The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1900-10-19

carouse after the manner of their class.
Some time that afternoon Deputy Sher-
if Charley Webb, of Brown county, ar
rived in Comanche with warrant for
one of Hardin's gang who was accused
of stealing cattle. He soon learned
that the desperate and his fellows
were embattled in the saloon, but,
nothing .dlaunted, tied his horse and en-
tered the back door, which was open.
Hardin knew him and the moment he
put his face in the doorway shouted:
Hello, Webb! What do you want
here?"
"Ive warrant for Cal Shelby" the
deputy was saying, as he pulled the
document half out of his pocket. But
Hardin shot him through the heart.
adding: II guess you won't serve it'll"
In the party with Yves Hardin when
Webb was shot was Joe Hardin.
younger brother of Yves, then posing as
a lawyer, but following closely in the
footsteps of his lawless brother, and
with a growing reputation in CO.
manche as desperate and crook.
News of the shooting of Webb spread
quickly over the town, and before dark
the saloon was surrounded by posse
of volunteers. The enraged citizens
dusk, and captured four of the inmates,
including Joe Hardin. Yves escaped in
the confusion and rode to temporary
liberty on the horse of the man he
had killed. The posse, determined to
make an example of somebody,
hanged Joe to the nearest tree and
gave his companions hours to leave
the county. When the coroner exam
med the effects of the dead young
desperate he found the seals of 10
counties which had been proftably
used for months by the quondam law
yer in the process of making out boz
gus bills of sale for cattle stolen by
members of his brothers gang.
Yves Hardin then fed toward Flor
ida. In the suburbs of Gainesville he
was overtaken by two negroes, Jake
Mcneil and Robert Borup, both of
whom had worked for Hardin's IA
ther. Impehed by desire to obtain
the $500 reward offered for Hardin's
capture, they attempted to arrest him
as he was leaving his lodging place
early in the morning. They ap-
preached him with leveled pistols. He
had his thumbs in the waistband of
his trousers and assured them he was
unarmed. AS they attempted to seize
him he whipped two pistols from I'M
der his vest and killed one of them.
The other was blinded and fed for
his life. Hardin was caught at
Shreveport few days later, returned
to Comanche and sentenced to IS
years imprisonment for the killing
of Charley Webb. He was set at lib
erty under the exemplary conduct
rule in 1892 and left the penitentiary
with the reputation of having per-
fected himself in the study of law dur
ing the II years of his Incarceration.
Immediately after regaining his lib
erty he clinched his reputation for
being the "meanest bad man on the
border" by betting five dollars that
he could at the first shot knock an
innocent Mexican off soap box
where he sat summing himself. He
won the bet and left the dead Next
can in the gutter where he fell. That
he was proud of his meanness is
proved by story which he boastful-
ly told of an adventure in Nogales.
He said that in hotel there he was
annoyed by a heavy snorer in the next
room. Without making an effort to
caution the sleeper, he put his ear to
the thin board partition till he got
the exact position of his snoring
neighbours head. Then he fired one
45-caliber bullet through the wall.
The snoring stopped. The corpse was
found the next morning shot through
the brain, but the bad man was per-
mitted to ride away.
Whatever he may have known of
the theory of law, his grotesque idea
of it's practice was manifest when
he set out for Ell Paso wearing four
six-shooters and carrying a Winches-
ter rifle.
For more than six months he ter
rorized Ell Paso. There was only one
man there who dared cross his path
at all times and under all conditions.
That man was John Sellman, a bad
man, too, but of different mold
from Yves Hardin. After a bloody
careeras soldier, cowboy and border
deputy, and with record of what he
called '23 justifable Killings" Sell
man had settled down into the almost
placid occupation of patrolling the
streets of Ell Paso. 1t was placid
enough till Hardin came, but month
later every man there knew that one
or the other had come at last into the
presence of sure death.
The crisis came August 10, 1898.
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
father. To this end the offended des-
perado armed himself with pistols
and a quantity of whisky, and went
looking for old man Seilman. The
latter, who stated at his trial after
ward that he knew it was only
question of time when he must kill
Hardin, traced him to the Ecko sa-