Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1870-02-01

and killed people for three or four years,
and then died with their boots on" as
they phrased it; that is, they killed them
selves = almost invariably - and they
never expected any other fate, and we're
! very seldom disappointed.
SIM Brown, of Nevada, killed sixteen
men in his time, and was journeying to-
ward Esmeralda to kill seventeenth,
who had stopped the breath of q friend
Of his, when a party of law-abiding cit
, izens waylsid him and slaughtered him
| with shotguns. Mourners were exceed
ingly scarce at his funeral. 1t is said
that Slm Brown called for drink at the
bar of the Slaughter House, in Carson
City, one morning IA saloon so nick
named because 80 many men had been
killed in it) and invited stranger up to
drink with him. The stranger said he
never drank, aud wished to be excused
By the custom of the country that was a
deadly insult, aud 30 Brown very prop.
erly shot him down. He left him lying
there and went away, warning everybody
| to let the body alone, because it was his
meat, he said. And it is said also that
he came back after awhile and made a
coffin and buried the man himself
though / never could quite believe that
without assistance.
Virginia City was full of despsradoes,
and some of the pleasaHtest newspaper
reporting | ever did was in those days,
because / reported the inQuests on the
entire lot of them, nearly. We had q
fresh one pretty much every morning.
Toward the last it was melancholy to see
how the material was running short
Those were halcyon days. l don't know
what halcyon days are, but that is the
proper expression to use in this connec-
ton, | believe.
Jack Williams was one of the luckiest
of the Virginia City desperadoes. He
killed good many men. he was kind
hearted man, and gave all his custom to
poor undertaken who was trying to get
along But by-snd-by somebody poked
double-barreled shotgun through q
fast, and riddled him at such rate that
there was hardly enough of him left to
hold an inquest on-and then the poor
unfortunate undertsker's best friend was
gone, and he had to take in his sign.
Thus be was stricken in the midst of his
prosperity aud his hsppiness-for he was
just on the point of getting married when
Jack Williams was taken away from him,
and of course he had to give it up then.
1t is said that the first twsnty-six
graves in the cemetery at Virginia City
were those of men who all died by the
b ullet And the first six in another of
IL ose towns contained the bodies of q
de sperado and five of his victims-and
the re in the bosom Of his family, made
dea to him by ties of blood, he calmly
slee ps unto this day.
Al the Rocky Ridge station in the
Rock Mountains, in the old days of
oyerl and stages aud pony expresses, !
had tlle gorgeous honor of breskfasting
with Mr. Slade, the prince of all the des-
pc radoes; who killed twenty-six men in
his time; who used to cut off his victims
ca rs, and send them as keepsakes to
th sir relatives; and who bound one of
his ictims, hand and foot, aud practiced
on him with his revolver for ho7rs to-
gethur-a proceeding which seems almost
mex, ,usable until we reflect that Rocky
Ridg is away off in the dull solitudes of
the n fountains, and the poor despersdoes
have hardly any amusements. Mr.. Slade
after ward went to Montana, and began
to thi n out the population as usual-for
he to, * a great interest in trimming the
censu and regulating the vote-but
finally the Vigilance Committee captured
him I'D hanged him, giving him just tt-
teen minutes TO prepare himself in. The
pap, ,rs say he cried on the scafeld.
T he Vigilance Committee is whole-
som regulator in the new countries, and
bad characters have lively dread OF IT.
In Mont ana one of these gentlemen was
plr,ced on bis mule, and informed that he
had preci.'ely fifteen minutes to leave the
country in. he said: "Gents, if this
mule don't balk, fve'll answer"
But that il sufficient about the despe-
radoes. / merely wished to make pass
ing mention of them as Californian
production.