Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1873-12-06
DEATH IN THE EYE.

DEATH IN 1HE ElEs
Colonel Bill Borlin was the general
isSinao of the Texan Lynchers in the
early history of that State. He well
deserved the title which he had won by
many desperate deed. He possessed
such incredible skill in the use of all
sorts of murderous weapons, that it
might be pronounced virtual suicide to
even think of encountering him, SO
rapid was his motion, so unerring his
mortal aim. The terrible cognomen
"Death in the Eye" told truly the
& mark at which he always fred-a mark
he had never once misseG-while such
was his astonishing quickness that his
antagonists usually fell without pulling
trigger. An enemy stood no better
chance by resorting to the sword or the
bowie-knife, against one in whose hands
the flash of steel was like lightning
as swift, as mighty to slay-one who
appeared to surpass all other men as
much in strength as in activity-a giant
in stature, fiend in courage. His bi-
ography in itself was more thrilling
than novel, wilder than the widest
romance and the very first act of his
dreadful daring revealed, in all their
force and fullness, the two essential ele-
ments of his character-the ferocious
ardor of his appetite for revenge, and
the iron pertinacity of his indomitable
will. At the age of twenty he pursued
the assassin of his brother all the way
from Carolina to Canada, and shot him
dead at the dinner table of tavern in
Quebec; yet such had been the cum
ming of his previous arrangements for
the event, that aided by numerous re-
lays of swift horses, he effected his
escape safely to the South. The
achievement cost him ten thousand
dollars.
From this time forward his life was
one long war. Almost every month in
the year saw him engaged in some fatal
~ duel-fatal only to others, never hurt
full to him-while each week witnessed
the occurrence of casual afrays, often
hs bloody as his more regular combats.
He was the Napoleon of the knife and
pistol. But the truth of impartial his
tory cOmpels me to record, that this
man, so fearful in his deeds, whose
right arm reeked with gore to the ell
bow, was not commonly the aggressor
in his countless quarrels. Often the
friends of those he had vanquished in
fair fight assaulted him, from motives
pf revenge. The fame of his prowess
provoked the vain jealousy of Others
He had acquired the perilous reputation
bf matchless hero-the ardent, the
desperate, the ambitious would win, if
possible, his laurels. Every young
Hercules longed to kill the lion, so as
20 clothe himself in his skin, and thus
was Berlin forced to maintain an in
terminable war. 1t is so in all profess
Bions. There can be no peace in high
places-storm, hail, and thunder must
break around the mountains brow.
This duelist was one of the earliest in
Eastern Texas, where he became the
Fhief of the Lynching party. In his
bwn county of Harrison, he possessed
Doundless influence ; indeed, he would
bot suffer foe to reside within its
limits. Hence, he might have openly
lefied the officers of the law, had such
peen his pleasure but his shrewd and
seeing sagacity adopted wiser and
|afer course. After perpetrating any
homicide, he invariably submitted his
Pwn case to the grand jury, sure of a
triumphant acquittal by his friends on
rial and thus, should public senti-
& nent ever turn against him in the fu-
ure, he would be enabled to plead eff
ectual verdicts in bar of all past Of
ences.
At length the time arrived which the
bolonel had so long anticipated. A
Wealthy and intelligent class of citizens
+ began to change the current of opinion
n Harrison, SO that in the county elec-
ion the friends of order, by slight
majority, gained their candidate for
heriff. This was terrible blow to the
Iynchers, as it deprived them of their
ecure vantage ground in packing jul
hes; and to increase their danger, at
his unpropltious crisis, new Judge
gas also appointed. The old faction,
owever, did not despair. They were
till numerous, thoroughly armed, des-
,eradoes to man, and determined, at
he first court, to muster all their
trength, so as to control and overawe
he proceedings. r. .
At nine o'clock in the morning of the
econd Monday in September, 1842, the
ew Judge took his seat on the bench.
Ie was stranger from the west, whose
anne alone had transpired, and whose
appearance, at first, inspired the des.
|eradoes with hope, and the friends Of
rider with doubt and painful apprehen
ion.
a Charles Evans was q young man oi
hirty-two-tall, slender, extremely
handsome, and dressed with the mos
nical taste--his fingers flashing will
ings, and his person adorned in ths