The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-07-12
port.

been a specific charge of downright dis
honesty, and now Colonel Hamilton
was warned by his friends that some
radical step was necessary. That
phrase has a peculiar meaning down
south, and the day after the publicd-
ton of the Offensive article, Hamilton
and Gambrell met on the bridge which
connects East and West Jackson.
There were no witnesses, and when the
firing ceased, the first arrivals on the
scene found young Gambrell dead,
with a. bullet through his brain and
two others in his breast, while an
arms length away. Hamilton lay well
ter5ng in the blood from two dangerous
wounds in his body.
At once the Prohibitionists, who
numbered among their ranks some of
the most influential men in the state,
raised the cry that Hamilton had way
laid and assassinated the young editor,
and, wounded as he was, Hamilton was
taken to jail-which, by the way, had
to be heavily guarded for several days
to prevent Gambrells slayer from
being mobbed by the dead mans
friends.
Every effort was made to obtain bail
for Colonel Hamilton, so that work on
the Gulf and Ship Island enterprise
might cor'inUe unaba ted: but without
success He stayed in jail for over one
year, and when he finally walked forth
a free man he found himself bereft of
home and foTtune-ali his holdings
having been consumed in the defense
OF the biTfereSt prosecution ever known
in the south. "Bellehaven'' was sold
to Dr. Fitzhugh. who had been one of
Hamtlton's harsheSt prosecutors. He
turned the old home into a Methodist
female seminary, and where the por-
trait of its former owner had hung on
the dra,wing-rocm wall, the new
owner placed the portrait of Roderick
Dhu Gambrell. year later the house
burned to the ground.
Besides this, the appalling tragedy
was followed by a series of happenings
SO curious and strange as to almost
call for occult explanation. First of
all, within two weeks after Haenilton's
acqu1ftal, young Martin and General
Writ Adams (who had been a briga-
der in the Confederate army killed
one another in a street duel at Jack
son. And in the years that have
passed since then, every judge. attor-
ney and juryman who was adverse to
Hamilton in his trial for murder has
either died, become insane, or been re-
leSafed to obscurity; while, on the
other hand. ali those who worked for
the prisoners acqUittal are living to-
day, and. holding positions OF prornf-
hence.
SO much for the story of the tradegy
so indissolubly connected with the Gulf
and Ship Island railway-a tragedy
which in its far-reaching effects.
brought untold sorrow to numberless
homes, and put back the DEVELOPMENT
OF great state and a large section of
this country by at least ten years
Now. hy the r6qrr-9 of
feited lands to the company, Colonel
Hamilton and his associates have been
enabled 70 take up the work anew, and
construction Of the railway was begun
again only last week and Will be
pushed to completion at the earliest
possible day. 1t viii run northward.
and in Guifport viii be the natural
harbor along the American gulf shore.
excepting that of Pensacola. Fla. New
Orleans is 10 miles from the gulf,
while Mobile. its chief rival is about
fifty miles. and the expense of tonnage
and hgnterage at these two ports has
been so great as to put a serious crot-
Chef upon the wheels of that sections
commercial progress. With the com
pletion of the improvements contern-
plated under the charter c,e the pres
ent company the people of the south
expect great things to happen, among
which VIII be the diversion of q great
part Of the Latjn-American trade from
New York and other Atlantic points to
Gulfport; as wei as the further and
immediate development OF the southern
fish, lumber and moss industries-not
to mention the decrea sed cost of trans
porting cotton and other southern sta
pies direct
But, if for all good there is a com
pensatng evil. the reverse may be also
true; and the effect of building a
north and south trunk lire. and the
utilization of the only great natural |