Omaha daily bee., 1896-06-07

| Up to this time Pres Metzker and l had been
| good friends; but Pres had been drinking
and was in an ugly mood. He came along,
making a great deal Of noise, and said to
me: On you, get up! Then he grabbed
my legs and pulled me off. In a few minutes
he jerked me off again. / said, Let me
alone, Pres; / am sleepy He went away,
but soon came back and pulled me off a
third time, and took my hat, threw 1t upon
the ground and stamped 1t. He said l had
no business there; that / ought to be at
home picking no chips for my ma told
him that was none of his business; and then
| walked over to one of the long counters and
called for a drink of whisky. He followed,
and just as l lifted the glass to my lips he
caught me by the throat, splitting the whisky.
l set down my glass and turned around and
said to him: Pres, If you do that again l
will knock you down, IL you are bigger
than l am; you have run this thing far
enough He had a loaded whip in his hand
and was determined to have a fight with
me. ! hit him a terrible blow, knocking
the skin from one of my knuckles. We
c~linched, and Pres rather got the best
of me. ! was strong for one of my size
and was able to catch him and throw him
back over me. He got up first and came
at me again. Then we fought like tigers.
At last he got me under him. More than
a hundred people stood by watching the
fight, and when the boys saw Pres was
getting the best Of me they pulled him off.
We walked up to the bar, and each taking
q uTlnh OF WHISKY we jumped SlHSSeS ana
were friends again. But Pres had not
gotten through with me-. AS we stood there,
without any warning he hit me a blow on
the upper lip. He was going to hit me
with a glass. when another man said: Set
that down; II you strike him with that
glass will kill you Then we parted.
Metzker stole a quilt from a buggy near
by, and wrapping it around him walked off
to bed. l saw nothing more of him until
the next morning, when he walked to the
hnr NFtt thn AZ Gull. .,n1 n,a,aI LI-
His right eye was swollen shut. He bathed
1t with a glass of whisky; drank another
glass, and then mounted his horse and
rode away. Several days after that he
died. Then the officers came and arrested
me and put me In jail.
II had a preliminary trial at Havana and
was held without bail. All the bad luck in
the world seemed to come TO me now. On
this very day my father, Jack Armstrong,
died. On his deathbed he said to my mother:
Hannah, sell everything to clear "Duf."'
These were his last words. / was a kind of
~favorite with my ma and pa both. / always |
staid at home with them.
LINCOLN's DEFENSE.
after the change of venue to Boards
town Lincoln told my mother he would de
fend me. At the trial l had about twenty
five witnesses. The strongest witness against
me was Charles Allen. He was the witness
that swore about the moon; he swore IL was
a full moon and almost overhead. Uncle
Abo' asked him over and over about II, but
he stuck to 1t. Then he said he saw me
strike Metzker with a slungshot. Uncle
Abe asked him to tell how 1t was
done. He got up and went through
the motion; struck an overland
blow, just as he declared he saw
me do by the light of the full moon. Uncle
Abe had him do II over again. After Aliens
m everybody thought I would be con-
victed. After Uncle Abe had talked 10 the
jury u little while he said: Now, l will show
you that this man Aliens testimony is a
pack OF lies; that he never saw Armstrong
strike Metzker with a slungshot; that he did
not witness this fight by the light OF the full
moon, for the moon was not In the heavens
that night And then Uncle Abe pulled
ont the almanac and showed the jury the
truth about the moon; l do not remember ex-
acly what It was-whether the moon had not
risen. or whether It had set; but whatever 1t
was II upset Aliens story completely. He
passed the almanac to the Jurors and they oil
inspected II. Then Uncle Abe talked about
the night, and showed that / had acted In self
defense and had used no weapon Of any kind.
but II seemed to me Uncle Abe did his best
talking when he told the jury what true
friends my father and mother had been TO
hin IN the early days, when he was a poor
young man at New Salem. He told how he
used 10 go out 20 Jack Armstrong; and
stay Tor days; how kind mother was to him,
and now. many a time. he had rocked me
to sleep In the old cradle. He said he was
not there plead ng for me because he was