Pike County Democrat, Volume 31, Number 24, Petersburg, Pike County, 19 October 1900 — Page 3

®h» f ik» (SmntttjJjmorrat M. MeC. STOOPS, Editor sad Proprietor. Petersburg] i Indiana. *4444444444444444444444+*; t Life and Adventures Of «: t a Western “Bad Man” :: £».4i4444444»t444444444444j>

HISTORIANS hate traced the origin and genesis of the desperado of tt»e American oorder as a type, novelists and story writers have exploited' him in fiction, newspaper writers have chronicled with more or less accuracy his bloody and extraordinary deeds, exaggerating his achievements, glorifying has meanness and palliating his , crimeS. And yet the truth about him, framed as if is with the real growth, and civilization of the western and - southwestern states and territories, is eo much a part of the present-day affairs, so near to the annals of every Etate, county and town west of the Mississippi river, that its telling needs no false coloring, no deviation from the truth, no straining after heroics, to make it one of the most fascinating as well as instructive chapters in the history of the southwest and west. ^he real "bad man” of the west has no place in criminal annals. He and the law seldom came together. He was not a train robber, a highwayman nor a professional thief. To his contemporaries he was best known as a good man—with a gun. Always he was a gambler, sometimes a drunkard,and in every case he descended to the strenuous outlawry of cattle rustling. Fightlrg was both a pastime and a passion with him, and iie asks no better sport, no more welcome undertaking, than the chance to get into a gun fight with some redoubtable frontiersman of hi^ own stripe whose reputation with pistol or rifle made himv a rival and a worthy antagonist. This being both the business and the pleasure of his usually uomadic life, it is not strange that he seldom failed to find at last a better man. and paid with his life the penalty of his deeds. John Wesley Hardin, whose death at the hands of Constable John Sellman, of El Paso, is yet within memory of newspaper readers, affords a striking type of the border bad man both in the story of his life and in the manner of his death. He was the son of a Baptist preacher, but in spite of his home advantages he grew up to be an unruly, shiftless and skulking member of the community before he was 13 years old. H^was born in 1831 near the town of Comanche. Tex., and began his wildcareer before he was 12 years old by riding to death the only two horses his father had. He refused to go to school, was caught cheating at cards when he was 15 years old and in the same year putout the eye of a neighbor’s son in a quarrel over a cock fight. Preacher Hardin died soon afterward, and it is a tradition in Comanche county that he died of a broken heart over the wickedness of his favorite son. In 1872. being 21 years old. John Wesley, or "Wes,” Hardin established himself on a part of his father’s farm and began to assemble about his cabin a com

■6' “I GUESS YOU WON’T SERVE IT.” pany of tfce wildest young men in the county. None of them had means, and none of them seemed to work, and yet after a few months of midnight rides into adjoining oounties their corrals were crowded1 with cattle and the townsfolk of Comanche began to fear and suspect Hardin and his gang. Not satisfied with ranch solitude and led by Wes Hardin the desperadoes soon began to make midnight raids upon the town. It became their practice to gallop into Main street every night at eight o’clock, “shoot up” the stores, carry off what they wanted in the ahape of liquor and supplies and ter* rify Into silence protesting storekeepers. Many farmers who had suffered at the hands of the rustlers then began to assemble in Comanche for the purpose of “investigating” Hardin’s lay out. Whether this visitation had anything to do with his departure, or whether store looting and ranch life became too dull is not known, but in August, 1853, he left home and identified himself with the Comanche county f*ng of Taylors, then engaged in a laud war of four years’ standing with the eons and friends of a man named Button, who was killed by one of the Taylor family in De Witt oounty, in 1868. Hardin had no personal interest in the feud, but he was chosen leader of the Comanche Taylors, and during the short period of his leadership got Credit” Tor slaying three of the Sutton faction. February 16,1874, Hardin reappeared suddenly in Comanche with a crowd of his followers' who immediately captured the principal saloon of the town, barred the front door and proceeded to

carouse after tlic manner of their ekis Some time that afternoon Deputy Slier* iff Charley Webb, of Brown county, ar* rived in Comanche with a warrant lor one of Hardin's gang who was accused of stealing cattle, fie soon learned that the desperado and his fellows were embattled in the saloon, but, nothing daunted, tied his horse and entered the back door, which was open. Bardin knew him and the moment he put his face in the doorway shouted: “Hello, Webb! What do you want

