Urbana union. [volume] (Urbana, Ohio) 1862-1872, 1869-05-19
THE HOLLOW OAK.
4 RED RIVER TRAGEDY.

IHE HULLUW YAK.
\ RED RIVER TRAGEDY.
AMONG the desperadoes who were
driven away from "Natchez-under-th
HILL when the Iaw-lOving and abiding
citizens awoke in their wrath and drove
the gamblers from their quarters-hang-
ing some, lyinching others, and setting
some adTift in the night time upon the
swift-rmning river, in a small and care
less bOat-was Tom Gafney, or as he was
better known among his cOmpeers by
the sObriqUet of "BloOdy Tom" from
his trade of butcher, his propensity for
fighting, and his free use of the knife.
The Just but stern vengeance that had
caused him to flee had also trumpeted
his fame so wildly that he found it a diff
ficult, if not unsafe matter to obtain
shelter in other cities. Even New Or
leans, the abode of vice in all its forms,
became too hot for him: and he was
glad to join a party of kindred spirits
and find a resting place upon the banks
of Red River.
The severe lessOn-we may look upon
it from the stand point of the present
with almost shuddering, but it was a
necessity of the times-they had receiv-
ed, held their laWless passions in check
for period, and with changed names
they might haveIled a changed life and
became good members of society had
they been so disposed. But the mania
for gaming, the love of debauchery, the
facility of obtaining money by the arts
of the cOunterfeiter, was too strong with
in them to be easily ObIiterated, and
very soon they dTifted back into the old
current. Still they did nothing openly.
Bad as was the generality of society,
there was a limit beyond which they
dared not go; and their meetings were
held in secret, and their worst actions
carefully screened.
This mode of living, however, was de-
spised and ridiculed by Tom Gafney.-
He had been accustomed to trouble all
his life, and to fighting his way out of
it. If he was Il bad man in every sense
of the word, he was still q brave one,
and he laughed to scOrn the efforts of
the other to keep their nefariOus prac-
tices from the eyes of the world. Be-
sides the memory of his sudden and
forced exit in Natchez still ranked with
in him, and the vow of revenge he had
sworn had never been either forgotten
or satisfied.
There was but one person in the world
that could check the torrent of his an
ger, could cool him in the least when
his Blood was at tOTrid heat. That was
his Wife-in name at least. While he
was a man above the usual stature, with
shoulders and muscle like a giant, and
neck like an OK, she was delicate in eX-
treme His hair was black as midnight
and cuTled closely, hers golden as the
oIO dc of mr.
ing in airy undulatiOns. His face was
sIyarthy almost as that of an Indian,
hers purely white as alabaster. If he
was the tornado when the brutal pas
siOns of his nature were aroused, she was
the calm that followed, and beneath the
soft touch of her petite hand, the reprOv-
ing gIances of her blue eyes, and the
magic of her IOw-tuned voice, his bet
ter feeling awOke for the time at least,
and his blOOd-stained hands were kept
from a deeper dye. Could she have been
ever by his side there might yet have
been a hope for him. But when absent
he threw off the power of her almost
sDfritual,infiuence, was the master mind,
and did deeds at which angels turned
weeping away.
But gamblers and thieves cannot live
long by rObbing each other. The vul-
ture must 90 beyond its own kind for
the poor pigeon that is to be plUcked,
and the Tefugeed, per force, from the
city on the Mississippi soon had to look
beyOnd their own circle for the means of
support and the qualification of their
animal appetites. 1t required both time
and means tO'pTepaTe or obtain quanti-
ty of counterfeit coin with which to de-
ceive the UnsuspiciOUs, and great care
was necessary to place in circulation a
sufficient quantity to render it a paying
investment. Live they must and would.
They had imbibed eXtravagant notions
were accustomed to live fast life in
every respect, and an amount that would
have been ample for their support for
year with iUdiciOus management was
worse than sqandered in a single night.
Whence, then, was the money to
come from?
Now and then, it is true, they could
'trOpe inn some planter who was re-
turning from Crescent City with the
proceeds of a few bales, or rob one Of
their own class who had fieeced a vic
tim in some other part of the country,
by means of private signals and marked
cards /; but these gains were uncertain,
and they very often were upon the bOT-
ders of want. And at such times, when
the suming fire Of a depraved and long
gratified appetite was raging fUriously
within-when their dress was becoming
shabby, and they saw no means of re-
plenishing their empty pOckets-the
question constantly arose. "Where was
the money to come frOm?" Work they
would not, petty thieving was beneath
them ! n large and bold robbery, even
though it should be cOnsumated at the
price Of murder, was the only plan they
could devise.
a few miles up the river from where
they had located themselves was an un-
usually large and well cultivated plan
tatiOn. The proprietor, Colonel Jardin,
was rich-nOt alone in stock and slaves,
and cotton and gold, but, more than all,
in the possession of a daughter who was
passing fair" The spies of the gang,
who owned Tom Gafney as chief, soon
found means to ascertain that the Col
onei had just returned home, bringing
with him large amount of money for
the purchase of another plantation, and
at once determined to relieve him of the
necessity of longer guarding so great n
treasure.
By some means, the news of the in
tended robbery reached the ears of the