Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1902-08-23
CELEBRATED AMERICAN OUTLAWS
There Are Several Whose Records
Are of Interest.

CELEBRATED AMERICAN OUTLAWS.
There Are Several Whose Records
Are of Interest.
Leading London papers for over
month have been receiving long cable
dispatches from this country about
Harry Tracey. He was an internation-
al character before his death last week.
But he is only one Of the celebrated
outlaws whom this country has pro-
duced.
Quantrell was the first Of the mod
ern outlaws. He began on the south
western border before the war. His
original band, formed in 1859, was COM
posed Of eight men. But in six months
it had grown to 80 men, Of which Cole
Younger, Of the dreaded Younger BROTH
ers, made one. Coles brother got in
later, and it was not until the prestige
Of Quantrell had been dimmed that this
precious pair gained wide notoristy.
Quantrell graduated several delecta-
BILE pairs of outlaws from his band. OF
these the best known were Of course
the James boys. One day, when Jesse
James was 16 years Of age and his
brother Frank was Is, some militia
men conceived 1t to be for the good of
the community that they should pub
licly chastise the brothers. They
caught the boys on their mothers farm
in Clay county, KY, and whipped them
well.
The immediate effect Of the punish
ment was to cause the James boys to
enlist under Quantrell. from whom pre-
sumably they learned much that stood
them well in the many pursuits of
which they were the object. The
whole world heard Of their daring ex-
ploits. Of their many escapes. often
when capture seemed to be certain; of
the raids carried on by them long after
Quantrell had retired from the field and
the Younger brothers had ceased to be
notorious, how 1t was found impossible
to capture them until the day when
Bob Ford, relation and in their con-
fidence, shot Jesse from behind while
the latter was busting a picture on the
wall Of his home.
The southwest breathed easier when
Jesse James fell, for his death put an
end to the long career and pursuit Of
his brother Frank, as we'll as himself.
Frank James settled down In st. Louis
and to his great credit led thereafter
respectable life.
But the attitude of Billy the Kid more
nearly approximates that of Tracey
than did that Of Jesse James. Billy,
whose right name was William Bonne,
whose deeds and misdeeds have sup
piled subject matter for more than one
penny dreadful, was New York waif.
who while still young, was taken to In
dianapolis, where he was raised. He
ran away from home one day, and ever
after gave himself up to that thirst
for notoriety which characterized him.
His first enemy" was John Chisum,
his employer, whom he swore to kill for
trifing matter Of dispute over
wages.
In the east he, at his age, would pro-
badly have been clapped into jail along
with Jesse Pomeroy and other young
sters with thirst for blood, but on the
edge of Deaths Valley men rather be-
lieved in the right Of the vendettist to
create his own laws. He became the
most feared man in the southwest, and
he was careful to foster his reputation.
His vanity was great, and 1t con-
stantly fed upon itself, until almost no
risk was too great for him to run. He
walked into towns, killed his men, and
openly defed arrest. Gen. Lew Wallace
met him while the author Of ben HUI"
was governor Of New Mexico, and ar
ranged to have him testify at COM
ing trial. He submitted to arrest and
was placed in Jail heavily handcuffed
at his own request. This was either
vanity or a desire for obvious reasons
to contribute to the desperate charac-
ter of his reputation.
None Of the jailers was in the secret
OI his dTTeSl, yet OtiS ody iiS
that he was tired Of jail life.
The handouts dropped from his
wrists, the doors open, and he rode
away. They said it was hypotism, but
later, when he was actually captured
in earnest by Sheriff Garrett and con-
fined to Lincoln county jail, New Mex
leo, after being sentenced to death, 1t
was not hypnotism that got him off.
Nine men stood guard over him, and
there was not a moment when at least
one was not watching him. When he
was sentenced he told the judge that he
would never hang, and it was so. One
day he caught the sentinel or his
guard. It was at meal time on the day
before that set for the execution.
The one man at dinner with him lean
ed over to pick up something. Billy
Drained him instantly with his man
acles, and, picking up the dead mans
revolver, marched boldly from the Jail.
Again he began his rowing life, defying
pursuers right and left, and yet appar-
emily not taking even ordinary precau-
ton. Some time afterward he was shot
and killed by Sheriff Garrett, who had
sworn to take him dead or alive.
Another career similar to Tracey's
was that of Newt Vorce, who got into
a shooting scrape with Deputy Sheriff
G.. B. Hollingsworth near Deer Trail,
Col, in 1887. The shooting Of the sher-
iff and Of another man named Amos
Cantly fired his vanity, and he started
out as a professional bad man." kill
ing right and left. A posse got after
him, and he kept lodging them In the
vicinity Of Deer Trail. He might have