, 1896-11-17
JURY KNEW ITS DUTY
ALTHOUGH HIS HONOR FLED
THE JURY CONTINUED IN
BUSINESS.
Two Touching Tributes Paid to the
Presiding Judge-Saluted With
Bullets and Soothed With a Watch
A Thrilling Story of Border JUS
tiCe.

fh>ht' "eS ohN eiuh' - :
up in Halves county. in one of the Mis-
souri, river territories which-but per-
haps you would better hear the whole
story told by the Chicago Times-Her-
Easy it is under any circumstances in
the world to mass men into combina-
ton for some definite object. In those
old territorial and steamboat days the
population of Halves county, though
limited in quantity. was swift in mo-
ton and morality. 4 man who dis
mounted from the lower Missouri
steamboat at the levee was obliged to
wear a saddle blanket Over his head as
he walked up town t o keep his vivid
bushes from signaling the down boat
to stop. This was especially true in
the case of Hensford, the county seat.
and it got worse as you progressed in
to the other settlements. The county
seat was sat down in by a sort of gen
eral ~riff-raff of bullwhackers, steam
BOAT rousters and horse thieves of all
northwest nationalities. There were
also others whom it was a matter of
pain to mention. The conglOmeration
made the night an orgy with sides and
end gates painted red and the voice of
virtue was the voice of a deaf mute.
Into this county seat one day came
Judge A~rlington-now a federal judge
in that same Dakota county-to hold
a small mou of court, and to SEN
tence some three dozen representatives
of the ~offscourings of the earth to be
hanged. The sheriff had the Jail pack
ed with criminals of all vicious sorts
and there was a general c!amor for a
debut of the district court. so that the
population outside the Jail might have
a decent chance to get inside. where it
belonged. Judge Arlington therefore
travelled up the Missouri river, and.
being met at the landing by a band
of distinguished Williams, was escort
ed up town to the hotel, which was a
saloon as well. and in a Dom in the
second story of which it had been de-
signed that court should be held. A
sort of platform vas put up at one end
of the room. the support thereof being
beer kegs. and the work of ~impaneling
Il grand jury was entered upon. The
grand jury exhausted a large share of
the population of the town and the
sheriff was obliged to liberate two
distinguished desperadoes from the
jain to complete the panel, but. as these
two were held for merely Incidental
murder instead of horse stealing, this
was considered all right. The remain
der OF the jury was built up of half
ere and dance hall keepers, and when
it lined up before Judge Arlington for
instructions before going down stairs
to the in the e Of the saloon
for de~liberation IN prospective indict-
ments 1t was the hardest looking
throng that ever got together in the
holy name of justice.
do not know exactly what occurred
in the real room behind the saloon be-
fore the firing began. 1t is certain that
seven rounds of liquor were served to
the grand jurors in the first hour, and
when Enoch WeatherwaX was tri-
umphantly indicted on 62 a%ccounts for
horse and cattle stealing the b%arkeeper
threw open the intervening door and
asked the jurors ITO kindly take pos
session Of the stock, the occasion being
considered by him as Il OF the great
moments i'm the history of the town. 1t
was shortly after this THAT the first
bullet tipped up through the fioor and
past the left ear OF the judge. A few
moments later another and half a dOz-
,en others followed, and to the judge it
seemed hat an inverted rain storm of
bullets had struck that region and his
place was elsewhere. He did not know
just what the men were fighting about,
but guessed 1T to be the third count i'm
the Middleton Indictment. AS a matter
of fact, they were not fighting at all,
but were merely celebrating the event
of the court sitting, and although h
bullet which went through the tieshy
part of Judge Arlington's leg was pro-
ductive OF some pain, still 1t was meant
solely as a witness of the esteem In
which he was held The judge didn't
know that, and, looking out of the VIM
dow, he saw the Rosebud coming down
the river. Without a word to anybody
he made a running jump and cleared
that window like a sort Of forensic
antelope. Twenty minutes later he was
on the Rosebud and had crawled as far
up on the bow as possible, so as to get
out of town the quicker.
He had not waited to direct h sher-
in to adjourn court. The court was
abandoned by him while still in ses
sion The legally constituted grand
jury was not curtai1ed Of its powers.
but was left to grind cheerily on in Its
murderous way as though life was one
grand holiday Of indictments and there
was no such thing a. a closed hunting
season. The jury accepted that view
II It and when the judges absence was
made known to It's members the fore
man simply shot a volley out OF his re-
volver and declared that the powers
and authority Of the inquisitorial body
could no be swindled away from 1t by
Ifha nfnmundNn~ NJ onv &ondorfook 5ur-