The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1877-12-05
A BLACK HILLS HANGING.
How Thomas Y. Shoals Came to
a Premature End.

Ou dCCOunG vi laCh Vi bllnO aAu q DLt
of sentiment, till the morals of our
small town mad at last become as
bad as those of Chicago.
Thomas Y. Shoals, who had friends
at Green Bay, Wis, and who has
been in Nevada himself for some
years past, entered our town about
ten days ago. He was whisky
drinking trouble-making rough. He
brought several gambling devices
with him to ''wax" our hard.wcrking
people out of their dust. and he
hadn't been in camp more than two
days when most of his bad points
came out. At the end of five days
he was ordered to leave, but he bold
Iy refused to obey the warning.
Thereupe,R, on the morning of the
sixth day, he was waited upon by
ten revolvers, backed by ten men,
aud was notified that fifteen minutes.
city hall time, would be given him
to get beyond shooting distance. He
got. No one cared what became of
him or whittier he went, and as he
passed from sight no one expected
to see him again. According to rule,
we confscated all his personal pro-
perty except a mule, and mule and
man went away together. Some
where outside ofcamp Shoals he fell
in with some Texans who were ''on
the make and as ugly as himself,
and the gang entered our camp, arm
ed to the teeth, two days after Shoals
left it.
The four lambs came in on gal
Iop, whoopiug and yelling, and as
they halted on the public square,
Shoals sang out:
"Trot out my goods, you white
livered dust-diggers, or we'll cut
every throat in camp"
That meant US you see. Some
were digging some washing. and
some underground, and while we
we're waking up to the situation, one
of the Texans put in:
Hurry up, now, for it is all we
kin do to hold on to the triggers of
these shooters !"
And another yelled:
Somebody hold me. for I'm the
worst catamount this side of Mexi-
co!'
Our old boss didn't like their style
for one. He was fitting new ham
die to a pick. and was at the door of
shanty No. 8 when they rode up.
Reaching into the house for his two
revolyers, he rose up and walked out
upon the gang just as the rest of us
we're making a rush for our shoot
ers.
"There's the old devil-kill him, ,"
yelled Shoals, and the four a. once
began firing. 1t was case of the
Lord being on the side of the upright
and innocent. They all had got a
shot in before the old man was ready
for business. He put his first bullet
between one of the Texans two eyes.
his second into another's shoulder,
and by that time we were all pegging
away. How on earth fifty or sixty
bullets could be fred at close range,
and only one man killed and another
wounded, is a conundrum for mathe-
maticians. The dead man fell in
heap, Shoals was dismounted, and
the other two got out of camp under
cover of the smoke, one of them cer-
tainly hit in the shoulder. We pur-
sued them on foot for half q mile,
and the wounded one had hard work
to keep his saddle. Not a miner
had been hurt, but nearly dozen OF
them had bullet holes through hats
and clothing. and camp kettle was
struck no less than four times.
After dinner the men gathered, and
Shoals was put on trial. 1t had been
necessary to bind him hand and foot,
and when he was brought out and
laid on the grass his fury rose to the
highest pitch. He cursed everybody
and everything, and uttered threats
that made some of the men grow
pale. When asked if he did not
know the penalty attached to such
conduct as his, he cried out:
"Pll dare you to harm one hair of
nv head You are set of towards
"a pack of coyotes--a gang of white
faced babies -
1t was our busy day, and we
couldn't fool away any time. A
noosed rope was thrown over limb,
the free end manned, and when the
moose had been passed over the fel.
lows head he was asked if he wan
ted to leave any message for his
friends.
"I want to tell you this" he hiss
ed, as lis snakish eyes looked from
face to face. "if you hang me my
friends will dig the heart out of every
one of the crowd u
He might have gone off decently
and perhaps added something origi-
nalto the literature Of the last words.
but he refused the chance. His feet
were united. and he was lifted up.
4 Ia.