The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-07-03
HANGED WHEN TRAIN CAME IN

1t Was Ahead of TiIae and Engineer
Had an Anxious Two Minutes.
From the Chicago Record
There is branch of the Burlington rail
road which runs into the southwestern
part of Nebraska, and along which are strune
several county seat towns, At the time tf
which reference is made a man named Bruce
Matting.y was awaiting execution in the tai
of one Of these towns he having committed
homicide which. according to the theory o.
the jury. merited deaths He was a pretty bad
man, but. as is frequently the case wifi
tough citizens, he had a strong circle NJ
friends who were disinc.ined to see Mattinal,
s sanaae out IL. at the end OF rope. They in.
channel of law courts Of appeal had been run
fruitlessly, but Mattingly's reputation was
against against him, and the governor would moi
spite. The sheriff of the county had an.
nounced that he would wait until o'cloch
IN the morning for any gubernatorial interfer-
senes anu an promptly at ,nat hour. in the alb
Mr.. Matingly into the elsewhere
On the morning of the day set for the ex.
ecution the conductor of Burlington No. !
was instructed by the trainmaster to nick Jo NJ
at this county seat town the state fish com
missioners private car which had been there
for some days, and carry it on to the terminal.
gested that it would be best for him to run
IN few minutes ahead of card time 50 as
10 De sure to have enough time to get away
on the schedule, for there was a strong rom,
petition in the matter of promptness on that
run, and for over three years the train had
not been behind. &c., being due at 8 O'clock
a ne engineer gaf n OF Nc Nc rushed things little
ules leeway to rick up the commissioner
car. AS they pulled up at the platform n
SOUND OF whistling and the ringing of bells
rose IN the town. and from the high board
stockade around one wing of the COUNTY iail
winch was Just across from the denot a rod
nag huttered as somebody hauled it IN on
it meant. "n"e
-, Just hung Mattingly." cried a man at
that moment. breaking forth from the stock
was afraid a order might come from the
goy,,nor, an as soon as 1t was he let him
~, But it. isn't g." said the engineer. ITS
don't she git here at to the dot?" 'N' az
The engineers heart jumped and then fell
down into deep we'll.
DO you mean to say you hung man by
NO. IS time instead of by watches or
clo eek. he gasped;
crowd in that jail right now an I'll bet there
amt no two alike in pointin' out the time.
a But no !, g and the men looked at the
mensely expressive. The latter leaned
against the tank and pulled his own watch
ana fastened his eyes devouringly upon It,
He afterwards saide he lived a lifetime in
waiting for the two Remaining minutes to
pass so that the hour would re ally be 5. Evo
cry instant he expected toSsee the operator
CON come flying out withaan oTdsr. to relay the
signal to execute the man four minutes ahead
OF time he felt that if anysseuch notice were
to come before he would BE kind Of muir
derer. At last-it seemedS after years-the
hands Indicated the ActuaK arriving OF No
3, and with great gasp Of relief the engineer
climbed into the ca!bA and<Swent about the
work OF hooking on the commissioners car
II was some time before that engineer got
around to a state of mind where he could
speak lightly of the Incident and to this
DAY ne has never run so much as four Sec
onds ahead of time. He says it isn't condu-
Give to mans peace Of mind out in tina.
country where they hang people by railroad