The Portland daily press., 1893-05-09
LYNCH LAW.
Summary Hangings in Maine. New York
and Montana.
New York s,,n1.

time" said a well-known railroad con-
tractor and civil engineer, s'and where
do you suppose saw piece of work of
that kind done the most artistically and
with the least fuss and conjunction?
Naturally you might say in Montana, or
down in Texas. or in some other part of
the country where circumstances have
made lynching one of the exact sciences.
But it was in none of those places. 1t
was in Maine. Of all parts of the coun-
try, Maine! Cold, unimpulsive, law
abiding-leaving out the liquor law
Maine! Surprising thing, isn't it? Peo-
pie will be reluctant to believe that any
one was ever lynched in Maine, but it is
fact all the same and if lynching was
ever pardonable that one was.
'But while I'm speaking of lynching
I might as well say that / have been pc
culiarly fated to be on hand at shocking
seances of this kind. The first execution
of the degree of lynch law that ever
witnessed was in 1869 at Helena, Mon
Helena wasn't the great town that it is
now. Itwas infected by gamblers, rus
tiers, 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 be-
come so decided and dangerous in 1869
that the better class of settlers got
together and formed the Helena
Regulators, an organization sworn
to clear the town of thieves, murderers
and gamblers. The Regulators made
their first move when the Fort Benton
stage was held up by band of road
agents who robbed the mails and passen-
gers. The Regulators pursued the band,
overlook it, and running fight between
the robbers and the citizens ensued and
lasted for Ia distance of ten miles. Two
of the Regulators were shot dead during
the battle and several of them fatally
wounded. The robber gang proved to
be Jim Daily's. Three of them were
killed. and Daily himself was wounded
and captured. An engineer corps that /
was with then got into Helena just after
the Regulators had come in with jim
Daily. He was a big, ugly, savage look
ing fellow, defiant even in his bonds.
He had many sympathizers in town, but
they were somewhat cowed by the sud-
den display of spirit on the part of the
citizens and were afraid to make an eff
fort to rescue the big outlaw. even when
a delegation of Regulators started with
him to take him outside of the town and
lynch him. A good many of his follow
ers trailed along with the party Of execu-
TONERS though, among them one bronzed,
white-whiskered mountaineer, who must
have been 70 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
remember the mans name, but he was
leading citizen and a judge, and he placed
the moose around Daily's neck himself,
threw the rope over a limb, and drove
the wagon from beneath the doomed
mans feet. But even with the rope
around his neck and he dangling in the
air he escaped 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 Daily's wild career. AS the rope
frightened about Daily's neck and his con
torting body whirled around with it's
twistings, the white-whiskered old fell
low that spoke of raised his rifle and
sent a ball straight between the outlaws
eyes, putting an end instantly to all the
misery the struggling rope was entailing
upon him. This action of the old des-
perado was of course defeating of the
ends of justice as it was administered
by lynch law, and dozen rifles were in
a second aimed at the old mans breast.
But none was fired. He sat his horse
erect and defiant, and his weapon COW
cred the leader of the Regulators, the
Helena judge. The judge would have
been as dead as the dangling Jim Daily
if one rifle had cracked on the grizzled
friend of the outlaw. The leader of the
Regulators was not there to die, and at a
motion Of his hand every rifle but the
veteran desperado's was lowered, and
the citizens marched back to Helena.
leaving the old man with his dead lead
er.
'But the hanging of Jim Daily did not
have the effect on the lawless denizens
of Helena that it was thought would re-
suit from it. There were few weeks of
quiet, but gradually things became about
as bad as ever. The logical successor of
Jim Daily as the master spirit of law
lessness in Helena was reckless Young
fellow named Bill Burr. He took hold
of things, and when he fell in love with
mysterious young woman who had ap-
peared in Helena not long after jim
Daily was lynched he became even more
bold and defiant in his demeanor. This
young woman was beauty, and she
opened millinery shop. She called
herself Mile. Louise. A young Phila-
delphian named Al Worral had settled
in Helena, and the handsome milliner
fell in love with him. She spurned all
the advances of Bill Burr, and this en-
ragged him so that one evening, in the
barroom of the International Hotel, he
stabbed Worrall to death in the most
cowardly manner. He had no sooner
done it than citizen who was present
shot Bill Burr dead. Instantly friend
of Burr killed the citizen. This man
mounted his horse and attempted to es-
cape, but he was brought down by rifle
ball fired by an old miner before he had
gone hundred yards. Two more of
Bill 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 I am afraid that
helped to do it. On the breast and back