The Dalles daily chronicle. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1890-1948, 1894-10-15
PINK MINK JUSTICE.
Stories from the Marsh Country
Round About winamac, Ind.
Comfort A Freemaen's Unique Manner of
DisposIng of His Cases-Some Stories
That Are Told To-Day of the
Ver<licts Rendered.

When Pulaski county was first settled,
in 1888, class of Indian traders and
stock thieves oyerran the county and
terrorized the law-abiding pioneers till
forbearance ceased to be a virtue with
them, and they met in mass conven-
ton and nominated and elected Com
fort A. Freemaen their justice of the
peace. Squire Freemaen, says a Chi
cago Tribune correspondent, possessed
but slight idea of what the state stat
ues contained, therefore his justice
courtwa run upon the appearance and
character of the charges preferred; as
the squire termed it: Common horse
sense and general principles in evil
dence." He held his court under a
cluster of plum trees that was thickly
covered with grapevines. A stump of
a tree he used as table. The jury used
a hewed log for their seats; the specta-
tors used the most convenientsspots on
the ground. Early "reminiscences, as
told by the old settlers, say that in the
early part of 1910 Wilhelm Restrux's
COW wandered far away from her pas.
ture field of water lilies and cattails
and no trace of her whereabouts was to
be found until the following spring,
when worthless character and land
squatter by the name of McTurtle had
the COW in his possession and refused to
give her up. Mr.. Restrux replevied the
COW, and evidence during the trial was
in favor of Mr.. Restrux, and the court
so decided. The justice of the peace,
while in the act of entering his verdict
upon his docket, overheard McTurtle
remarking: Nothing been sed bout
that calf" His honor was egotistical,
and, walking up to him, seized him by
the throat. Say, you COW thief, give
up that calf or I'll pound niggerheads
out of you" The calf was given up.
Charles Blackstone, being charged
with stealing a slab-sided, razor-back
hog, the evidence was against him,
and the court instructed his bailin to
apply fifty lashes to the convicted
mans back. Upon adjournment of the
court the bailiff went out to find a
good OK CAD, and during his absence
the attorney for Blackstone fled hear
ing for new trial. The court agreed
to hear the argument and adjourned for
dinner. In the meantime the bailif
returned and escorted the prisoner into
the timber and carried out the courts
instructions, and Blackstone, not under
standing motion for a new trial was
to be heard, entered no, word of pro-
test against the whipping received and
went back to the court, which was
then in session. His attorney was
pleading for a new trial. Blackstone
did not understand this, and exclaimed:
''Great snakes, squire, have had one
whaling" The court was astonished,
and said: ''Yank that drunken cuss out
of here and pound bucket of grease
out of him. His attorney protested,
and the court threatened then to tar
and feather the attorney if he didn't
shet up" In the meantime Mr.. Black
stone received the second whipping,
and was returned to the court. He
found his attorney in heated contro-
versy with the court. Mr.. Blackstone
fell upon his knees and pleaded the
court to make that lawyer ''shet up or
he would be hanged for that hog yet,
and the wild fern would, wave over his
grave by the Pink Mink" The court
awakened to the fact that something
was wrong, and proceeded to kick the
bailiff out of the room.
The squire's wife notified him one
day they We're out of meal and he at
once filed a sack with shelled corn
anu SldTbO W WudO lS knOWn DIS G10
''Niggerhead Flutter MILL Upon his
arrival he found the mill owner was
absent, and as the squire did not want
to make the second trip he filed the
hopper and started the burrs to grind
ing. It being a slow and tedious job
he concluded to take nap, which he
did, and in an hour or so he woke up
and went to the meal-catch bin and
discovered several dogs tapping up the
meal as it came from the grinding
burrs. The squire went home roaring
mad and issued a warrant for the mill
owner and sat in Judgment upon the
trial and fined the mill owner five
bushels of meal.
Wilson Cornell was charged with,
selling whisky to the Indians. During
heated controversy between the OPP
posing counsel the squire and Cornell
slipped out the courtroom and they
were soon seen rolling ten-gallon keg
into the sauire's cabin. The court
then decided that the act upon which
this charge was founded had expired
when Indiana became state and that
an Indians evidence was no good until
he became citizen.
1As time progressed Squire Freemaen
blossomed as an attorney at law. His
shingle read as follows:
FREEMAEN, ETERNY AND
Law SQUIRE