Smyrna times., 1876-03-08
ms c eIIu21 e OuS.
Jack Myers.

Jack Myers and his crowd owned claim
IN the bed of the river, which they turned
and worked every summer; and this claim
covered the ground occupied by our copper
lode. They had been working all winter
In Garrote Flat, about eighteen miles dis.
tant, and coming down in the spring took
the copper fever severely, and finding we
were on part of their ground, laid claim
to such portion of our possessions. Iargued
that the two claims had nothing to do with
each other. Possession of any portion of
the river-bed implied possession only of the
gravel in it, and the discovery of any lode
of ore in the underlying rock, whether
above or below water, was as much entitled
TO 1t as though 1t were ten miles away.
Jack Myers was not an arguing man.
His first and last resort lay in his pistol.
he had always carried his points in this
way, and he had always found such pro-
cess quicker and cheaper than resort to the
complicated and costly machinery of court.
law and lawyers. He could not live com.
fortably without a fight every few months.
and when he failed to pick a quarrel with
any outsider, he would work off his COM
batlveness on one or other of his three asso-
eiates, who were completely under his con-
troll and influence, and who seemed to like
him all the better for an occasional beat.
ing.
Myers was thoroughly bad man. There
seemed no soft spot, no relieving quality in
his nature. His speech to others alternated
between a sneer and growl. He went
about always more or less under the infu-
enee of liquor, delighting in the dread his
presence inspired, for he was as dangerous
as tiger turned loose. Respectable men
slipped quietly out of the saloon when he
entered. People talked in low and sub
dued tones while he was by, for he fire.
quently criticised chance remarks, whether
coming from stranger or an acquaintance,
and made them the pretence for a quarrel. |
He shot Will Leffingwell while eating his
dinner in restaurant, having construed a |
few words of Wills, spoken that morning |
and reported to him by one of his officious |
toadies, into threat against himself. He !
put ball through Sam Boynton's knee
and lamed him for Lfe, because Sam re-
fused to drink with him. He had knitted !
man to death in Aurora, no man could
tell why or wherefore at the trial. These
were but moeity of his exploits, yet the law,
or what was called by that name, always
cleared him. He was as lucky at mining
as he was at shooting. He always could
and always did command the best legal
talent. Next to manning or killing fell
low-being, he liked being on trial for the
ofense on account of the notoriety it gave
him. His juries were always composed of
picked men, born and brought up in the
South and Southwest, who had carried
arms habitually from early boyhood, and
whose estimation of any man increased in
direct ratio TO the number of his victims.
Old Sam Mccullough, of Mississippi, was his
legal counsellor, great and successful
criminal lawyer and eccentric character;
IN appearance a realization of John Ran
lolph of Roanoke, tail and straight as an
Indian, with leather-colored complexion,
! glitering black eye, a shrill, squealxy voice;
who had never thoroughly read page of
Coke or Blackstone in his life, who was not
equal to the task Of drawing up the sim
plest legal document, and whose chief wea.
pom of argument lay in appealing to that
coarse and bloody sentiment which he
managed to concentrate in his jury-a
sentiment misnamed chivalry, but in re-
Ality behind the back murder. This old
gentleman would, ON looking over the list
Of jurors just previous to a murder trial,
remark in his sllrill voice to the clerk of !
The court II