Rensselaer Republican, Volume 25, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 October 1892 — THE ARIZONA KICKER. [ARTICLE]

THE ARIZONA KICKER.

The Marine Editor Reports the Attempted Lynching of Hla Chief Extra ! Extra ! Extra !—We are not the editor and proprietor of the Kicker. We are not the man with a private graveyard. We are not the Mayor of this town. We are simply the marine editor on la salary of $8 per week. For the time being we are in charge of the office, ana owing to events which oocurred yesterday we have decided to get out this extra sheet and give the full details of one of the most damnable outrages ever perpetrated on a newspaper man in this Western country. As this sheet goes to press the office is full of citizens, extending their sympathies and breathing threats of bloody revenge. One word from us would precipitate a bloody massacre, but we shall not utter it. As a marine editor we are calm and calculating.

Sunday morning the editor of the Kicker, who is also Mayor, mounted his mule and rode over to Clinch Valley to dig some trailing arbutus to transplant to his private graveyard. For a year past the cowbovs over there have been after his scafp, and, ou two occasions have almost secured it. He should not have gone iu that direction, knowing what might happen, but he takes great pride in his p. g., and was bound to secure some of that arbutus to trail over the ten graves within it. What happened after the editor hod dismounted from his male just beyond Squaw trail we gather from his own lips. He had found the vines he was in search of, when fifteen cowboys rushed in and cut off all escape. Before he could draw bis gun he was seized and bound, and later on was carried to a tree and prepations made to hong him. We do not know what thoughts flashed through his brain os be stood there with the noose over hki head and a circle of implacable foes surrounding him. It is not our business to know. We do the marine at 97 a week, and are very practical about it. He probably thought es bis mother—his p. g. heavea—the offiee, and ether things.

The first move of the cowboys was to run our chief up to the Hmtx, hold him there for ten seconds, and then drop Urn to his feet again. He assures us that while the sensation was novel it wus also decidedly unpleasant. He thiuks it was this first pull which so stretched bis neck that a No. 15 collar now goes almost twice around it. The object was to scare him and make him beg for mercy.but he assures us that he did not lose one jot of nerve, and that as soon as be could get his breath again he defied them to do their worst. There is a yawning gulf between a marine editor and the proprietor of a great family paper, but we think our chief tells the truth in this particular. When pulled up' the second time sparks 6f fire danced before his eyes, bis feet felt like ice, and the only thought he had was that our esteemed contemporary would come out with a double-leaded two-column arUoleaad lie about him In the usual

vein. As near as he can figure, A® was suspended for fifteen seeemds this time. We have no doubt that during this epoch be thought of all the mean things he . ever did. We say this without thought of criticising him. No marine editdr would think of criticising bis editor-in-chief. When lowered for the second time the Kicker man found that bis voice had changed from bass to falsetto, but he assures us that he used it extensively to denounce the crowd as thieves, cowards, aasasins, grave robbers, jail birds, Sfid SO on. There were teuin the crowd he bad driven out of town on different ■‘occasions, end he taunted each one with tho fact. He offered to fight the Whole mob if turned loose, and he warned them that his death would be terribly avenged. When they drew him up the third time they fastened the rope, calculating to finish him, but just then Col. Roberts’ mule train from the railroad tame into view and the whole mob took to flight. Our chief thinks be bad dangled about four minutes when cut down, and, $a his marine editor, we are bound toagree with him- The Colonel had him put in a wagon, poured whisky down his tb roat, and he revived before the train reached town. He is now at bis boarding house and has the attendance of the best doctor in town, who says he will not be out for a week or 1 two and will not get over the shock for months. His neck appears to us to be fully eighteen inches long, his eyes twice their normal size, and up to an hour ago his hair was stilt stauding on end. He is very calm, however, and his mind is very clear. As a marine editor on seven dollars a week we pronounce him a game man, and we predict that as soon as he is able to sit on a mule and handle a gun the number of tombstones in his p. g. will rapidly run up to eighteen or twenty.