ocre r “I’ve a warrant for Cal Shelby,” the deputy was saying, as he pulled the document half out of his pocket. But Hardtn shot him through the heart, adding: “I guess you won’t serve it!” In the party with Wes Hardin when Webb was shot was Joe Hardin, a younger brother of W’es, then posing as a lawyer, but following closely in the footsteps of his lawless brother, and with a growing reputation in Comanche as a desperado and a crook. . News of the shooting of Webb spread quickly over the town, and before dark the saloon was surrounded by a posse of volunteers. The enraged citizens stormed the locked barroom about dusk, and captured four of the inmates, including Joe Hardin. Wes escaped it the confusion and rode to femporary liberty on the horse of the man he had killed. The posse, determined tc make an example of somebody hanged Joe to the nearest tree anc gave his companions hours to leave the countyr When the coroner examined the effects of the dead young desperado he found the seals of 15 counties which had been profitable used for months by the quondam lawyer in the process of making out be gus bills of sale for cattle stolen by members of his brother’s gang. Wes Hardin then fled toward Flor ida. In the suburbs pf Gainesville lit was overtaken by two negroes, Jake Menzel and Robert Borup, both ol whom had worked for Hardin's fa ther. Impelled by desire to obtair the $500 reward offered for Hardin’s capture, they attempted to arrest hiir as he was leaving his lodging place early in the morning. They ap proached him with leveled pistols. Hi had his thumbs in the waistband ol his trousers and assured them he was unarmed. As they attempted to seize him he whipped two pistols from under his vest and killed one of them The other was blinded and fled foi his life. Hardin was caught a< Shrevesport a few days later, returnee to Comanche and sentenced to 2! years’ imprisonment for the killing of Charley Webb. He was set at liberty under the exemplary conducl rule in 1802 and left the penitentiary with the reputation of having perfected himself in the study-of law during the 17 years of his incarceration Immediately after regaining his lib erty he clinched his reputation foi being the “meanest bad man on the border” by betting five dollars that he could at the first shot knock an innocent Mexican off a soap bos where he sat sunning himself. He won the bet and left the dead Mexican in the gutter where he fell. Thai he was proud of his meanness is proved by a story which he boastfully told of an adventure in Nogales He said that in a hotel there he was annoyed by a heavy snorer in the nexl room. Without making an effort tc caution the sleeper, he put his ear tc the thin board partition till he got the exact position of his snoring neighbor’s head. Then he fired one 45-caliber bullet through the wall, The snoring stopped. The corpse was found the next morning shot through the brain, but the bad man was permitted to rides away. Whatever he may have known of the theory of law, his grotesque idea of its practice was manifest when he set out for El Paso wearing four six-shooters and carrying a Winchester rifle.

Tor more than six months he terrorized £1 1*880. There was only one man there who dared cross his path at all times and under all conditions. That naan was John Sellman, a bad man, too, but of a different mold from Wes Hardin. After a bloody career as a soldier, cowboy and border deputy, and with a record of what h« called “23 justifiable killings,” Sellman had settled down into the almost placid occupation of patrolling the streets of El Paso. It was placid enough till Hardin came, but a month later every man there knew that one or the other had come at last into the presence of sure death. The crisis came August 19, 1893. Old John Sellman’s son, who was a policeman, had arrested Hardin’s friend, and Hardin at once announced that he would exterminate the whole Sellman family, beginning with the father. To this end the offended desperado armed himself with pistols and a quantity of whisky, and wept looking for old man Sellman. The latter, who stated at his trial afterward that he knew it was only a question of time when he must kill Hardin, traced him to the Echo saloon. With the peculiar and almost anomalous sense of fairness which characterized many of his class, Sellman then sent word to Hardin that it he would ccj|| out of the saloon he, Sellman, ww9d give him a “fair chance to exterminate or be exterminated.” Those were the very words of Sellman as reported at the trial. After waiting an hour for a reply Sellman entered the barroom. Hardin saw his reflection in the glass and had his pistol out in a second. But Sellman was sober. His first shot pierced Hardin’s head from hatband to hatband, and even when his victim fell Sellman continued to fire till he had placed five shots in vital parts of his enemy. “Good gun fighters like Wes Hardin sometimes shoot after they’re hit,” explained Sellman in telling why he fired so many “fatal” shots.—Chicago Daily Beoord.

