Daily Kennebec journal., 1899-09-08
Local Matters.
WESTERN STORIES.
Uncle George Cohy Tells Some Of His
Experiences.
wss. is Good Place Gut Cannot Compare
With Pine Tree State.


way at the gentlemen seated about,
.there was a queer crowd OF men at
work with me in a slaughter house
located in the suburbs of Silver city.
Idaho. There were 10 different races
represented in the crew. | think one
Of the handsomest men | ever saw was
Irishman, native born. and as fine Il
speciman of manhood as ever lived.
He was a powerful man. too. and could
hold his end up with the best of them
There was an Englishman in the
lot. and he was, as usual, inclined to
jolly the man from Ireland, but he al
you The Irishman generally was too
much for him, both with his tongue
and with his fists, for many times they
would come to blows as a result of
their disputes.
I'VE had a Chinaman, a German
Mexican. Piute Indian, negro, Swede.
Frepchman. Italian and several Yam
KEGS. Barnum would have given a
good deal for the crowd TO show in his
Congress of Nations.
They We're as whole quite good
lot of fellows. They We're great work
ers, too, and the way they'd make the
fur fly was a caution. / was young
man then, and rather enjoyed the
rough and tumble life we led.
Frank Farrar. Will Badger. James
Devine and AL Springer went West
with me. AIS brother. Amos, was
sheriff out there. and for a time |
acted as turnkey at his Jail. 1t wasn't
quite so good a building as our Jail
over across the street, but it served
the purpose just as we'll Al Springer
was as likely a young man as ever
went away from home. but somebody
shot him out there. 1t was a pity, for
everybody liked him.
man. and pretty lively one in a scrap
he was too A fellow out there
thought lie was the best man that ever
lived. He killed man. and then
swore that no one could arrest ln7.
Amos Springer had befriended hm
before that, and he thought he coni.t
again presume upon the sheriff's kind
feelings towards him. But Amos
Springer always did his duty.
blood, and he must be locked up, He
was locked up, and Springer was the
man who did it. He didn't hang
around the street great while after
Amos got his hands on him. He went
right along with him as meek as a
lamb. although he had been Dragging
a good deal before the sheriff arrived
about what he was going to do.
THE trial was an interesting one.
A lawyer came to the town from
Frisco, and argued the case for pris-
oner, but If he had talked from that
time to now he couldn't convince the
jury of the fellows innocence. And
so he was convincted. While he was
in Jail | saw a good deal of him, and
he always claimed that he didn't
per got the best of him and lie shot
him before he thought of the conse-
quences or of what he was doing.
There were some pretty tough
things happened out in that country in
those days. Murders We're of frequent
occurrence, and rows were as plenty
as could be. | wasn't much of a fight
er, but | could run pretty well. AND
so / escaped and now am alive to tel
of the incidents | witnessed.
AT the dances out there fellows had
great habit of firing their revolvers
at the lamp chmneys, smashing then
in pieces and putting out the lights
Then there's be music in the air, ano
the orchestra wouldn't be in it. O.
course these little sideshows werent
If man was very bad he had tC
suffer, but as a general thing the meI
did about what they had a mind to
Sometimes when the lamps would bt
smashed the building would be set or
fire and would burn down. But new
and better one would be built in "a very
short time and things would be moving
along just the same as before.
Around the slaughter house we uset
once in while to have a great time il
taking care of the sheep which we KEEP
in fields waiting for slaughtering.
remember one Sunday a big flock o
sheep. more than three acres of them
got frightened at something and the,
began going around in circle, draw
ing the circle smaller at every turn
The result was that the sheep in tn
center became crushed to death Or
this particular day we took out owe
$50 that had been killed in the STAN
pede.
Although got along pretty well ou