Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1901-04-04
WHEN FACING DEATH.

call of a mans experience with
criminals and their ways goes for moth
ing when he attempts to figure out in
advance how one of them is going to
meet death upon the gallows, said a
secret service man who has been Uni
ted States deputy marshal in numer-
Gus western states, the other night.
It always makes me smile to read
some sherif's prediction that such and
such murderer, condemned to death,
is likely to die game" or that it will
probably be necessary to carry the man
to the gallows. II would be just as
reasonable to attempt to forecast the
weather for ten years ahead.
I have seen twenty-three men le-
gally put to death in the country west
of the Mississippi from the Columbia
to Rio Grande, and of that whole bunch
there were certainly not more than half
dozen of them who met their finish
in anything like the way that had been
mapped out in advance by the prog
nosticators-myself included-though |
will say that after having seen about
an even dozen of my advance fgurings
of this sort go to pieces acquired the
habit of keeping my predictions to my
self.
Of all the occasions upon which l
among others have been badly fooled
in this way perhaps the worst was the
time when four men were hanged on
the same gal.ows in the federal prison
at Fort Smith, Arkansas, back in 1884.
Two ofthem were Indians-onea a Cher
okee and the other a Choctaw-and
the other two werea middle aged white
man and white lad of nineteen.
The Cherokee was renegade who
had murdered settlers and plundered
their outfits all over the territory. He
was a buck about twenty-eight years
of age, gigantic of stature and strength,
and as utterly cruel and relentless a
red devil as l ever clapped eyes upon.
He had performed all of his fendish
work in the open and generally in the
broad light of day, and in almost every
case he had taken exactly even chances
with the people he slaughtered and car
ried a good many Of their marks upon
his evil carcass.
Because he hadn't done his jobs like
sneak, and because, after he was cap
tured and condemned to the gallows,
he continued to carry himself with
sullen. silent defiance almost beyond
belief, we all had it set down for an
absolute certainty that he would stride
to his death like sergeant Of marines,
and let himself drop into space like a
bag of bran.
The Choctaw was the most onery,
weakened, shriveled up looking young
red | ever looked at. He was meaner
built Indian than Moqui, and l can't
say any worse of him than that. He
had killed two Of the squaws of his
tribe with a meat ak and fed their re-
mains to the tepee dogs.
When he was rounded up he writhed
like a snake and cringed and yowled
like a coyote at night, and howled for
mercy, and called upon the Good Faith
er and made a nauseating exhibition
of himself il general. He was only
TWENTY-FIVE, but the innate deviltry
had made his face like parchment. He
had hands like claws, the marks Of
which l have toted around with me
ever since l was sent down to the ter
ritory after him, for l was United
States deputy marshal at that time.
The devil bit me pretty badly, too, and
I had to almost pummel his head off
before l could load him into the prairie
schooner to bring him up to Fort Smith.
Well, we had it all fixed among our
selves that this Choctaw rattlesnake
would have to be packed up the steps
of the scafold and held taut with side
ropes until the trap was sprung.
Dallam Birdsell was the name Of a
middle aged desperate, horse thief,
wife murderer and bad man in general.
He belonged to the Arkansas cracker
class, and was pretty evil bunch. He
had taken a pretty long rope for him
self all over the territory and Texas
Che murdered his wife in Fl. Worth),
for a number of years was confirmed
rustler, would shoot to kill at the drop
of the bonnet and was very much
desired man when Ed Ringgold, one OF
the Arkansas marshals, finally got the
drop on him at the southern edge OF
the State and broug ght him in.
| The indifference he displayed when