The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-05-04

From the New \ ofk sun.
"Thave seen seven men lynched in
s. time said a well-known railroad co
tractor and civil engineer, and who
do YOU suppose 1 saw a piece of work
i maj kind done the most artistically al
Nth the least fuss and compunctiol
4 Naturally YOU might say in Montana, O
& down in Texas, or in some other part
d the country where circumstances hay,
made Ivnching one of the exact sciences
Pnt it was in none of those places. 1t was
& in Maine. OF all parts of the country,
n Maine! Cold, unimpulsive, law-abiding-
4 leaving out the liquor law-Maine! Sur
B nrising thing, isn't it, People will be re
iuctant to believe that any one was ever
1zncbed in Maine, but it is a fact, all the
same. and if a lynching was ever pardon
H able that one was
~Rut while I'm speaking of lynching, l
n might as well say that | have been pecul-
n jaTIy fated to be on hand at shocking
Fl seances of this kind. The first execution
II of the decree of lynch law that ever wit
messed was in 1869 at Helena Mont
Helena wasn't the great town then that
If is now. 1t was infested by gamblers,
rustlers, bad men, horse thieves, and all
sorts of rOughs and toughs, and they
pretty much ran the place. A gang known
as the Jim Daily gang, named for its
leader. was a particularly offensive and
dreaded band of robbers and thugs. The
rule of the lawless element had become so
decided and dangerous in 1869 that the
N better class of settlers got together and
4 formed the Helena Regula tors, an organi-
cation sworn to clear the town of thieves,
4 nurderers and gamblers. The regulators
Il made their first move when the Fort Ben
Il ton stage was held up by band of road
4 agents. who robbed the mails and passen-
gers The regulators pursued the band,
Fl overlook it, and running fight between
4 the robbers and the citizens ensued
Il and lasted for a distance of
4 ten miles. Two of the regulators were
shot dead during the battle and several
q Of them fatally wounded The robber
4 gang proved to be Jim Daily's. Three of
4 them were killed. and Daily himself was
4 wounded and captured An engineer
corps that 1 was with then got into
Il Helena just after the regulators had come
4 i'm with Jim Daily. He was big, ugly,
4 savage-loOking fellow, and defiant even in
\ his bonds. He had many sympathizers in
the town, but they were somewhat cowed
Il by the sudden display of spirit on the
part of the citizens and were afraid to
make an effort to rescue the big outlaw,
even when delegation of regulators
started with him to take him outside of
"A a
4 his followers trailed along with the party
4 of eXecutioners, though, among them one
brOnzed, white-whiskered mountaineer,
who must have been 20 years old. And
he was as tough as he was old.
The regulators took Daily three miles
out of town and ran the wagon he was
riding on under an oak tree | don't re-
member the mans name, but he was a
& leading citizen and a Judge, and he placed
4 the moose around Daily's neck himself,
4 threw the rope over limb and drove the
wagon from beneath the doomed mans
4 feet But even with the rope around his
neck and he dangling in the air Daily es-
capped death by hanging after all. The
most dramatic scene that ever occurred,
even in those tragic days in the lawless
great west came with the end of Jim
4 Daly'S wild career AS the rope tight
ened about Daily's neck and his comfort
ing body whirled around with its twist
lngs, the white-whiskered old fellow
4 that spoke of raised his rife and
sent a ball straight between the
outlaws eyes putting, an end instantly to
al the misery the strangling rope was en-
failing upon him. This action of the old
desperate was, of course, a defeating of
the ends of Justice as it was administered
by lynch law, and a dozen rifles were
in a second aimed at the old man S breast.
But none was fred. He sat his horse
WV anu w llt4IN, anu Ills NEdIOu GOV
cred the leader of the regulators, the
Helena Judge. The Judge would have
b3en as dtad as The dangling Jim Daily if
one rifle had cracked on the grizzed
friend Of The oatlaw. The leader of the
regulators was not there to die, and at
motion of his hand every rife but the
veteran desperado's was lowered and the
citizens marched back to Helena, leaving
the old man with his dead leader.
But the hanging of Jim Daily did not
nave the effect on the lawlesS denizens of
Helena that it was thought would result
from 1t. There were a few weeks of
quiet, but gradually things became about
as rad as ever. The logical successor of
jim Daily as the master spirit of lawless-
ness IN Helena was a reckless young fell
low named Bill Burr. He took hold of
thmgs, and when he fell in love with a
mysterious young woman who mad APP
Peared in Helena not long after jim
DAILY was lynched, he became even
more bold and defiant in his
1emeanor. This young woman was a
beauty, and she opened a millinery shop
Sne called herself Mile Louise A young
Pnlladelphian named AL Worrau had set
Iled IN Helena, and the handsome milli-
her fell IN love with him. She spurned
al Uhe advances of Bill Burr, and this en-
ragged him so that one evening in the bar
room of the International hotel he sta bbed
manner. He had no sooner done it than a
9tlZen who was present shot Bill Burr
Uead Instantly friend of Burr killed
the citizen
This man mounted his horse and at
tempted to escape, but he was brought
IoNWn by rife ball fired by an old miner
oeIQre he had gone 100 yards Two more
VI Blu Burr's gang were killed in the
melee that followed, and four of them
were captured and strung up right in the
streets Of Helena, and am afraid that 1
nSeIped TO do it. On the breast and back
oi each man hanged a placard was
pinned, giving short notice to
every friend of Bill Burr in
t .ldl town or locality to leave at once, and
me IIe warning was so well taken that
iilelena became from that day quiet and
ava bldlng place. And what do you
IinInkI The young and mysterious mil
Huer who had been the indirect cause of
ms tIls bloody but beneficial tragedy, in less
oudh Two months married the Judge, and
as as l heard only last week from friend of
ntlhe IN Helena, she is one of the leaders
" society out there to-day
...- AFTER A we got through with the North
~ Fdclhc railroad survey came east,
Tliu IN the spring of 1872 went to Presque
-siei Me, on some business for lumber
DOnpdny. The first daV was there word