Show wh im n A ta ong bato no A r AN 5 7 a ra NN no i ks W F X ot av 4 4 BY ELMO SCOTT WATSON N X JANUARY 13 press dispatches from k ros los angeles carried the news that wyatt earp se enty eight run gun toting peace officer of dodge dod city knit kan and tombstone ariz in frontier days whose colorful career led him through a dozen fatal conflicts with bad men of tile the old west died here today that brief announcement recalled for a moment a real wild wet west we t in american history nhen hen there took place events in which the bare ciara chronicles of fact reads like the fervent and exaggerated ag fiction of the dinie novelist and the story of those times seems all the HIP more remarkable when one rec realizes lizes that they were less than fifty years ago and that there are many men still living who had a part in the stirring events of what now seems like a fir far olt off aud and demly rement bored era of course the number of such men Is being rapidly reduced and the galaxy balasy of real frontier rio notables tables Is now so small that they can almost be counted on the alie ringers lingers of one hand nut bill in the counting there is one name ilitch stands elands out prominently that Is tile the name of col william a contemporary of wyatt carp in the tombstone araz episode rf f the real wild west period and the passing of wyatt karp only senes senea to emphasizes the Imp importance ortonce of colonel nilly billy as the lie sole remaining figure of outstanding prominence in that episode not only was lie important as no nn actor in the drama of I 1 those hose stirring daas in arizona but lie Is even more im poi tait as a chronicler of tiles thos dis fortunately for the future historian the story of tombstone has been set down by one who was there in tile the heyday of that lively place if the oll obi nevada mining ton was famous as bid b id bad b a d hodie bodle and the old kansas cow town was known far and wide us its wicked dodge doidge what would be the most appropriate nickname to fo this arizona cow find mining town of tombstone whose record was in some respects even more sensational than either of the others perhaps the name of colonel Bl billys illys book which mas Rs recently published sy by the houghton flin company la Is the liest best answer it is with the sub title of 0 bringing the law to the mesquite Mes nuite if were the chronicle thron klc of creaden Cr rr eaken ridges career its as a deputy sheriff in tombstone only it would be interesting and exciting enough hut but it Is tile record of ills his life for more than halt half a century in the west till and to read Is to call the roll of a long list of famous frontier names for the saga of colonel hilly billy began during the second year of the civil war when lie he ran away from ills his home in wisconsin he was then twelve years old to work in the quartermasters department of the union army and soon tift afterwards erwardi found himself engaged in freighting supplies for the army in missouri after A tm bev months of that we next find him crossing the plains to denver with a freighter outfit mill and on this trip he made acquaintance with the first of the frontier notables lie was to know when we reached tack jack morrows ranch at the mouth of the north platte river writes ridge 1 I saw bill cody or buffalo pill bill for the first time I 1 thought lie he was the handsomest man I 1 had ever seen after several trips across the plains breckenridge enlisted in the third colorado cavalry which was called to service by gov john evans of colorado to take tile the field against the indians who had been committing depredations on the isolated ran ranches clies and among the immigrants coming into the country As a member of this outfit young billy met some more frontier notables chief ol 01 0 whom were old jim beckworth the famous mulatto who became a chief among the crow indians and antoine bentse who serve served as guides for the regiment which was commanded by colonel they taught me a lot about scouting and the ways and habits of indians says breckenridge Cons considering dering the controversy which tins razed daei il for ac rs r s over the battle of sand creek when colonel chivington surprised and destroyed the camp of chief black kettle of the it la Is rather remarkable that P dismisses lis fits part in atis tt ls famous engagement with a few brief paragraphs perhaps tile the fact vint thih he has other and more stirring events to write about accounts for that for the next few years lie he was busy as a government freighter between army posts in wyoming colorado and nebraska and having many narrow escapes from death at tile hands of the indians next lie he became a builder of railroads working for his brother who had the contract for building the roadbed of the union whdeh was then pushing west through wyoming and lie he was present on oa historic occasion ben the central and the union lines met at promontory utah on slay may 10 and ami the golden spike was brhen to sig big the completion of 0 the first transcontinental railroad next up MC find fina young pilly in iftner in the ay iy of sen lien william J calinor af is it 11 surveyor for llie aal rio plo grande ahl h was then q A ji N 41 all picture P court cd pT HArr being built from denver to colorado springs it is also interesting to note that at one time he was a tourist arler in colorado springs and one of the pa passengers whom lie he drove from colorado springs to was a good looking young stranger lio ho began to tell me cihat ft hat a wonderful man his bis fattier fallier was how many railroads lie oada OA owned Dc what fine horses lie he hall had ty by the way I 1 said bald who Is your father lie ile spoke up with a good leal deal of cornelius vanderbilt lt I 1 told him I 1 had never heard of him and the more tile young fellow tried to tell me who ho lie he was the denser I 1 got till at last he realized that I 1 was kidding him film eventually he got a job with it freighting outfit which took him down into arizona and there in 1878 the career w aich was to make hlin him famous began after working for a thue giue as a freighter and su surveyor lie he finally landed funded in il then a small village and soon afterward was appointed a deputy sheriff ills first job was to arrest a murderer which lie he did without uny tiny trouble and locked him up in the town jail but while uie tile sheriff and his fits deputy were livere out of town a number of citizens met at the mill and formed a vigilance committee about ten that rooming the committee went to the jail and took two murderers out and hanged them to the cottonwood tree in front of the town hall they took two lumber wagons placed a board across the wagon box at the rear end and had the alie murderers