beware of. He took active part in politics, and was terrible in a
"scrimmage. Of his redeeming, traits I never obtained information.
Doubtless he had some. Unlest it was on account of Woolley Kearney's
facial configuration, I have never been able to divine why the Committee
banished him. He was the homeliest, ugliess looking mortal I ever saw.
Had the Committee compelled him to go as the Veiled Prophet, with a
gunny sack instead of silver veil, there would have been at least the
essence of justice in their action. His battered, flattened, twisted,
gnarled nose, was at every point of the compass, and more hideous at
every turn. Why he didn't blow it off when he blowed it, blow'd if any
could conjecture. His eyes were squinted, his mouth a monstrous
curiosity. Every feature seemed in revolt at that nose. It would have
struck awe to the spirit of an Ogre, Woolley was no doubt ready and
willing to do any crooked deed, but none who knew him would employ him
on any mission in which skill and fidelity were required. His banishment
had, perhaps, a good effect upon the unborn generation, whose parents
had not then entered the matrimonial state. Whatever other purpose it
subserved, except to show to other communities the "latest novelty" from
California, is the unfathomable conundrum. John Crowe was a noisy,
blatant, meddlesome fellow, the keeper of a livery stable on Kearny
street, and a fierce denouncer of the Committee. There was nothing else
to his discredit, so far as I could learn at the time. Reub. Maloney was
a compound character - a good deal of a knave, something of the man in
his fidelity to his friends, reckless of everything except his own
safety in any transaction calculated to damage the cause to which he was
opposed; indifferent to what might happen to an adversary, He was a most
valiant "brave" - with his mouth; the noble quality had never penetrated
his cuticle. His passion when bloviating was furious and terrible to
look upon; but there was nothing to it more than sound and pretense. His
face would redden to congestive hue, his voice swell to sonorous volume;