1 FOE TO EMPIRE. Prol. Laughlin, Political Scientist, Against McKinley. Nnet Oppoaeat of “Cola** Hamf Calls Pklltppiae War a Blnader ^■pertallia Agalait C*a« atttatloa.

[Prof. J. Laurence L&ughlin, who eras one of William McKinley’s moat energetic supporters four years ago, and who took a prominent part in debates with “Coin” Harvey, advocating the single gold standard, recently announced to his classes at the University of Chicago that he cannot cast his ballot for the McKinley administration. Prof. Laughlin gives as his reason for the defection President McKinley’s attitude on the ques.ion of imperialism. “The course of the present administration is opposed to the very origin and genius of our institutions.*' he insists, “and I cannot vote for McKinley.** Prof. Laughlin is head of the department of political science at the University of Chicago. He believes that American commerce can never be increased by the methods of imperialism alone. “Trade does not follow the flag,** he insists. “but on the contrary, the flag follows trade When American ability to compets in foreign markets ia proved there trade will go and later the protecting flag will follow.” Philippine War a Blander. "There is no need of words how we cams by the Philippines. The war on those islands was due to someone’s blunder. They tell us that we must stay on the islands to obtain markets for our manufacturers; that the Philippines will provide a basis of trade with the orient. They tell us that we ought to conduct the war to this end even st a cost of countless lives and mil* lions of dollars. “The argument that this course is an effectual means to trade expansion is fallacious. Go back to the years between 1SS3 and 1890 and you will And that the total annual value of the exports and imports in the Phillipine islands was 134,000,000. Supposing that this trade was all under American control and that it paid a fair rate of profit, say ten per cent., it would be Insufficient even to pay the interest on our war ° Home Conditions Tell. “Increasing trade will not depend on our owning the Phiiipplnee. After we get them we must open the doors of trade to other nations on about the same conditions as we ourselves enjoy. Then to sell gcods to the Islanders we must make the prices as low as those of other; nations. Our ability to compete with these othfr nations will depend upon the industrial conditions at home. “The fact that the value of American exports has reached a sum never equaled before refutes the claim that we need foreign ports to sell goods. Whether America shell sell to the Filipinos much or little depends upon what the islanders can produce to offer us and upon our ability to supply the goods they desire cheaper than any other nation. If American manufacturers wish to sell goods on the eastern markets the conditions at home must be looked after. “The ability to sell depends upon America’s natural resources, on the efficiency of labor and the organization of industries. Also on the low cost of transportation, the knowledge of foreign markets and the adaptability to the customs and the prejudices of buyers. America Leads la Steel. “America has take^i the lead In Iron and steel trade because ‘oL the abundance of * ores, the improved machinery for loading and the capacity of transports. European contracts for bridge building and railroad construction come to Americans because advantages similar to those enumerated enable them to do the work cheaper and better and faster than the British firms. And so 1 say that trade with the Philippines depends more on the smoking chimneys of the South than on the rapid-firing guns of the army. “It is the laboring man and the taxpayer who defray the enormous cost of exploiting a new country for the benefit of a favored few who obtain industrial concessions there. The only commercial gains by conquest go to the few at the expense of the workingman and the taxpayer. The course of the present administration in exploiting the Philippines is opposed to the very origin and genius of our institutions. Disloyal to Past History. “Imperlali~m is the government of a colony which has no equal share in controlling the policy of the parent state. This is exactly the system which the American republic once repudiated, j “It Is the very elementary principle on ! which the constitution Is based, and that principle is being betrayed. If there is any historic se#se In the American people they will reverse the policy of imperialism, as the hope lies not so much in presidents as Id the houses of congress. "President McKinley declared at Atlanta two years ago that "the flag has been planted in two hemispheres, where it remains the symbol of liberty and law, of peace and progress. Who will withdraw from the people over whom it floats its protecting folds? Who will pull it -down?’ In the Philippines we are now mowing down the natives with rapid-flre guns—‘nigger-hunt-ing.’ it is grewsomely expressed. The flag does not protect those over whom it floats. It is there to Filipinos the emblem of tyranny and butchery.

