of little less than two centuries of servitude for the killing; of three Asiatics, and the burning; of a few buildings. The presence of too many low Mongolians in our midst is not conductive to the hio^hest civilization; and yet these Chinese were men; they were coolly and wilfully murdered ; the assassination was as foul and deliberate and unprovoked as any to be found in the annals of crime ; the law makes such killing punishable by death; and yet these murderers were not so punished.
About this time M. Atherton was tried at San Jose for the murder of Edgar May at Santa Cruz, while the latter was in a state of helpless intoxication, and the murderer likewise drunk, Atherton was sentenced to twenty-five years imprisonment. Now these sentences, all of them, done into English, sin>ply say that the killing of Chinamen, and killing done l;>y drunken men is not murder. It is difficult to understand why courts and juries any more than vigilance committees have the right to break the lavv^, or to subvert its just operation.
During these proceedings a Citizen's Safety Committee had been organized at Chico, of which Mr Theil was appointed treasurer. Hung upon the shutter of Mr Thiel's store on Second street the night of April 8th was found the following missive written on a half sheet of dirty note paper. It is hardly up to the standard of average communications of this sort, though it caused much uneasiness, particularly among owners of grain-fields.
"The devil dreeme on the Chinese question. There are three or four men in this city has been making dam fools of themselves in regard to the darned Chinese that will get anufe of it before the first of August. You must remember it seldom rains hero after the first of June, and when everything is dry a match will burn without sacks of straw or karseen either, and we will also give the farmers of this country notice to look out this season for everi grain. Every
