The Tombstone epitaph., 1882-03-06
THE sAZNrcAC LINING CLUE
 OETDONE.

any one who would be deterred from coming here would not make de- sirable citizen if he were to come:
 James A. Riboon, formerly clerk with firm in this city, returned from Arizona Wednesday, where he has been engaged in store for nearly d year. He is fully convinced that Stockton has several points of supe- riority over Tombstone, and wouldn't go there again for double the salary that he can command here. He seems to be fully satisfied that he missed it by going away, ard said in substance, yesterday, while talking with party of friends:
 "The country is awful dry. scorch- ing and dreadfully overrated. A fellow can't wink without paying ten cents, and you have to pay a dollar for twenty. five cent dinner. I had two dollars when 1 got to Tombstone, and went without my supper to save one of 'em. They named the place Tombstone because when Jim the "Heart Sticker" got killed the boys got up,a subscrip- tion and got marble tombstone and stuck it up over the "Heart Stick. CTS" lone grave, for he was very popular. Then they named the place Tombstone. It is battered up'now. They use it as mark to fire at when they practice with their pistols. 1 thought it would fall down and be- come roasted cannibal food that first day It was so hot. The sun is only twenty or thirty miles from Arizona, Id the crust is mighty thin between it and the other place When it be- came dark roamed around from saloon to saloon ,ry:ccS1 to find some place, out of the way of builas. md scorpions and rattlesnakes, where l could sit down and sleep, so as to save the other dollar. l got so tired a bout two o'clock in the morning that 1 was forced to pay half of my capital for a canvass bunk and dead n ans blanket. The man didn't die o: small -pox, so it was all right using h s blanket. He was only shot through the liver two or three days b sfore. All men down there who d on't starve to death get shot through the liver. My boudoir was about six feet square in the back part of. big saloon. The floor was all covered with cards, and old demi- johns, and rusty pistols, and knives with dried blood on lem, and there was no door or window out the back way. took off my clothes and hld my dollar under the pillow made out of grass, and pulled the dead mans blanket me and tried to go to sleep. But couldn't. l kept think ing of Stockton and the nuys and' pretty girls here, and wishing l was home, and all the time the COW boys and forty or fifty other roughs made an awful noise, and I thought rat. tlesnake crawled in through big knot hole, and centipede was crawl. ing over my right foot and tickling it with more'n million legs. All at once there was an awful noise in ti.e saloon, and l looked ont of the door, and three or four pistols went off and a man feil dead with his hand on his liver, and said "Oh, Lord, Pm shot," and 1 kinder went back and got under the bunk to see if my dol lar had dropped on the floor. l swooned away as soon as l got there, on account of heart trou- ble. crawled out about nine in the morning, and went to a restaurant and big, dirty-looking man asked me what I would have and l said a"porterhouse steak, boil ed eggs, dry toast and black coffee. " He made some kind of mean re- mark and went into the kitchen and in about a minute came back with a big plate of hash, and as he set it down, said: Eat that, young feller He had rusty knife in his ha3d, and l said, certainly; meant to call for hash, for l always eat it, and 'jidn't know they kept hash in Tombstone l was nearly starved, and was just go. ing to commence eating, when a rough man rode up in front of the restaurant on horseback, and drew his pistol, which was ahout tw O feet long, and fired right through the window at the restaurant man. He glared his eyes around and gaSped and fell down on the floor, sort of Timber, and studied over the matter a second or two, and concluded l would wait until four o'clock, nv regular dinner hour, before ate any thing, and then go in for twu plat E of hash, and have regular feast, St, l went out. l needed exercise, as l was not feeling vciy well, so cpil. cluded to take walk to hill about three miles from town and gaze on the scenery, and ascertain which way Stockton was from Tombstone"
 Mir. RiboOn was listened to with marked attention by his friends, es. pecially those who are contemplating leaving here for Arizona.
 Murder Near Mesa City.