Port Royal commercial and Beaufort County Republican. [volume] (Port Royal, S.C.) 1873-1874, 1873-12-18
DEATH IN THE EYE.

DEATH IN 1hE E1E.
Colonel Bill Borlin was the general
isSimo 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 fired-a mark
he had never once misseG-while such
was his astonishing quickness that his
antagonists usually fell without pulling
trigger. An enemy stood 10 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, &end in courage. His BIZ
ography in itself was more thrilling
than a novel, wilder than the widest
romance; and the very first act of his
dreadful daring revealed, in all their
force and fuilness, the two essential ele-
ments of his characteristic ferocious
arIor of his appetite for revenge, and
Che iron pertinacity of his indomitable
will. At the age Of twenty he pursued
the assassin of mis- 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
fol to him-while each week witnessed
the occurrence of casual affrays, often
as 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
frierds of those he had vanquished III
fsir fight assaulted him, from motives
of revenge. The fame of his prowess
provoked the vain jealousy of others.
he had acqnired the perilous reputation
of a matchless hero-lhe ardent, the
desperate. the ambitious would win, If
possible, his laurels. Every young
Hercules longed to kill the lion, SO as
to clcthe himself in his skin, and thus
was Borlin forced to maintain an in
terminahle war. 1t is so in all profess
sions. There can be no peace in high
places-storm, hail, and thunder must
break around tLe mountains brow.
This dueliSt was one of the earliest i'll
Eastern Texas, where he became the
chief of the Lynching party. In his
own county of Harrison, he possessed
boundless influence indeed, he would
not suffer foe to reside within its
limits. Hence, he might have openly
deiied the officers of the law, had such
been his pleasure but his shrewd and
aI.seeing sagaci!y adopted a wiser and
safer course. After pcrpetrating any
homicide, he invariably submitted his
own case to the grand jury, sure of a
triumphant acquittal by his friends on
trial and thus, should public senti-
ment ever turn against him in the fu-
turc, he would be enabled to plead eff
fectual verdicts in bar of all past Of
fences.
At length the time arrived which the
colonel had so long anticipated. A
wealthy and intelligent class OF citizens
began to change the current of opinion
in Harrison, so that in the county cleo
ton the friends of order, by slight
majority, gained their candidate for
sheriff. This was q terrible blow to the
Lynchers, as it deprived them OF their
secure vantage ground in packing Ju-
ries; and to increase their danger, at
this unpropitious crisis, q new Judge
was also appointed. The old faction,
however, did not despair. They were
still numerous, thoroughly armed, des-
peradoes to man, and determined, at
the first court, to muster all their
strength, so as to control and overawe
the proceedings.
At nine o'clock in the morning OF the
second Monday in September, 1872, the
new Judge took his seat Oh the bench.
He was stranger from the west, whose
name alone had transpired, and whose
appearance, at first, inspired the des.
peradoes with hope, and the friends of
order with doubt and painful apprehen-
sion.
Charles Evans was young man Of
thirty-two-tall, slender, extremely
handsome, and dressed with the most
fnical taste-his fingers flashing with
rings, and his person adorned in the