The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-12-07
HERE IS AN OPPORTUNITY.
A Gang of Toughs That Northern Mon
tana Would Like 10 Be Rid OF

tnno WOuiu Like 10 ne Htu VI.
Great Falls, Dec. 6.-The courts of Te-
ton county have administered a very
salutary lesson to would-be tough men.
Last summer a carpenter. known as
Hank Maloney. was at Shelby Junction
filling In his time by getting drunk and
seeking after sport at the xpense OF
his neighbors n companions. He
CHANGED at last upon a sheep
herder, Lorenzo Woods. He was a sim
pie soul. perhaps a little foolish. He
had just come in from the prairie with
some money and a desire to rub up
against human society for a short
space of time. He babbled foolishly.
Here vas sport for Maloney. He
woul nave a little fun with this inno-
cent. The custom of the place was
with him. Other men had made ten
derfeet dance on the railway platform,
the crowd marking time and p%unctuat-
ing the dance with revolver shots and
blood-curdling oaths. Only a few years
z the braves of that neighborhood
had had an immense amount of sport
with a crowd of tired opera singers
and timid chorus girls which had been
obliged to walt at the station for the
train West. Maloney had seen a good
deal of this species of sport N he en-
joyed IL. He would have some more
of It.
He followed Woods up and bully
ragged" him properly. for he was an
adept at that sort of thing. II was per-
fectly safe-for Maloney. He had a
gun on his hip. Somehow the sheep
herder did not enjoy being bullied, n
after an afternoon of II he grew tired.
He wished to be let alone, but il is the
particular point of this kind of sport
that IL II the better the more the VIC
tim desires to leave the company. Ma
loney kept after his victim and when
~ Last In chaar Io.a,atia, ~, x.n..,
turned Maloney shot him down like a
dog. He was only a sheepherder.
When Maloney was hauled before the
u he pleaded that his act was in
self-defense. and no doubt he believed
h a IL the court understood that IL
was only a sheepherder who had died,
and the sport in which he had afforded
while still alive. the Joke would be ac-
cepted as between gentlemen and the
prisoner would escape with a repri-
nan for stopping the sport so quickly
and so violently. In that part at least
Msloney appreciated hat he had not
shown himself an artist. Unfortunate
ly for Maloney. the court and the jury
did not have that keen sense of humor
which permeates that gang of Ma
loney's ilk at Shelby and he went over
the road for FIVE years.
Unfortunately for justice in COMPARE
son with the life sentence imposed pom
another murderer In the same county
at the same term OF court. the punish
ment was too light. In August near
Choteau James Collins had a quarrel
with another sheepherder. James Nc
Kee. He accused Mckee Of purposely
mixing two bands of sheep and in his
wrath Collins shot the offender down.
Undoubtedly IL was murder. but hardly
of that cruel nature that the other pos
sesses. Yet the jury gave Collins a life
sentence. He is only a sheepherder.
Something over a year ~ Shelby
had the moral courage to wipe u a
blot upon its honor. That blot was the
presence Of DIR. Ings. The community
did IL thoroughly and promptly and
went upon record as opposed to all
such immortality. In its effort TO rid
itself of Ings IL was ably assisted by
the Standard. II now has an oppor-
tunity TO rid itself of the presence OF
a gang of rough characters whose
pranks in which the rang lion recog-
nize any spirit Of humor are bringing
disgrace upon the town. II In probably
the only town in all OF Northern Mon
tana where a stranger or an unpro-
tected oma Is not entirely safe from
insult. Montanans pride themselves on
their chivalry. There should be no evil
dence TO make them ashamed.