The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-12-14
DEAD MANS SECTION.
BY J. PERCY BARNITZ.

Tcopyright 1901. by Daily Story Pub. Col < # s ss $ $ $ a: ss : < , 'The Rangers Rest" was at the bot
 The injured man was taken to the hos pital at Templeton. where he was inter- viewed by Henry Fortune.
 Yes MT. Fortune said the brakeman T did have a drink at Carloss place
 just before we pulled out , O. urfesot fer that
 matter. But I don't think 1t was the
 whiskey that affected me-leastwayS ie
 never did other times. It was Just nke this, near as can remember. l was
 walking along the top O lot O, box cars towards the front O the train,
 when all at once everything seemed 10 | shine like gold Then it changed to white and 1 felt that l must run-run
 as fast as could: Felt frightened ike, | And then I couldn't help myself any
 more. and ran till I fell from the train" But Henry Fortune was obdurate In ms belief that the sinister-looking mute was to blame for the mortality among ms brakemen. despite the fact that he had not one scintilla of proof to that effect,
 and employed & private at tSe Setess,ee csse agency The detective sent by the agency to the Middle Division assumed the role or | freight brakeman. For two weeks ne night he, too, fell victim to the Dead | Mems Section" much to the disgust: modification and disappointment Of | Henry Fortune.
 1 formed of the death of their operative,
 and learned that he had met the pecu- | liar and mysterious fate of so many brakemen they became more determlnsd | than ever to sift the occurrence to the
 bottom and sent several of their best
 men to the section of the country be- l tween .Gregsons and Warm Springs. | In the latter part of February man | Al ntf inc n hn | Chicago packing house, put up at The | Rangers Rest" and, on the pretext or
 awaiting the arrival of important let
 ters, remained for several days at the vile little hotel. He spent nearly all of | his time in the barroom. watching the
 movements of the evil-lookng half-breed:
 He noticed that whenever crew of
 freight trainmen patronized the bar, Car | los would invariable place two bottles l of liquor upon the counter, pushing d | square bottle in front of where one of | more brakemen stood.
 | One day when the opportunity oHered, | the pseudo-stockman filled several hasks | from the bottles of liquor standing on l the shelves beneath the bar. These were
 weeks Ssnd .o fGsU iater Dummy Dur @ Ca Carlos was
 awaiting trial in the jail at Templeton | on a charge of poisoning, and the mys-
 tery of Dear Mems Section had been | solved.
 A curious story was brought out al
 the trial of the vindictive half breed;
 story too long to here tell in detail, but | which was substantially as follows:
 The analysis of the liquor Tn the sev- l eral fiasks showed that 1t was all or the
 same cheap brand of whiskey,, put the
 contents of one flask was found to have | been heavily steeped with the woolly loco weed, commonly called crazy weed | a plant native to the Great Plains region | and which causes much damage to the | stock ranchmen. The action Of this pol | son on man in small doses is to cause a | short period of halluctnatton or mania | accompanied by defective eyesight, dur ing which the affected person Is seized
 was the administration of this deeoction l to Che brakemen of the Middle Division
 that had caused them to run along the l cars of their train, and, being unable to 1 see where they were stepping, lnVarlaoly | fall to their deaths.
 Carlos admitted the fact that eight years back. when the C. and J. was nrs'
 built through that region, he was peat, beat | Gregson's to Warm Springs, when he
 was discovered by two brakemen who | threw him from the train; Until that | time he had been possessed Of his tuil powers of speech, but he was so severe iy injured about the head that the DOT.
 ton of the brain controlling the vocal | cords became in time affected. and he
 finally lost the power to artlculate plaln-
 aroused. and after he opened The Ran
 gers Rest" near the railway station al l Gregson's, he determined to become re- | yenged on all freight brakemen running
 eastward from that point His devilish
 savage cunning led him to use the loco
 weed as the best means to secure tha
 revenge, as he was familiar with lts CT
 roamed the plains of Texas. He was de. | clared insane by the jury which tried him, and he was sent to the State asylum l for insane criminals for life
 ; GRASP by William A. Clemens.