Jamestown weekly alert. [volume] (Jamestown, Stutsman County, D.T. [N.D.]) 1882-1925, 1884-06-27

On the principle that desperate cases
require desperate remedies the pioneers
up toward the Mouse river country are
applying the rope to horse thieves with
an energy that may be called enterprls-
ing This week the horse thief census
was depleted five in number by the lynch
ing process and there is no show Of ex-
haustion or of being weary of well dong
on the part of those who pull the long end
of the rope. The pioneers of the Wild
prairies up in that section have been ha-
rassed by waking up in the morning and
finding their teams sto len, IN many cases
in the midst of Sc edlng, and they have
combined together for mutual protection
from such annoyances by elevating the
desperadoes who engage IN the nefarlous
business above such a calling. They are
firm believers in the influence of long
rope and short shift, or at least IN its re-
straining influence, and are prosecuting
the missionary work with the zeal of con.
tirmed faith.
The people up there, however, show .
regard for the forms Of law. In the case
of the horse thief, Jacob O'Neil, who was
found dangling from telegraph pole IN
Mclean county, a coroner's inquest was
held and after due inquiry into the cause
of the unfortunate mans death the jury
gave it as their deliberate judgment and
legal verdict that the deceased came TO
ais death by suicide, he having IN fit Of
mental alteration ridden under the cross
piece on the telegraph pole, thrown the
rope over it, fastened the other end about
his neck in the most approved hangman's
style and then spurred the horse out from
under him leaving him, like Absslom,
suspended between heaven and earth; or,
in western parlance, staining on nothing
and looking UP rope. This may have q
tendency to discourage the immigration
of down east horse thieves but it gives
additional security to the honest pioneer
who is trying to make home IN the far
northwest. Midnight dealers in other
peoples horses may as we'll take notice
that Dakota ls not paradise for such
characters, but with them 1t is a short
route with excursion rates to the happy
hunting grounds, telegraph poles supply
ing the lack of trees for hanging pur-
poses. The absence of trees shows that
nature never designed this country as the
habltation Of hose who pursue the bust
ness of equine larceny but happily the
en.erprislng telegraph company by set
ting poles in the treeless plain affords am
pie accommodations for them when they
invade our territory.
However much lynch law is to be dep
recated it must be remembered that these
isolated settlers are beyond the 1mmedl-
ate protection of the law of the land and
of necessity must fall back upon the first
law of nature, which Is self-p, otection.
Their teams are their means of obtaining
subsistence and when they are stolen the
pioneer Is left almost destitute. 1t is not
to be expected under such circumstances
miles to notify officers of the law that his
team had been stolen several days before,
but it is rather to be expected that he
would call upon his neighbors to JOIN HIM
in pursuit of the thief and hang him on
sight, and such summary treatment Of
horse thieves as that reported from the
Mouse river country will have more
salutary influence than to I'LL the peniten.
fiary with snch chapacfers