Ruffianism Rampant

On Tuesday evening last two intoxicated men visited the residence of Chas. Helwig, near Rogers’s ranch, and demanded some wine. Mr. Helwig is a one-armed man. He saw that the men had more liquor than they ought to have, and refused them the wine.

They turned upon Helwig and beat him most unmercifully, and then went out into the yard and set fire to his fence. The fire was getting under a good headway, when Louis Seibert and others went over and extinguished it.

The men were unknown to Mr. Helwig, but we hope they will be found out and severely punished for the dastardly outrage.—Nevada Transcript.

If the Sheriff of Nevada county allows these ruffians to escape, he should be held to strict accountability. A suitable sum should be immediately offered as a reward for their apprehension. We wonder at the supineness of our contemporary in not suggesting it.

There is altogether too much of these incendiary, cut-throat outrages going on throughout the State, and we hear of no adequate punishments being inflicted. We are getting to be as bandit-ridden a community as there is in the civilized world.

Last week an incendiary fire was started near Ophir. Sunday before last, we had a large portion of this town burned in the same way.

Our exchanges from all parts of the State tell us from time to time of similar acts of ruffianism. Every few days we read of something of the kind.

The incendiary mania received its impetus dating from the time of the Trout Creek burning and murders near Truckee less than two years ago. Arrests followed, but the parties charged with the crime were acquitted.

This was followed by the incendiary burning of the Chinese quarters at Antioch, then the Chico burning and massacre, the sacking of the washhouses in San Francisco and elsewhere, in which Chinese were uniformly the sufferers.

These atrocious crimes, for the most part, went unpunished. In the Chico case, the assassins were sent to San Quentin nominally for twenty or twenty-five years.

But does any one suppose those fiends will serve out their terms? The experience of the past does not lead any observant person to suppose so.

Pardoning by the Governor has been too frequent to justify the belief.

We fear there is a misguided sentiment existing in the minds of many tending to the condonement of offenses against the Chinese.

It is needless to refer to the verdict of the Chico jury in support of this assumption; it is well known.

This is a reluctance on the part of juries serve indirectly as an encouragement to the lawless classes, who, in their unreasoning hate for the Chinese individuality, will not hesitate when opportunity offers to burn them alive in their cabins.

We hear of white men’s property being burned with that of the Chinese—as at Walnut Grove last week.

Self-preservation will, ere long, compel the stamping out of these ruffianly crimes, and that can be done only by vigorous measures.

We do not mean lynching. That is not to be thought of. If citizens would only do in a judicial and legal capacity what many do in an illegal manner, viz.: hang these assassins, imprison for long terms at hard labor those incendiaries, there would be no occasion for lynching.