The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-04-12

Really in Separate Roonls, the Re-
 suit Was Nearly Fatni to These
 BIoodthirsiy Tenderfcet.
 "Imagnation goes a long way with { most people" said Col. Fred Bucklay at
 Lakewood, N J., last week when three
 or four men were discussing case in \ which man was said to have died of
 fright.
 .I can easily believe that fear can kill
 a perfectly healthy man l witnessed a
 case some years ago where two men
 nearly died from the effects of intense
 excitement and fear of a deathstroke in
 the dark It was in a mining town in
 Colorado, I don't want to be too par
 ticuar about the location, because some
 of the participants in the affair live
 there yet and are good citizens now.
 "It was rough lot that assembled
 every night at Chess Ludlams three
 story frame hotel the biggest dwelling
 in town, and they were attracted by the
 bright barroom and the bank and wheel
 in the back room more than they were
 by the dining room or the barb wire
 mattresses. In fact, l don't recollect
 that anybody not in a stupor ever got
 any rest at night in Ches Ludlam's.
 The games ran from in the afternoon
 until daybreak next day and gathered
 around them some of the toughest char
 acters I've ever met. There were cow
 men from the ranges, miners from the
 hills pikers from Chicago and St. Louis,
 prospectors, spectators, real estate
 men, short-card men, srafters, sugar. beet farmers, dope fiends, mine owners,
 sheepmen, half breeds, and, in fact, ev- erything but Chinks and Greasers, both of those breeds being barred.
 ''There was never any gunplay there in my time. Ches wouldn't stand for it. His cousin was the Marshal, and held that Ches ought to help him preserve order. It was sort of 8 model camp in this respect, and any rustlers who hap pened to come along got early notice about theb rand of behavior they had to put up. It was a remarkable fact that the greatest menace to quiet and order existed in the new arrivals from the East Big husky young fellows. just off the football field, fresh out of school, butted into town with their heads full of border stories and their hip pockets full of pistols. They were looking for trouble, while the old hands were trying their hardest to avoid It. They were generally taken aside in a quiet manner by Ches, or his cousin Tom Mcintyre and inducted into the ethics of our form of civilization, but | some of them were too full of book TO- | nance and stage nonsense to believe | that our good people were not trying to | con them into defenseless condition; and they chung to the habit of bulging | out their back pockets with bulldog | pistols of the largest calibre.
 'There was one fellow ir particular | who had the border drama ideas so deep ! in his brain that it was impossible to | disabuse him of the belief that he should always be prepared to resent an insult with .45. His name was Ryer- son and his boast was that he had Jer sey Indian blood in his veins. He was foot tall, broad-shouldered and dark. He had driven a truck in New York and had made couple of trips abroad in cattleships before he fell heir to a little bundle of money and drifted to the mines. Ryerson was fond of playing bank and drank rather more than was good for him, although we never saw him full When perfectly sober he had his head about him. and aside from a propensity to strut and swagger he was a pretty good sort of a fellow and we all believed that he was dead game.
 H'Another man of about his build and stripe was Dolph Steldinger, who drift ed in from St Louis The two were so much alike that it was quite natural ! they did not get very chummy, but they never had any words until they got mixed up one night about the owner- ship of a stack of whites heeled from the ace to the queen with a copper on the tail As near as I could make it out Ryersons coat sleeve knocked the cop per off the checks as he was reaching for 8 bet on the three and the ace lost. The house would not stand for the bet, and a wrangle ensued between Dolph and Ryerson Dolph said that Ryerson ought to make good for the stack and Ryerson refused Hard words followed. and both went back to draw their guns.
 "They were both standing back of the chairs, and before they could draw Tom Mcintyre and his brother Jack jumped them and got their guns. 9th CTS joined in, and while the two big fellows were reviling each other they were kept apart. The doors of the room were closed and the pair declared they couldn't get along without blood. Ches said that there must be no shooting in his house, but agreed to a fist fight on the spot and seemed little anxious to see it, but neither Ryerson or Steldinger was satisfied with that. They wanted gore, and after wrangle Bill Mercer said: Let them fight with :. knives in dark room; that ought to satisfy them
 The romance of this proposition , seemed to hit both of these stagy big just about right and Mercer and . Jack Mcintyre had a little whisper about it and agreed to act as outside I seconds. The men were kept apart while Mcintyre and Mercer went up to , prepare a room on the second floor and r when everything was ready the twomen 7 were stripped to their undershirts and 7