Salt Lake Telegram | 1934-06-22 | Page 17 | People and Things

PEOPLE EOPLE 4 i AND AND THINGS f By FR FRED V AGny Vigilantes Come in them r. r iH Gold was discovered vu around Virginia City in 1863 the camp became the mecca nd jid soon oon on for r all 1111 the gunmen and outlaws who make their way there in search nf cf f easy money that could be ob ob- bIDed without working for it With With- t J short time Vir Virginia lnla City gained the unenviable reputation of being the toughest place in the thc country for forI forman I man known to have a dollar doar in his to get set out of alive When cleanups of the mines were the e out by stage the stage was held up and the gold eold stolen ten with the wanton killing of Those those aboard the vehicle If a miner Started out with his hard earned dust dast his bod body was usually found dangling from a limb Jimb with a sign across it reading Hung for horse stealing tealing Horse stealing was a C capital cap capi tal hI offense in those days and it afforded afforded af af- forded an easy alibi for the robbers who always took his gold Matters pew worse until it became iary WY to send the stages out under lOl soldier iier guard There was a sheriff and other town officials but they pleaded inability to deal with the robbers and killers Among the law abiding residents of the camp were some men who had hd been vigilantes in California So the vigilantes organized to administer Justice ustice and enforce law and order The organization was headed it Is said laid by X Biedler former Wells Wells- Fargo gu guard rd and gunman and WilI Wilbur Wilbur Wil Wil- I bur F. F Sanders who later became I prominent in Montana politics and andi andt i t who was ras legal counsel for the organ organ- lutiOn t It had been noticed that whenever Cold Jold was t taken from the mines to the sheriffs office oHice for or storage before being be be- ing g shipped the sta stage e on which it went vent tnt out always ys was wasP held up and robbed A vigilante member was planted as a deputy sheriff the goes and with the result that the sheriff and his men were found to be working with the looters j f The Mystic Sign One day a the residents of Virginia Virginia Vir Vir- I ginia City awakened to find the town plastered w with th the mystic t sign sign 77 7 chalked on every con convenient building and board available They didn't know what it was all about but they I soon learned The vigilantes as the story goes oes arrested the sheriff sher sher- itt iff and his men held a drumhead drumhead drum drum- head court convicted them on the evidence of the planted fc deputy and arid without further ado 1 e proceeded to hang them This i was the beginning of the cleanup cleanup clean up of bad men and before it itt t had bad ended a considerable num nurn- f ber of men there men there is no record t of how many many man had dangled at thet the 11 end of a vigilante rope t I Members of the vigilantes I would never tell teU the significance L of the sign 77 7 but results of I Its appearance soon invested it l. l with a meaning for the undesirables undesirables ables in camp to clear out Stern justice but it was the typical western way of compelling respect respect re re- re- re I for law and order in those days Meant I I a Necktie The 3 77 as the vigilantes in this became known was the law lawand Find and it brooked no defiance It was made imade up of cf fearless determined men who when they had a job to do I no matter how disagreeable did it iTo To defy a warning o of the 77 7 meant the rebel would soon wear a vigilante necktie And like the Northwest Mounted if n a marked offender nought to eV evade sagebrush justice i Jibe the 77 7 went out and md got their man I