Morning journal and courier., 1889-03-21

ana nls mlSSlOn IS nanny 70 XIII, nlS glory being reckoned by the number of human be- I ings he has dispatched to the other side of | the Styx.
 The proprietor of the "tavern" after a | time grew gossipy. Exactly across the rail- I way track was a small wooden depot, and | beyond it was an open prairie. Said the | landlord:
 "Over on the other side of the depot is place where there's more shootin' than you can count. Sittin' here you're out of the line of fire. If you go and look at the other | side of the depot you'll find it full of bullet holes.'
 s'Who is it that does all the shootinga" "Oh, it's 8 lot of fellows who do nothing but loaf around, and now and then, when | they get whiskey they get on a big drunk. Then they climb on their horses and con- ! mence gallopin' through the town, swingin' ] their revolvers, yelling, firing their guns in ! the air or into nigger eff they ketch one in I the open. They're mighty good shots, and | eff they get bead on darky he is pritty | sure to be goner before he can git to 1 cover."
 l This gang at Muscogee was known among | it's members as the Thoroughbreds. During | the period that waited to secure transpor- l tation across the Creek country there was no outbreak among them, but there had been l one week before my arrival, in which over ! one hundred shots had been fired with bar l ren results, only one darky having been hit. l Five of the members of the Thorough brsds were to be seen every day while re- | mained, lounging in front of restaurant l just across the road. Each of them was I credited with having ''got away with his I man." One of them was known to have committed two murders, and the veteran of l the party-although not then thirty years of age-was credited with five that were posi- lively known and suspected of at least a score of others.
 asked the landlord when I came to the house where should register.
 "I don't keep any book, he replied. 'You don't? Why nota"
 "Because it ain't none of my business who
 comes and goes. I tend strictly to my own
 concerns"
 I suppose you have good many visitors who wouldn't care to leave their name along their line of travel?';
 ''I reckon so," and he dropped the conver- sation. From some information that I picked up at later day learned that trav- elers visiting the country were liable to dis appear now and then. On this account, to prevent tracing them, no registry was kept of travellers who were on their way to the interior of the country. Later in my jour- ney occasion was offered me to recall this fashion under circumstances which made the recollection decidedly unpleasant one.
 At Ocmulgee, the Creek capital, I was fur nished with new driver, of whom my first intimate knowledge was through the organ OI smoll. 4uoI6 was JuuSouJ pOlocat ooOr about him that was penetrating and abomin- ! able. I soon learned from him his business was skunk catching when he had no other | occupation. Imagine 8 journey of two days with this redolent person. He was @ man of about forty years of age, with thin face, retreating jaw, tuft of hair on his chin, ! while a cascade of tow-colored hair fell down his shoulders.
 "What's your business?" I asked, after had looked him over.
 "Wall, raise little corn, but I ginally buy hides and furs among the Indians"
 "What kind do you buys Many skunks, for instance?"
 "Yes, heaps of skunks."
 s'I thought so. Is there much money as there is smell in handling polecatsa"
 ''I make some days as high as two or three dollars"
 My ill-smelling driver was very reticent at the outset, but in time became fluent, even to the extent of garrulity. He was a white man from the States who had married a Cherokee woman-no white man ever admits marrying Creek-and was a full member of the tribe. Once he diseoursed as follows:
 "A white man haint got any more show here in this part of the territory than a cat in hell without any claws. Over there," jerking his whip in the direction of the southwest, ''there was two skeletons of man and boy found last week with both their skulls broke in, and nobody knows where IuSy HUH WAo tucy aluOSt oFc' " day or two there's body found in some slough or stream, and all that's known about lem is that from the shape of their skulls they're white men,"
 And then, for intsrminable. odorous hours, he proceeded to relate instances of 1 horrid murders which he knew, as well as the names of the victims and their assassins. | My blood seemed to shrink in my veins and | cold chills crept up and down my spine till I wished the Greek country to the devil. It was then that I recalled with shock the re- fusal of the landlords at luscogee and Oc- mulgee to permit their guests to register | their names, residences or destination. Not ! a soul at either place knew my name; l might be shot, dragged into some thicket, silence would attract notice Then inquiry | would not reveal the point at which had entered the Greek region, and the end would be one of these mysterious disap- pearances" which are so often recorded in the newspapers.
 'You see," he said, ''the thing ia just hyar. The Cherokee paper never says any thing about these killings, so the world don't get to know of lem. Eff it's a white man that's killed they're doggone glad of it. And hyar's another thing: If one man shoots somebody, no matter how bad 8 murder it may be, no ore dares to say anything about it. The trouble is man will be witness, cause he knows if he swars egin man he's got to leave the coun- try ou the jump or else get charge of buck shot in his back. He's got to hustle when he leaves the place of trial, or they'll load him up with buckshot when he passes the