The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1898-02-13
FLAMES d THE MAN HUM.
sanucis wa Fleeing from q LyncbinE Party
when ne Was Burned to Death.

when ne Was Burned to Death.
There was only ono official hanging in my
county" said tho ex-boomer from Oregon, land
IL turned out afterward that an innocent man
was executed in that instance. This precedent
made even %lynching very uncommon. so that
when n score OF us started out to hang Abra-
ham Snmuels to tho nearest tree IL was only
after a careful consideration OF the crime he
had committed. Samuels was n man OF about
40, small. wiry, and agile. He had reddish hair
and a heavy beard. the cut Of which he was con-
tinually altering, and he was always neatly,
rather hashily. dressed. Ho was married to n
woman some ten years his junior. and lived
with her and their two children on
q little ranch on tho divide between
Tin Pot and Shoestring valleys. In spite OF his
generally quiet behavior Samuols was very UNI
popular; partly. / suppose, because of his natty
appearance. and partly because he was known
as q wife beater. Mrs. Snmtiels was not directly
responsible for this knowledge. for she knew no
one in the neighborhood and was rarely seen of
the clearing. She was thin and tired looking,
and her big gray eyes had that cowed look that
always arouses sympathy. There was the same
look in the eyes Of her two sons, who, pRssersby
noticed. always played quietly and without
much apparent enjoyment. 1t was tho tales
these two little fellows told their mates ut the
district school at Tin Pot that first brought to
the notice of the community tho condition Of
affairs in the home of the Samuels family.
whether it was because of tho knowledge
that she had the sympathy OF the or
simply because she had borne all she could
never knew. but one day Alice Samucls turned
on her husband and drove him from the house.
A drummer for a dry goods house in Frisco re-
ported one night that rs he was driving over
the divide he saw Samuels in front of his house
door, parleying with his wife. who stood at the
open window with n shotgun. That night
was %tacita arn and suilen. Which was unusual
and was noticed. He started out in the direc-
ton Of his home at about midnight,
d" About daylight the next morning the Sam
uels cabin was burned down. Mrs. Samuels
escaped with the children. but there was no
chips and stove wood had been carried from a
wood and had been kindled. The flames had
been blown across the corner Of the clearing In
tSe n6 sas of SsGon sio01 Wit sshbtin ng it o, abirs e Snd a1ss
than this there was q strong suspicion that
Samuels had set the fire. and his subsequent
him was intensified b tho fact that the fire had
gained a good start along tho divide and was
menncing valuable property on cvcry side.
within a week from the time tho fire start:
ed the town had grown too hot for Samuels. and
with Samuels as its object of attention.. AS l
h tsnt b 3San injured n5Y etbe by ,n shH trsS to to H., : sT yieisity sx I
was asked to organize the bee. / declined to do
that. but l went along with the party, more
from curiosity than from any desire to wreak
personal vengeance. Samuels had hoard Of our
Intention. and had stolen n horse and started
along the Smith River trail, intending, I sup
pose, to proceed down the river to its mouth
md take a steamer for Frisco.
THE pursuing party rode hard, and we sight
cd Samuels Just ut daybreak the next morning
as he crossed tho ridge into the Smith River
Valley, about six miles ahead of us. He would
surely have escaped us had II not been that one
arm OF the forest fires intercepted him soon after
he sta rted down the valley. This fire had
crossed the ridge many miles below, and as It
travelled up the valley 1t presented a solid wall
| this wall Samuels was forced to turn back three
miles below. where he entered the valley. and
there was no way out except the back trail.
On this we intercepted him soon after, and
IL seemed as though he could not possibly escape
| the rope We were carrying for him. He did,
though, for he was finally consumed in the fire
he himself had started. He took the desperate
chance of trying to swim down the shallow
stream. whose fiame-wrapped banks were not
sible feat. The intense heat from tho blazing
fir trees that lined the stream had overcome
him before he got fairly started. An eddy
stranded him on a small bar, where he
made one or two Intellectual efforts to
get under water again. and then lay still.
He was enveloped for u few moments in the
steam that rose from his wet clothes, which
the naked body lying there on the sand could he
seen to shrlvel up and char over; and before we
were forced back by tho advancing wall of fire
nothing was left but o heap Of glowing cinders.
j shall never forget that spectacle. and. Incl.
dentally. never participate in n man hunt again"