Western liberal. (Lordsburg, N.M.) 1887-1919, 1893-03-03
STERN FRONTIER JUSTICE.
From the New York ban.

and desperate officer on the border,
with a record of over forty deaths to
his account, once said to me as we
stood together at the hanging OF two
Creek Indian murderers at Wichita
Kansas:
"I have pulled the trap at seven
teen executions, and l have never
done so without a feeling Of horror
and a desire to shirk my duty. 1
would willingly forfeit three months
salary rather chan obey the mandate
Of the court in This particular
Gas it was with Jack at this execu-
tion, so it is with spectator, at least
at his first hanging. remember dis
tinctly my original experience in this
line. 1t was also at Wichita. An lS
year old boy, Lee Mosher, had been
convicted of having deliberately plan
ned and carried out the plan to kill
man when only 16 years of age. A
large stockade sixteen feet high had
been erected just outside the jail, and
on the morning of the execution a
curious crowd gathered there with the
morbid desire to see the condemned
boy as he passed from the jail to the
stockade annex. When the hour ar
rived for the execution the prisoner
was taken from his cell into the Jail
parlor, and there, standing ghostly
white but firm and determined, the
death warrant was read to him. The
marshal reading the paper broke down
and sobbed like child, the prisoners
lips Quivered painfully for moment,
and all persons present brushed the
tears from their eyes as they followed
the officers and rthe uboy from the
building and through lane of anxi-
GUS spectators into the door Of the
stockade.
"The rabble saw the feeling that
animated the select few who followed
the boy and it was communicated to
them. Perhaps there was not one in
hundred but would have turned him
free if they could have done so. Mum
erous petitions had been sent to Presi-
dent Cleveland, but no reply had been
received.
"Once inside the stockade the door
was shut and barred. The condemned
boy mounted the scafold with firm
step. The moose and black cap were
adjusted and the trap sprung. As the
body shot through the hole my knee.
almost gave way under ME, and
heard a great sigh of pity go up from
those around. Before we could rccov
er from the shock a thunderous raj
came upon the door and a thousand
voices on the outside shouted:
GA reprieve! a reprieve! Don
hang that boys on your lives"
"The officers turned pale, and tht
spectators, as they looked in fasci
mated horror at the swaying, shiveT
ing body at the end of the rope
gasped in horror. Some one opened
the gate to admit the messenger, ant
the mob outside saw the danglinl
body. Then ascended a cry Of:
"Lynch the officers. They hum
the boy after he had been reprieyed
"The message, however, did no
preve to be reprieye, but was nc
tice that the president refused to in
terfere. A border tragedy was thu
narrowly averted. 1 have never fol
gotten my feeling Of utter weakness
and knee shaking as 1 experienced
then.
"The next time saw man hung
10 was not a legal execution by an
means. was doing newspaper wor
! for eastern papers around the Okli
G homa country in 1888, and while q
Purcell I had an experience that
don't care to repeat in kind
'' "The place was filed up with stral
gers. The Santa Fe depot is down
the valley near the South Canada
= river, and the town is lerched hig
}. up on projecting spur Of the A
= buckle mountains. During IL
I months prior to the opening Of Okl
homa this river bottom was one ma
of wagons, oxen, horses, dogs, me
women, children and side show
Here you found the Buckeye fro
Ohio, the Hoosler from Indiana, Il
sucker from Illinois, and represent
tiyes of other eastern and midd
states who had been lured out to I'll
wilderness by glowing newspaper !
ports Of the new El Dorado.
course, gamblers Of all descriptio
abounded, from three-card-monte al
shell-game fakirs Up to the regulate
keepers Of a tiger den.
J. "The tough citizen also abouude
One evening as the train from {
=. south drew up at the depot a dru