El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1899-08-21
HANGING ORDEAL.
Tragic Experience Of An OId-Time
Western Pioneer.

Western Pioneer.
William Eastman, q western pioneer,
who is now visiting relatives In Chica-
90, is q M an who has survived the or
deal of hanging, says the Chicago Inter
Ocean.
Mr.. Eastman is a man apparently
weather beaten face and q grizzly
beard. He wears an entire suit of
buckskin, and from the collar OF his
coat hang three tufts of long, wiry hair
that look like portions of q horses
name or tail, but which are in reality
the scalp locks of Indians.
s"This is the first time that l have
been east, or seen any of my reiatlves
or old friends since the winter OF 1856
" more than q boy then, but very
large and muscular for my age. l
caught the western gold fever when it
was at it's height, and, with q company
of prospectors, started in the spring
of 1851 for the coast, and for many years
led wild and adventurous lie.
81 was twice made captive by In
dams, but managed to escape, the sec
ond time, however, receiving wounds
and the scars of which I shall carry to
my grave. But when I look at the
topknots that ornament the collar OF my
coat I always feel q sense OF grim Salts
faction in the thought that, badly as
the red devils treated me, quit win
ner three times when the stakes were
human life.
"The closest call that I ever had,
however, was near what is known as
Skull Valley, small town In Yavapal
county, Arizona. I had been up near
where the village of Burnt ranch Is
now located, in Crook county, Oregon,
and while there fell in with man
named Robert Wilson, who had been q
vessel broker in New York, but whose
life had been EN- FILTERED by family
troubles, and who had plunged into the
then wild and trackless west to seek on
the plains and in the mountains relief
from 80 keen q mental distress that he
once remarked to me that 1t would
drive him insane had he remained
where old associations could have kept
adding fuel to the fire of jealousy.
hatred and revenge that seemed to be
literally consuming him.
81 liked the man from the first. He
was in trouble aud my heart went out
to him. He and 1 became firm friends
and were close companions for years.
He had become q typical plainsman,
rough of exterior, but genial, whole
souled fellow who lived in his saddle
BY day and rolled himself in his blan-
ket by night and slept on the plains or
In the mountains wherever darkness
overlook him.
There WAS only one trouble with
him. He used to get the blues once in
q while, and when he did he would give
himself up absolutely to q week or so
of debauohery. When he sobered up
he would be ashamed of himself and
swear that he would never again touch
another drop: but his good resolutions
were of no avail, for just as soon Is the
old feeling which drove him from home
ard made him an aimless wanderer up
on the face of the earth came over him
again he sought relief in drink, and he
was absolutely demon when he was
in liquor.
"Drink changed his whole nature,
and in all my experience among law
less characters Fin the west, do not
think 1 ever met one who could COM
pare with Robert Wilson for pure and
unadultered devilishness when he was
drunk. He was brave and courageous
to a remarkable degree when he was
sober: when he was drunk he was as
reckless q daredevil as ever lived. He
was remarkably handy with his gun,
and his disposition to shoot, especially
when he had been drinking, and the
fact that he was under the influence OF
liquor at the time of which 1 speak, re-
suited in a lynching in which played
the leading role as corpse.
zone day Wilson and were in Aqua
Fria valley, in Yavapai county, Ari-
IONA, and met some parties who were
en- route to Skull valley, in the same
county, and they told us that ranch
man near the latter place wanted to
hire some herders. Wilson and I
were out of work and hard up, and we
decided to apply to the man for q job
to tide US over until something better
turned up. Upon arrival at the ranch
mans place we found him to be a
coarse, ignorant and brutal fellow who,
as we afterward learned, had been
compelled TO fly from his native place |
to escape punishment for a crime. He
was a sullen fellow with stiff, bushy |
hair, swarthy complexion and black, |
eyes. l disliked and distrust- |
ed him from the instant saw him and |
son We hired out to him, however,
and went to work the next day. We
we're not long in finding out the kind
Of fellow our hslf-breed boss was.
1--WE had been at work only two
days when he gave Wilson a tongue
lash ing for allowing some of the cattle |
to stray away. When L heard the |
ranehman open up on Wilson L expect !
ed to see the latter shoot the fellow |
with oat further talk, but he managed |
10 control himself, however. and that
night when we went into our hut on !
the feeding grounds he told me what
an effort it had cost him to keep from !
killing the ranchman and declared that |
II that sort of thing occurred again |
shere would be funeral on that ranch |
and that he would attend personally to |
the little preliminary affair of supply |
ing the corpse for the occasion.
ga few days afterward party of |
passed that way, and. IN
known to me, Wilson procured from |
them bottle of whisky and proceeded |
to take frequent generous doses of the |
liquor which speedily aroused every
III I1araa