The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-05-17
MOST CRUEL TORTURE
A CALIFORNIAN RECALLS THE HOR-
RORs OF TAR AND FEATHERS.
Bill Hodson Was Given a Coat for
Beating His Wife, and the Result
Was Worse than Leprosy.


New York sun.
| A company of men sat in the Office of the
| Pomona Cali hotel the other evening. talk
| ing about the partial coat of tar and feathers
| that had been given to land-claim jumper
| over in the San Jacirto valley.
| IF live to rival the age OF old Methuse-
lah." said George Huntley, OF Los Angeles.
81 can never forget the horror OF tar and
| feathering bee that lot OF US fellows took
| part in at FL Paso. Tex, twenty-five years
ago. and If any of you men could see what 1
remember you would never so much as smile
| at the possibility of a human being ever hav-
ing a coating OF tar and feathers.
You see. 1t was like this: One OF the few
| women in western Texas at the time / am
telling about was certain Mrs Bill Hodson,
| who lived In our camp with her husband, and
| had sort OF a bakery. Everybody liked
Mrs. Bill. She was mighty pretty, could
| sing like bird. and was always looking on
| the bright side OF things, which was more
| than half the women of the world would
| have done IL they had been in her place on
| those plains. She had an unusual lot OF pa
thence with the meanest and most sneaking
man ever knew. Bill Hodson was drunk
six days in the week, and abused his wife
| until she gave him money to go on a drunk
| or gamble. He kept this up for several
months. and tried to shoot several persons
who told him what a good-for-nothing fellow
| he was and how shamefully he treated his
| poor little wife, One day the fellow knocked
his wife down and smashed her cook stove
because she had no more money for him to
/ squander.
! But there came an end to such abuse, for
one evening Hodson came into the bakery
drunk and dealt his wife blow in the face
! He escaped through the back door of the
kitchen. and she came in scared and bleed
| ing, and told the story to some of the
boarders. An inpromptu Indignation meet
| ing was held, and it was decided to tar and
| feather the fellow and run him out of town.
The phrases sounded we'll in the mouth OF
the man who suggested it, and everybody
| agreed that it was the correct thing to do
| HOW IT WAS DONE.
mo time was lost. Two men ran over to
the refining works and got a big bucket of
| tar, and others procured an old feather tick
| from a lodging house. Then a committee
| started out to get Bill Hodson. TEey found
| him asleep in a saloon and hustled him over
| to a vacant lot in the rear of some build
! ings. He was half-dazed and confused with
| drink, and thought the affair was joke
until the men began to strip off his CLOTH
| ing Then he fought like a mailman in
truth. believe he was mad with terror.
| His shirt and underclothes had to be liter
| ally torn off, and it was good fifteen min
| utes' work before he stood shivering and
| naked in the moonlight.
II can see him now-his beared eyes di-
lated and mis- stock of yellow hair bristling
on his head. His nude body stood out in
bold relief against the group that surround
ed him, and the chill penetrating air must
has %<.t. %,..~
| rate he crouched down and somebody called
out:
| AT the same instant the bucket of tar
was lifted and about a gallon thrown with
a swash over his bare shoulders. He sprang
erect at the touch OF the tar and whirle6
around just in time to receive the rest of
| IL on his head, face and chest. For a mo-
| ment he stood petrified, the black stuff
| with a great puddle of 1t on the ground.
| Then he slowly raised his hands to his eyes
and tried to brush them clear, but as his
fingers had received good share of the
| pitch. he only made matters worse and
dropped his arms again. He did not seem to
be able to realize what had happened, and
LAS he stood thus one of the men took
| the upper edge of the tick and inverted il
over him. / suppose IL was as complete
job of the sort as was ever undertaken:
| at least nothing overlooked to make
| 1t a success. Hodson looked like. nothing
human, but some strange species of mon
| ster biotched all over with fluffy white
| His head seemed about the size and shape
Of bushel basket, and his features We're
obiterated in the general blackness. When
| the work was done the committee gave
him fifteen minutes to get out of camp. He
was made to understand with difficulty, but
was started on the trail and the crowd dis
A HORRIBLE DEATH.
Early next morning some cow punchers
found Hodson back of a building, lying on
the ground and moaning. The tar had by
| this time rubbed all over him and partly
solidifed AS it grew hard it contracted,
| and every contraction had drawn with 1t
the thousands If microscope hairs with
which the body is covered. In places it had
broken the skin, and the men who carried
him into shed found blood on their hands.
| A physician, who is now living at Tucson.
was called in. and attempted to remove the
stuff with benzine. 1t was an utter failure,
as was everything else tried. from greese
to ammonia.
II saw Hodson in the course of the
morning. the lower portion of his body
was spectacle not easily forg got ems The
| hard pitch was cracked all over It. like alli-
gator skin, and that caked so solidy around
| it.. The other eye was opened, but dread
fully infiamed. At places over the surface
| were sodden splotches of feathers.
| Business called me away from FL Paso
| for about two weeks, and a few days after
| returned Hodson died. Meantime some of
| the tar had been removed by successive
washes. but his skin was covered with min
| ute black specks like the shaved chin of a
man who has a heavy beard. They We're
the choked up pores of the skim and this
was probably the real cause of death. A
| short time after punishment he had been
taken with a raging fever, and then symp-
| toms of a singular blood disorder set in
| The skin over the chest. neck, cheeks and
| outside the arms rose In hard ridges totally
| devoid of feeling These -apidly sloughed
| of. 1 shall not enlarge upon these details
| which might interest only a medical man.
| further than to say that the symptoms were
| in all, save one, respects identical with
| leprosy. The sole difference was the fright
full rapidity of their development.
| "A physician of FL Paso told me after
| ward that this closing up of the pores pre-
impurities and when the poison that every
| instant escapes in perspiration is held back
| or driven inward the blood Is vitiated with
inconceivable swiftness. He took down a
| book and showed me a case quoted from a
| French government report of 1852 where
| the College of Surgeons, an experiment
| covered a boy with gold leaf. In six hours
he was seized with a fever then torpor
| and then died. The principle, he said, was
Identical "A man could no more live with
his pores closed than he could live with his
IL any considerable number were stoppei
up blood disorders of the most dreadful char
acter were absolutely certain to ensue.
II had seen enough, however, without the
aid of science or history. TO tell me thai
| covering a man with tar one of the
most horrible punishments that cruelty has
devised. have no impulse to laugh wher