Omaha daily bee., 1896-06-21
MARK FOR THE ARAB SPEARS
Massacre of Medora's Marquis and His Fol-
loves in Africa.
De MORES' CAREER IN THE DAKOTAS
His Fighting Propcnsitics and Fool
ish business Ventures-Sensn-
tionaI Stories of the En-
ratio Frenchman.
)E MORES' CAREER IN THE DAKOTAS

Confirmation of the early report announc-
ing that the Marquis de Mores and his band
Of fifty men were massacred in Africa has
reached Tunis, Morocco. Shortly after the
British Egyptian advance on the Soudan,
the fighting marquis organized a band of
French adventures to advance into the
Soudan country for the purpose Of e~nlisting
Arab chiefs to Join the Soudanese in repell-
ing the advance of the British. TIL band
reached a place named Gadames and every
member was massacred.
BY the killing of the Marquis de Mores
there passes away one of the most remark
able characters that has come to the United
States for adventure and the accumulation
of worldly goods within recent years. The
marquis was exceedingly %erratic, followed
no advice in his mad career except that of
his own mind, and wasted all the money
Upon which he could lay his hands through
the indulgence OF an unwary father-in-law.
During the three years from 1883 to 1886 the
bad lands" Of Dakota were the scene of
De Mores' action, and here he won fame
through his peculiar ways and foolish ven
lures.
In the early eighties the marquis came
to this country from France. His home was
near cannes. His father-in-Iaw was Baron
Won Hoffman,, and with his credit to back
him he set out for Dakota. His idea was
that It. was possible to reap large profits by
killing cattle and shipping beef from the
western ranches instead of bringing it to
Chicago alive. He established large slaugh-
ter houses with the carrying out of his
scheme in view.
MONEY THROWN. AWAY.
But the money was thrown away; De
Mores' idea proved a poor one. Medora,
along the Missouri river, was founded by
him when he arrived in the west. OF it
the ~sanguine Frenchman decided to make a
great city, but now it has only a popula-
tiOn of about a dozen. Having persuaded
Won Hoffman to give him the necessary
money, he started the Northern Pacific Re
frigerator company. which never brought
returns. 1t was his intention to supply the
whole west with beef, bur when he had
erected a 5000, 900 slaughter house and a score
OF smaller buildings at points along the
Northern Pacific road. besides purchasing
a cold storage house in st. Paul for S40,-
900 and building a 5000 900 plant at Du-
luth, the enterprise proved a total failure,
and, after having spent nearly a million,
Baron Won Hoffman positively refused to be
bled for any more. The great slaughter
house, a model OF its kind, still stands at
Medora, but it is not in use.
Aside from his airy and successful
scheme to ruin the business OF the Chicago
packers, a killing scrape in which the mar
quis figured prominently helped to make his
career in the bad lands famous. The
trouble was the outcome Of an attempt on
his part to fence in part Of the bad lands, :"
without regard to the pony trails, over
which most of the travelling was done. This
was considered an invasion of their rights
by the ranchers, and the barb wires were
continually cut and as often repaired, until
finally a hunter OF the name of Frank
O'Donnell, while drunk, swore he would
shoot De Mores on sight II he persisted in
fencing in the pony trails" When the
threat reached the Frenehman he at once
swore out a warrant for ODonnell. A dep
uty sheriff came on from Mandan, but. as
O'Donnell was accompanied by two other
hunters, Lufsey and Wanegan, when the
deputy sheriff arrived, he was not arrested,
Foreseeing this, the marquis and two en-
ployes started out ahead, and when O'Don-
nell and his companions came along shots
we're exchanged, the result being that Luf-
sey was killed. But though De Mores always