People's voice. [volume] (Wellington, Sumner County, Kansas) 1890-1917, 1897-05-27
A Joke on Dave [ eahy-

4uele II Oue hduSdS episode Which
has never been written up to my
knowledge" said Assistant Attorney
General George Smelling today. 1T
was one of those thrilling experiences
10 Southwestern Kansas during the
days OF the cowboy and outlaw. An
thony, my old home, the scene of the
AFFAIR, Was then hourishng city Of
perhaps ,OOOpOpulation, Everything
was run wide open and it was com.
mon occurrence for cowboys to ride in
and shoot through the windows of the
SALOONS and if the bartender didn't
like IT they would take a shot at him
just for fun. 1t was wild and woody.
The people who lived in town were
not any 100 tame themselves. They
would shoot sometimes themselves.
AN old man by the name of James
Blair came to Anthony To reside. He
was great prOhiOitiUniSt and started
out to try 10 reform the town. A
short Gtme afLelwdrd, his house was
burned to the ground. This started
row While out very small per
cent OF the people of tue town we're
In sympathy With BARS movement
TO close up the saloons, Yet anOuJ nalf
OF the population concluded that
burning Ills house was nJJ yne proper
way TO yet even. They took up the
OId mans cause and one mUruiug soon
alter, the body of Frank Moves, a no.
tOrlous gambler, was found dangling
TO tree on one Of the public thorough
fares. NoyeS was suspected of setting
BIalr'S house on fire To the body
there was tackled card reading: All
hOuse-6urners better leave town or
you Will meet the same fate
The feeling between the two sides
then became intense. They were
about evenly matched. One side was
known as house burners and one as
hangers Finally it got so bad that
people would not venture away from
their homes at night. Stores would
close at shutdown and be left in charge
OF ofhcerS until Sunup, while the pro-
prletOrS watched their houses at
night. | have seen it for week
at a stretch when there would he no
body on the streets after dark but
the officers, and they were not anxious
TO be parading about. The excite
ment finally died out aud things
reached normal state. But it is the
greatest wonder in the world that the
town was not burned up or half the
people hung. TWAS a narrow escape.
That was about 1886.
There was one incident | rempm-
Der which was very amusing. The
marshal and sheriff each had big
force of depuieS employed to patrol
the town. The marshal had on MS
staff Dave Lcahy, now city editor OF
the Wichita Eagle. Leahy at that
Tine was running a store at Anthony.
One night Leahy got tired of walking
the streets looking for house burners
or hangers aud he went into the bar.
room OF hotel, sat down in a big
chair, cooked his feet up on the table
and went to sleep. He had his legs
crossed. He was wearing lace shoes.
with open eyeletS, aud in some wav
the lace of one shoe got caught in the
eyeIet of the other. When Leahy
awoke, he started to untangle his
feet, but found them fastened. 1t
flashed upon him in a moment that
he had been bound by one gang or the
other, and that his time had come.
He momentarily looked for delega-
tiOn to enter the 'front.' door to carry
him out to hang him. Dave was
scared. The idea of that sort of
death was awful for him to contem-
plate. He Immediately set up veil
that awOke everybody in the hotel
and half the people in town. There
was grand rush to the barroOm and
the clink of the hammers of revolvers
was heard plainly everywhere. One
of the guests finally discovered that
the binding of Leahv was a false
alarm. The shoe string was lnoSened
and Dave spent months wages dur.
ing the next two days setting them
up l guess the reason he has never
written up the hOuse-burner and
hanger story OF Anthony was on
account of the good joke m himself"