Omaha daily bee., 1896-11-07
JURY THAT KNEW ITS DUTY
IL
Although His Honor Fled, the Jury Con-
tinued in Business,
A THRILLING STORY OF BORDER JUSTICE
Two Touching Tributes Paid To the
Presiding Juhpc-sniutcd with
Bullets and soothcd
with "a watch.

VT
Strange and Understandable reasons get
men together in concerted movement There
was once a grand jury UP in HAYES county,
In one Of the Missouri river territories which
but perhaps you would better hear the
whole story told by the Chicago Times
Herald, and then you will understand how
easy 1t is under any circumstances in the
world to mass men into combination for
some definite object. In these old terri
torial and steamboat days the population of
Halves county, though limited in quantity,
was swift in motion and morality. man
who dismounted from the lower Missouri
steamboat at the leveo was obliged to wear
a saddle blanket over his head as he walked
up town to keep his vivid bushes from
signaling the down boat to stop. This was
| especially true in the case OF Hensford
the county seat, and 1t got worse as you
progressed into the other settlements. The
| county seat was sat down in by sort of
general riff-raff of bulwhackers steam
boat rousters and horse thieves of all north
west nattoEalities. There were also others
! whom it was a matter of pain to mention.
| The conglom Grafton made the night an orgy
| with sides and end gates painted red and
| the voice OF virtue was as the voice of deaf
| mute.
| Into this county seat one day came Judge
| Arlington-now federal judge in that same
| Dakota Country-to hold a snail amount Of
court, and to sentence some three dozen rep
| resentatives of the oifscourings of the earth
| to be hanged. The sheriff had the Jail
! packed with criminals of all vicious sorts
| and there was a general clamor for a debut
| of the district court, so that the population
outside the jail might have decent chance
/ to get inside whore il belonged. Judge
! Arlington therefore Travelled up the Missouri
| river and. being met at the landing by a
| band of distinguished villains, was escorted
up town to the hotel, which was d saloon as
| well. and in a room in the second story OF
which It had been designed that court should
| be held. sort of platform was put up at
one end of the room, the support thereof
| being beer kegs, and the work of impaneling
a grand jury was entered upon. The grand
| jury exhausted n large share of the popula-
| tion of the town and the sheriff was obliged
to liberate two distinguished desperadoes
! from the Jail to complete the panel but, as
! these two were held for merely incidental
| murder instead of horse stealing, this was
considered all right. The remainder of the
! jury was built up of halfbreeds, bull
| whackens, rous.ers, freighters and dance hall
| keepers. and when 1t lined up before Judge
Arlington for instructions before going down
Jrairs to the room in the rear of the saloon
! for delberdton on prospective indictments
! 1t was the hardest looking throng that
ever got together in the holy name of
| justice.
| l do not know exactly what occurred in
| the rear rom behind the saloon before the
| firing began. 1t is certain that seven rounds
! OF liquor were served to the grand jurors In
| the first hour, and when Enoch WeatherwaX
was triumphantly indicted on siXty-two ac-
counts for horse and cattle stealing the bar
| keeper threw open the intervening door and
| asked the jurors to kindly take possession
OF the stock. the occasion being considered
by him as one of the great moments in The
| history OF the town. Ii was shortly after
| this that the first bullet tipped up through
! the floor and past the left ear of the judge.
| few moments later another and half a
| dozen others followed. and to the judge II
seemed that an inverted rain storm of bull
| lets had struck that region and his place
| was elsewhere. He did not know just what
| the men were fighting about, but guessed 1t
| to be the third count in the Middleton
| indictment. AS a matter of fact, they were
not fighting at all, but were merely cele-
| brating the event of the court sitting and
although the bullet which went through
the fleshy part of Judge Arlington's leg was
productive OF some pain, still 1t was meant
| solely as a witness of the esteem in which
| he was held The judge didn't know that
and, looking out OF the window, he saw the
| Rosebud coming down the river. Without
a word to anybody he made a running jump
| and cleared that window like sort of
| forensic antelope. Twenty minutes later he
| was on the Rosebud and had crawled as far
up on the bow as possible, as to get out of
town the quicker.
He had not waited to direct the sheriff to
| adjourn court. The court was abandoned by
him while still in session. The legally con
stltuted grand jury was not curtailed of it's
powers, but was left to grind cheeriy on
| in its murderous way as though life was one
| grand holiday of indictments and there was
no such thing as a closed hunting season.
| The jury accepted that view OF it, and when
the judges absence was made known to Its
m hn eli nfnlx- hot oil
| out of his revolver and declared that the
powers and authority of the inquisitorial
body could not be swindIed away from 1t
| by the stampeding OF any tenderfoot jurist
who ever ran to catch boat to get out of
| the society of perfect gentlemen.
The jury, therefore. kept right at its job
| Days passed into weeks, and indictment fol-
| lowed indictment. There was no court and
no semblance to usual court practices and
customs, but Hardesty, the foreman in
sisted that it was the jury's duty, as Ameri-
can citizens, to maintain its unity. After
| while the body had indicted everybody
| against whom complaint had been filed and
| then 1t began to broaden its scope. 1t en-
| tered upon the fashion of indicting in q
speculative way just to see what there was
| in it. man would come to town with a
wagon loaded with freight, and the jury
! would hear of It and get together and indict
] him for cruelty to animals or something
| and conilscate his property and IL he made
any complaint the foreman would sit down
and reason with him and show him that
| he ought to be glad that the body had not
| indicted him for horse stealing and murder
| or some other offense punishable by pain
| full and inconvenient death. Steamboats,
| were visited by videttes for the jury, and
passengers were hauled into the back room
| and eXpeditously indicted for as much
property as they possessed, and If any OBJ
| jected the foreman was at great pains to
inform him of the perfect legality of the
| thing, laying special stress on the fact that
| the jury was by law in continuous session.
| BY and by, members OF the panel were
| killed or died of, 1T became evident that
some means must be taken to insure the
permanency of the Institution. so associate
infused, that there was a certainty OF
| the continuance of7the profitable business
| OF the jury. Everything was done in a per-
fectly legal manner, however, and no man
| was allowed to take place on the panel
| without thorough examination by the
| foreman. After passing he was allowed to
| appropriate and shoot with the best OF
them, being protected by his official position
and by the laws governing contempt Of
| court.
1t finally got so that Halves county was
| one entire grand jury of unholiest sort, and
many attempts were made TO clean II out
| by the river captains, who were tired of
| conceaing their passengers in the huls OF
the boats so as to preserve them from being
| served with Citations to appear and be fined