America. Some were dissipated, but for the most part they were men of integrity. Even during the most lawless times there were sitting on the judicial bench of California men whose purity of life and character was never questioned. And to-day a corrupt judge is the exception, not the rule. With pride I point to our judiciary and to the better class of attorneys who practice in our courts. True, a judge may be bribed sometimes, not knowing it; or he may be swayed by public opinion, not knowing it; he may be feasted by bonanza men, or given a free ride across the continent by the wholesale corruptionists of the railroads, and so warp his decision in their favor—not knowing it. Unfortunately as much cannot truthfully be said of our legislators and political officeholders who, during the usually short term of their occupancy, seek rather to serve themselves than the public. These are never bribed without knowing it, as they always require pay in advance.
During the flush times, the days of which I write, we find some dolts and some wilfully wicked men seated even on our higher judicial benches. Through the absence of strict social restraint arose laxity in moral observances and legal formulas. Among the people, vigor of mind broke out into numerous eccentricities; or, rather, the preoccupied citizen, acting naturally and independently, not thinking wholly of himself, his dress, and manner, claiming for himself the utmost freedom, eating, sleeping, walking, speaking as best pleased him, threw aside some of the eccentricities of fashion, and in so doing to the unenfranchised appeared eccentric. Leaving the marts of business for church worship, the same eccentricity of thought, or lack of it, is manifest, though in form devotion was not greatly changed. In such a society it is but natural that from tribunals of justice, as well as from its ministers, some part of that severe decorum which characterizes more staid and superstitious communities should be removed.
