The Savannah morning news., 1900-08-25

IAN officer often has 10 risk his life 10
protect a prisoner" remarked an old rail-
road detective last evening, according 10
the New Orleans Times Democrat. but
generally a little strategy will outwit d
mob. The queerest case of that kind /
ever heard of happened years ago out in
Colorado, at a place called Carbonville
1t was pretty tough mining camp, and
one night In a brawl, the town marshal
was shot dead by a gambler named Con-
nors. The murderer was stranger in
the place and managed TO make his es-
cape, but the marshal had been very pop
ular. and the miners swore all kinds of
vengeance. About a week later a couple
of deputy sheriffS captured Connors at
place some thirty miles away and decided
TO take him to the next county seat for
safe keeping. The road ran through Car
bonville, and, as the news of the arrest
had already reached the camp and stirred
1t to fever pitch, they calculated, very
correctly, that there was likely to be
trouble when they showed up. At last one
of the deputies, a reckless sort of chap
named Jake Higgins. suggested a scheme.
l look a good deal like Connors,' he said.
and those folks over there hardly know
aim. Suppose L play prisoner, while we
send officer with our man through
town by a back road. They amt going to
hang me right away sudden. and while
they are pow-wowing about it Connors
will be through and gone Then we can
tell EN- who l am, show 'em our badges
and papers, have the laugh on the gang
and follow on behind This brilliant idea,
which would have occurred to nobody but
scatter-brained lunatic like Higgins was
promptly adopted. He was handcuffed
put in wagon between two deputies, and
the real prisoner brought up the rear with
another officer in buggy.
1T was about dusk when the wagon
reached Carbonville," continued the detec-
tive and. "just as they had expected, a
crowd of tough citizens were in waiting.
They promptly held up the team, and the
spokesman told the officers that the good
citizens of the camp had decided it WASH t
worth while to waste any money giving
Connors a regular trial. The only thing
that was needed, he said, was a short
piece of hemp. and they brought a section
of shaft rope, all ready for the ceremony.
The deputy began to expostulate to gain
time. but they cut him short and started
to drag Higgins out of the wagon, while
some of the others threw the loose end of
the rope over a nearby limb. That looked
critical. and the deputy got ratified. Hold
on, boys! he yelled, this isn't the mani
And with that he blurted out the whole
story as fast as his tongue could wag.
As they might have anticipated, if they
had had any sense, the explanation was
received with jeers. You see, Connors had
been in camp only few hours before he
got Into the shooting scrape. and Higgins
was himself a stranger in that locality
so 1t was easy to confuse them, especially
as they really did look alike. A dozen
men in the crowd declared positively that
the deputy was the real murderer, and
| they simply laughed at his papers and
star It's 100 thinv said the leader; Well
give you couple of minutes 20 say your
stage when Higgins life wasn't worth an
the news that two men had been badly
hurt in runaway on the edge of camp,
and that one of them was handcuffed.
That started the crowd, and they sus-
pended proceedings to investigate. IT
seemed that the other officer with the
bona tide prisoner had attempted to cut
around town at top speed and ran the
| buggy into little gulch. He had his col
lar bone broken and Connors fractured his
| leg When they carried them into a bar
it was seen at once that there had been a
mistake, and, somehow or other, the idea
that they had come within an ace of
stringing up the wrong man took all the
lynchins spirit out of the mob. Connors
was allowed to go through, spent six
months in jail, got a change of venue and
was actually acquitted trial. / dom
know what became of him. Higgins died
| year or so ago. That's a true story
boys and the very closest call in my mem.
cry"