A Chinese Outrage

Two Men and a Woman Murderously Assaulted by Chinese Robbers at Sargent’s Rancho, California—A Cold‑Blooded Affair. Pursuit and Identification of the Murderers—Citizens Greatly Excited, and are Barely Prevented from Lynching the Entire Chinese Population.

SAN FRANCISCO, September 16.—Yesterday afternoon people passing near Sargent’s ranch, about two miles from Rocklin, Placer county, heard several pistol shots, and as they approached the house two men ran away, scaling the fence. On entering the building the body of Mrs. Oder, who with her husband and Sargent occupied the premises, was found on the floor. She had been shot twice and her head split with an ax. An alarm was given, and the constables and citizens began a search. About fifty yards from the house the body of Mr. Oder was found. He had received three pistol shots. The party then followed the trail of the men who were seen to jump the fence. The tracks showed that they were made by Chinese shoes. After crossing a ravine three‑quarters of a mile from the house, and in a clump of willows, they found Sargent, bleeding from wounds in the head and body. He was conscious, and stated that two Chinamen had called at the house shortly after noon and desired to purchase certain mining claims of him. He accompanied them to the claim, and while returning in the body and head, and left him for dead. He said the assassins were from Peuryn, a neighboring village, one being Cook. In Grant’s boarding house, near the Peuryn quarries, he had received one hundred and twenty dollars from other Chinamen a few days before on a mining claim, which was in his trunk at the house, and presumed the murders were committed to obtain the money. The party followed the tracks of the murderers to a Chinese cabin near by, where they arrested three Chinamen, one of whom was in bed but perspiring freely as though he had been running. Several other Chinamen living near by were arrested, and one who was much frightened volunteered the information that Ah‑Sam and Ah‑Jim had murdered Sargent, but then stopped and would say no more. One of the prisoners had one hundred and twenty dollars in his possession. It was discovered that the trunk in which Sargent had deposited his money had been cut open and the money taken.

SARGENT DIED THIS MORNING. Hundreds of citizens viewed the body this morning. Great excitement prevailed during the night, and had the evidence against the prisoners been deemed conclusive, they would doubtless have been lynched at once. The cook of Grant’s boarding‑house could not be found, though the country and towns for miles around were scoured. This morning a meeting of citizens was held at Rocklin, and all the Chinamen were notified to leave town before six o’clock this evening. By four o’clock the last squad, burdened with their baggage, filed out of town, including those employed by the railroad company, only the prisoners remaining. They were in no way molested. At six o’clock in the afternoon the citizens marched to the Chinese quarters and DEMOLISHED ALL THE BUILDINGS, TWENTY‑FIVE IN NUMBER, including one store, the stock of which had been removed by the owner. A fire broke out during the demolition, from the stove remaining in one house, but was extinguished by the railroad employes with an engine. At the inquest held to‑day the facts developed led the sheriff to believe that four of the Chinese were implicated in the murder, and it was ordered that they be removed to the county jail at Auburn. A crowd collected when they boarded the train, and the murmurs of the throng broke out with the exclamation: “Have at them; hang them.” A rush was made for the door of the car, but the sheriff and deputies seized it, and only for a few shots by pistols by the officers and conductors of the train, the purposes of the crowd would have been accomplished. The crowd was finally forced back and the train pulled out from the station, followed by the citizens.

THE YELLS OF THE THRONG. The moderation displayed by the citizens, with the exception of the above incident, is partly attributable to the fact that through the day, by common consent, all saloon‑keepers closed up their places; otherwise serious consequences would undoubtedly have ensued. The coroner’s jury found the murder of Sargent committed by Ah‑Sam, Ah‑Jim and another Chinaman, name unknown; Sargent having subsequently mentioned their names before he died. In the cases of Oder and his wife the jury failed to fix the responsibility. The remaining prisoners were all allowed to leave, there being no evidence against them. About eight o’clock this evening the buildings of the Chinese garden, about a mile from Rocklin, were burned. It is positively denied that the whites set them on fire, and possibly the Chinese abandoned and burned them. Sargent was an old and respected resident. Oder was a Bavarian. His wife has relatives in Trenton, New Jersey.

MORE MURDERS. A Rockland dispatch, this morning, says a body of a man was found in the vineyard near Sargent’s house, and shortly before noon the body of a boy, about eight years old, was found in the same vineyard, both murdered by pistol shots. Intense excitement prevails, and all the Chinamen are being driven from that part of the country.