Omaha daily bee., 1885-02-17
TOO MANY BILL JoNEsEs,
Idaho sherifTs and Tynchers Confused
10y Their Number.

The presence o.; six Il Il Joreses in tn
camp, rites An Amsri AN Falls, lGahc
CORE spoadent t. the New York Sun
cauS5 sd much trouble the ether Day. oil,
Bill Jones has been here ever sincs til
country was opened to settlement. Il,
is looked up t. everywhere. Eyerybcd,
knows HIM, and he knows every body. RC
keeps a saloon, and sometimes dsalssa
catd or two, as well as buys dus. from
strapped miners at n small shave. Old
Bill Jones hssn't an enemy in the whole
territory, and if he had he would never
rest until ne or the enemy had Quit, ID
tao world or the territory. One sfcer
another FIVE other Bill Jono,es put in an
appearance. For a long time every
thing went well. They were all fine fell
lows, evidently, and no great trouble was
experienced by them or anybody else In
preserving their identity. But one Gay
lat week tho sheriff and four men came
in on hors. back with a warrant for the
arrest of Bill Jones. The Bill Jones
wanted had murdered a family
of emlgrant, over In Paradise
canyon, and the court had sent fer
him. AS old BIZ Jones was the Bill
Junes, 50 far as Americans Falls and its
people went, ne was at once pointed out
as the man, and the theriffs officers
rounded him up in god style. Old Bill
protested his innocence aud would Rave
offered resi stance il he had seen sny tn
enlargement in majority of them had a
suspicion that the old man vas caught at
last, and consci BUSINESS of this fact broke
his heart. He vent off with his csptors,
protesting his innocence and ave lring he
would set even with somebody on his re
turn.
The clvalcade had not much moe than
vanished owe the mountains when an.
other shocitf sposse m in from the west
also in quest of Bill Jones. The first
n that came to hand was the Bill Jones
who tends bar at the Star saloon, and he
was accordingly taken in charge. he
protested his innocence, likethe old man,
but the people were pretty evenly divided
on the question IF his guilt. Old Bill had
been taken east, and this one was carried
off to the west. The next afternoon,
while most o. the s~sttlers were discussing
the fate OF tie two men, aIatlle of hoofs
was heard and a party of horsemen 6a,hed
madly through the town, stopping at one
TO the saloons long enough to get a drink.
The crowd rushed over to see what The
trouble was and found that the men had
Bill Jones, q murderer, In charge, and
were going to lynch him upin the timber.
Justice of the Peace Fsllon here spoke up
and said there had been two Bill ,Joneses
taksn out of the camp in the proceeding
Forty ainht 1,D1ro on1 - ,,iult H. AI,A
some horrible mistake was being made.
All he wanted was to have the right man
caught, and he would phil as hard on the
rope as anybody; but until that point was
settled he thought there should be no
~lynch!ng. Others made bold to expreso
the same opinion, and the lynchers, after
comforting with one another, agreed, as
Hhisky was good, to wait here q few days
with their prisoner and investigate.
Last Monday old Bill rode il with a
brand-new rife, two row olvers and q
bowie knife and dared the whole town t.
jump on him. He was the maddest man
seen in I6alo since big Ed Larrabee ran
OFT with Tom Belden's bride, at Toms
housewarnipg, when Tom whipped all
the guests n shot two of their horses. |
t'ocOuy "ah'cu W HSllb Olu Dlll auu the
own kept in the houses while Bill gal
Hoped up and down the street, yelling
and swsaring. Alter o whils he began
to shoot in the windows, and then the
justice was sent out as a peace otfer-
ing. Old Bill came very near rid
ing him down, but at last he sobered of
a little, and listened to what Fallon had
say. The justice explainei matters tn.
best way he could, and told how Bill, the
bartender, had been carried eff and Bill,
the cowboy, was held a captive up at the
other end Of the town by a party Of lynch
ID. This modified the old man to some
extent, and, after a moments reflection,
he declared that if the boys would help
him rescue the Cowboy Bill and then
round up all the Bill Joneses in the vi.
cinity he would find no more fault.
All decided t, do as old Bill desired.
After a little preparation a party of de-
men made a raid on the lynch
ers, captured Cowboy Bill and drove the
out Of town. Then old Bill
commanded that al the other Joneses be
brought before him. This took come
time, but the next day the five 9TH
er Joneses were in conference with old
Bill at the Ophir saloon, whtn the sheriff
who had arrested old Bill came In with a
who said his name wa, Bill
Jones. No enc had ever seen him in
these Paris before, and he WAS the off, nd
er whom all the officers aud lynchers had
been after for a week previous. IL was
all that the old man could GO to keep the
other Joneses from laying violent hands
on him. When he and his keepers had
on old Bill made "a speech some
thing like this:
"Ihera's too msny Bill Joneses In this
camp for comfcr', and something's got to
be did to keep thing a. ain right. Now,
| m here first, and I'm the Oldest man in
the camp for money, ard my nameis Bill
Jonea. AS an honor b Q title, to be used
by you beys or not jest rs you please, you
call me Old Bill Jones if youwant to,
but BIZ Jones plain snd simple is my
sNIU