The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1899-02-11
DISARMAMENT M ARIZONA.
How 1t Was Accomplished In ronb-
stone by a Clever Fireman.

hoW 1t was accomplished In Tomb
stone by a Clever Fireman
"This newspaper ak about the czar's
disarmament scheme, . said a western
man in the New Orleans TimesaDemo-
GRAFT, reminds me of something that hap
pened in Tombstone, A. T., when that
place was the hottest hamlet on the whole
frontier. There were two factions in town
at the time, and everybody predicted that
a big pitched battle was liable to occur at
any moment. The split grew out Of an
old quarrel between the cowboys and GER
tain self constituted authorities and was
complicated by so many side issues that
nobody knew exactly what it was about.
All that was perfectly clear was that two
good sized crowds were ~zigzagging about
town waiting for some trifle to start the
fracas. Every member of both parties was
armed to the teeth and afraid to lay aside
his shooting irons for a moment lest he
be taken at a disadvantage. In addition
to the regulation brace Of As caliber Colts
most of them carried sawed off shotguns.
These weapons We're very popular in Ari-
IONA in the early days and were ordinary
breechloaders with the barrels amputated
some eight inches above the locks, making
just about the ugliest machinet that mortal
<AtSA OtOA SrLSN 4libO h1iGf OctQ Mllll
half a pint or SO of slugs, it would kill
everything in an acre lot except the gentle
man directly behind the gun. Nobody ever
thought of firing the things from the
shoulder, but turned them loose at the
hip, and the modish way of carrying them
was by q loop of clothesline tied at one
end to the belt and at the other to a ring
in the breech plate. Local dudes used to
go about twirling them like monocles.
Well, this armed peace went along with
out any special incident for over half a
year, greatly to the disgust of everybody.
Y see, each side carried so much per-
sonal artillery and kept such a sharp look
out that none of them cared to take
chances on starting a row That was the
way things stood whom the fire department
got ready to give its annual bail, which
was the great social event of the year.
The fire chief was a keen witted Irishman,
and he thought the situation over and
called or both factions. Look here, boys
be said in substance, you all want to
come to the ball, and you can't do it with
them scatter gun hanging to you. If
you happened tokick one off Yaltzing,
you might massacre the whole orchestra,
and they're the only musicians in the
town. So why not let all han@ agree to
unload everything until further notice
guns, pistols, knives and knuckles-and
just turn in and have a good time? I'll
take care of the hardware and give each
fellow a check This interesting PROPOSE
ton was favorably received, and after con-
siderable clubbing about details an agree
ment was drawn up and everybody peeled
off his weapons. There was. a great sigh
of relief, and the ball was the biggest sue
cess on record. Thestruth is Tombstone
was sick of war, and to the best of my
recollection the general disarmament con-
tinued for five Or six months. 1t was
broken by a typical street duel, and then
things got wild and woolly again. 1t is
certainly a curious unwritten page of from
tier history"