Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1897-02-23
XIV.
copyright. 1894. by J. B. LIppinco.t company.l

epeHuS III tne aiIny is one lie is apt 10
remember What he did in years be-
fore, or CT what nature were the festivi-
ties in those that followed, may, III
course of time, become but vague and
shadowy pictures before the minds
eye. After something like 20 years of
service as a commissioned officer Mr..
Lambert was heard to say that never,
even when homesick plebe at West
Point, had he passed so forlorn
Christmastide as that which immedi-
ately succeeded his graduation,
The rain was beating down in sullen
shower upon the bare and dripping
woods and soddcn fields; the roads
were deep in mud; camp, of which he
was once more commander, was wet
and cold and cherries; in the adjoining
tent lay his senior officer grooming on
bed of pain, hands and face blistered
and bandaged, hair and eyebrows gone.
while over across the way pile Of
scorched and blackened timbers,
couple of brick chimneys, and the stone
foundations, We're all that were left of
Walton Hail. ~
The story brought in of the big row
at Vernon, though exaggerated, had
been sufficiently confirmed in the
course Of an hour or so that wintry
evening of Lambert's last visit to the
homestead, to warrant his being or
dered thither with half the company
to Support the civil authorities in re-
storing peace" Close reported the
situation by telegraph to department
headquarters, and the action taken by
him, his dispatch reaching the general
commanding the next day an hour or
so after that official had been ordered
from Washington to send full particu.
lars of the disturbance in his bailiwick.
foEtt he federal officials in the south and
the partisans of both sides of the pc-
litical questions at issue had worked
the night wires for all they were worth,
and the early morning papers were
lurid with details of the tragic out.
break.
1t was midnight when Lambert
started on his march with two excited
deputy marshals for guides. Five miles
out they met some horsemcn conveying
an old carriage containing Walton
Scroggs,. seriously wounded, and doc
tor. With the escort Lambert held
brief parley, also with the wounded
man, who, though weak, was full of
pluck and spirits; his sole anxiety
seemed to be on the score of his wife
and the shock the news would Cause
her. The account given the young Off
Ger of the circumstances leading up to
the facts differed radically from that
with which he and his commander had
thus far been favored. This was to be
expected, as up to this point their sole
informants were either negroes or o
couple of whites of the Parmelee stamp.
In the north, as rule, the affair APP
peared to have been wanton and un-
provoked attack by Walton Scroggs and
his friends upon some negroes who had
been instrumental in securing his ar
rest-nothing short, in fact, Of red
handed act of vengeance, us was evil
dent from the fact that Immediately on
his release he and his party, armed to
the teeth, had ridden over to Vernon,
instead of going home, and without
warning or apparent warrant had be-
gun the indiscriminate shooting down
of certain unpopular whites and their
luckless negro supporters.
In the south, except among certain
journals published in the interest Of
the radical" republican party. the 9TH
er side of the story was promptly cir
culated. Capt. scroggs and friend,
endeayoring to reach home by a cir
cuitous route SO as to avoid trouble after
his release from Jail, where he had
been incarcerated several weeks on
baseless, trumped-up charges, were set
upon in the streets OF Vernon by a
blackguardly pack of loafers, insulted,
abused and assaulted. and finally COM
PEELED in self-de1ense to draw their re-
volvers, not, however, until they had
been fired upon. One odd circumstance
connected with these perennial shooting
scrapes in those days was the fact that
in footing up the score 1t was always
found that Ave negroes to one white was
about the proportion Of casualties. This
may have been due to the fact that the
ratio of black to white in every scrim-
mage was about five to one, or else that
the Caucasian, being cooler and long
skilled in the use OF arms, was more
effective in close combat. At all events,
when impartially investigated it was
found that this Vernon difficulty diff
fered from its fellows in no particular
except one-that it "had no political
significance whatever" Walton's
friends, rejoicing with him in his re-
lease from durance vile, did so after the
fashion of the day, and more or less bad
whisky was consumed before the stage
reached Vernon-where more friends
were met, more treats exchanged, and
where, as the devil of mischief would
have it, he happened into the bar OF
the old tavern just at the moment when
two or three others. all white, were hap
pening out. One Of these was an old
time admirer of Esther Walton, a man
with whom Scroggs had been ut outs
for years. There was q jostle-uninten-
tional-a sneer In the careless apology
and rambling word or two. Peace.
makers drew the principals apart. In
deed, Walton was too happy to continue
his journey home and Esthcrwards to
care to quarrel. But his rivals heart
and brain were burning, and more
| liquor made matters worse. The horses
were being brought around from the
stable with the troop of vagrant ne
groes loahng after, when, despite the
efforts of his friends. the hnlf-drunken
man came lurching out of a neighboring
saloon and with savage oaths rushed
at Walton, demanding satisfaction"
Weapons were drawn and shots ex.