Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1899-03-17
TALE OF EARLY DAYS
Charles cavileer Contributes Some In
teresting "reminiscences Of Early
Days in Pembina.
Details Of the Death Of the Last OF the
Collins Gang and His Determined
Pursuer.
One Of the Many Interesting Recollec-
tions Of the Period Of the Old
Pioneers.

49, 81 5%E ~ : 1O1lSSISs '"s. aWE
Hon. Chas. Cavileer of Pembina
county is writing some interesting rem
iniscences of early days for the Walhalla
Mountaineer and his latest gives an
account of the death Of. one of the last of
the Collins gang of banditti, an original
gang of ten men, of whom eight had
died with their boots on beforethe ninth
was landed at Pembina. The latest
Renaissance of Cavileer details the
death of the ninth by q detective named,
Anderson, who met death at the same
time. Cavileer says:
Anderson was living in Dallas, Texas,
and Collins lived in the same city. "Bill'
Anderson and "Bill" Collins were boys
together and schoolmates, and Anderson
told me he stood second best at the mar!
rage of Collins and it was beyond his
comprehension how Collins became the
desperate he did. Hence his determin-
alton to hunt him down and follow him
office in Dallas to see if he could not
4ON0GO Lac WACACoOO0V0 VAAOu6A
pondence of Collins with his wife, and
from their correspondence he felt sure
that he had located his man in Pembina.
Under the assumed name of Perry he
left Dallas and started for this place.
Arriving here he secured Jud LaMoure
and Sheriff Charley Brown to go down
to the boundary line and see if Collins
answered the description, and report to
him in the evening, but if they thought
he was the man they wanted, they were
to lay a trap for him and get him into
Browns saloon in a game of poker; the
detective was to come on to m and to
remain here until they reported,
He came over to the post office and in
PRODUCED himself as Perry and asked if
we could give him accommodation. OF
course we could. Through the day on
making our acquaintance, he let us into
his business and gave us his right name
of Anderson, and told us some of the
Inside of his life and of the band of out
laws he was following up.
He left the house in the afternoon to
go to the barber shop for a shave. On
coming into the house he came into the
Office instead of into the dwelling part,
and laid down on the lounge and fell
asleep, none of us %foreseeing the res ult
I had about finished post Office bust
ness for the day and gone into the fam
lily sitting room to have q talk with Capt.
Griggs who had dropped in from his
steamer to have a chat before starting
on his journey for the upper river. Col.
Stutsman and the rest of the family, ex-
cept Lulah, were having a social time,
not dreaming of the tragedy that would
soon take place, when Lulah came III
ming, wildly excited, and says, papa,
there is a man in the Office who is trying
to shoot another man." / ran out ahead
of Capt. Griggs, who knew nothing of
the expected thing to be accomplished,
and would probably interfere with the
wrong man. There stood the detective
with an English bulldog revolver in his
hand pointed at the heart of Collins, say
ing "Hold up your hands Bill" Bill held
them up, but with the devil lurking in
his eyes and a nervous twitchingto get at
his five-shooter that was in his undervest,
a garment made to carry two pistols on
the breast and a bowie knife on the
back held up by shoulder straps-the
most complete arrangement for carrying
death-dealing weapons I ever saw. How
ever, he must have put n pistol and a
knife in soak in a hard strait for money,
as he had but the one weapon on him. In
a moment after I got in he made a des-
perate stroke for the pistol, but missed
the grab. The detective more determined
than ever and with a deadly point on the
brigand, says, "hold up or you are a dead
man." Bill did hold up but he made
two grabs before he got the weapon
out. and then Anderson fired, the ball
entering within half an inch of the heart.
Anderson knowing he had given a death
shot, broke for the back door, running
around the stove and stove-pipe and just
as he passed the pipe, Collins fred, but
the bullet passed a few inches from the
detective, passed through a back win
dow and on into an Indian tepee, Great
ing lively times for few minutes in that
encampment. Anderson made good and
safe his escape into the hall, where stood
Mrs. Cavileer, Capt. Griggs and others.
Then Anderson, from anxiety, or a fas-
cinating influence to see the effect of his
shot, stepped to the door and looked in,
him and Ton the other, as neal as three
take the most deadly aim and steady
to think what he vas doing, he fred, the
ou4A HoooAA6 "a q 10y 4ASAO0 liz
on its deadly errand into the heart of
Anderson, through him and an inch and
a half door and into a box of books be-
hind it, where it was afterwards found.
Collins then drew to fire again when I
said, "hold on, don't you see you have
killed your mani" He dropped his
gun and stood looking at his man
gradually dropping down and in a
moment he fell dead to.the floor without
a moan, groan or kick. We we're all.
standing near the door and / told Bah
cock to open it and then said to Collins
to get. knowing that he had a deadly
wound and that he could not run far be-
fore he would drop, and had I known.
how near to death he was / could have
saved the detectives life, for the first
step he took his lungs filled with blood
and STOPPING his head to get out@of the
door he fell on the sidewalk and never
spoke again.
The sheriff came in just too late but
summoning posse the cut-throat was
carried to Vaughn's office first, over the
saloon, and afterwards the detective was
placed along side 81 him; the latter stiff
SNsLNE FS AER - III q ALLLN o - q So 49, ~ ~