The weekly herald. [volume] (Cleveland, Tenn.) 1876-1888, 1878-05-23
How Joe Weakened.

Little Bear Paw Mountain, which
catches a great flood of sunshine at
monday, We had a village. Sixty
strong and sturdy men were digging
into the base Of the black-topped noun
tain In search Of silver.
We were not In luck, and though
each man was gloomy and discouraged,
there was no excuse for murder. We
had banded together to share and share
alike, and If fortune smiled on one all
would receive benefits.
One night when the days toll 0 ffifty-
seyen men yielded an estimate Of only
So, the miners cursed and swOre and
felt like striking each other. We were
short Of provisions, new tools were
needed, and the men turned In for the
night with a determination to strike for
some other locality If the next days
work should exhibit like barren results.
At midnight there was a great out
cry. 1t was not an Indian attack, as
each miner anticipated when he rushed
out, but a horrible murder had been
committed, and The murderer captured
by one of the sentinels. A miner named
Joseph Swain, but hardly known in
camp by any other name than "JOe,"
occupied a tent in company with an old
man named Arnold. The two were on
good terms, but while Arnold had
about $500 in gold coin, acquired in
other speculatiOns, Swain hadn't adOl-
lar outside the common fund. The gold
was buried in the earth under the bed
OH which the two slept, and Swain
could not get at it by night without
arousing his companion. Had he Sc
cured it during the day and made off
quickly, and his punishment nothing
less than hanging. Itcould be no more
if he added murder to the robbery, and
that night, when we all felt so bitter
against luck, and when partners felt so
much like striking each other, Joe
Swain murdered the man who had done
so much for him. He was getting away
with the gold when halted, and though
he made a sharp fight for liberty he was
tied hand foot within five minutes after
the first alarm.
Arnold was dead, stabbed in three or
four places, and the gold was found in
JOe's belt. There was ne show for the
murderer. He could not even plead
impulse or heat of passion. Indeed he
was not the one to avoid consequences.
He made a statement to the effect that
he had deliberately murdered and rob
bed the good old man, and added:
"Now, boys, there's no use of a great
fuss we this matter. Put a guard over
me, and the rest of you go back to your
sleep. You'll hang me, of course, and
when morning comes | shall have a re-
quest to make. l shan'ttry to get away,
and | am not going to play the baby
when the last hour comes"
Joe Swain was known among us as a
game man. He had fought Mexicans,
trailed Indians and killed three or four
white ruffians who had made them
selves a terror to certain localities.
Armed with his bOwie-knife he would
have been a match for any four of us,
and it was owing to his presence more
than that of any one else tat our village
was not troubled with the roughsN and
gamblers who attach themselves like
leeches to other camps.
Murder was a crime that could not be
palliated in a mining camp. Had it
been anything else the majority of the
men would Lave been in favor OF let
ting Joe jump the diggings and go I'M
punished. But when they looked in on
the white-faced and blood-stained
corpse of the good old man who had
been like a father to all of them, each
heart hardened against the murderer,
and each man said to the other:
"Joe Swain must hang for this !"
There was no need of a trial. When
he was brought out after breakfast, he
said
"Boys, | don't want any fuss ovcr
this thing, l killed the old man, and it
is your duty to swing me up to a limb.
| knew what | was up to, and l knew
I'd have to stretch a rope If | couldn't
get away. | don't deserve a kind word
and l sha'nt look for any sympathy.
The request that | wantto make is that
you won't hang me till sunset. / know
1t is bad to have one of these affairs
hanging around the camp all day, but
yet it won'tmake no great difference to
you as long as your working for almost
nothing. Now then all in favor of
waiting till sunset to hang me say
ayeu"
"Ayew shouted every man around
him.
"'Those opposed will say mol"
Not a voice was heard.
1.-The ayes have it, and l am to be
hung at shutdown" continued Joe. 81
want to write half n dozen letters sleep
for two or three hours and | hope you
won't crowd in on me-. Select your tree,
get your ROPE ready and when the time
comes I'll be on hand"
If Joe had been captive in the hands
of the Indians, and was to be burned at
the stake at shutdown, every miner
would have wagered his outfit that Joe
would have died game. In this case,
where he was to meet a disgraceful
death at the hands ofthe men who had
worked and fought beside him for
months, most of the miners thought
he'd take the moose without the nniYer