rnacipie am viwwnvi, "The common sense of the people knows ! that the flag cannot toe Immediately with- ; drawn, but the moral sense of the people demands that so tons as It remains its folds shall provide for white men and brown men alike a free and Independent government and assuraaoe from outside aggression. As a nation of freemen all •qu&l under the constitution we are stultltying ourselves morally and politically. We j are showing to the world that our principles of government are as nothing in comparison with grasping land, because It is said by our legislators to be fertile and rich. "The uaesenesa of this philosophy should ! bring its own punishment and dishonor. ! The base greed for gain which has led strong Interests to obtain the promise of j special privileges In return for political ' support is apparent In the whole business. The appeal to the cupidity of the dishonest element in the country has been openly proclaimed by some of our legislators, notably by Senator Beveridge, who advocates the conquest of the Philippines, toecausa they abound in gold and hemp. "I have not decided what course to follow at election time, but 1 shall not vote for William McKinley,” -Mr. Bryan can no more be held reaponsib^ for the ice trust than can Mr. McKinley be held responsible for Qov. Roosevelt’s strange suspension of the state constitution and laws to keep the ice crust mayor in the office which he has forfeited on his own sworn confession.—N. Y. World. — According to Mr. Hanna’s fine •ray of theorizing there are no thieves In this country, either, because there are laws against them. He says there are ho trusts because we have laws against trusts.—Rochester Her* aid ‘.

USELESS PHILIPPINE WAR. MeKItlcr’a PenUteat Policy of Safcjasatlon by Military Coa«neit. Dispatches from the Philippines are authentic. They are from our own officers there, and they make known a terrible condition of affairs. Over and over it has been asserted by the administration that the war there is ended. Now our officers are calling for more men, saying the present forces are inadequate to meet the insurgents and compel submission. One body of 90 United States soldiers was compelled on Monday to fight for their lives with 1,000 entrenched and armed Filipinos, with a loss of about one-third of their number. Gen. MacArthur pays a glowing tribute to their heroic defense, “the splendid response of the men.” But compliments do not give us bock our dead, and fine words do not heal wounds, or restore lost health. There were, a few weeks ago, in the Philippines about 65,000 United States soldiers. There is nearly that number there now, growing smaller by fatalities numbering from 40 to 130 every week. If there were no political iiinbelievers to satisfy and no “pride of the administration*’ to cater to, does one think that this merciless sacrifice would be tolerated? We made a fearful miscalculation when we undertook the subjugation of these islands, and they have proved an expensive burden, and the death of thousands of young men. The game is not worth the handle. ^

M’KINLEY OR BRTAR, It la Blthtr the Repat I<e ar the Empire, Which Will Tea Tate Fart Either Bryan or McKin ey will be elected president the fir t Tuesday after the first Monday of i est month. Either the republic or the empire will be indorsed. If Bryan wins, it will mean the end of a war of conquest for ui holy greed. If McKinley wins it will mean that that war will go on; that American ideals will be repudiated; that national faith will be betrayed; that the rights of man will be denit d; that the Declaration of Independei cc will become a mere mockery; that the constitution will be ignored; that polygamy and slavery will be ex dorsed, and that all for which we hav * stood and of which we have boasted a ad of which we have been honestly proud during a hundred and twenty-fire y« a rs of glorious national history will be put behind us for a mean and ig noble ambition. The citizen must choos*. He may affect to believe that thire is some other duty before him, bu that of deciding between the republic and the empire. But if he shall veto for any other man than for Bryan he will vote to strengthen the arm of imperialism and to cripple that of freeircvernment. . The issue cannot be dolged. It is either the republic or the empire. Which shall it be? Which does the citizen want? If he desires the republic to stand he must vote for Bryan. If he is careless whethe * it stand or

