The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-06-09
Another Double for the Parson
Found in Idaho.
NEARLY A LYNCHING BEE
UNPLEASANT EXPERIENCE OF AN
INNOCENT BOOK AGENT.
Looked Like the Murderer and Was
Arrested by the Sheriff of Oneida
Wns Aroused and 81 Lynching Was
with Difficulty Averted.

Another man who has the misfortune
to bear some resemblance to the Rev.
Francis Hermans has had the I'M
pleasant experience of having the Of
f1cers Of the law get after him in
Idaho. This time the suspect did not
get off as easy as did the hunter
Nuremberg whom Captain Donovan
and Detective Sheets went after. but
was actually arrested and came near
being very roughly treated by an ex-
cited crowd with a likely possibility
OF figuring as principal in an Old
fashioned western lynching bee.
The unfortunate was a book agent
named Neptune who has been for
some days canvassing the hamlets OF
Oneida county, Idaho. He was en-
gagged at his business in the towns OF
Samaria and st. Johns, distant seven
and four miles respectively, from
Malad, the county seat, when on
Saturday last some of the residents OF
the former place conceived the idea
from the fact that he wore
about his work with rather
an Indifferent air and because
he carried a moderate amount of intel
Ggence in his countenance, that he was
only playing the part of a peddler of
books and that in reality he was some
thing very much, different. They had
seen the pictures of Hermans publish
ed in the papers and had read the de-
scriptions of the much wanted parson.
Neptune, they concluded, answered the
description; he was the same size and
height, wore the gold bowed spectacles
and had all the facial characteristics
of the preacher. In fact if it was not
he it was his Wis Wis and they at
once jumped to the conclusion that it
was none other than Hermans and that
he was simply enacting the role of
book agent to hide his identity.
The more they thought about it the
more they believed the suspected muir
derer was in their midst, for they
reasoned, the locality, thirty odd miles
from Geographic communication and
quiet countryside, was just the place
fer a criminal to go masqueradfng to
escape the clutches of the law
Accordingly the Samaritans became
convinced they were on the right track
and a committee visited st. johns, to
which place the book agent had gone
while they were specializing over the
subject, and there counselled with
prominent citizens whom they had
no difficulty in convincing that Her
person of the strange acting book
agent.
AS a result Of the conference it was
arranged that a committee consisting
of the brothers John and D. D. Will
Jams, merchants of Samaria, eX-judge
of the probate court, Henry Jones of
ST. Johns and David Thomas also of
the latter place, should go to Malad
and Law the matter before the sheriff
This they dld on Saturday and
at Malad lawyers were called
in to the consultation with the sheriff.
All agreed the suspect must be Her
mans, and it was decided to arrest
him. Sheriff Joseph Coburn selected
picked posse and accompanied by the
committee, proceeded to st. John. They
found their prey had gone fishing five
miles away, and thither they hurried.
Neptune made no resistance, but pro-
tested his innocence of any wrong
doing and since he was not enlight-
ened by his captors, was at a loss to
understand why he was being taken
into custody. However, he readily ac-
companied the officers to Malad, where,
in the meantime, a great crowd had
assembled, for the sheriff had taken
no pains to conceal the object of his
quest to st. John. AS a consequence
the whole countryside was aroused.
Merchants closed up their places of
business and saloon keepers did like
wise and the farmers came in from the
country and all helped to swell the
multitude which waited impatiently
for the return of the sheriff with the
notorious criminal.
AS time lapsed, the crowd grew big
ger and the excitement became intense
until, when the sheriff and party fin
ally arrived the crowd had become a
mob, not far from from being in a
mood to mete out summary justice. So
angry, in fact, was the attitude of the
people that the prisoner, who was then
informed of what he was suspected,
feared lynching would be attempted,
and was joined in his fears by the
officers, who began making prepara-
tons to prevent it, and sent on some
of the cooler heads to reason with the
crowd, whose wrath was finally ap-
peased and the prisoner was taken to
the jail and put in the sweat box
where he had a hard time convincing
the officers that he was who and what
he professed to be, and had he not
been able to refer them to a check
drawn in his name by Salt Lake peo-
pie, which he had deposited at Malad
he would doubtless have been put to
the inconvenience of trip to this city
or have bene compelled to remain in
jail until officers from here could have
reached there, for the authorities be-
lieved the Identified ton was complete,
even the sore on the lip where a blush
spot appeared as though, according to
their judgment, the sore had healed.
The check saved the book agent,
however, and he was released, to the
infinite disgust of the crowd. while
Sheriff Coburn set up the drinks to
all who thought they saw in the Incl
dent joke on the sheriff but Nep-
tune, remembering the threatening
looks of the crowd and the close prox-
unity he had been in to neclktie
party, was unable to see the joke and
declined to join him.
The news of the affair was brought
to the city by Attorney C. F. Stone
of Malad, who arrived here last even
ing on his way to Virginia. Mr.. Stone
said, while relating the story last
evening, that while no harm was done
to the book agent, he nevertheless came
nearer being roughly handled, if no
more, than he will ever realize.