The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-01-23
THE TOMBSTONE OF OLD.
ONCE THE wIeKEDEsT OF TOWNS,
1T is NOW A SLEEPY VILLAGE.

heilEiOus service In q Saloon Dis
turbed by n Murder.
Los Angles. Cal, Letter ST. Louis Globe
Democrat.
THE very wickedest and cussedest town
1 ever knew, and have been
on the frontier since 1858, and
been in them all except Dead
wood. S. d." said ex-Gov. John Filkns,
as he sat chatting at the Nadeau Hotel
here the other day with several pioneer
plainsmen, was that mining town Of
Tombstone seventeen years ago this sea-
son. Whew! but that was a tough place
Dodge City, Kan, was never so generally
depraved. Leadville has some horrible
! shooting scrapes, but none that ever COM
pared with those at Tombstone. Sherman,
Tex, was also mighty tough along about
1873, but it never touched Tombstone as il
was seven years later. No, there'n never
be another mining town so recklessly
bad as Tombstone. The conditions, you
know, were just right to make Tombstone
the abandoned, hardened community it
was for two years. 1 believe there were
twenty-five men shot down in cold blood
while 1 was there from June to Septem-
| ber"
Tombstone is now one of the quietest
and most sedate little villages in the land.
| The visitor there these days who looks for
landmarks that will remind him of the
| thrilling scenes of sixteen or seventeen
| years ago finds but few gaunt, weather.
| beaten old buildings where bats and owls
abide, and a little graveyard out among
the sunbaked hills, where some sixty
bodies of men and women, who died tragic
| deaths, find their first genuine rest Tomb
| stone. is in the southern part of Arizona
southwest from the old Mexican pueblo
| of Tucson, and a few miles from the boun-
dairy between Sonora, Mexico, and the
| United States. There are now about 1900
| people in Tombstone, and but little mining
is done there. In 1880 Tombstone and her
| mines were in every ones mouth in the
| West. The newspapers everywhere, East
| and West, published columns about the
marvellous gold and silver finds in the
| Tombstone district, and newspaper stories
| of the hard life in the town went every
| where. Seven men there were each hav-
ing an income of over $3.50 a day from
the mines, and they had been as poor as
| Jobs proverbial turkey a year before
| There were 10000 men and about 800 wo-
men in the town and its suburbs.
The reports of the extreme wealth of the
| lodges at Tombstone set the whole West
crazy. The news went abroad that the
| Grid and Schaefferlin crowd were taking
| out 500 pounds of silver from the rocks
| besides dozen pounds of gold every day
| Could there be anything that could in
| flame more the minds of eager. restless
men? Dodge City and Newton, Kan, the
| hard towns in Texas and the depraved
| camps in Colorado were dwlndling away
| then by the advancement of the railroads.
| so when Tombstone became the new Ell
| Dorado the most spontaneous stampede of
| all the murderers, outlaws, ex-conVicts
| hardened frontiersmen. and tough gam
| blers of the plains set in, with Tombstone
| as the objective point In two months the
| town gained 5000 male inhabitants. The
mining district being near the boundary
! line between the United States and Mexi-
| co, fugitives from justice, both in Mexico
! and the United States, went to Tombstone
while several hundred of the meanest and
! lowest half-breed Mexicans and Indians
| flocked to the new town to prey upon the
| tenderfeet there Cowboys quit COW punch
| ing and went to Tombstone to live on
| their wits and hard names. Saloon keep
ers went there from all over California.
and every state and territory along the
| Rocky mountains. There was no prison or
| penal institution worthy the name in the
| whole territory of Arizona i'm those DAYS
was at once demoralized upon the discov-
| cry of enormous wealth in the San Rita
| mountains. What man would serve as con-
stable or marshal for few hundred dol
| lars year and risk his life every hour In
! the day with the most desperate charac-
ters in the world, when there seemed a
| possibility of finding a gold or silver mine
| there with a fortune.
| From January, 1880, to March 1881 it
was a never-ending battle between these
| lawbreakers on the one side and the men
| who knew no law on the other. From first
| to last forty-seven were killed with their
| boots on. EX-GoV. Filkins saw nine men
| shot down before his eyes in that time. At
| least thirty-five gambling houses and
/ places on the main street, keeping their
! doors wide open daytime and night time
| Sunday, and all time, One of them, the
! Gold Room" was capable of holding 500
| or 600 people. Every known kind of gamb-
ling was practiced. A sight was seen in
| this place one Sunday night that Is not of
| ten witnessed. A Methodist preacher went
| to the boss of the place, Jack Trowbridge,
and requested permission to hold divine
| services. 1t was granted, and with every
| gambling table running the bar sending
out its liquid hell, that preacher, the Rev.
| Mr. Hahn, stood up and told the story of
| the Man of Nazareth. Before he had fin
! ished mis- sermon a quarrel arose at one
| of the card tables, and a man was shot.
| A detailed account OF the Killing and muir
| ders is not intended. If a gang of cow
! boys road into town the smallest provo
| cation would set their guns going and go
| ing to kill.
A bond election was held Several spe-
cial constables were appointed by the mine
owners for election day. One of them was
a Texan named Martin. At the police polls
! there was quarrel between a big Irish
man, who went by the name of Flaherty,
! but whose real name was Arthur Ludney,
| and the special costable, Martin. The re-
| suit of that quarrel was the killing Of
| eight men and one woman. and the wound
! ed of just an equal number After the
! election was over Flaherty and Martin
met In the Lone Star saloon and renewed
| the quarrel A proposition was made and
| accepted to so out in the streets and set
| tie it with their fists Both men laid off
their belts and started for the street Mar
tin, however, had a gun hidden in his
| boot and just as the door was reached he
went down after 1t. intending to kill the
| Irishman, but Flaherty was too quick
! for him. and taking the gun away from
him, shot him dead. Flaherty gave him
self up and was acquitted Martin had a
host of friends, and they vowed vengeance
on his slayer.
The death OF Martin led to what has