Mrs. Ferdinand Thornton, at
a dinner party, left the room as Mrs. Hofer entered it, and Mrs. Hofer gave
a magnificent exhibition of Celtic temperament.
The editor who supported the prosecution with the full strength of his
historic sheet was kidnapped. The prosecuting attorney was shot in the
court room by a former convict who afterward was found dead in his cell.
There were moments when it looked as if excited mobs would reinstitute the
lynch law of the fifties.
Nothing came of it all but such a prolonged exposure of general vileness
that it was possible to effect a certain number of reforms later by popular
vote. The system remained inviolate, even during the mayorship of a fine
old citizen too estimable to build up a rival machine; and the men of the
prosecution, after many bitter harassed months, when they walked and slept
with their lives in their hands, resigned themselves to the fact that no
San Francisco jury would ever convict a man who had the money to bribe it.
All this had given Mortimer abundant material for conversation and he had
entertained Mrs. Groome and Alexina night after night with a report of the
day's events and the gossip of the street. Mrs. Groome had been intensely
interested, for this upheaval reminded her of personal episodes in the life
of her husband and father, the latter having been a member of the vigilance
committees of the fifties.
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