The Press., 1897-07-22
MULLIGAN'S LASTDAY
A TERROR OF THE WEST WHO MADE
 HIS TAKING OFF MEMORABLE.

He Killed 8 Friend Who Tried to Per
 suade Him to Surrender-BroughtD Down
 by 8 Bullet From Muitiaman's Rifle.
 One of Mark Twain's Desperadoea.
 "His name was included in the little list of Nevada desperadoes made by Mark Twain in 'Roughing It, " said the Nevada pioneer. He did not say 'Mark Twain.'' by the way, but ''Sam Clemens, the name by which all old Nevadans and Californians knew the famous humorist. The pioneer was talk ing of men of his time who had died with their boots on, and Billy Mulligan was the character who just now was to the front. Some of the hostile mix ups and shooting matches i'll which that young Irishman had taken hand had been related, and now the narrator had come to the day of his taking off.
 ''Billy Mulligan had run a long string and lasted good while for man of his temper and practices, for be was tough out and out, |" continued the pio- neer. "His neck was in danger in the days of the San Francisco vigilance committee, and he ran some narrow chances with the law and lynchers aft erward. He was a brave, desperate man, handy with weapons, and would fight at the drop of the hat. But he pulled through all trouble until the time came, which seems sooner or later to befall al- most every desperado, when the strain of danger and the effect of constant drinking and excitement got che better of his nerves and judgment. When a desperado gets that way, there are two courses that he may take-quit the country, quit drinking and get to work at an honest calling or stay and get killed. The last was what Mulligan chose, but he kept the business in his own hands and forced the pace to the end.
 "It was at Carson City that the end came to Billy Mulligan. The cards had gone against him all night. The liquor he had drunk had made him ugly as he walked out of the Esmeralda saloon one morning. Next door was laundry, and 8 Chinaman, ironing clothes, lifted his face to the window just as Mulligan was passing. Without word the des- perado drew his pistol and fired through the glass, blowing the Chinaman' s brains out, then went on to the hotel where he was staying, and up stairs to his room in the top story. The door of his room opened near the head of the stairway, and when the sheriff's off cers came to arrest him for killing the Chinaman he stood them off with his revolvers. They knew it meant certain death to some of them to try to rush up the stairway, and they stopped at the foot to consider. John Coleman, a par tioular friend of Mulligan, who was with them, tried to persuade him to surrender.
 "'No use, John, said Mulligan. I shan't be taken alive. This is my last day, and the game'n end right here. You keep away and don't get mixed up in the trouble.
 Coleman was working along up the stairway as he talked, with the object, perhaps, of getting near enough to the desperado to disarm him.
 "'Stop where you are, John,' said Mulligan. 'One step nearer and I'll kill you.
 Policeman made another step forward, and Mulligan shot him through the heart. He permitted the others to take the body away, keeping them covered with his pistols all the time. A crowd gathered ill the hotel and the public square which it faced, and plans were discussed for capturing Mulligan, but his character for deadly desperation was such that volunteers were scarce. At last it was decided to call out the militia company and take the desperado ill his stronghold by regular assault.
 ''The troops were mustered ill double line ill the public square, facing the ho- tel and waiting the order to advance. Through the window of his room ill the third story Mulligan could be seen now and then as he walked to and fro be- tween the stairway and the window, keeping watch against a surprise in either direction. Then, as the face of the desperado appeared once more at the window, one of the soldiers fired with his rife, killing him instantly. It was an unexpected shot which undoubtedly saved several lives that would almost certainly have been sacrificed in carry ing the room by storm.
 Billy Mulligan was a New Yorker by birth and was typical representa- tive of the old time California tough gambler-a class which got its tone and manners from the New York of the vol unteer fremen and Dead Rabbit days. Quick of motion-some of them could pick fly from the wall with the thumb and finger four times out of five-stern and short spoken except where it was part of their game to be suave, rough and tumble fighters, fashionably dressed, with more of ornaments than southern gamblers often wear and dis. tinguished by heavy black mustaches, they ran their course in San Francisco, which was headquarters from which they went to the new mining communi ties, to stay while these fourished ol until they were driven out They had their day-most of them were shot ol hanged, or they died in want Here and there, stranded ill some out of the way western community, some decrepit survivor is found of the old gambler desperado class of which Billy Mulligar was a shining example. "-New Yorl Sun.
 A Costly Joke.
 A Berlin correspondent tells as trut story about joke that resulted some what seriously for the man who invent cd it. This person was increduloui about the discriminating appreciation of wines which distinguished frienC of his claimed to possess, and to tes