MONET TALKS,

What does it all amount to? It has been a costly experiment, and the sooner we are out of it the better. What are UJ,(K)0,000 Filipinos to 65,000 Americans, and especially when the conditions involve constant and torrid ble bloodshed? The country is not with McKinley in his persistent policy of subjugation by military conquest; it is not in harmony with American Ideas, and its utter failure is steadily augmenting the growth of anti-im-perialism, and making votes for the democratic party everywhere.—Prosj'lence *(K. I.) Telegram. YALE PROFESSOR FOR BRYAN. Dr. Oeorfe T. Ladd la Agalut lanerlaltam After Hla Trip I* the Far West. -George T. Ladd, Head professor of the department of philosophy and psychology at Yale university, who has just returned from a trip around the world, has become an ardent anti-im-perialist through his personal investigations into conditions in the far east. Prof. Ladd spent about four months in Japan and the whole of one winter in India and came into contact with the foremost educators and statesmen of the orient, lie personally looked into conditions in the east nd the prospects for American and western civilization and has come to the conclusion that America is making a great mistake to enter the Philippines as ruler and possessor. Prof. Ladd said: “The attitude of the United States in retaining the Philippines is entirely unjustifiable. It was wrong from the very beginning, from the moment when the commissioners of our government forced Spain to sell s the islanus. It is impolitic, immoral and contrary to all of our traditions. The chances are that the Filipinos will always Keep in rebellion till they either have self-government are exterminated.” Another thing that is making the people tired of Hannaism is the fact that the glass trust is selling its products to the market of Europe from 15 to 20 per cent, cheaper than it sells tne same goods to the people of the United States. This is the sworn testimony of the secretary of the trpst given before the industrial J commission at a recent hearing.—Keo- } Constitution-Democrat.

fall he may vote for anybody else or fail or refuse to vote at ad. And that will be his contribution to the coming of the Man on Horseback. AGAINST LABOR UNIONS. The Trusts and the tepublleuM Are Together Aural ant the „ VorklBfuat. The concessions offered by the hard coal trust to its striking miners emphasize the fact that tht real war is on organised labor. The coal trust is bent upon the destruction of the United Mine Workers of Aiaer ca. Mark Hanna has shown that there is a close a Ilia nob between tie coal trust and the republican part,/. In the interest of the latter th e former quickly agreed to pay the miners a trifle more money. But it tiec a string to this agreement. It would pay the advance. Yes. But it would do this only as the price of disunion. And Hanna accepted the condi ion. So the miners may get a paltry ten per cent, increase of wages through Mark Hanna’s powerful Influence if they will consent to destroy their own organization. And when their organization has been destroyed, they may then accept any terms the coal trust shall see fit to offer. They will then be powerless to resist. Organized labor may make up its mind to thisi^Organize d monopoly has decreed its destruction. And the action of" Mark Hanna in accepting J. Pierpont Morgan’s conditio n, follow- j ing President McKinley’s suppression j of unionism in Idaho wish United j States troops at the behest of the i Standard Oil trust, indicates plainly enough that organized lator has its deadliest foe in the republican party. Republicans Changing Views. •The republicans used to be for bimetallism; now they am for the gold standard. Republicans used to believe in the greenback; now they have i to turn over and say that they believe that bank notes are better. They used to believe in the income tax, now they are against Jthe income tax. They used to oppose the trusts; now they defend the trusts. They tseu to be against a large standing army; now they are for a larg'fe standing army. They used to be opposed to a large national debt; now they stand for a currency system that c«u only be permanent when based 0:1 a perpetual debt.—William J. Rryau.

PATH OF MONARCHY. Being Followed by the Republican Party, Says Bryan.

