The Washburn leader. [volume] (Washburn, McLean County, N.D.) 1890-1986, 1892-04-02


Lavine, an old man living on Rhude's land
east of the grist mill, sneaked up on him
with an old needle-gun and discharged its
contents at Mr.. Rhude's body. Lavine
was outside the fence of the inclosure, di-
rectly in front of Rhude, and about As feet
distant. The. gun seems to have been
loaded with ball and one or two other
missils as Mr.. Rhude was hit on the right
arm, near the arn-pit and on the point of
the lower ribs on the right side. AS soon
as hit Rhude instantly raised his eyes and
saw man in front of him pull a gun from
between the rails of the fence and run to-
wards the river. Mr.. Rhude positively
identified the man as John P. Lavine, and
he then hallooed as loud as he could with
two purposes in view: to scare the fellow
and to attract the attention of any one who
might be near. Mr.. Rhude then came up
town and secured warrant for I4ayines ar
rest. Lavine's examination was had be-
for Peter Christianson, esq, on Thursday,
and he was held to answer the charge of
assault with intent to kill. All the testi-
mony for the state was corroborative and
supported that given by the complainant
Rhude. T. j. Haugeberg, who was one of
q party who welt down to examine the
ground where the shooting occurred, found
an empty shell of As calibre within a few
feet from the place where Rhude claimed
Lavine stood when he fired the shot, and
this shell just fitted bullet which fell out
of Rhude's clothes in the Leader Office while
he was showing Walter Wells and others
where he was injured, and Walter Wells
testified to having picked up the bullet
when it fell upon the floor. Mrs. Otto Wal
lin swore that she thought she saw Lavine
crossing the flat towards the river early in
the afternoon. Complainant Rhude testi-
fed that the shooting occurred about 4
o'clock, fast time. Anton Peterson, who
lives about one fourth of q mile east of
Oliver Rhudes old place, said he heard the
shooting and man halloo from that direc-'
tion about the middle of the afternoon.
John Nelson and his wife testified that
they live about mile and one-half from
where the shooting occurred, and that
Lavine came to their house between 4 and
o'clock-nearer than 5-by their time,
which is mediumly slow time. and that he
had a gun with him. and he said he had
been out hunting rabbits. N. j. Olson
said he met Lavine about dusk coming
home from Nelson's, and that he had
gun with him,
The defendant being put on the stand
in his own behalf. said he left his house
about o'clock and took his gun with him
to hunt a jack-rabbit; that he followed up
the ravine running past the gr1st mill and
arrived at John Nelson's house about 4
o'clock; (gun in court shown defendant);
he said it was his gun; that he found it
about 18 months ago on the ground in the
woods, with the stock rotted off; that he
had made new stock for it and had
secured up the outside of the gun, but had
never cleaned nor secured the inside; that
ue udu ueVoE SuOt euo y uA hui 1oduou Az W
any one else to shoot-in fact the gun had
never been shot since he had it. The ex-
cuse he gave for never having tried to
scour or clean the inside of the gun was,
that he didn't have ramrod.
At this juncture a cleaning-rod and
clean white rag was obtained and the rag
drawn through the barrel of the gun, and
developed the fact that the gun had been
recently fired, the odor of freshly burned
powdef being strongly present on the rag,
and the stains of burnt powder only ap-
pearing on the rag, there being no indica-
tions of rust nor other dirt present in the
barrel of the gun. These developments
were sknock-down argument against
the defendants statements, and satisfied
the court that there was reasonable cause
to believe that the crime charged had been
committed, and thereupon the defendant
was held to answer at the next term of
the district court. His bail was fixed at
$500, and failing to secure it he was com
mltted to Jail.
There is great dearth of news in Ban
croft just now, the late wintery spell of
weather and bad roads having apparently