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This Week in Marin History
Grizzly Bear on California Republic Flag. (Marin History Museum – Jeff Craemer Collection.)
Bear facts
On Aug. 22, 1890, the Sausalito News reported that a 200-pound bear was found asleep “having partaken too freely of the carcass of a cow, and a bullet gave her the final quietus.” The hills of Marin County were alive with bears in the 19th century, and tales were aplenty. Another news report in 1880 of a couple who spotted a bear: “Well, they just sat closer together and that’s all we’ll tell.” In 1877, Supervisor Samuel Clark tried to keep a bear in a cage, but was wounded in the hand and “had to shoot the critter.” The Legislature in 1861 offered a $2 bounty for any bear killed in Marin; bear meat in 1888 paid the hunter “17 cents a pound dressed.”
This Month 100 Years Ago from the Marin Journal,
August 4, 11 and 25, 1910:
Complied by Ben Damon, Volunteer
How to Vote
Next Tuesday is Election Day. It is the first time the voters are called upon to vote direct for the men they wish to nominate and the manner of voting is somewhat different from that at a general election. The directions are given on each ballot, but every voter should study carefully how to vote before going to the polls. There is a separate ticket for each party and a man will be given his party ticket (the party for which he is registered), and he must vote that ticket by stamping a cross in the little square opposite the name for which he desires to vote. There is only one candidate to be voted for each office except for Justice of the Supreme Court, and for Constables in San Rafael and Sausalito township.
If a Republican desires to vote for a Democrat instead of for a name that is printed on his ballot he can write the Democrat’s name in the blank space but don’t make any cross. The name thus written would be counted in competition for the Republican nominee, but could not be counted for the Democratic nomination.
On the Republican ticket there is no candidate for Auditor. If some Republicans should write Mr. Connell’s name on their ticket he would be the Republican nominee, provided he got more Republican votes than any Republican received.
If a cross is stamped after two candidates for Governor neither one would be counted.
The Governorship
The Journal’s personal preference for governor would be Ellery, but under present conditions we realize that there is no prospect for his nomination, nor for the nomination of Stanton. This leaves the contest between Johnson, Anderson and Curry.
We believe the contest should be between Johnson and Anderson. We regard both as good men, able men, and either one of them would make a good governor. Mr. Johnson is a Republican who believes in the Lincoln and Roosevelt policies – clean and honest government; and has made his campaign for the nomination on the theory that the party needs to be freed from corporate machine control of the party.
Hundreds of Democrats in this locality have registered as Republicans. They must, if they vote at all, vote the Republican ticket. Thus will Republican candidates be selected by other than Republican voters. This is one of the great weaknesses in the new primary law – and there are scores of others. – Petaluma Argus
According to the great register there are in Marin county five Republican to every one Democrat. Many of them are Democrats for the primaries only. Some have registered to vote for Curry, some for Johnson, some for Anderson, and some for local county officers.
Western Pacific Reaches the Coast
Another transcontinental railroad has reached the Pacific Ocean. The Western Pacific Geo. Gould’s road, run its first passenger train into Oakland on Monday and there was great rejoicing at all points along the line in California. The new road crosses the great American desert in Nevada, pierces the great Sierra Mountain range, and a distance of 927 miles from Salt Lake to San Francisco and a remarkable feature in its construction is the fact that the entire road has a maximum grade of only one per cent which we believe is unparalleled in the history of railroad construction.
The road from San Francisco to Salt Lake is 927 miles long. The tunnels are 43 in number, and their aggregate length is eight and a half miles. Some of the shorter ones are cut though the solid rock in a straight line and need no timber or masonry supports. The bridges are few and always of steel. There are some 200 stations on the line today. Tomorrow there will be more. In fact, there will be lighting changes on the map now that the new railroad is actually in operation.
This development of rich country, heretofore isolated by mountain walls and tremendous distances is, after all, the interesting thing to consider in connection with the triumphal entry of the new road’s first train.
The cattle and mining men of Nevada and Utah in sections heretofore remote from transportation lines aidle (sic) the advent of the road with jubilation, but it is in the agricultural and timber sections of Northern California that the greatest happiness was manifest. All Plumas and Lassen counties expressed their joy with bands and outpouring of people. At Quincy, where lives A. W. Kiddie, pathfinder of the Feather River route, the long wait for the road ended in a celebration that will live in railroad tradition for many years. From this point reach out the American Valley, Honey Lake Valley, Surprise Valley, Long Valley, and countless other fertile tracts, containing actually hundreds of thousands of acres of land that will soon be under fruit and grain cultivation where in past time, because of the difficulty of getting other products to market, cattle were allowed to graze.
"Old Scarback" Brought Down
Every hunter on this side of the bay is discussing now the death of “Old Scarback,” the phantom buck of Marin County. “Old Scarback” who was famed for his cunning and luck in escaping death from one end of northern Marin to the other, was shot on Tuesday by Maurice Emerald, son of Deputy Sheriff Oscar Emerald, in Lucas Valley. The old buck was known to every experienced sportsman of this territory by the many scars on his flanks and back made by bullets and most particularly by one deep scar that creased his right flank.
Enforce the Curfew Law
A great deal of comment has been passed lately on the promiscuous roaming around of children of tender age after eight o’clock P. M. and the suggestion has come forward that the curfew ordinance should be enforced more rigidly.
It is undoubtedly deplorable to see minors, particularly boys and girls of less than twelve years of age, strolling around the streets without being accompanied by their elders. They are the material for humanity, as a general rule, which fills our reformatories, and later in life our prisons. Some may be inclined to believe that we are seeing matters in an altogether too dark light, but upon cool reflection it will be most evident to anybody who gives this matter any attention what ever, that the influence brought to bear upon children through careless association while roaming about the streets, is bound to leave its strains upon their characters later in life.
Parents themselves should occupy themselves with this subject, which should never become sufficiently grave to furnish topic for public discussion, but when the natural guardians of our coming generations fail in their duty then it becomes incumbent upon the authorities to step in and take the necessary preventative action.
By all means re-establish curfew, but first give the parents warning of it, and then, if this does not have the necessary effect, then go to the full extent of the law.
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