The Red Cloud chief., 1888-04-13
KANE VS.. ABELL
The Happy Ending Of q Suit for
Damages.

o~O ~OHHJ A40AA W S0A ~
Damages.
Law IS very uncertain-especially in
wooded country. Sometimes a suit is los
in m court m gained in another. TIL,
great case of Kane ,~rsMs Abel, Adam fol
plaintiff. Eve for defendant, is an ~illustra
tion. Nor did it happen in the Garden O,
Eden, as might be supposed from the sounG
Of the names, but in Mountain County
which the inhabitants suppose to be a mucf
finer place than the other.
Down in Mountain County, settled BY
Irish mainly from Ulster, with a sprinklins
from Connaught. the original manners anG
customs of the settlers are not only main
taincd by their descendants, but the Gaelic
spirit of clannishneSs exists in full force
The old families have kept up the old stock
by intermarrlages; and the only things
changed were The names which were either
corrupted. or dropped their prefixes. Thus
the MacMahons became the Mayhorns; the
O'Kanes. the Kanes; the MacAdams, the
Adams: the MacMillens. and the MacAbelis,
the Millens anlkthe Abells. But their High
land-keltic HABITS, filtered through the Irish
sieve, were preserved in their vigor. Be-
tween the two leading families, the Kanes
and the Abells, there had been a bitter feud
from the beginning. As the rest of the peo-
PIE were connected in n way or other. they
took their sides, and. as they said, .'stud by
the k'nexion." Pretty far they carried it,
too. One fellow, who was putting the Kanes,
was asked what connection he was. wall,
said he. mot so very cloast, but Clarke
Abel. he gin me a bull-pup." II a Kane
married with an Abel, or sfce ,vrxa, the
woman IN the case was adopted in her hus-
bands family, but cut of from her own.
But a single quarrel, and a simple incident
changed the current of affairs, and brought
about a truce which may he considered a
peace. leaving both parties in possession of
the mti posadets.
As the eldest son in q straight line from
the original Patrick, who had come to this
country from Ireland, and had settled here
under q and grant of q thousand acres.
Peter Kane was the recognized head of the
family. He was a good looking, childless
wldower, thirty-two years Of age, very well
70 do, and looked up to by his tribe, with
wnom his word was potential. He was a
famous b~ear-hunter, and kept up a stock of
worthless Tor any other purpose. Clarke
Aoeu, who held q similar position among
ours, valuable for battling with Bruin. but
Inc ADels, was over sixty years old, tall,
athletic and as straight as q gun-barrel. He
did not look a day over fifty, with his iron
gray hair, and smooth face where the
wrinkl had concentrated about the corner
OF the eyes. These two, though living with
IN three miles Of each other-their posses.
sions joining-rarely spoke when thew met.
n then In m~Onosyllables, eking out the
conversation by gesture.
1t happened that Kane had seen bear signs
one frosty morning in November. and laid
on the dogs. Bruin heard the bayinp afar
on, and taking time by the forelock. made
MS way over a gap and then down q drv
branch hollow: "In avoiding Scylla, he fell
Charybdis," m so on: for old Abell
happened to be in his field, his rife, a con-
slant companion, with him, when he saw
the bear doing some tall walking in his
He shot the brute, and with the |
OF his sons, had skinned him
when kane's dogs, followed by Kane. came |
up. A demand was made for the hear |
which was denied. There was no fighting
the matter there-three to one was too prcat |
so Kane and his dogs went about their
business. But the matter ranked. A we'll
known pettifOgger of the section. John |
Adam, heard of it and offered mis- services.
The end of it was that Kane brought snit
a country justice of tn. peace. and
after various misadventures the case was
heard. 1t was an action IN defi.me. and
judgment was given for t~hirty-ive dollars.
Abel secured the services of Cecil Eve. a
bright young lawyer lately admitted to the
bar, and the case was remOved to the County
Court held by four justices. Adam was not
D regular practitioner, but the County Court
was q sort Of free-and-easy tribunal, with a
roll of its own, and Adam was licensed by
He brought suit for damages, for
that he the party afo'said had detained
The bar" !.
It was some months after the event when |
The County Court entered or its half-ycarly
session. In the meanwhile . little incident
Of the Romeo and Juliet pattern,
which complicated matters. Abell's only
Unmarried daughter was & ~good-looking
voung woman Of twenty-five, and, like her
''hated that Pete Kane like pizen."
But one day she CHANGED to visit . neighbor
t some distance, and ON her return met
With . wandering four-year-0ld buck. II
vas 1t the season of the year, when the ami
nal. usually 30 timid, is both bold and ag-
He charged ut Kitty, who dexter
,usly lodged behind . tuliptree-poplar
hey. miscall it there-and so evaded the
hrust of his antlers. But he was persist
and kept her so constantly shifting her
that she became exhausted. She
vas lust about to drop, which would have
insured her death, when the crack Of a rife
md the dropping Of the buck, dead, saved
The next moment she heard the voice
4 Peter Kane:
..A -. Nl;cc Tsffv ~