St. Landry democrat., 1879-08-16
LEADVILLE.
Life and Incidents tn That Fl0urlahins

Life and Incidents in That Flourlahini
! Town.
LeadviIle letter to the N. Y. He aid
The excitement of the hour is the killing
OF Jacob NJ. Grier by F. M. Ritchie
Grler was the barkeeper of the merchants
restaurant, man universally popular
lie may still be remembered by some al
the east as the railway engineer who
several years ago, while hauling an ex
press train over the Pennsylvania road
at the rate of forty miles an hour, saw 8
little girl on the track before him. rapidly
craWled upon the cowcatcher and caught
her in time to save her life. F. NJ.
Kltchie, barkeeper from Arkansas, had
bought an interest in the Merchants
saloon, but had failed to come to final
understanding with Ellis, the proprietor,
VINO ordered him to be excluded from
the place. On Friday evening Ritchie
came to the saloon and was prevented
from going behind the counter by Grier,
who was in charge. 1t was about eight
O'Clock, ard at that hour the broad
avenue On which the saloon stands is full
OF men, partly miners returned from
their prospect holes and partly new
comers just emptied from the stages. A
crowd OF these were standing around the
door when the two men. Grier and
Ritehie, speaking loudly and gesticulat.
ing, appeared on the threshold. In
Leadville q difficulty" is pretty we'll
understood, and it is pretty well under
stood, too that it generally takes the
form Of lead. So the crowd began to
scatter. In an instant shots were heard
some witnesses say two, some three-and
Grier's dead body was seen on the side
walk. The physicians testify that he
was shot twice tt rough the chest and
died in ten seconds. A jury was sum-
moned on the following day and found
verdict OF Willful and felonious murder
against Ritchie, and he will (probably?)
be duly tried. His defense is that Grier
struck him with his fist and then fred
at him in the street; that he only used
his pistol in self-detense. But Grier's
popularity leaves him few apo!ogists in
this town. People are getting sick of
all this brutality and violence and fraud
and debauchery of sll kinds. It is only
the other day that man was shot dead
for claiming town lot, and another,
mining contractor, met the same fate
from laborer who claimed to be paid
off on Wednesday instead of Saturday.
AS to robberies, they are of daily occur
renee. Every night some lonely way.
farer is requested to "hold up bis hands,
by two or three bunkos with revolvers
in close proximity to his nose, and pun.
ishment hardly ever follows the offense.
In the rare instances in which arrests are
made the bunko's contederates are always
on hand to prove sn alibi. 4 local news.
paper desiring to glorify the town states
n a recent article tha "tbough it is
scarcely two years since the first building
was put up here, it now contains-beer
halls, 10; saloons, 120 gambling houses,
118; houses of prostitution, 35. This is
a pretty showing, but the line Of argu-
ment by which it is made t, crafty any
citizens pride is not easily followed.
We have imported our vices from, the
west az we'll as the east. One institution
known as opium club halls-has been
borrowed from San Francisco. The
main object of the club is, of course, the
smoking OF opium. But the deleterious
charms of the drug are heightened by
the presence of female society, and the
meetings of the club are held in rooms
closely shut up and heated to such AN
extent that clothing is unbearable. Here
scores of creatures spend their days and
nights in semi-stupor, unconscious of
everything but the dreamy, sensuous
languor which De Quincy so graphically
describes. No policeman can enter there,
unless, indeed, be desires membership in
the club and has money enough to pay
his share of the cost. But public rumor
is much at fault it on the list OF members
you could not find some of the leading
lawyers and mine owners
Life is very hard here. The climate is
exceedingly trying; it SHOWS every
month in the year. Few men have their
wives with them. Hence the inordinate
number and vast variety of resorts
devoted to what is called pleasure.