The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1890-09-13
EYE FOR AN EYE.
Terrible Story of the Wisconsin
Pineries Vengeance.

''You see," said an old-timer, as he sat in
Northern Wisconsin Land Office few
DAYS ago, ''the people up there have law and
justice these days, but it was not always
So" he was pre-empter of Clark County
and well posted. ut was away back some
fifty or more years ago that many outlaws
made their homes in the dense woods up
there. And when Henry Hoskns and his
young wife and two children came here to
settle and clear up farm for an honest life
the gang soured on him and kept up such a
warfare that HoSkns finally retorted against
one of the gang So one afternoon seven
of the gang-Hugh Boden, John Gilfroy,
Sam Deakin, viii Beardsley, Duke Thomas,
Syl Worden and his brother Hank
got a surprise party on Hoskins. They
bound him TO a tree, and in the presence of
his wife and children laid the lash on his
bare back most numerically. The plead
ings of the poor wife were in vain. No sound
or mIrmur escaped the lips of Hoskins.
Finally, either by design or accident, blow
struck Hoskins' right eye, tearing the ball
from the socket Hoskins tainted and his
wife also fell in swoon. The Scoundrels
now felt they had PERHAPS gone too far, SO
they skunk off one by one. Upon regaining
consciousness the suffering wife cut the
bonds that held her husband and conveyed
him to their bin, and under her care he re-
covered. But he was not the same man. His
ambition was now only for revenge. In
few months his wife died from nervous pros
tration. He sent his children to the home of
their grandparents az Dearborn, near Detroit.
Mich Hoskins remained on his land. The gang
who perpetrated the outrage on him were
desperate men, but they gave HoskinS
wide BERTH One day Hank Worden-it was
Hank who piled the lash-was found dead
in the woods. The Coroner's jury found
verdict of died from bullet in the right
eye, by parties unknown" Weeks sped by,
when the body of Boden was fonDd-killed
by bullet in the right eye. And now
namelesS terror seized upon those men.
They dare not leave the woods, as a bounty
was set on their capture. But they never
left their shanties, excepting with loaded
rifles on their shoulders. The breaking Of
twig gave them spasms of fear In week
or two the body OF Gilfroy was fonnd-Shot
in the right eye. Would not the Nemesis
now concede his vengeance satisfied? The
state OF the remainder OF the gang was
ptiable. And when few days later the
bodies of Deakin and Beardsley were
found, near the bank Of the river, shot in
the right eye, the remaining members
of the gang, Syl Worden and Duke
Thomas, pale, emaciated. scared and with
shattered nerves, sought TO escape from the
unerring rifle of the man they had so deeply
injured-whose life they had ruined. They
donned DISCUSSES and set out toward where
now stands the city of Neilsville, but which
was then an unbr0ken wilderness. They
took turns at watching, but there was no es-
capt the vigilant eye OF him who treasures
up a wrong. The two men stood On a slight
elevation watching the setting sun when the
report Of rifle broke the stiffness of the
scene and Syl Worden dropped dead, shot
in the right eye. In a few moments Hos
kins stood in front of the solitary remainder
of his gang of prosecutors Duke Thomas
Thomas pleaded for mercy. He held his
rifle in his hand. but he was paralyzed with
fear and dread. HOskins recalled the scene
of that dread evening; told of his dead
wife, his shattered life, bis ruined home.
He had sworn solemn oath OF vengeance,
and, raising his rife, the last of the gang
lay in death, Shot in the right eye. Hoskius
was never seen after that. milwaukee SEN
tinel.