Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1886-08-12
HE TRIED PILLS,
How an Omaha Physician Managed to Save
a Horse-Thief.

Horse-Thief
IOmaha Bee
"Talking about the Hoffman libel suit,n
said well-known Omaha physician the
other day, 81 have always had a certain
sympathy for horse-thieves since little
occurrence which happened twenty years
ago"
"Tell us about it,n chorused his audit
ors.
81 was living then in little Missouri
town." said the man of medicine, "strug-
Cling along as best 1 could against adj
verse fate and the disgusting healthiness
of the community in which my lot was
cast. Horse thieving was very common
thing in that part of the country, and
some of the residents of the county in
which I lived had formed an anti borse-
thief association. When a horse was
stolen it became the duty of every menu
Der of the association to thoroughly arm
himself, mount his steed and start in pur-
suit of the thief. One day one of the menu
bers of the association lost string OF
three valuable horses. The identity of
the thief was unknown, but fortu-
nately a clew to the direction he had
taken was given by a boy who had
seen a stranger with a number of horses
going west from town. Within less than
half an hour after the loss had been dis
covered band of thirty members of the
association were in hot pursuit of the
thief, over hill, down dale, and through
forests. We managed to strike the fell
lows trail about three O'Clock in the after
noon and followed it closely. At half
past seven o'clock in the evening we ran
across him in thick clump of bushes, the
horses staked about him, and in less time
than it takes to tell it the horse-thief was
under arrest. A court was organized
without a moments delay, and a trial
lasting not longer than ten minutes fol-
lowed. The fellow was found guilty and
sentenced to die. l felt sorry for the
scamp-tried to intercede in his behalf; he
was young fellow with whom Ihad been
acquainted for some time, and whom I
knew to come from highly respected par
ents in Illinois. 1t was of no use. The
captors insisted that he must die, and
only laughed at my entreaties. To add
to my disgust I was selected as the one to
shoot him.
''Sav your prayers, boy" said one of
the men to the young fellow, who had been
tied to tree.
1.-THE poor cuss didn't know how to pray
and asked me to help him. l didn't know
any thing but the LORDS prayer, and tried
that. 1t went so well, and seemed to re-
lieve the poor fellow so much, that I re-
oeated it several times.
''Just as l rose from my knees the de-
tails of plan whereby I might save the
mans life flashed into my mind. l whis-
pered them into his ear, and his grateful
look, as hope was revived in his heart, l
shall never forget. 1t was growing dark
and the men were becoming impatient, so
that I determined to hurry matters to a
crisis. 1 had a double -barreled muzzle-
loadin shotgun, and under pretense that
the loads were not fresh l fired them off.
l reloaded them, not with shot, but with
some very small pills, which I happened
to have with me- l was pretty well
watched, and trembled inwardly lest 1
might be detected. But wasn't. I meas
ured off goodly distance on the ground
and fired, taking a low aim. The horse
thief fell over apparently dead. The Wig
ilantes mounted their borses and drove
away, leaving me to bury the victim. In
less than ten minutes the corpse was free
and making a bee-1ine for Kansas. The
dose of pills had not injured him in the
least"