Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1892-08-18
ANTRIM'S DEATH.

shedding of human blood that is for
tunately given to but few men to
know. Some men are more suscep-
tible to it than others-just as some
men degenerate more rapidly into
drunkards by the drinking Of wine
than others. This blood drunken
ness is not war. Soldiers seldom
know it. In war when you feel your
bayonet sink to the shank in the soft
yielding breast of another, or drop'a
man with bullet, you lose interest
in the man you have killed and jerk
out your bayonet or load your rife
for another. Blood drunkenness is
merely killing for the sake of killing.
A hundred years ago this blood
drunkenness was recognized by the
law prohibiting butchers from serv-
ing as jurylnen. 1t is still recognized
on our frontiers, where the restraints
of law are not so rigorous as in popu-
lous communities A half score years
ago it was more common than at
present. There were but few sec
tions then but had their blood dipso-
maniacs
New Mexico had one, and his name
was Billy Antrim. Had he been an
ancient Greek instead of being an
American. mythology would have
made his cruel ferocity immortal.
Hc was only a boy when he got his
first taste of blood. When death
overlook him he was but twenty
three, yet he was known to have
killed more men than there were
years in his age. All but his mother
rejoiced at his death as if pesti-
lcnce had been staid.
There was another woman, though,
that rejoiced to see his body tester
and swell and blacken. Still, the
dead man had loved her, and she had
lived with him as a wife lives with
husband, yet it was not for jealousy
she killed him. Before she had met
him sho had loved another man. His
name was Charley Clancy. He was
foreman Of the H-B Cattle company,
on the Rio Grande, near Tulerosa.
Tho people along the river called it
the II bar b outfit. He, too, was q
young man just from the east, with
no more business to be in New Mex
leo at that time than q preacher has
in purgatory.
When he had first met the girl it
was in Las Cruces-that strange lit
tlo town near the Mexican line
whose history runs back to tho Span
ish conquest He was young and
green, and perhaps homes;ck, and it |
was not long before he was in love
with this girl of alien race, for she
was a Mexican. After that he found |
the ranch more and more lonesome |
and Las Cruces more and more pleas
mt Home could not have been
more desirable. When man is in
love and his love is returned by a
beautiful girl, with her presence any
place is heaven. 1t was so in this
case, and Clancy's visits to Las Cru
ces became very frequent.
One day while he was there there
was prisoner brought into town
whose presence created more excite
ment than If he had been the gov
srnor of the territory, for it was this
nan Billy Antrim. Every one crowd
I'd to SEQ the desperado, and with
hem went Clancy, for no man was
'ver more feared or more noted for
ais ferocity. So great was the terror
inspired by his deeds that when his
rial came there were few men who
would serve as jurors. Among those
Who did serve was Charley Clancy.
10 was young and green, and they
made him foreman of the jury.
When the girl--you need not know
Ter name, for it is that of good
amily, as good as your own per
aps. and besides she, too. is dead
ow and il would avail you nothing
j well, when she learned this she
nplored Clancy, in her terror, to
withdraw. but he only smiled at her
ears and answered her tears with
isses She was a native of the coun- /,
ry and he stranger, but, boylike,
Q thought he knew it all. d
When the trial was ended aud the
oath sentence imposed, for that was
a ..slxx xx....lt.& .<.<..slsl. /.