The evening times., 1897-08-30
Marshal CumSO's Great Fight
With Outlaw CuniuS.
ENCOUNTER BY MOONLIGHT
A Negro Officials Taunttng Def
apce Of a Hall-Choetaw, Haif-ir. .sh,
AlI-5toaod Had Man in the Ia
disu Territory Had Cartridge
Sealed the Lawbreaker's Fate.

has in his time played many parts, gen
orally with credit TO himself and pleasure
10 the company. Among other things he
waSfor awhil ssheciffo o fCreede, when Creede
was in the height of ts glory Us the richest
strike in the country.
Il wore a plug hat all the time l held
the aob.'' lie said the other night; land.
what's more, nobody ever tried to shott
holes through az ar to make a spit kitof it.
/ never had any trouble with bad men.
found il very easy to manage by persuasio.i
all the bad men ! ever ran against. IL
had tried bulyragging tactics with soie
OF them, it's worse than a hundred to one
shot that | wouldn't be in the enjoyment
of my breath tonight. A man who knows
enough to put tie reversing gear on his
nIctsth when the temptation is Ereatest
for lam 10 bet 1T go ahead four bells,
needn't eeC into trouble with " bite men
anywhere on earth; and the value OF a
close mo nth and civil tongue or none at
all had been pounded into he 10y experience
long before ! struck Creede and got the jot
II sheriff without making any particala:
play for il. After all, Creede was not 81
bad. A great ma iority of tine men in the
camp were pretty square set. or course.
most of them knew how TO shogt; but an
out-anc out desperado or outlaw was not
tolerated in Creetie. 1 persuaded lot IF
them out of the camp myself with the as
sist ance and moral support, of course. 1f
some of my official friends, who were u
coed deal better on the shoot than l.
And talking about shooting, never say
anytt inr in that line in Creedeor Al Iywhere
else TO compare witha shooting game thai a
couple af associates ofmine got mixed up in
down in the Indian Territory backin SO !
was United states deputy marshalat Fort
Smith, Ark. at that time, and, although |
waSn'ta witneSSoft hi : sphenoIGenalbitoiS
Work ] IA going 10 tell YOU about, saw
two of the thrce combatants who survived
the fight when they got into Fort Smith.
and the looks of the pair OF them tod the
story n a mighty convincing way.
There wasan utterly wicked devil namel
Cunius rampaging around down in the Ter
ritory who was very badly W wanted by the
Federal Government. lie had some Choc-
taw ia him, and good deal OF Irish. and
this is I; lad com bination when You get
10 figuring ON IL. Cunius stood
ia with all the tribes in the Ter
uuory and sold them whisky. All at
tempis TO round him up had fizzled out
for the Indians took care OF him and hid
him safely when they found out that the
Texas or Arkansas marshals were on his
trad After tie general Government put
a heavy price on Cunius' head a Texas
mar shal from the Panha ndle district named
BalfOur went after the desperate single
handed. Thcmarshal was never seen again,
alive OF dead. Before Cunius was hanged
az Fort Smith he confessed that he and
couple of CherGkees had Shot Balfonr to
death from ambush
After the disappearance OF this Texas
marshal, We came TO the conclusion at Fort
Smith thAt Cunius must be rounded UP IL
u took the whole caboodle of us To do il.
There were six OF us with United States
rarshal's warrants at Fort Smith at that
time, ard we decided to draw straws as TO
which pair of us should go after Cunius.
/ don't mind going ON record with the
statement that ] was considerably re-
lieved when drew a short straw the first
rattle out OF the box, and was therefore
lc: out NJ tie hunt-for i hadn't lost any
Cunius that 1 wanted TO look for, and the
reward didn't tempt me little bit. The
two men who drew the long straws hap
penpd 20 be tie pair who were the most
eager TO go after the outlaw. George
Field, the most intrepid man / ever net
anywhere, was ghe first.
''Tne other long-straw man was. be-
lieve, the very blackest man that ever
threw ar inky shadow in the sunshine. /
80 nf,a "A N,
looked wan ON his face. His name was
Beasley CamSU. and hIs African blood was
as pare a. the naked savages who live on
the banks of the Aruwimi River. AND
every drop CT it was fighting blood too
Field and Cumso started out after Cunius
together They went in a light prairie
schooner, well stocked with provisions, for
they expected To be gone for some time
But thelI lumt was a good deal shorter
than they had expected. They made di
rectly for the Tahlequah country, for it
was known that when Cunius was net
Off on his whisky selling tcurs he made his
beadquarter with the re nnaut OF the Table
quah trihe
Field, when he was brought back, dying,
to Fort Smith, told US what happened. He
and CunlsO had made a permanent camp
of their WAGON about eighteen miles from
tie Tahlequah wickie-ups, in a little clear.
ing surrounded l'y a thick growth of under
brush, and had gore for several nights
on single-handed scouting expeditions close
TO the camp of the Indians The Table
quah wickie-UpR were all in cleared valley
between a counle of low hills, and each Of
the marshals took one of these hills for
observation purposes every night for
week. Although, under the light of the
ncon, they could both easily make out
from their hills everything that was going
on in the valley, neither of them caught
a sight of Cunius, and they rightly con-
cluded at the end of discouraging week
that the half-breed was off on one OF his
whisky-purveying trips
Field and Cumso returned to their
wagon together one night, two weeks after
they haa rlade pcrmabent camp, from their
separate reconnoissances from the hills
overlooking the valley They were rather
discouraged and grumpy over the situation,
and started TO turn In for the night without
"a wing much They had been standing
watch and watch over the wagon during
The night, but on this night, both being
rather worn out, they concluded they would
take chance and turn in together They
were both hcrawling into the wagon together
when. in the silence of the night, they
heard a creaking and grinding as of wheels
TO the north or them Their wagon, al
though perfectly hidden, was not more than
a hundred feet from the trail. There was
a brilliant :6oon right overhead The two
cooked up their ears, and the grind