Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-09-27
AN EYE FOR AN EYE.
A Terrible Story OF the Wisconsin Pine
ries

Milwaukee Letter to the New YORK Star
you see" said an oldtimer, a. he sat In .
northern Wisconsin land Office few days ago,
'the people mp there have law aud justice
these days. but il was not always So" He was
a pre-emptor Of Clark county and well posted
at was away back some fifty or more years ago
that many outlaws made their homes in the
dense woods no there And when Henry Hos
kins and his young wife and two children came
here to settle and clear up a farm for an honest
life the gang soured on HIM and kept mp such
q warfare that hoskins finally retorted against
one of the gang.
Boden, John Gilfroy, Sam Deakin, Will Boards
ley, Duke Thomas. Syl Worden and his brother
Hank, got surprise party on Hoskins. They
bound him to tree, and in presence OF his wife
and children laid the lash on his bare back
| most numerically. The pleadings OF the poor
wife were IN vain. No sound or murmur e.
capped the lips of Hoskins.
FINALLY, either by accident or design, a
blow struck Hoskins' right eve. tearing the ball
from the socket. Hoskins tainted and his wife
| also fell In swoon. The scoundrels now felt
! that they had perhaps gone too lar. SO they
skunk of. one by one. Upon regaming con-
sclousness the suffering wife cut the bonds that
held her husband and conveyed him 10 thois
cabin and under her care ne recovered But
| he was not the same man. His ambition was
wife died from nervous prostration. He sent
| his children to the home of their grandparents
| at Dearborn, near Detroit Mich. Hoskins re-
manned on his land. The gang who perpe-
trated the outrage on him were desperate men,
| but they gave Hoskins a wide berth.
'One day Hank Worden-it was Hank who
| Piled the lgsh-was found dead in the woods
The coroners jury found u verdict of died
from bullet In the right eye by parties I'M
known. Weeks sped by, when the body OF
| RO1ap laH NV h,,Nl ;, .h
right eye. And now a nameiess terror seized
upon those men. They dare not leave the
woods as u bounty was set on their capture.
But they never left their shanties except with
loaded rifles on their shoulders The breaking
| OF twlg In the woods gave them spasms OF
fear. la week or two the body of Gilfroy
| was fo1nd-shot In the right eve.
Would not the Nemesis now concede his
| vengeance satisfied! The state of the re-
riainder OF the gang vas pitiable. And when
\ few days later che bodies of Deakin and
| Beardsley were found, near the bank of the
| river shot IN tne right eve. the remaining
| members of the gang-Syl Wordon and Duke
Ihomas-pale, emaclated, scared and with
shattered nerves. sought to escape from the
| unerrinS rifle Of the man they had so deeply
lnJured-whose life .hey had ruined. They
donned disguise and set out toward where now
| stands the city of Neilsville, but which was
| then IN unbroken wilderness. They took turns
| at watching. but there no escaping the
VlglIant eye OF ne WHO treasures up wrong.
The two men stood on a slight elevation,
watching the setting sun, when the report of a
| ride broke the stiffness of the scene and Syl
Worden dropped dead-shot in the right eye.
In a few moments Hoskins stood in front OF
the solitary remainder of this gang of pcrse-
cutors-Dnke Thomas. Thomas pleaded for
| mercy. He held his rife in his hands. but he
was paraiyzed with fear and dread.
"Hoskins recalled the scene OF that dread
| evening: told OF his dead wife, his shattered
| life, his ruined home. lie had sworn a solemn
cath OF vengeance, and, raising his rifle, the
| last OF the gang lay in death--shot in the RICH.
| eye. Hoskins was never seen after that. Some
say that the hermit, aged aud gray bearded,
| and with only one eye-the left-who died i'll
| his hut on Hermit Island near Bayfield, in 1866
was the same Hoskins. The Initials III. ii.
were cut into the stock of his rife, and seven
notches with q rudely engraved eye bore a
| CHASTITY significance and partially solved the
mystery OF the old hermitS life"