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

time ue was WAIIIuS iOI luO uay NoN0SN
us to map him out as the easiest kind
of case for the scafold.
Hell almost do the whole job for
us himself, the sheriff told the boys
who inquired how the lot were getting
along.
But none of us thought the young
white lad would live until the day of
his execution, he was so scared. His
name was Nate Tascom and in quar-
rel he had blown his fathers head off
with shotgun while the two were on
their way in a prairie schooner to a
Kansas farm.
He was a pale, slim, white livered
chap, with shifty eye of no particu-
lar color, and tow hair, and his hands
were in motion all the time. He just
lay on the soil and whimpered when
they corraled him, and cried like a
pappoose, and promised never to do 1t
again and all that kind of thing. He
fell fiat to the dock when the judge
gave him his dose and appointed the
day, and did nothing but tumble a
Bible and sing hymn tunes in his cell.
He was too craven and frightened
to eat anything, and, as 1 say, all OF
us, including the prison physician,
expected him to fit into the beyond
on his own hook before the arrival of
the day of the quadruple hanging.
Might just as well only get three
traps ready" said the sheriff, after a
look at Tascom in his cell couple OF
weeks before the day came around.
Now, the remarkable part of the
thing is that everyone of these four
men preserved up to the very morning
of the hanging exactly the character
istics that l have described.
The white livered Tascom just
crouched in a corner of his cell and
moaned so that even the kindly old
Roman Catholic priest who was with
him couldn't help but give him some
odd looks out of the tail of his eye.
As for the Choctaw, on the day before
the hanging be was nothing short of
a raving madman and had to be strait
jacketed to prevent his knocking his
brains out against the bars Of his cell.
Thus it was all set when the gray
day of the execution morning came
round. Up to an hour before the
march was to begin we could hear the
means of Tascom and the rawlings OF
the Choctaw.
Birdsell and the Cherokees, till un-
moved up to within half hour of the
time they were to make their final
plunge, ate every scrap of the big
breakfast that was sent in to them and
picked their teeth after it like men
that had a lifetime ahead of them.
No food was sent to Tascom or the
Choctaw, because it was perfectly plain
that they were in no shape to eat.
But it was noticed by all hands that
their lamentations had ceased alto
gether while their two partners in the
death just at hand were eating.
There were over a dozen Of us in
the procession that started for the row
when the few minutes arrived. Tas-
CONS cell was the first we came to.
The priest was with him.
"Well, Tascom, lad, said the sher-
if, lookingin, "it S time to be moving
call right, sir, came the reply in
a clear, quiet tone of voice, and we
all looked at each other like men be-
reft of our senses when young Tascom,
seeming to be about head taller, not
a sign Of tear in his eyes, and just
as neat and cool as you please, ad-
vanced to the door of his cell. "All
right, sir, said he I'm ready any
time you are.
Well, do you know, we all got pinch
ing ourselves, and the sheriff looked
like man in trance. Young Tas-
com stood there in the open doorway
of his cell, positively smiling in our
teeth. never saw such an absolute
transformation in my life. He looked
a man all over. The sheriff looked
at the lad quizzically for minute.
boy" said he finally, 81 guess
there's something in you after all. "
Tascom smiled and put his hands
In position to have them tied. The
priest was as much surprised at his
equanimity as any of US.
The Choctaw was next. He was
sitting alone in his cell. Ed. Ring
gold, the marshal, could jabber some
pidgin ChOctaw that he picked up
down in the territory.
"COme along, old man. waiting
times up, is what he afterward told
US he said to the Choctaw.