Wichita eagle., 1889-02-07
A LEADVILLE INQUEST.
What It Cost the County to Have a
Man Killed
CHE Early Days Of me Famous COLORADO
Mining Camp-A Successful and Iegenl-
Gus Raid ON the County Tress1ry-An
Inquest Held By Stumps.

Gus 6alo ON the C0unty Treesuxy-A0
Inquest Held BY Etumps.
(Omaha Herald
Some one who was at Leadville in the
early days tells the Herad something Of
the way In which inquests were conducted
in that happy time. "The Coroner, the
narrator, editor Of. q local paper, and two
other editors went together TO the scene Of
q murder. By the side Of q crazy, tum.
bling, whirling little trout stream efound
the murdered man. He was lying on his
back, his staring eyes wide open and his
hand clutching his shirt, which he had
torn away from his breast In the death
throes, revealing a CHASTITY wound just
over the heart. Across the street, thirty
feet away, was huge boulder, and 1t was
from its convenient shelter the assassinlay
in wait and fred the fatal shot with ter
rible accuracy. The trouble between the
men was all about q rnine-a tunnel-the
mouth Of which we could discern far above
Us, in the side of mountain. A few
miners stood around and told of 'Pete's'
many excellent qualities, and from their
stories I inferred that 'Pete' was paragon
of virtue, but not quick enough with
Winchester to enjoy health for many sue.
cessive periods Of time In Colorado.
"'Where's the witnessesT brusquely
said Doc.
"'Here we are, Professor, every one on
u.s. answered one who answered to the
name Of the Montana Gopher.
"'But the jury; where am to get the
jury? Don't any one else live around
hereD
"'Not livin' critter, 'ceptin' my old
burro, Jen, down here in the corral. You
kin have her, guess, If you can bring Ter;
she's mighty unsartin', though
"'Swear US in put in Ortiz.
"'Great head interrupted Ralph, who
was never known to miss an opportunity
to make dollar. Oh, Ralph was shrewd
one. Guess we can do the regulation
thing he said, at an inquest holden on
the body Of s. Tiff, lying dead before US,
otcetera. we, the jury, etcetera, etcetera,
find that deceased came to his death from
heart disease, superinduced by too fire.
quent internal applications Of Dago barrel
house whisky, etcetera, etcetera, and so
forth. Never fail to get in that good old
word, superinduced,' and Ralph ratified it
off in manner that showed he wasn't far
removed from a professional juryman.
Horrible creatures, those professional
jurymen, who gloat over dead body at
two dollars per gloat.
swell, as was saying, we were in for
anything, and, besides, had computed
the mileage; was q little light-waisted
about the pockets just then.
"'But there's only three Of you,' smiled
the doctor. you may all of you be con-
ceited enough for six, but in the eyes of the
law you're only one each.'
"That hit US pretty hard, but Ralph
saved US all embarrassment by bobbing up
with happy idea. Ralph was wonder
full boy for happy thoughts. He had big
trunk filed with nothing but pointers and
tips; don't know whether his landlady
ever realized much on 'em-but that's
neither here nor there. Ralph came to the
surface with scintillating gem this time.
What's the matter with the old stumps?'
he asked. 'Coroner's inquests might as
well be held by stumps or anybody or any
thing else, for all the public cares.'
"'Aud we'n collect for the stumps,' sug.
gested lengthy Ortiz.
"'Sure,' said l.
"The suggestion was adopted. Three
old pine stumps were selected, aud sworn
in as Colonel Wood, Julian Hawthorn and
General Chestnut. Ralph interpreted for
them, and / held up my left hand as
proxy. You see these poor jurors had suf-
fered the loss of their limbs; only the
stumps remained, and therefore they
couldn't hold up their hands. You'll ap-
preciate that. Yes, knew you would.
"The examination proceeded. We inter-
rogated all the witnesses, including Jenny,
the burro-witness fees, you know-and
Doc was about to draw up the regular ver-
dict when he was interrupted:
'"Hold on therev 1t was Ralph. 4 OBJ
iect to passing hurriedly over this uufortu-
nate affair." he said dramatically. we
have heard that the deceased was walking
along this very spot; that Cat-Hop George
stood behind that rock; that he fired, that
the deceased threw up his hand and fell
dead, as a direct result of that shot-as a
direct result, mind you. Now he went on
sneeringly, how do we know that these
are facts? We have only the unsupported
assertions of those dozen or fifteen wit
nesses to prove these statements, and yet,
with the eyes of this great Commonwealth
upon US, and with nothing but a corpse as
tangible evidence, we are about to decide
the momentous question whether or not
the man lying before US Is dead or in1u-
enced by cataleptic hysteria. True, the
Montana Gopher says our unlucky friend
here was shot down in cold blood. What
does that signifys What, / say and re-
peat with greatly increased vehemence,
what does that signify? Shame on us,
gentlemen, for wishing to hurriedly rush
to the hasty and premature conclusion
that the deceased is dead. l move you,
sir, that we adjourn to meet tomorrow,
after dinner hour, in Texas Joe's Palais de
Joie, to continue our deliberations. All,
my esteemed friend, General Chestnut, Sec
onds the notion
"Well, we adjourned, and when we
reached town returned the old verdict
about 'gunshot wounds and rifle in the
hands of Cat-Hop George and all that sort
c. .hing. Then we made out our bills.
When put together, they read something
like this:
To fees, two days. six Jurors. 81 per
day Observation-Disclosures. IS 90
To mileage, 20 miles to scene sud re-
turn, two trips, six jurors, 80 cents
per .fu W
To meals. 81 per meal, two days, six
meals for each of six jurors .......-..- IS %
To stationary used in taking down ev
To clerk hire ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. 40
To broken spring on blackboard .... 20 90
To services interpreter .. 90
Total OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES. $s5s 90