Connecticut western news., 1889-11-20
MONTANA'S VIGILANTES.
JUDGE LYNCH DID A THRIVING
 BUSINESS IN EARLY DAYS.
Not Until 1874 Did the State Have its
 First Judicial Hanging.

Not Until 1874 Did the State Have ite First Judicial Hanging.
 Montana was settled in 1862. It did not have judicial hanging until 1874. But Judge Lynch opened court on AL der Gulch within fifteen months after the first settlement. At that first term of this populous tribunal there were twenty-seven hangings in fifty days. Vigilantes inflicted the death penalty whenever it was deemed necessary for more than ten years. .
 The first execution according to legal process occurred at Helena in 1874. It was such all innovation that the peo- pie celebrated it in remarkable man. ner, says Helena letter. The day fol lowing this execution procession was formed and the Committee led the way over the hill to the spot which had usu- ally been chosen for lynchings. With appropriate ceremonies, the tree that had done duty for a gallows for so many. years was chopped down, cut ID for relics and carried away.
 The place where the tree stood had become known as "Hangman's Gulch." This name Helena had been trying to get rid of ever since, but without marked success. The idea at the time of the destruction of the tree was that lynching days were past. It was im- possible, however, to change the character of people so easily and so suddenly. ... Legal executions have gradually taken the place of mass-meeting execu- tions, but there have been some brief periods when it was deemed best to re- turn to the more expeditions and popu- lar methods of primitive days in the Territory.
 The year 1884 is known as one of the changing" years of Montana. It was the time when stock thieving had become unendurable upon the ranges of eastern Montana. Vigilantes or ganized for that raid without any con- cealment. Members of the band which carried out the orders were recruited openly from the cowboys, who were willing to do that kind of work for $1OO a month. When the roundup ended sixty-three thieves had been shot or hanged.
 | The man who engineered this exter- imitation of the stock thieves is one of the best known and most respected citizens of Montana. He makes his home in Helena. Public sentiment regrets the necessity for such extreme measures, but fully sustains the pen alty inflicted.
 The first session of the Peoples Court at Helena was held to try Bob Black for killing Harry Slater. Helena was then a mining camp, and was known as Last Chance Gulch. Parallel with, and only few feet from, what is now the principal street of the thrifty city the gulch ran.
 The prospectors who found pay dirt in the gulch were certain there could be none found further east of that and so they named it Last Chance. The miners settled down to work the gulch for what there was in it, and the camp drew more than the usual complement of gamblers and cut throats.
 The summary work of the vigilantea at Alder Gulch further south had the effect of swelling the lawless element at Last Chance with refugees. One of these refugees was Slater. He had es. capped the vigilantes at Virginia City by an accident. The night the order was issued there for the execution it was discovered that he had just taken hif departure. Slater tried to shoot Will. bur F. Sanders, the prosecutor of the Hummer gang of road agents, only ( short time previously. The vigilantet had long score against him, and there was some disappointment when it waE found he had disappeared.
 Tom Keene, or Bob Black, as he ha6 been known in Tennessee, also lief Virginia City in haste. He had beer keeping bar at the Montana Saloon an( had quarrel with another barkeeper After trying to n,angle his enemy b, ! hurling boulder through the window at midnight, Keene fled and went t Helena, or Last Chance.
 Arriving at the gulch and walking up the street Keene came suddenl.
 upon Slater sitting in doorway wit
 his hat down over his eyes. Withou saying word, or in any way attract
 ing his victims attention Keene drev his pistol and fired. The ball entere, the eye and passed through the brain
 Slater fell backward dead, withou
 knowing who had shot him.
 l And right here is to be noted l curious illustration of the impartialit ? with which the Peoples Court dis t pensed justice. It made no differenc
 that Keene had removed bad ma
 under condemnation by the vigilante
 of a neighboring camp. Had Slate
 been hanged at Virginia City, Las