The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1897-07-10
MULLIGAN'SLASTDAY
a TERROR OF THE WEST WHO MADE
HIS TAKING OFF MEMORABLE.

re Killed n Friend Who Tried to r---~.
suat!c Him 70 Observation-Disclosures Down
by Bullet From Militiaman's Rifle.
One of Mark Twain's Desperadoes.
His name was included in the little
list OF Nevada despcradoes made by
Mark Twain i'll 'Roughing 1t, " said
tn" Nevada pioneer. He did not say
Mark Twain" by the way, but ''5um
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 in 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 long
string and lasted good while for man
If his temper and practices, for he was
tough out and out" continued the pio.
nCer. "His neck was i'll danger i'll the
days of the San Francisco vigilanca
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 fgh.
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 desperate, when the strain
l.tnunr and 1,n off nf
drinking and excitement got the better
Of his nerves and Judgment. When
desperate gets that way, there are two
courses that he may take-quit the
country, quit drinking and get 10 wol!!:
at an honest calling or stay and gr:
killed. The last was what Mullir;0I
chose, but be kept the business in li
own hands and forced the pace to tho
end.
lit 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 ho
walked out Of the Esmeralda saloon ono
morning. Next door was laundry, and
"a Chinaman, ironing clothes, lifted biz
face to the window just as Mulligun
was passing Without word the des-
perado drew his pistol and fired through
the glass, blowing the Chinaman i
brains ont, 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 tho
stairway, and when the sheriff's Off.
GERS came to arrest him for killing tho
Chinaman he stood them off with hia
revolvers. They knew it meant certain
death to some of them to try to rush III,
the stairway, and they stopped at II"
foot to consider. John Coleman, u par
ticular friend of Mulligan, who was
with them, tried to persuade him ia
surrender.
No use, John, said Mulligan. I
shan be taken alive. This is my last
day, and the game'll end right here
in the trouble.
Coleman was working along up the
stairway rs he talked, with the object,
perhaps of getting near enough to tho
desperate to disarm him.
Stop where you are, john, said
Mulligan. One step nearer and III kill
you
Coleman 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 in 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 desperate
in his stronghold by regular assault.
1.-The troops were mustered in double
line in the public square, facing the no.
tel and waiting the order to advance.
Through the window of his room in 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 Il surprise i'll
either direction. Then, as the face of
the desperate appeared once moro at the
"lutlUN, ulIC Vi lIlt sUltlltTS llItu WIFI
his rifle, killing him instantly. 1t 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 New Yorker
by birth and was Il 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
untecr tircmen and Dead Rabbit days
Quick of motion-some of them could
pick a fly from the wall with the thumb
and finger four times out of tive-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 or
until they We're driven out. They had
their day-most of them were shot or
hanged, or they died in want. Here
and there, stranded in some out of the
way western community, some decrepit
survivor is found of the old gambler
desperate class Of which Billy Mulligan
WAS a shining pxnmDlp ''-NpIy Vorlx