The Savannah morning news., 1900-08-24

dln was caught at Shreveport a few DAVIS
later' returned TO Comanche and sentenced
70 twenty-five years Imprisonment for
the Killing of Charley Webb. He was
SCI at liberty under the exemplary con-
quot rule i'll 1892 and left the penitentiary
with the reputation of having perfected
hl'hsef in the study of law during the
seventeen years of his incarceration. I'm
medateiy after regaining his liberty he
cihched his reputation for being the
heanest bad man on the border by bet
elhs 20 that he could at the first shot
KNOCK an innocent Mexican off a soap
ooX where he sat summing himself. He
won the bet and left the dead Mexican in
the gutter where he fell. That he was
proud OF his meanness is proved by
story winch he boastfuHy told of an ad-
venture i'll Nogales. He said that in
motel there he was annoyed by heavy
shorer IN the next room. Without making
an EFFORT 20 caution the sleeper. he put
MS ear to the thin board partition till
ne got the exact position of his snoring
helghbors head. Then he fired one for
ty7nVe caliber bullet through the wall
Inc snoring stopped. The corpse was
found the next morning shot through the
Drain but the bad man was permitted
to ride away
whatever he may have known of the
theofy OF law, his grotesqued idea of its
practice was manifest when he set out
Tor El Paso wearing four six-shooters and
carrying a Winchester rifle. 1t was dur
ing the trial of the Mlller-Frazier cattle
conspiracy case that he arrived Accou-
tered as he was he went TO the office of
the I'll Paso Times and in badly writ
ten, badly spelled card" announced that
ne mad come to Ell Paso ito practice law
on nigh PLAIN" He meant plane, of
course, but his spelling was as bad as his
iater legal performances. From the news
paper office he called at the White Ele-
phant saloon, and at the point of gun
borrowed 500 from the proprietor With
this ready money he engaged in an omen
crap game in the Gem saloon in Texas
avenue. lost all his capital, and then, with
pistol in each hand compelled the play
ers and the croupiers to pay him back
what he had lost. He collected about 5000
ana went back 10 the saloonkeeper whom
ne had robbed, offering to buy a half in
terest in the place for $500, and enforcing.
his proposition with his ever-readv
weapon. He got his half interest. and
before daylight all Ell Paso knew that
Yves Hardin and his guns and al,
mad come to town to practice law on a
high plane"
For more than six months he terrorized
VINO dared cross his path at all times and
under all conditions. That man was
John Sellman, a bad man, too. but of A
different mould from Yves Hardin. After
a bloody career as soldier, cowboy and
border deputy and with record of what
ne called "tWenty-three justifiable kill
ings," Sellman had settled down into the
almost placid occupation of patrolling the
streets OF Eel Paso. 1t was placid enough
tlll Hardin came, but month later every
man there knew that one or the other
ndu come at last into the presence of sure
death.
The crisis came Aug 10, 1893 Old John
Sellman's son, who was a policeman. had
arrested Hardin's friend, and Hardin at
once announced that he would eXterminate
the whole Sellman family, beginning with
the rather. To this end the offended des-
perado armed himself with pistols and a
quantity of whisky. and went looking for
old man Sellman. The latter, who stated
at his trial afterwards that he knew it
was only question of time when he
must kill Hardin, traced him to the Echo
saloon. With that peculiar and almost
anomalous sense of fairness which char
acterized many of his class Sellman then
sent word to Hardin that if he would come
our of the saloon he, Sellman, would give
him a fair chance to eXJerminate or be
exterminated." Those were the very words
of Sellman, as reported at the trial At
ter waiting an hour for a reply Selman
entered the barroom. Hardin saw his re-
Election in the glass and had his pistol
out in a second. But Selman was sober
His first shot pierced Hardn's head from
hatband to hatband. and even when his
victim fell Sellman continued to fire till
he had placed five shots in vital parts of
his enemy.
Good gun fighters like Yves Hardin
sometimes shoot after they're hit" ex-
planned Sellman in telling why he fired so
many fatal shots.