New-York tribune., 1901-12-09

| was only few feet from the door Before I
could decide what to do heard further crash.
| and. turning. that had jumped in
| through the window. He right behind me.
! and he had gun could not act too quickly.
1 think put my pistol under my left and
| fired The man fell
| Up to this time I had heard shots. bus
| had got firmly the idea that it a prac-
| teal joke. and thought probably that my assaii-
! ants oystermen, whom knew to be dam
/ gerous characters. 1t learned afterward
! that the 1 shot first J. @ Stiff
Next L went out the porch and looking
around saw no one The light from the bed
| room window streaming out me and
ran into the shadow about fifteen feet
Another man doomed up in front of He
was carrying gun and quick as flash 1 shot
| at him. There is denying that thor
/ Oughly scared all the time. as / believed l was
dealing with dangerous characters and did not
! know but there were dozen or more of them-
L wandered around the yard for several min--
utes, not knowing just where was, but finafly
came to the board fence in front and climbed
over into the pear orchard
The minute L struck the ground l was con-
fronted by another masked figure Again l
shot, and the man fell with groan- 1t vas
William Taylor, as | afterward learned Will
lam He1in he second man shot / was
between Taylor and the light, and l wondered
that he had not shot me as L climbed over the
fence
After Taylor dropped 1 lay in the grass for
about ten minutes. 1 wanted to see how many
me re there were in the neighborhood- thoughc
that the in the grass near by was Just
fCoIing and was watching for a chance hit.
thinking that if he could get one shot at ma
IL would make up, you know. for the shooting
of his friends As lay there. with ny revolver
cooked. / thought i other moving
abound among the trees; bat that must have
been imagination
AROUSED THE NEIGHBORS.
Finally ! decided to run for it, hoping to get
away. l ran for $50 feet then fell and listened.
Not hearing anything. ! got up and made my
way fast possible to the house of Bob
Guttridge. who the plantation of David II.
Griffith Bob Joined me and went TO Mr. CIrif-
hth's house, which was about half a mile from
Cedar Hill. The family were all up and some
of the neighbors were in the ROOM told of
my experience with what I supposed were rob-
bers- Mr. Griffith and Guttridge started to sn
back to my place.
Il cold and tired and scared. and did not
want to go back. but they thought had better
broke my gun TO see how much ammunition
had and found only shot left I must have
fired four times. I usually kept the revolver
fully loaded but do not remember firing more
than three shots had no more cartridges with
me- but Mr.. Griffith finally found shotgun
We had lantern, but We were scared lot iot
men. On the way back found the tracks of
the two buggles in which Taylor and the others
had driven the house
When we reached plantation yelled
for Ivinson Saunders. our man. but ne was noe
around. AS we neared the house Mr.. Griffin
kept holIering, and suddenly we heard some one
calling family, Dave We went into the living
room. and found two men lying by the doof.
Heff1in. who had crawed in from outside. recog-
nized Griffith and spoke to him. Then we recog-
nized Stiff. Then again 1 thought that these
men. who had been my friends. had been trying
70 play practical joke on me, and feeling or
horror came over me-
Hefffin said Yes when T asked if it all a.
terrible joke Later. after We had fixed the men
to take them up the river to Washington. HeiHi1r
looked at and said feebly: Here, are YOU
going to the boat with u.s.?
STRONGLY GUARDED
As soon as we found the wounded men sent
Saunders for DR. Stewart twelve miles away
went for Dr. Washington who lived only five
miles away, II not until after came back
that | had any inl<ling of what the trouble was
all about. That night Willard Raitt stayed at
my house. The body of Taylor. which we found
in the front yard. was placed in a building a
short distance away. ! went TO Mr. GrifithS
house. In the morning he told me that had
better not stay there. there might be trouble.
He did say that / might be Iynched, but
knew what he meant. and went TO Raitt's house
and stayed there until the constable came for
me- He did everything as il ought 70 have been
done There were eight or ten deputies VINO had
been in. and they walked in front and be-
hind the constable's carriage. in which L rode.
They all heavily armed
The COroner's jury met i'll my bedroom Ths
doctor had already made an autopsy on TayI Ior
body, and the members of the jury had ex-
amned the premises thoroughly. Carroll Thomp-
son. one of the jurymea. was brother of George
Thompson. who was in the attacking party Tha
hearing took ell day. and | hOuorabiy ac-
quilted. Rose Taylor the young woman who-
unfortunately. mixed up in the trouble, did
appear before the jury. but her statement
generating me from the charge of having Of
fered an insult procured from her by the
family physician. DIR. Washington.
II was advised by my friends to leave the
county once. 1 told that an attempt
might be made to lynch me. That night. Thurs
day. / drove over to Leedstown- about seven
miles from Oak Grove. and took the boat for
Fredericksburg L was driven to the boat by d
of Colonel Robert J. WashingtOn, the prose-
cutting attorney From Fredericksburg went ro
Washington and then came to Brooklyn
Why of course / kissed her. said Mr. Marx.
when he asked about Miss Taylor. She is
only little girl, and have known her for ever
so long. Why. I have often kissed her at her
home L never called on her. because she
was too young. but was paying some attention
to another young lady. and it was on the latters
account that / happened to be walking TO the
pcstoffice with Rose Taylor on the night that.
said to have insulted her There was a
Thanksgiving party in the church had asked
the young lady of whom I spoke TO go for
walk. and she did not respond as quickly as L
thought she should. and l said: Come. Rose
you and / will go to the postoffice. SO we did
We did not meet anybody on the way. but L
suppose this itinerant negro preacher. john
Bird. who understand gave out the false state.
ments 1t may have been that L had
thrown my around the girl j do not re-
member that did. bur might have done So
1T is absurd to say that Taylor was jealous
of me- because the girl too young for either
of us to think of courting seriously I have not
seen her since the shooting, but she made
fully eXonerating me-
THREATS AGAINST BIRD
Mr. Blackmar said that on the night before he
md Ernest Marx left Oak Grove, the Oystermen
we're threatening to lynch the negro. Bird. and
hat he had hung around the house of the pros
.cuting attorney all night for protection. The
also added some further details
If the story. He said that on the morning after