Washington telegraph., 1854-08-30
From Dodge's Literary MuseumI
The urderer Frustr ated.
BY 4. SHARP sPIGH. U. s.. N

BY A SHARP SPIGH. u. s. N.
Travelling from Detroit to Marshall, Mich
igan, few years since, in the cars, the
seats for the time being occupied, we were
invited by the conductor to step into the la
dies saloon, where we found four gentlemen
already assembled. and judging by their pc
culiar expression, prophesied lively time
in our snug quarters-and we were not dis
appointed.
The first was a jolly, round, fat-faced, far
mer, who entertained US with anecdotes of
his farming life, and laughed heartily at his
own jokes from the commencement to their
close always winding up with
Capital wasn't it boys ?''
The second proved to be young man
acting as agent and collector for two or
three mercantile houses in New York city.
He was full of anecdotes of city life, and
could initiate 'Mose' equal to Chaufrau
himself
The third was the Captain of Missis-
sippi steamer going to the copper mines to
visit brother-in-law. He amused us with
tricks of slight-of-hand, telling fortunes with
cards, and with an account of two or three
desperate fights that he had participated in a
few years previous, while keeping hotel in
Arkansas.
The fourth and last, with the exception of
ourself. was a long. lank, dark-complexion-
ed, cadaverous-l looking man from Connecti-
cut, who was going to jackson, Michigan,
as he said, to sell tract of land that he
owned, about three miles from that village.
no i
though he had none of the dialect that many
Western people suppose to be peculiar to
all coming troHl New England never smiled
once during the entire route. He listened
apparently with much interest to the stories
related, and particularly to the captains ac-
count Of his desperate fights in the South
but not a story, sentiment or smile could
We get in return.
Finding that he particularly admired sto-
ries Of bloody and desperate character,
where one or more of the persons introduc-
ed was killed outright, or slowly tortur-
ed to death after the most approved rules of
barbarity, we related to him a description
OF mutiny that we once witnessed in the
Pacific, where fourteen persons were beaten
to death with marlin spikes, crowbars, and
parts Of old cutlasses and the captain was
strung up at the yard-arm and choked to
death with his own handkerchief.
A cold chill ran over the frames of three
of our listeners as we finished our tale.
but the Yankee, for the first time during
the interview. expressed pleasure, by ex-
claiming:
Good very good There was chance
for man to show his clear grit. Ah.I.
could have cut down those mutineers with
as much pleasure as so many scrub-oaks s.
By the way, gentlemen, speaking of scrub
oaks reminds me that there is a good deal
of that timber on my farm near Jackson. and
though it may be very common to you, the
first time that | ever saw anything Of the
kind was in 1885, when | came out into
this State to buy tract of land of Govern
ment
"There were neither Railroads nor turn
pixies then, gentlemen, in this part of I'm
Gle Sans dominion, and travellers had to
journey on horseback Murder and rob
berries were as plenty as blackberries, and
traveller in Michigan without a brace of
pistols and sixteen-inch bowie-knife was as
bad off as Frenchman in Italy without
passport"
Did you travel through this State that
year % we inquired, hoping to get a story
out of him
"Yes, " he laconically replied.
Were you always armed - was asked
Most always" said he
why not always, if 1t was so danger
Gus Q?
Il never entered the woods unarmed -
he exclaimed, his face assuming a fiercer
expression, 'but if it will not be too tedious
to you, I'll relate how once lost my arms
in the woods. and the unfortunate incl
dents which proved the result of that ac-
cident''
Relate it, by all means" each cxclaim-
ed in breath,
"Well, then, in 1885 left the small vii
lage of Detroit, armed to the teeth, with
view of buying on speculation few tracts
OF land Of Government, in the section of
country where jackson now stands. [ had
been told that the land in that section was
remarkably fertile, and the location favora-
bic for future cities.
Il was informed in Detroit that two spec
ulators preceded me about four weeks, and
that neither Of them had since been heard
from, though the wife of one of them was
then in the village. almost frantic at the
long absence and silence of her husband
believing him. as did my intormers to have
been brutally murdered at some of the wild
huts where travellers were compelled to seek
1or shelter and refreshments while passing
through that desolate and unfrequented re-
gion.
Nothing daunted, however, I carefully
pnmed my rife and brace of pistols, felt Of
the keen edge of my bowie-knife, seated