The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1897-06-12

IN in their day, are
little heard of now.
They were not theatrical enough in
their ways of killing or they had no
gang to crack them up. They never got
the great names that some men did who
were afraid of them. Such a man was
Patterson, from Mississippi-Ferdin-
and Patterson-who figured in San
Francisco and Nevada and afterward
in Oregon. He was what is known in
the far west as white-eyed man-that
Is, his eyes were of a gray tint, SO pale
as to seem almost white. He was n
powerfully built man, handy with
weapons, and he came as near being
perfectly fearless as a man can be.
remember him at his trial for the kill
ing of Capt. Staples at Portland, Ore.
The captain had headed crowd to
lynch Patterson for his secession senti-
ments. Feeling ran high against Pat
terson, it being in the time of the civil
war, and the sentiment in Oregon being
for the union. When ne was acquitted,
as he was, after an exciting trial, on the
ground of self-defense, 1t was believed
that he would never leave the court
room alive, but he passed through the
hostile crowd without the sign Of fear,
with such a presence that no one
molested him. / can compare his look
only with that of lion. His shooting
of Pinkham, the mining man, was an
other famous killing. 1t began by his
insulting Pinkham for his northern
sentiments. Pinkham pulled his pistol
and fired. Patteson stopped, lodging
the flash, as the saying is, and then sent
In the mortal shot. He was a bully
through and through. Yet he was
capable of being magnanimous. On
one occasion man fired at him, the bull
let striking him fairly in the forehead.
Instead of dropping, as any other man
would have done, he grappled with the
man, threw him, and took away his
pistol.
"'Spare me for my wife's sake he
cried.
Patterson let him up. Run for a
DOCTOR he commanded. If / die, I'll
haunt YOU
"The story that particularly wanted
to tell when began to talk about Pat
terson shows his character in it's best
light. IT was in Montana and there had
been a mining town started in the re-
gion then known as the Bill MCGOWAN
country. People were flocking there
and the roads were strung with all sorts
of outfits hustling along to be first on
the ground. 1 was on my way there to
start faro bank and had stopped for
dinner at roadside place where a man
had q sort of hotel. Among the dozen
or more wagon outfits drawn up before
the corral was q rickety, canvas-topped
concern, belonging to an old man who
was coming out with his family to be-
gin life anew in a new country. There
were the old woman and half dozen
girls, but only one son, q weak-looking
stripping perhaps IS years old, who
didn't count in what took place. 1t
was pretty poor looking outfit, but
they had a pair of good horses, which
was about all they had in the world, for
the rest of their equipment couldn't
have been auctioned of for $50. had
passed them on the road, and now,
when came out doors after dinner,
found them in peck of trouble, the
women crying and the old man looking
fcrlorn and helpless. In place of the
two horses / had seen them driving
back on the trail, there stood two
broken-down plugs that had been next
TO worthless to start with, and had been
driven nearly to death besides.
"They were good sort of people, so 1
asked them what the trouble was, and
they told me. They had made their
incoming at the well, and were just
hitching the horses to the wagons
ready to start on again, when three
men, who had arrived in wagon about
the same time with them, came over
leading the two plugs, and had left their
broken-down horses and taken away
the two good ones. When the old me n
protested against being robbed, one of
them drew a pistol and threatened to
smash him over the head With it If he
didn't shut up. This was their story.
and l had only to look at them to kvow
that they told the truth. There was no
law in the country then, they had no
friends, and they were not strong
enough to defend themselves; so there
they were, plundered and the same as
left afoot On the trail, with no help for
it that they could see. As they told
their story there were the three men. in
full view. getting ready to harness the
stolen horses into their wagon and
laughing in high glee among them
selves.
II didn't like to leave the emigrants
in that plight, and had no crowd with
me, and couldn't very well go up |
against three men, particularly in an
other party's quarrel But talked with