wrote Virginia. The manner of the occupation
of this region—which lies rather more than
three hundred miles to the north of the Great
Salt Lake, in Utah—is as follows: Six years
ago there was a stampede from the surrounding
territories towards Salmon River. That river
rises near to the main source of the Missouri,
but runs down the other side of the Rocky
Mountains into Snake River, and so to the
Columbia, so to the Pacific. Many came down
from Utah by the upper course of Snake River,
and, when they learnt that the diggings upon
Salmon River were too crowded, turned aside
in search of any other diggings whereof
prospecters gave good account. Some, looking for
the old trail from Salt Lake, settled in
Grasshopper Creek, and formed what were called, from
the shape of a rock in the river there, the Beaver
Head diggings. Explorers from this settlement
first worked the gulches east of the Rocky
Mountains, in the territory now known as
Montana. These were joined by others from
Minnesota and Salt Lake, who arrived during the
winter—an unusually open one—of the year
'sixty-two. Even from Utah few came who
were saints, and the temptation of rich gold-
fields in the wild mountain land, beyond reach
of the law, attracted many a desperate ruffian
who had played out his game of robbery and
murder in the mines on the (not very) Pacific
side of the mountains.

Montana has now a newspaper and "the
latest improved power-presses." Affidavits are
made, and "ladies', misses', boys', and children's
shoes, balmorals, and gaiters" are retailed where,
a few years ago, the desert cliffs and mountain
gorges tried the pluck of a Fremont. As before
said, one book at least has been printed and
published in Virginia City, "forming," as its
green cover tells, "the only reliable work ever
offered to the public by Professor Thomas J.
Dimsdale." No, that assertion is too limited;
we have omitted a full stop. It is "the only
reliable work ever offered to the public." We
may call it a History of the Middle Ages in
Montana. Affairs of six years ago are Ancient
History in the Far West. This is a record of
mediæval lawlessness and rapine, to which the
author looks back from comparatively tranquil
times, telling us how some wild incident in the
history of Montana happened on the spot where
such a street or Who and Winch's store stands,
recording, with a due reverence for old
memorials, that in such a ravine may yet be seen the
tree upon which some robber chief was hanged.
He notes even that a sign-post, marked with
bullet-holes made in it by formidable thieves and
murderers, who used to shoot at it with their
revolvers, is actually standing at the present
time. This clear and broad line of division
between past and present is a very noticeable
feature of the book. It is a true line of division.
It is true that the work of many generations has
been done in a few months, and how? Not, by
applying forms of law in a community for which
written law is a dead letter, but by maintaining
right with the strong hands of honest men
against the brute force of rascality.

Mr. Dimsdale undertook to furnish readers in
the new settlement with an exact account of
this struggle between the friends of order,
represented by "the Vigilantes of Montana," and the
criminal disorder, which had its chief support in
"the Road Agent band." Road Agent is the
polite name in the Rocky Mountains for a
highwayman. The narrative deals with the most vital
of all earthly questions to the men for whom it
was compiled, and a matter also of no little
interest to us of the old communities. We get
from it a clear sense of the meaning of those
Western Vigilance Committees who make right
respected where law goes for nothing. Much
steadiness is not to be looked for in the more
settled part of a community established by the
rush of rough adventurers into a desert said to
contain gold. Traders and plunderers attend
upon the shifting camp. The traders who
supply the diggers' wants would make sure profit
if the roads were safe. They may be credited,
therefore, with a keen sense of the worth of
order. But, on their part, the plunderers know
the worth of a safe well-stocked hunting-ground.
Before the Vigilantes took Montana in hand,
"shooting scrapes" were almost as common as
disputes. Public opinion contemned mean
theft, but supported the retort by bullet for a
very light offence. Thus, a man would object
to be sworn at, although every sentence of his
own came up smothered in oaths as a rabbit in
onions. But it is on record that, with all its
wildness, those of the few women in the place who
lived good lives were reverenced and worshipped
by the whole community. The roughest and
worst men were as ready as the best to be their
champions. All women had power over them;
a good woman power almost unlimited. She
was Una in the wood, "whom salvage nation
does adore."

Not long after the establishing of the new
settlement, its rascality was organised by a man
of smooth manners and insinuating address.
"A perfect gentleman," some sympathisers
called him, when they could not help admitting
that he was, at the same time, thief and assassin.
The name of this gentleman, who, for the safe
management of his road agency, obtained the
post of sheriff—was Henry Plummer. Mr.
Sheriff Plummer had gone to California in 'fifty-
two, and was Marshal of Nevada when he
murdered a German in cold blood under
circumstances adding greatly to the foulness of the
crime. On the ground that he was consumptive,
and that prison air did not agree with his
constitution, Plummer was pardoned, a few
months after his sentence. He then went back
to Nevada; became a partner in the "Lafayette
Bakery;" was defeated in a plot to get the
post of city marshal; killed another man; went
to Washoe; joined a band of highwaymen;
attacked a bullion express; was tried for this and
acquitted; went back to Nevada; killed another
man; was again put into gaol; by connivance
of his gaoler came out in open daylight, with a
loaded pistol in each hand, and started for
Oregon with a gentleman who had just put his
knife into the heart of the Nevada sheriff.