The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1889-04-13
AN OLD HoRsE-THIEF.

AN OIO nOhS6- r1i6Fs
He IL Seventy Eight Years Old and Has
Done Some Curious Work.
The man who claims to be the most
celebrated horse-thief in the world is
now under arrest in Louisburg, Kan.
His name is Washington Waterman
and he is seventy-eight yenrs OF age.
He acknowledges the theft of one hum
dred horses in Kansas alone, and the
authorities of the State are willing to
admit that he has made off with five
times that number.
The old man takes his present arrest
with great good nature. He is near
the end of his earthly pilgrimage, and
he does not expect to be jailed again in
this world. The penitentiaries of Mis-
souri,, Kansas and Nebraska have each
held him on several different occasions.
In his earlier days it was his custom to
lead party of tramps into a neigh
borhood which he had previously pros
pected, and, with central rendezvous.
all would make circuit of five or ten
miles on given night and round up
before daylight at the appointed place
with all the horses, harness, shovels,
currycombs. chains, UNDERGRADUATES,
whips. hammers, oil, screw-drivers and
brooms that the region afforded. Barns
would be literally stripped of every
thing of value.
After the prohibitory law went into
effect in Kansas. the country being more
thickly settled. Waterman found it adj
visable to change his plan of opera
lions. He would visit towns in Mis-
souri, and lay in a large supply of
whisky in quart bottles, and then, as
a secret dispenser of this beverage. he
would attack the Kansas farmer on his
weak side. When he found one who
properly appreciated the luxury of
having liquor brought to his very door.
he would tarry with him and open q
bottle or two on his own account.
After the farmer had yielded to the eff
fects of the potations and had fallen
under the table, Waterman. would help
himself at the barn and disappear.
The old man also enjoys the rare dis
tinction of being the only man in the
world who ever stole horse while he
was an inmate of State prison. When
he was serving the last of his three
terms in the Missouri penitentiary, his
conduct was so good that he was set
down as ''trusty," and as such W; .
on many occasions permitted to go out
side the walls. On one of these excur-
sions he was seized with an irresistible
impulse to make off with a horse, and
five minutes later he was astride fine
animal which he had lifted from con-
venient barn. With this exploit he
seems to have been content, for he
presently dismounted, left the horse to
browse at will by the roadside, and
hurried back to the prison. Having
had taste of liberty Waterman longed
for more. and two weeks later he stole
team belonging to one of the keepers
and made for the country at break
neck pace. He found no difficulty in
disposing of the horses, and with the
money obtained he fed to Canada,
where he passed several years without
attracting much attention.
Waterman, who does not appear to
be as old as he is, talks freely of his
exploits, and seems to have no concep-
ton of the fact that horse stealing is
not a perfectly legitimate pursuit. He
told one of his visitors the other day
that he was getting on in years, and
that if any of the boys wanted points
in the business he would give up at the
rate of five dollars point. Cor. Chi
cago Journal.