the streets with bands and banners.  Having no business in the world to occupy them, and holding a position unique in the community, the Regulators soon developed into practically a band of cut-throats and robbers, with the object of relieving those too weak to bear alone the weight of wealth.  The Regulators, or Hounds, as they soon came to be called, had the great wisdom to avoid the belligerent and resourceful pioneer.  They issued from their headquarters, a large tent near the Plaza, every night.  Armed with clubs and pistols, they descended upon the settlements of harmless foreigners living near the outskirts, relieved them of what gold dust they possessed, beat them up by way of warning, and returned to headquarters with the consciousness of a duty well done.  The victims found it of little use to appeal to the alcalde, for with the best disposition in the world the latter could do nothing without an adequate police force.  The ordinary citizen, much too interested in his own affairs, merely took precautions to preserve his own skin, avoided dark and unfrequented alleyways, barricaded his doors and windows, and took the rest out in contemptuous cursing.

Encouraged by this indifference, the Hounds naturally grew bolder and bolder.  They considered they had terrorized the rest of the community, and they began to put on airs and swagger in the usual manner of bullies everywhere.  On Sunday afternoon of July 15, they made a raid on some California ranchos across the bay, ostensibly as a picnic expedition, returning triumphant and very drunk.  For the rest of the afternoon with streaming banners they paraded the streets, discharging firearms and generally shooting up the town.  At dark they descended upon the Chilean quarters, tore down the tents, robbed the Chileans, beat many of the men to insensibility, ousted the women, killed a number who had not already fled, and returned to town only the following morning.

This proved to be the last straw.  The busy citizens dropped their own affairs for a day and got together in a mass meeting at the Plaza.  All work was suspended and all business houses were closed.  Probably all the inhabitants in the city with the exception of the Hounds had gathered together.  Our old friend, Sam Brannan, possessing the gift of a fiery spirit and an arousing tongue, addressed the meeting.  A sum of money was raised for the despoiled foreigners.  An organization was effected, and armed posses were sent out to arrest the ringleaders.  They had little difficulty.  Many left town for foreign parts or for the mines, where they met an end easily predicted.  Others were condemned to various punishments.  The Hounds were thoroughly broken up in an astonishingly brief time.  The real significance of their great career is that they called to the attention of the better class of citizens the necessity for at least a sketchy form of government and a framework of law.  Such matters as city revenue were brought up for practically the first time.