St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-01-31

wv as sweet cnlluren as ever blessed q
miners life. Much sympathy was felt
lor MIN III MS trouble. as ii was almost
universally believed that Sam Miller
was responsible for the whole affair.
Indeed, Sam Miller's name was fire.
| quently mentioned in connection with
| the murder of Chris McCallister. Dan
Miller'S wife and babies were in the
court room Saturday afternoon when
Judge Burton passed sentence upon
him. There was a large audience
present, and it witnessed one of the
most pathetic scenes ever enacted in a
| court room.
In very feeling manner Judge Bur
ton addressed the prisoner on his crime
and the suffering he had brought on
| himself and others. M!ller's fortitude
gave way. and, clasping his sobbing
WI e to his breast. he stood with bowed
head, his frame shaking cOnvulsively
with emotion, while Judge Burton. tears
coursing down his cheeks. sentenced
lllm to the penitentiary. In short
time Miller was again behind the bars,
and, his final adeu being given his
wife, was soon on the way TO train to
| 20 to Fort Madison. Before starting he
sent Tor reporter on local newspa-
per. saying he had something important
10 communicate. l.. ID. BoSwOrth, dep
uty sheriff, in charge of the county jail,
refused to allow Miller to talk to any
| one
II cas- Anderson said Miller had con-
1eSslon to make. Anderson remained
IN Jail some four months longer, and
| was then taken to Oskaloosa for trial
Here, after a hearing which consumed
eighteen days, during which more than
LOO witnesses were examined, he was
| acquitted, the jury finding a verdict in
q
was then arraigned on charge of shoot
Ing into old Sam Phinney's house. He.
pleaded guilty and was sentenced to
sixty days in Jail, which he served. On
returning to his home at Blakesburg he
was Informed by his neighbors that he
was not considered a safe man for that
community, and the people would like
1t if he moved. He agreed to leave. and
dld look up location in Texas, but not
hnding a ready purchaser for his farm
continued living there quietly with his
wife and family. He put in crop and
harvested 1t in peace, and was almost
led to believe that the feeling against
him had died out.
Lynchers Arrive.
One evening in December, 1884, while
Anderson was engaged in his barnyard
feeding his stock, four masked men
Two jumped out, and approaching An
dersOn. covered him with revolver5,
telling him they had been sent to arrest
him, and that he wa, to be taken to the
school house for trial. The prisoner
asked to be allowed TO notify his fam
lily. but was told they would be informed
of his whereabouts. He saw resistance
was futile, and went with his captors.
AT the school house some half dozen
taliOw candles tiickered and sputtered.
casting weird half light over one of
the most striking scenes OF life's great
drama. At the teachers desk sat a
man, while arrayed on two benches be-
mind sat two others, and still two more
occupied seats in front. All were en-
veloped from head to foot in bed quilts.
They constituted court which was to
try Pleasant Anderson for his life on the
charge of killing Chris McCallisterl
With formality, hideous in Its mock
ing of judicial forms, the prisoner was
arraigned and charged with the crime
of murder in the first degree. He was
asked to plead, and pleaded not guilty.
Then he was removed by his captOrs to
the rear of the room, where he spent
the last moments of his life in match
ing pennies with some boys who had
been attracted to the school house by
curiosity. In the meantime the farcical
trial was being proceeded with solemnly,
but with one intent. Evidence was sub
mitted, arguments were heard. and,
with gravity well nigh devilish, the
judge charged the jury. This body
pretended to retire. but speedily re-
turned with verdict of guilty as
charged.
This, too, was couched in coldly, for
NAL legal verbiage, and on being read
by the clerk, the judge proceeded to ask
the jury the stefeOtyped query concern
ing the fairness and unanimity of the
verdict, and the jury answered leach
one for himself and not one for the
other'' that Pleasant Anderson was
guilty of murder in the first degree. the
crime alleged being the killing of Chris
tan McCallister.
Condemned to Death.
Then the judge commanded the
masked "bailiffs'' 10 ''brlng the prison.
er into court" Ina voice coldly dis
passionate and with words as few as
they were cruel. the Judge informed
Anderson of the result of the trial, and
then proceeded to sentence him to be
hanged Immediately.
In twinkling the court was trans
formed into band of eyecutioners. The
prisoner was allowed to make one re-
quest, which was granted. that his boots
be removed. Then a rope was thrown
in moose around his neck. and Ander-
son, erect and unflinching, marched
barefooted behind his pitiless captors
about one hundred yards across the
frozen snow to a tree. Then he asked
to send message to his wife, but he
was told to ''go to h. Over a limb
the rope was thrown; pull of the de-
termlned men. and another mysterious
murder was added to the list of BIakes-
burg's crimes.
Gently swaying in the winters wind,
casting a startling black shadow across
the moonlit waste of snow, swung
the lifeless body of Pleasant An
dersoll, and silently as they had
gathered the members of the court
slipped away to their homes. In a
cherries little farm house on bleak
hillside mother and daughter saw the
evening meal grow cold with the rising
of the moon, and wondered why the
husband and father did not come to
supper.
When the Wapello county grand jury
met the next month January, 1850 it
ignored the case. Those men who COM
posed that body will always remember
what Judge Burton said to them i'll his
scathing rebuke to the body for its neg
lect of duty; but the hanging of Pleas
oAAe AhNSAoOA va AOtO1 dICus
The Real Murderer Confesses.
Meanwhile. in his convict's cell, Dan
Miller's health was falling. "Confne-
ment," said his friends. Great effort to
secure his pardon was made, but failed.
His "goOd time" secured him a re-
duction of sentence. Then he was tried
OH more counts, but his health was
broken and he seemed about to die, SO
his prosecutors relenred and he was
left to die free man.
Few people now thought of the death
of Chris McCallister or that of Pleasant
Anderson. But Dan Miller thought of
it always. He alone knew that Chris
McCallister had drawn a large sum of
money on that October day in 1881 from
the Monroe County bank; he knew how
much the sum was; he knew that its
withdrawal would cripple the bank;
that if he could recover it he might save
AI,.l 1x,u l. L.