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Personal Reminiscences of Early Days in California with Other Sketches; To Which Is Added the Story of His Attempted Assassination by a Former Associate on the Supreme Bench of the State by Stephen Johnson Field;George Congdon Gorham
page 47 of 410 (11%)
awhile this sense of danger had a sort of fascination, and I often
went to places where he was, to which I would not otherwise have gone.
Whenever I met him I kept my eye on him, and whenever I passed him on
the street I turned around and narrowly watched him until he had
gone some distance. I am persuaded if I had taken any other course, I
should have been killed. I do not say Turner would have deliberately
shot me down, or that he would have attempted anything against me in
his sober moments; but when excited with drink, and particularly when
in the presence of the lawless crowds who heard his threats, it would
have taken but little to urge him on. As it turned out, however, he
never interfered with me, perhaps because he knew I was armed and
believed that, if I were attacked, somebody, and perhaps more than
one, would be badly hurt. I have been often assured by citizens of
Marysville that it was only the seeming recklessness of my conduct,
and the determination I showed not to avoid him or go out of his way,
that saved me. But at the same time my business was ruined. Not only
was I prevented, by his refusal to obey the mandate of the Supreme
Court, from appearing as an advocate, but I could not, on account of
the relation I occupied towards him, practice at all; nor could I,
under the circumstances, leave Marysville and make my intended visit
East. Having nothing else to do, I went into speculations which
failed, and in a short time--a much shorter time than it took to make
my money--I lost nearly all I had acquired and became involved in
debt.


[1] See Exhibit D, in Appendix.

[2] See Exhibit E, in Appendix.

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