Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1901-12-12
JOHNNY HEALY,
U. s. MARSHAL.
BY TAPPAN ADNEY,
Author of "The Mondike Stampede" Etc.

1u~e~~~~~~o>e>11~eeoeo~o01
Johnny Healy was troubled. He
was used to that. Twenty-Five years
selling beads and blankets to border
Sioux and coming out without a
scratch, he knew few things. He
had not been sheriff at Fort Benton
for some years to no purpose.
Only year before, the Indians had
determined to kill him, as the best
way of expressing their opinion of a
man who had come among them for
|ethe sole purpose Of selling them goods.
Two Indians died suddenly in conse-
quence, and no one knows how, he had
been taken into the tribe; in place, it
seems, of one of those who had died.
Moreover, he might almost be called
a chief; for the man whose place he
took, and who had wanted to kill him,
was a chief. The Indian had been al
together in the wrong, and the trader
right, and that was their notion of
savage justice This strange circum-
stance, however, is not the story. 1t
was a fact, though, that the Chilkoots
had made him a Crow-"Klukwakit
shan" (Old Man of the Crows) they
called him.
Johnny Healey's trading post was
some distance off, SO government
thought it we'll to make him United
States marshal.
Johnny Healey, upon being appointed
marshal, being a man of experience,
saw it would make the work easier
to get the Indians to help him. 1t
would save him much trouble; besides,
it would please them. So he appointed
from among his own people, the Chill
koots, three skookum young men as
policemen.
Now Indians have their bad men"
the same as white people. There was
one fellow who was always making
trouble. Finally, he put a knife into
his squaw for some trifiing matter and
the marshal had to send the police
men down to arrest him. They brought
him up handcuffed. He came willing
ly enough. The steamer to take him
to Sitka would not be up for two or
three weeks, and meanwhile he aid
not know what to do with his prison
er. He had no place to keep him. The
store consisted of single room where
the goods were kept, with the living
room and kitchen behind. He could
not keep him there. At the side of the
building was shed used for a store
room and entered through the store.
So he put him in there. That was no
place for him, though, and besides, it
would cost something to keep him until
the steamer came, and the government
made no provision for such a contin-
gency. The marshal scratched his head
and stroked his chin. Finally he hit
upon plan. He called up the three
policemen and said to them:
go inside and tell the man that if
he will give me his word of honor to
be on hand when the steamer comes in
l will let him go free. Tell him that's
me way white men do; that sometimes
they come back even when they are
going to be hanged" He hoped the
plan would work. There was no al
tentative.
The policeman went inside and in a
short while they came out and an
nounced that the prisoner said "All
right" So he unlocked the handouts
his promise. Every few days he came
up to the shore to inquire about the
steamboat. Finally the steamboat
came and the marshal said to the man.
"The steamboat won't sail for two or
three days Be sure to be on hand
when the steamboat sails
1t happened that the man was a
Chilkat. The Chilkats didn't always
pull with the Chilkoots. They were
blood kin, but they sometimes diff
fered on politics. The prisoner had
friends He was willing to go, but it
seems his friends were far from being
so. They did not at all approve of
the trip to Sitla. Self-respecting Chill
kats only went to Sitka to spend their
money and get drunk. So the steamer
sailed, and the man was not there.
In fact at the very time the steamer
was getting under way, at least so
Chilkats, along with the prisoner, had
repaired to a large empty house about
half mile distant from the store, and
were then and there indulging in a
feast and filing up on Alaska whiskey.
go down, take your man and bring
him here" commanded the marshal
to the policemen, when he saw the
man was not there and had heard what
was going OIL.
The three policemen filed down to
where the festivities were going on.
In little while they filed back to the
store.
What's the matter with you: Yon
are officers. You are big men. Why
don't you take him?'
There was no answer.
Then 1 WILL" he said; and the In
ulans saw he meant it.
Old Donawak, chief of the Crows,
spoke up, "They will kill you" They
knew it, and they were his friends.
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