at Dead Man's Bar!" and then glancing around with an air of defiance which implied a readiness to make good his words at any sacrifice, adding, "an' any d—n man that says it ain't can jist settle it with me right yere!" A man of pluck and a "rightist from the word go," with his reputation in that line already well established, he seldom found anybody to contradict him, and for a long time he had it pretty much all his own way. But, as time wore on, and lawyers grew more numerous, trouble began to come upon him, as it is liable to come upon the worst of us. Colonel James, Major Hoyt, Sam Platt, and other refractory and unmanagable attorneys, badgered and worried the life nearly out of him. They caviled at his assumption of legal
