San Francisco (CA) Evening Bulletin, “What is an ‘Outlaw?’,” March 29, 1859

WHAT IS AN “OUTLAW?” – Occasionally paragraphs are copied from the English papers, stating that such and such a person has been “outlawed.” Bearing in mind “the famous outlaw bold Rob Roy,” who is said by the poet to have been as excellent a “thief” as Robin Hood, many persons believe that outlawry is the penalty of crime. Such, however, is not the case. It is merely the consequence of avoiding suit in civil matters, and many men who take refuge in [Bouglogne?] or New York, when London has become “hot,” and who refuse to answer the sweet call of the crier of the Bankruptcy Court, are at once declared “outlaws.”