Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, D.T. [N.D.]) 1878-1884, 1884-02-01
JACK DUNN.
KILLED
August 10, 1872.
Aged SO Years.

set forth for the spot. To our surprise
we found that nearly every board bore an
epitaph-a novelty in western graveyard. Al
most the first one we came to stood silently up
above the unobtrusive remains below, with this
verse engraved With jack-knife in rough char
acters below the inscription:
HE squared himself and pulled his pop,
Like lightning, but before he
Gould pull it off Jim got the drop
And candy went to glory"
This tells the whole story in few words. A
little further along we find q temperance lecture
of mute but forcible eloquence in these roughly
carved lines:
"Here lies stiff named Aleck Drum,
Who spent his time in drinking rum.
As gamey fight was never fit,
But rum possessed the winnin' grit,
An he left the world with delirium shakes,
An body guard of sociable snakes"
Immediately by the side of this poor victim
lay gambler-at least his epitaph would lead
to that inference. The verse had been painted
on the board and bore the scars of contest of
several years with storms and dust yet We man
aged to decipher it:
mo sport in all this mountain land
That ever mixed pack
Could sit and play the winnin' hand,
Forniust old Monte Jack,
But death in some way slipped the cut,
Or played some hOOdoO trick,
An bucked agin the boy an put
Him in the hole too quick"
A few rods away an almost indistinct grave
was found in a neglected state, the board rotted
off and lying upon its side. We picked it up,
and with difficulty deciphered the following:
HE bummed his food and bummed his drink,
And bummed bed to sleep in;
We almost looked to see him rise
And bum grave to creep in;
And ten to one he bummed his way
Into the land Of summer,
And bummed a harp on which to play
His tune: the jolly Bummer.'
Far over to the eastward side of this strange
cemetery we came upon neat white board
standing over grave which showed some evi-
dences of care. To protect it from tie ravages
of storms covering of stones had been placed
had engraved the following:
"When Kitty Dean was dying
The summer winds were eighing
mournful song of sorrow through the camp;
She was the only human
In the form of lovely woman
That ever to these frontier wilds did tramp.
She was always gay and frisky
When her hide was full Of whisky,
Of which no fonder person could be found,
Which is why she died q screamin'
With tremen after tremen,
And which is why we slid her under ground"
In remote portion of the enclosure We found
seven graves in . group. over which stood one
large board bearing the names of the silent
dead and the information that they quit the
world in row at the "Nugget Sample Reom,' -
noted saloon and gambling house. The verse
following the inscription is to the point:
"The way the playful pistols popped
Was fearful fur to see,
And as each punctured victim Topped
The mob yelled fendishly,
And when the smoke had cleared away
The cleanup showed that seven
Brave boys had made a sudden play
For bunkin' place in heaven"
We started to move again toward the town,
and Just before reaching the limit of the ceme-
terry paused to read this unique epitaph:
'The Teller we slid outen sight right here,
Was kicker worse ner Texas steer;
No matter wat cum before op Dick,
He war bound to chip in with his chronic kick.
Was brought to his notice he'd kick on the spot,
And cen with his latest expirin' breath
He war kickin' like fury agin Of Death.
He kicked when we"
We felt the ground giving away beneath us
and with horror realized that we were falling
down an old abandoned shaft, the mouth of
which had been hidden by thin covering Of
brush and earth. AZ we shot down into it's dark