It was on June 29th that the first rumors were heard about calling out the State troops. A situation like this cannot fail to be other than closely related to the life of the National Guard. While California had been hitherto practically free from movements of this kind the Eastern States had not been so fortunate. It seems next to an impossibility for a railroad strike of any size to occur without its being accompanied by violence and crime. Time after time had the Eastern National Guard been called out to suppress strikers, who had finally deteriorated into rioters. The one seemed to follow the other as effect follows cause. As soon as a strike was inaugurated the people of the East looked for the effect, namely the calling out of the National Guard. This mode of thinking influenced the thought of California. The people now began to look to the State troops. The members of the National Guard were especially interested in the situation, for when they joined they little thought that they would be called upon to face any real danger. A sham battle at camp was about as near as they ever expected to get to an actual engagement. But as things began to look serious, their interest in affairs grew in intensity. “Great Heavens! we might be called out.” So they anxiously awaited further developments. [Illustration] CHAPTER II. THE NATIONAL GUARD CALLED OUT. On July 1st Uncle Sam took a hand in the game. Attorney General Olney sent instruction to the United States district marshals, whose jurisdiction was over that territory affected by the strike, to execute the process of the court, and prevent any hinderance to the free circulation of the mails. In accordance with these orders the United States marshal of the Southern District of California called upon General Ruger, commander of the western division of the Regular Army to furnish assistance at Los Angeles. Six companies, three hundred and twenty men, under the command of Colonel Shafter, were dispatched on July 2d for this place. They left San Francisco on the 10:30 P. M. train. To act in conjunction with the Regular Troops, Barry Baldwin, United States Marshal for the Northern District of California was at Sacramento with a large number of deputy United States marshals, sworn in for the occasion. The plan was to break, almost simultaneously, the blockade at these two places. The regulars experienced but little difficulty at Los Angeles. Not so, however, with the United States marshal and his deputies at Sacramento. The mob of strikers here was larger, more desperate, and better organized than at any other place in the State. On the afternoon of the 3d of July Baldwin attempted to open up the blockade. The operation of making-up the trains was calmly watched by the strikers. Everything seemed to be going smoothly, when all of a sudden at a given signal the strikers rushed forward, and in a few minutes demolished what had been the result of several hours labor.