The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-07-24

hole through his skull lends an air Of
probability to this report
Thus IL was natural that Indians
should be the first to receive blame for
the wandering rifle ball which caught
Gus Shafer in the ribs as he drove up
to the Overland at Benton n day.
The setting was dramatic. Gus, who
is now driving a hack in this city, had
just brought his spanking team up tn
the piazza of the hotel with that ma
jestic sweep and flourish which IS
characteristic of the true art of stage
driving. He had dropped the lines to
the stableman and was handing out a
package from the boot when, with the
cry, I'm shot" he fell into the arms
of Sergeant Norman of the Northwest
| mounted police, who CHANGED to be
| standing at the side of the whcelers.
Several OF those IN the piazza hal
heard a faint shot from across the river
and had seen the flash of the gun, blu
none had connected 1t with the acct
dent before their eyes. Gus was taken
upstairs by the proprietor, John Huns
berger, and DIR. w. z. Turner was sum
moned. AS the shirt was taken from
the wounded nan the bullet, a ball
from a Sharp's rifle, fell from its folds.
1t had struck him in the side. perforat-
ed his lungs and passed out at the
shoulder. Investigation was started
Immediately and Sheriff Healy at the
head of a posse secured the country.
The Indians were the first to fall un-
der suspicion, and only too often had
| such suspicious been well founded An
other cases. However, the search final
ly ended in the arrest and confession
of John Carruthers. 1t seems that he
a been crossing the river in a skiff
with his rifle lying carelessly on his
arm. In some ann it was dis
charged. He could see that there was
a commotion in the town across the
river, and rightly guessed that his UNI
lucky shot was the cause of 1T. He
threw the gun into the river and fled.
He was held for some time under bonds
of 81, 200, but was released Of the re-
cover of his victim.
In spite of all these difficulties the
stage business fiourished. During the
10 years included between 1870 and 1880,
the population of the territory had in
creased from 10000 to 3S, 900, n Ben
ton and the river route had obtained
it's fair share of the travel. Dupuyer
n other places were being settled
rapidly, there were mining stampedes
to Yogo gulch and the Highwoods. and
all of these things swelled the stage
traffic immensely. Branch lines were
established from time to time. Prices
were good for fares and freight and the
equipment was simply enormous. OF
course, the country was new and the
usual dangers beset the business. For
tunately, however, there were no great
gold mines in this section of the coun-
try, and stage hold-ups were unknown
in the early days. The lawlessness was
of a mild order and confined itself to
the theft of horses and occasional cat
tie, and most of this was ascribed to
that convenient scapegoat, the Indian.
The building of a telegraph line along
the stage road facilitated matters on
s~iderably. For instance, one was en-
nhlnd fn npdnf~ dinnnr Of N Gto tfnn nhn~1
unless SOM lazy freighter had cut
down a few poles for firewood, instead
of taking the trouble of camping in the
cottonwoods along the river bottom.
At one time this was a crying evil and
a to be stopped by the exercise of
public opinion, which was apt, at that
time, to find expression in a rather
rough manner.
The building of the Great Northern
n the Montana Central shut off the
profit of this business and the days Of
staging have steadily waned. The lines
now in operation between this city and
the Judith are apparently doing well,
but they are no longer a part of a far
reaching system. 1t is rather an ano-
maly that the hold-ups of Importance
in this section of Montana have &C.
CURED within the past 10 years. 1t is
something less than that since the hold
up at Surprise creek, in the Judith, &C.
CURED. The date was 1890, and the
highwaymen got nothing for their
trouble, not ven capture. They had
expected a shipment of bullion from the
Spotted Horse, but it happened to have
been sent on another day and by a diff
ferent route. That was also the caure
of a similar hold-up on the Billings
Lewistown line within a few months
time of the first. Bill Negus, now drlv-
ing a stage into this city from Lewis
town, was the driver in the first episode
and because he refused to hold-up, had
one of his horses shot down.
Unfortunately for the present gen.
Grafton, most of the stories of staging
have passed away with the coaches.
The writer CHANGED to meet a business
man of this county recently. Among
the mail which the first carried were
several congressional documents, corr
corning the insects Injurious to
Orange Culture" and Propagation of
Banana Slips" and other information
equally valuable in this latitude. They
caught the eye of the business man.
Say. do you know what we used to
do with that i of rot in early days?
I used to drive a stage when / was a
young man, and along in the spring,
particularly the yea of an approaching
congressional election, we would get
those things by the ton. Why, l have
seen the coach 1 drove piled up with
them until there was no room inside
and mighty little left on the outside for
the driver. The roads would be pretty
muddy n full of holes at that time of
the year. and the ordinary Dad was
bad enough to carry. Well. we struck
a scheme: we would have as many
sacks of that kind of literature as pos
sible piled up in the boot, and when we
struck an especially bad mud hole, we
would drop one or two of them in.
Young man. hat was before you were
born, but I'll bet you I can take you
to a certain place and show you a co.,
duroy road constructed of hat kind of
material, and I guess II has lone the
farmers of that neighborhood more
good than the reading of the stuff
would"