Aviation High School - Talon Yearbook (Redondo Beach, CA)

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t ■ A tin star and a six shooter were symbols of western law; hovvc er, methods of law enforce- ment have changed in many ways since the time of the one-sheriff town. During the Gold Rush Days, many people entered into mining towns. The lawless came along with the people who wished to make their fortunes mining gold. Thieves, hold-up men and gamblers came to the West to prey on the unaware. Sunday was reserved for dispensing a rough jus- tice by miners ' meetings. The crime of theft was considered by most miners more serious than even the killing of a man. But as time passed, the miners ' meetings proved inadccjuate. Strong arms were needed to combat the rise in crime. Wyatt Earp, Matt Dillon and Wild Bill Hickok were hired to restore law and order. Along with the strong arms representing the law came the quick guns of such outlaws as Jes.se James, Billy the Kid and the Cole Brothers. Movies and TV show western outlaws and sher- iffs as colorful characters of the western saga. These characters, in most cases, were not the handsome rogues of the program ' s version such as Billy the Kid. Jesse James is pictured as a Robin Hood, when in fact he was a cold-blooded killer. Doc Holiday is another example of a paint up job by tele ' ision. In reality, he was a professional gun- man of the worst kind. In comparison to the law and order of the Old West, all disputes today, are supposed to be settled in court. No longer are there the duels in the streets, or lynch parties. Law in the West and the rest of the nation has become refined in dealing with the lawless. In terms of achieving ideals such as ci il rights. people have found that they do not ha .c tt . use suffragette tactics of old, but that peaceful means can achie e the same results. This was e ident in the (]ivil Rights Marches through the South at the height of the Civil Rights moxement. .

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t eon § p - aMallona ieneqac ' Paso de Westetfi Influences America ' s westward movement was the epic of the men and women who were melted in a caldron from which the rugged settler was poured. They wove a saga, the telling of which grows more fas- cinating and enthralling with each repetition. The West has become a dramatic romance of many- discords: of man against untamed beasts; of man against the force of a majestic land, of man against man. The reasons for this sudden surge to the West are numerous. After the Mexican War, a depres- sion seized the Eastern seaboard, causing despair. The hope for a better existence was foremost in everyone ' s mind. Ad ertisements extolled the West as the land of milk and honey. All types of people were beckoned by this land of plenty. The first to enture forth were those who had no ties in the East. Next braved the re- ligious people who could find no peace from the persecution of their faith. The immigrant farmers followed, seeking a land of their own, a land fer- tile and waiting for a spade to crack its surface. Even today influences of those determined peo- ple can be seen and felt. Architecture reflects this influence in the buildings of Spanish and ranch- type houses and businesses. Streets and towns carry the names they were christened with when California was still a babe in arms. Distinct progress has also been made in trans- portation since the time of the stagecoach ; educa- tion since the time of the little red school house, and space expansion since the time of that fnst itch to move West. True, some of the ' estern settlers returned to their homes with fortunes; others remained in San Francisco to grow rich with the young, growmg city; but others left their bones and their dreams in the desert, in the blizzards of the high mountain passes, in the jungles of Panama or in the mmmg camps. Often their end remained forexer a mys- tery to the families they left behind.

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