National Republican., 1883-02-23
.1nuN o,s. MEAKNEss.
He Wrote a Great Speech and Killed n
Man with It.


Had you looked through camp you would
have discovered that every minor had his
weakness. In some It was whisky, in others
old slcdge in others lying and boasting, and
so on clear around. A few were lazy, a few
more were too fond of argument, and the
weakness of Elder Watkins, in particular,
was reading the Testament too much
which is to remark that one may be too
good in this world
Among the othor weaknesses which cropped
out in our camp on Grizzly creek that winter
was tho weakness of John Q. Baker,
Mr.. Baker had spent years in inventng q
great speech. He had brought the pieces to-
gether ut different times, as If they had been
parts of n moving machine, and the work of
setting up tightening the bolts, grcasing the
bearings and hitchiug on the horses was all
done that winter
1t was q great speech.
II began with tho landing Of the Pilgrims
and didn't end at any particular epoch.
1t was religious, political social, statistical
philosophical, valuable, and interesting, and
every respectable family ought to have had u
copy.
When the speech was finished and polished
and ready for delivery its inventor suggested
that we take n holiday and hear 1t. The sug.
geston was not seconded. We were working
hard to make an average of ninety cents per
day, and no one felt like losing time to hear q
speech.
Then John Q, took his speech under his arm
aud walked over TO Turkey Bend TO find an
audience, but the mayor of the camp gave him
five minutes in which TO get out of shooting
range. lie then tried the camp up the Little
Trail, and there he was actually shot at. He
returned to camp somewhat discouraged.
IL aa
chokcd of must feel rather uncomfortable.
Indeed, IL is not serving him just right, aud
no one can blame him for asserting that the
spirit of tho country is dcgcneratng.
When John q. discovered that the fruits of
his toll were not appreciated he went about
like u man who had taken n solemn vow to
bde his time and get even in the end. That
was where his head was level. Had he raised
any row over our want of appreciation he
would have been tossed into the creek, fol-
lowed by his great American speech and other
personal traps
Ono day the boys over in the Bend had
hanging bee and invited us to come DOM
and sec u chap swing for his crimes. The in
vitation was accepted by all but two of our
crowd. Elder Watkins was sick and couldn't
go, and John q. Baker was mad aud didn't
want TO. II was therefore arranged that he
should remain to care for the elder, pro.
ceeding to which he agreed with wonderful
checrfulness.
Little did we suspect the fendish purposes
of his heart
We left our camp at noon, reached tho Bend
an hour later, and as the man who was to
hang had n long confession to make, and did
not have good command of Language, we did
not return until about 8.
Had anything happened? You can bet
your last dollar there had
Nearly mile away VIC heard the voice of
John q. Baker pitched at its highest key, and
occasionally caught up such words as wash
ington," Independence" "Magna Charta
and GLORIOUS country"
As we drew near we discovered him on q
rock beside Elder Watkins's shOnty, that
great speech in his left hand and his right
slashing through the air. He had then been
speaking for four hours, and he had only come
down to the war of 1912.
We made rush for him. and at the same
moment made the discovery that Elder Wat
kins was stone dead in his bed Beside him
lay piece of paper and Il pencil and in u
trembling hand he had written:
John q. Baker has killed Inc with his
great speech. He has been going for three
hours now, and feel that another ten min
utes will finish me. Please hang or drown
him in revenge for this coldbOodcd murder"
The great American speaker was still de-
livering his great American speech when We
rushed for him. 1t was miracle how he
escaped all those bullets, and 1t is still
stranger how he outran the ileeteSt of the
crowd, but he actually got away and carried
his speech with him. II ought TO have been
great moral warning to John q. Baker, but
it wasn't. He brought up in camp sixteen
miles away and resumed his speech just where
we had interrupted it, and they suspected
him of being NJ ormon missionary and hung