tand on the board with the nooses around their necks and the other end of the rope fastened to the limb of the cottonwood tree the first man mail to be hanged banged either cither fainted or tile the noose was too tight ile he sank down on oil the rope end cud as there was very little slack his neck was not broken he just strangled the other man just as the team started to drive from under him jumped as high as he could and his neck was broken everything was very quiet when some one in the crowd spoke up tip wily why the son of a gun must of been hanged flanged before he knew just how to do ill it 1 in ia 1879 arrived lit in tombstone und and spent an unsuccessful season us aa i prospector of tombstone at that time he writes the interesting period in tombstone WM was durl during as the tall fall of 1879 and the early eighties in those few years tombstone was born a mining town lived a mining town and died a mining town like e all mining towns in their beginning money came cam women easy and went easy all kinds of men and nd women flocked there and it was soon a lively camp it li Is claimed by many that alfred henry le lewis w is who was wa in tombstone in later days getting material for or hla his story lory ville placed welt ville at tombstone and red dog at charleston the rich tombstone mines brought bad men from all parts parti of the west into the valleys valley of the san simon sulphur spring and san bodro rivers where stage robbers outlaws and cattle thieves found refuse refuge but for all of that tombstone was wag an orderly town what little killing wai wa done there was waa done among the lawless lawles element themselves this element was very much in the in minority and during the five years I 1 lived there I 1 never heard 0 of ft house bouse being robbed or anyone being hold held up in the city and it was waa perfectly safe for any lady or gentleman to puss pass along the streets day or night without belne being molested despite this picture of a peaceful village as painted by colonel hilly billy aich con contrast so favorably with the conditions in some of the larger cities of the present duy day the fact still remains that when the lawless element clement did do a a bit of killing among themselves tombstone was waa fur far from a quiet place for when colonel billy went to that town be could stroll down the only street in it and pass no iw less than forty men wlm who had the right to cut ono one or more notches on 00 their guns conspicuous them thein nere tile following all of whose hose names are camou i in frontier history lint bal lac doc the barp brothers wyatt virgil morgan unit und luke short till all of aln had alii on their spurs as bad men to fool with in the roaring days ot of dodge city john clingo I 1 ingo dave nagle cilly billy claybourn charlie storms frank leslie and dick dich lloyd in addition to the gunmen most of whom were gamblers the country was full of rustlers and stage robbers and when young billy Bre breaden ahen ridge was appointed a deputy sheriff by sheriff jolin john belian he be found that the business of bringing the law to the mesquite was one which offered innumerable chances for sudden death fo those ft iio ho attempted the job cut but if ever there was a man fitted for that job it was young billy BreaL enridge and the record which he matle made hs ha a peace officer Is one of the most remarkable la in frontier history lie ile did not make it with a blazing in six shooter for that was not his way lie ile got ills man invariably but he did it by peaceable means take the case of the man who stabbed and killed johnny lel lelar ar after johnny had refused to sell him another drink d and ordered him out 0 of ills saloon deputy was wag sent to bring in the murderer letter better take A posse they told him shucks not nol replied billy for as he be explains in his fits book 1 I never liked to take a posse with me most always alwa vs I 1 can handle things better myself so he set out alone found the murderer and told him lied hed better come along when the man failed to see it that way billy argued with him ahlm that it much good to walt and be chased all over the country and maybe die of starvation out on oil the de desert so the murderer walked peacefully to jail and deputy B billy illy got another man with no gunplay then there was the time when he wa was sent to collect the taxes on tile the personal property in the valleys and mountains east of tombstone tills this was in the very heart of the outlaws country and it was waa easy to guess that the rustlers stage robbers and others outside the law would not care particularly for paying taxes to support tile law which they consistently defied iut but billy way yes was to go straightway to curly bill the most notorious outlaw in that section of the country I 1 told him I 1 wanted to hire him to go with me am ai a deputy assessor aase sor and help me collect the taxes as I 1 wax was afraid I 1 might be held up and my tax money taken from me irne it if I 1 went alone the idea of my asking the chief of all the cattle rust larm in that part of the country to help me collect from them struck him as a good joko joke he thought it over for a few moments moment and then laughing said yes yea and we will make every one of those blink blank blank cow thieves pay his taxes next day we started etar tirl and he be led me into it a lot of mind blind canyons and hiding places where the rustlers had a lot of stolen mexican cattle and introduced me something like this boys this Is the county assef asses isor and I 1 am hig deputy we are arc all good law abiding citizens here her and we cannot run the country without no a pay taxes ile he know knew about how many cattle they each had and it they demurred or claimed they had no money lie he made them give roe me an order on tholar banker turner curly had many a hearty laugh about it ile he told thorn them that if any of thorn them mould hould get ett nr arrested rested it would bo be a good cooil thin thing for or them to show allow that they were taxpayers in the county the result was that and lila his deputy collected nearly dearly it thousand dollars la in tax money with which arrived safely in tombstone and he confesses confessed that he was ameli rel leed when I 1 did so several historians have told in detail of other oilier similar feats feals of ns As a deputy which aich for sheer coolheaded cool headed nerve are not excelled esrel led in western history but bill you ddll find no im tion of that in hla his book jou lilue ei i the lines of ills his straightforward modest ills is that it was all in the dais ible ike nil all line li eroes he was not siren given to lo herol coi llo ile did ali job jill slimly and be tells lella of 11 II in hit same ulu blies |