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ADMINISTRATION OF LAW IN EARLY CAMPS

The judicial customs of all countries and communities, however small, have always been of interest, and those of a mining camp cannot be less so. The record of camp justice, as far as I know it, will be brought down to the advent of established judicial service in the territory in 1898. There are few who have lived anywhere contiguous to mining camps who have not heard or read of "miners' meetings." They may be called to consider any question related to the camp. In United States Territory they have a much wider scope than in Canada, as each locality makes its own by-laws, elects its recorder, fixes the amount of the recording fee, and decides the size of the claims, not to exceed thirteen hundred and twenty feet square ; all of which is done in Canada by the Department of the Interior. They were also called in the case of a dispute, by one or both of the disputants, to hear the evidence and settle the matter, and it is in this capacity that I propose to speak of them. In the first days of mining in the territorywhen the mining groups were scattered, with but a few members in each, they were simple, fairly just, inexpensive, quick in results, and promptly executed. Can we claim all this for our more elaborate judicial machinery ? In such small communities it followed that every member of it knew as much of the doings in camp as every other, and that all had a pretty accurate conception of the characteristics of the others. I may be permitted to digress here to say that it appears to me that this was the root idea from which our jury system sprang. In a small community, such as were very common in early times, it is likely that everybody knew everybody else pretty well, and it would be very difficult for false evidence to escape unchallenged, also a man's known character would avail him something in a trial. Nowadays, in some places, the object seems to be to get a jury that knows absolutely nothing about the case or its participants ; and an individual in our time and generation who does not know a good deal about the matter, if not the parties to it, long before it is called, is not fit to be on a jury or any other deliberative body of citizens.

When the meeting was summoned, all who could spare the time repaired to it, for all knew that some day they might be in trouble too, and if they did not manifest some interest in the camp doings, it might be a cool time for them when their trouble came. After the meeting was organized by electing a chairman and secretary, which last was generally the camp recorder, each disputant was requested to state his case, and then evidence was heard. When all was in, it was discussed openly and a vote taken, the majority carrying the judgment, which was promptly executed. At some of the meetings all this formality was not observed, but where the meeting contained experienced men it generally was. As the country filled up and the communities grew larger, results became different, from various causes ; sectionalism sprang up at times, and nationalism began to crop up, but, worst of all, that potent factor in modern mischief, the saloon, began to have an influence. What time it came into the field I cannot say, but think it was about 1889. There was a big profit in whisky, and some who were going in, anyway, combined business with necessity, invested a few dollars in liquor, took it along and sold it at an enormous advance. Some found it so profitable and congenial that they took to the business almost exclusively, and were afterwards known by the name of "Whisky" prefixed to the surname, whatever it might be. The liquor was sold to the saloon-keepers, who retailed it along with some water at fifty cents a glass. Like the saloons everywhere else, they had their clientele of  loafers, and, like all the tribe, they interfered with other people's business more than they attended to their own. After the establishment of saloons, miners' meetings were often held in them, and as all present were generally counted miners, as indeed they all were, more or less, only some were so when they had to be, seeing it was the only means of employment in the country, so all had a vote.