Albuquerque daily citizen. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1895-1903, 1902-05-16

'hdNNtlS ituldlnCu NUS until HlOID-
ing. ! went down carry ard found the
streets full of people-every man with
a gun. | think | must have counted
about fifty Winchesters. The house
was surrounded with guards with
rifles. and they were evidently Smith
sympathizers, as they permitted a one
legged gambler who worked for Street
& Smith to slip up between the White
Elephant saloon and Melini & Eakin's
place n let fly at the voices through
the window in the alley. The window
was covered with a blanket, 80 that he
might as well have hit Jim or the other
deputy whom he had appointed. AS il
was, the bullet. which was from a As
pistol, passed through the rim of DIR.
Burdick's hat and struck Louis. the
bartender, directly i've the heart, hit
a rib, glanced across his chest and
came out under the right arm. At first
they thought he was a goner, but DR..
Burdick traced the direction of the bull
let with his finger and her cut it out
with a knife under the arm. 1t proved
simply to be a flesh wound. but the
crowd outside were happy as they
thought it had hit in the abdomen.
As the shot was fired, Jim dropped
on the floor and covered the front door
with my rifle. thinking it was an at
tack, as they did not dare to show
themselves at a window to see. the
other deputy dropped in the back cor
ner and covered the window. bu
Eakin, as quick as lightning, grabbed
a shotgun and let fly two shots through
the corner of the building without be-
ing able to see them, and caught
him in the wooden leg. If it had been
buckshot instead of birdshot (they
were all out of buckshot cartridges) he
surely would have fixed the gambler,
as some of the shot hit him in the
good leg.
The train from the south was late
and the sheriff did not arrive until
about 2 O'Clock, or perhaps a little
earlier, and the crowd which had gath
cred thought that the boys would re-
sist the sheriff, not knowing that
Eakin had telegraphed for him him.
self.
When the three shots were fired in
the m~orning-the one by the gambler
and the other two by Eakin, the guns
that were in concealment showed up
and every man in town, almost. ran
with a gun.
Officers Armed.
When the sheriff arrived, he had five
deputies with him. all of them armed
to the teeth with two six-shooters and
a Winchester. They went directly to
the building, the doors were opened
and they went in. The array OF force
displayed by the sheriff and his men
rather cooled off some of the would-be
bad men. who, in the morning had been
Boosting that they would never get
Eakin and the boys out of town except
over their dead bodies, and when the
sheriff instructed hat all guns must
be put away, they did disappear, al
though most of them did not go much
further than a hind pocket, as was evil
denced when they started for the sta
ton.
About 3 o'clock Eakin sent for me
and | went owe to the building with
the sheriff. and found Eakin and Doc
tor Burdick sitting with a winchester
across their laps and a ~six-shooter
close at hand, while Louis was lying
on a cot with blood all over his front.
anu, likewise, a s~ix-shooter in his
hand. The sheriff had not deemed
them sufficiently dangerous to take
their arms away from them, and then,
If some fool had started the ball roll
ing, they would probably have swooped
down on the house in spite of the
sheriff and his men.
The place was a sight. Tables and
glasses were u%pturned and broken.
with bullet and buckshot marks
through the windows, doors and upon
the whisky barrels. The big hanging
lamp IN the front part of the store bad
been shot to pieces from h outside,
and there were two big pools of blood
on the floor where the two victims had
fallen. The boys were feeling fairly
well, although Louis was suffering con-
siderable pain and all of them were
somewhat weary for lack of sleep.
However. they did not seem worried
as to the outcome of the affair, pro-
vided some n did not start h ball
when they started for the de-
pot. which was perhaps four blocks OF.
Jim Witt had remained with them all
day. and he, too, was somewhat
wearied, although they had plenty of
liquid spirits.
Gums Were Everywhere.
| left them to SO to supper and got
back 10 town in time to see them come
over to the depot. Every other man
in the crowd OF the street a his
hand on a gun and If some n had
simply fired a shot in the air it would
have been a signal for slaughter, but
none was fired and the trip to the sta
ton was made without trouble. Eakin
returned my gun to me there, as 1t was
not considered necessary as evidence.
This was about s o'clock, and | believe
they did not go further than Santa
Rosa. as Louis was not in very good
shape to travel.
| was present at the coroner's in
quest about 10 o'clock on the day of
the shooting, and every witness they
brought Vas either too scared to tes-
tify one way or the other. or else
swore TO a lie. As a matter of fact,
the jury was made up of Smith sympa-
thiZers and saloon men, and the man
who did the questioning of the wit
resses was a fellow by the name of
G~oldenberg, and he was a partner OF
Smith in the Tucumcari Townsite.
However, the inquest was not com
Dleted and does not cut much ice any
way.
NL---- !