Preatdeattal Candidate Addreaaee Hatloaal Association at Democratic Clates—Cost of IIU> *, tart sos. William J. Bryan addressed the National Association of Democratic cluba In convention at Indianapolis, ThursJ day, October 4, speaking upon the 1 trusts, militarism and other prominent questions. He said: “New York has a republican govern o* and a republican legislature, and you republicans who have been worrying so much about the ice trust can just ease your ; minds, for as long as the governor ts out I west making speeches you may be sure no* i body Is being heard In New York. Why la ‘ ; it that no republican knows anything about ; the Standard Qil trust, or the sugar trust, i or the salt trust, or the cracker trust, or j the window*glass trust, or the envelope i trust, or the writing-paper trust, or the 1 trust In the paper that republican editors i use to write a defense of the trusts upon? ‘ Why don't they know about these trusts! • Is it dishonesty, or is it ignorance? Why , is It that no republican speaks out against , any trust except the Ice trust, and why la i it that the republicans in charge do not dej stroy that, so you can believe Hanna wheni he says there are no trusts? I “The republican party is not prepared to i defend itself on the trust question: therei fore they try to get k out of the campaign. . The republican part y is not prepared to defend Itself on the army question. They say there is no question of militarism, and yet an army four times as great as the standing army of 1S96 is demanded by the president’s message of December, 1S98. How much do we spend for education in the United States? Less than $29Q,0«M»0 a year. How1 much do the republican^ want to spend on our military establishment! One hundred million dollars a year,^ They want to spend more than half as much for a military establishment as we spend for the education of all the children In the United States. Is that not a step toward • militarism? What reason can they.give I fof?Jt? They can or.lv give one. That Is • the one they do not give. v_• Reasons for Large Army.* “There are two reasons which lead net In this country to want a large standing army. One is a domestic one; the other Is connected with our foreign affairs. .What domestic reason Is there for a large army! To protect us from the Indians? No; the less Indians we have the more army the republican party wants. That is not the cause. Why do they want it? So that they can build a fort near every large city and use the army to suppress Ly force the discontent that ought to be cured by remedial legislation. “The laboring man asks for arbitration and gets an army; he asks relief from government by injunction and gets a large army; he asks protection from the blacklist and his answer is a large army; he asks * for shorter hours of labor in order that he may have more time with his family and • for the development of his mind, and his ! answer is a large army. He asks for repre* sentation in the president’s cabinet in ori der that labor may be protected, and his j answer is a large army. "That is the domestic reason which is not I given, and yet it is a reason entertained by many. What is the reason they give! They say we need it for our foreign policy, but my friends, they asked for the army be to re the American peopie ever decided upon a foreign policy that made a large army necessary. "In December. 1S9S, when the president f asked for his army, the treaty had not yet been signed, but its terms were understood. When the republican congress voted to raise the army to 100.000 the treaty had been signed ar.d no arm was raised against this nation anywhere in the world. But up to this time the American people have never voted tofu colonial policy, and yet the republican party is pledged to a large army. \\ hat-does it want with it? It intends to exploit the Philippine islands, and ‘ if you want to understand the reasons for i a large army read the prospectus Issued j by the Philippine Lumber and JpevelopI mer.t company.

ltlarne DeiuocrcM. “You will find that at the head of the company as president stands a republican i member of congress who is the chairman of i the army committee of the house of representatives, and another republican congressman is attorney tc>ir the company, and the prospectus shows that already valuable timber lands have been secured, and the? prospectus also explains that the labor | problem is easily solved, because there is a i Quantity of Chinese labor there that can be i employed at lrom 50 to <a cents a day is ! Mexican money. What do you want an j army for? To hold the Philippines while | they are being developed by syndicate* beaded by republican politicians. “The republicans say the reason we are 1q i the Philippines, the reason our boys are : dying, the reason a large army is necessary, the reason we cannot come home, is I because I helped to ratify the treaty. My friends. I want you to go back a few moments and you will find that the republican party said we were in the Philippine islands because of the act of God, and it Is a.great come-down from God tome. If il is the hand of God that takes us to the Philippine islands, why’do the republicans want to lay it to a democrat? If It is well to be there, if it Is a part of the divine mission. why don’t they defend the being there? They claim to be silent partners with the Almighty, but the trouble is that they make all the noise and thus far the Almighty has been the silent partner. Now they say the war would stop if It were not for the democratic party. They say that the Filipinos would lay down their arma but for the hope they have that T may be elected. My friends, whenever a republic- « an tells you that, you tell him that the colonists fought the samfe battle that the Filipinos are fighting, and they did it nearly 100 years before I wds born. “The republican party Is following the paths of monarchy. It does not propose a king, but It proposes a principle upon which only a king can stand. It does not propose a crown, but it proposes a doctrine that can fit nothing but a crown. The republican party, has done in Porto Rico,just what England did in this country, and our president is doing to-day just what George 11L did a century and a quarter ago. What difference does It matter whether you call him president, or emperor, or king if he administers the power of a king?” -Hanna announces in New York that the west is not waking up as ht expected under his alarm cries of dan ger. The west is waking up the othe way.—Chicago Chronicle. -There are two things in Mr. Brian’s campaign methods which tom mand the hearty approval of everybody One la that he does not abuse anyone in his speeches and the other is that h« insists that his, opponents shall have every opportunity to express their views. There was never a fairer or franker candidate for the highest office in the gift of the American people. The Catholic University of America opened at Washington, D. C., for the coming ucholastic year with the largest class of clerical and lay students ever enrolled by it