Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1893-05-12
PLAYING THE HORSE FIDDLE.
The Noise That Scared q Texas Town a,
Resulted In q Lyuchfnp.

AU"uB EMO
Resulted In u Lynchinr.
The apocryphal leaves in hroso
were never as numerous as the stories with
which Colonel William G. Sterrett's mcm'
DRY is stocked. They seem to ooze ont ~
him at all times and upon all occasions
without further effort on his part than ths
mere recounting of them.
Speaking of noises" remarked the colo
mel, reminds M of a thing that occurred
down in Henderson county in nv sta,e
once. Right near Maxwell was a wild sort
OF place, inhabited with about 400, OOON0
black wolves, and the edge of it was pretty
thickly settled. stranger going to one Of
the settlers houses never could sleep he.
causes the wolves made such n noise, bu,
the natives never minded 'em a bit, and
even their dogs stopped taking any notice
of 'em.
Suddenly the people began to get wor.
ried. Sounds began to come out of tina,
wilderness such as no human ear had ever
listened to before. The bowls of the wolves
We're as the voices of the cherubim and the
seraphim alongside of it. Every night it
continued growing worse and worse, until
it becamedownright soul terrifying. Grown
folks would get white and the children's
teeth would chatter, while all the cattle
would come up around the houses and try
to get comfort from bein near folks.
pretty soon the people concluded it was
a bengal tiger or a lion that had got out O
some circus and they made up their minds
to hunt it down so they could get some sleep
again. So big party raided the woods and
sent in the dogs. Pretty soon back came
the dogs with theireyes bigger'n brighten
electric lights and their hair all standingu p
and their tails between their legs, and they
didn't stop when their masters called 'em,
but kept right on for home hard as they
could go. The people concluded the thing,
whatever it was, must be something pretty
terrible when n Texas dog wouldn't tackle
it, SO they drew off their forces.
THAT only made the noise at night more
Internal than ever 1t was indescribable.
All the souls in torment seemed to bemoan.
ing and crying and shrieking and carrying
on together. AT last a fellow came along
who said he had been in Africa, and that
the noise was nothing in the world but the
night song of an ostrich. The people felt
sort O. ashamed that they had been fright
ened by anything that wore feathers, SO
they made up their minds to start in after
it again and let nothing stop ZEN. So one
night about 100 of 'em armed to the teeth
went forth determined on victory. The
dogs went i'll and came out again just as
they did before, but their masters went on.
AS they began to get near the place the
sounds came from they were MI pretty near
scared to death, but they were afraid to
turn back less the thing, ostrich or what
ever it was, might run after 'em and catch
'em. So on they went, gentlemen, and
pretty soon they came to a little cabin in
gully, and there they found a-sitting out III
front of it an old fellow named Jim Bolts,
a-sawing away for dear life and trying to
play Maryland, My Maryland on a big
boss fiddle"
what did they do with him? Why,
they hung him of course. "-Washington