El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1901-03-15
Mr.. SAMPLES SISTER
BY M. QUAD.
COPYRIGHT. 1900. ~ c E. LEwIs-

OF sheriff in an inciana county Wnen
q smart looking. middle aged man, who
gave the name of Samples. arrived at
the county seat and gave out that he
was looking around for site for
large factory. He WIS provided with
letters of recommendation. had the air
of Il man Of business and soon had the
two bankers i'll the town and other
business men interested i'm his project.
His factory WAS 10 make Il new kind
OF cloth out of what he called Persian
hemp" He had samples of the cloth
to show and it could be made and sold
at 400 per cent profit. Samples him.
self would put S50O.0O0 into the enter
prise. but he wanted the town to sub
scribe S2OO.OOO additional. so as to
make it a home affair. That was Il
pretty large sum to raise in town OF
5000 people, and after the first half of
1t had been subscribed the thing began
to drag. Samples was coming and 60
ing, but making our town his head
quarters. and it was remembered aft
'erward that several tough looking men
called to see him.
On the second night of Samples ar
rival in our town Il fine horse was
stolen from a citizen. During his first
weeks stay there were more run off.
In three weeks time IL of the best
horses in our township We're taken. AS
sheriff I was not idle for an hour after
the first horse was taken Even If 1
was a little green myself as an officer
had two or three constables and dep
utieS who were old hands at the bust
ness. Some of the horses we traced
for few miles, always headed for the
Ohio river, but the thieves were slick
fellows and covered their tracks 50
well that not Il horse was recovered.
My position was All uncomfo Portable one,
as You may guess. l got redhot criti-
cism from all sides. and, even though 1
offered large rewards out OF my OVID
pocket and went to the expense of
employing n detective for three weeks,
a share OF the public still insisted that
/ ought to resign and open n kinder
garten for children
One day while / was shivering in my
boots and expecting to hear that the
thirteenth horse had been stolen 2
fash of light came to me. Every horse
taken had gone south by n certain
road At a certain point all trace had
been lost Ten miles to the south of
us was n big huckleberry swamp of
1000 acres. 1t was state land and had
only been explored by hunters. 1t was
= big taDgle. full of snakes and Wild
cats, and berry pickers took good care
not to penetrate too far. 1t flashed
over me that the stolen horses instead
of being run out of the state had beer
corralled in this swamp to wait un,r
the hue and cry was over. Within tive
hours had started for the swamp, ac-
l.
good luck after a tramp of half a day
we came upon a trail showing the
footprints of horses. and following IL
to the very center of the swamp we
came upon the whole IL stolen animals.
Feed had been brought to them by an
other trail.
1t was a fine plant we uncovered
There were two men to take care of the
horses. One of them was a black |
smith. and BE had a forge and dozens
of hOrseShoes. AS the animals were
run out the plan was to shoe each one !
with the shoes reversed and thus de- !
ceive us in case we struck a trail. We
made a cautious approach, but in spite
Of us the two men got away We
scarcely regretted it. however, in view /
of the capture of the third one. who !
the fax cloth man, the factory man.
the man with letters of introduction
Yes. sir, lie had arrived to give his |
subOrdinates directions. and as he fed !
with the others he tripped and fell.
and we were enabled to overhaul him
He didn't even bluff. We had got him
SO pat that he couldn't say anything.
In his pockets were letters sufficient to
convict him twice over and his game
was up.
You know what human nature Is In
small town. | had been maligned
and abused without stint for failing to
capture the horse thieves Now that
/ had got all the stolen horses in n
bunch. and the boss thief In addition.
nothing was too coed for me. | was
called a hero and all that and got n
serenade from the band and had bon
fires galore in my honor. The arrest
of Samples was a thunderclap. but tile
and demanded that he receive the
maximum punishment of the law. Tie
was examined. committed for trial
and / took care to give him the stron-
gest cell in the county jail. The man
gave me no trouble. After recovering
his check little he claimed that he
would he able to prove his entire inno-
cence before n jury. aud he was so
CHEEKY and good natured that / came
to like him. He had three months to
wait for the circuit court, and he made
no move in regard 20 lawyers or wit
nesses until half the time had expired.
By that time the public hsd lost most