Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1902-04-17
Che State Day by Day.
DARING MARQUIS DE Monrs.
Recalled by Effort.

incidents Recalled by Effort. to
Have His Murdercrs Punished.
There is considerable interest in the
western part of North Dakota in the
report that the trial of two of the al
legged murderers of the Marquis de
Mores will begin at Tunis, Africa. Nav
70.
The career of De Mores in the West
WAS meteoric and tinged with all the
elements of romance. A young French
man of high family and dashing i'm
pulscs,( he came to the West in the
early eighties and built an immense
bcef-slaughterinty plant at Medora,
little town in the heart of the famous
Bad Lands, which he made famous for
q time. His expenditures in the West
for buildings, beef, stores, ranch sup
plies and all the appurtenances of mis-
immense plans, reached close to 81, OUO,-
900. He built refrigerators along the
line of the Northern Pacific from Hele-
ma to Chicago, and engaged in fierce
competition with Eastern beef packers.
On the bank Of the Little Miss ouri riv-
Ell he built fine residence, where he
lived part of the year with his wife, Il
daughter of l.. Won Hoffman, a wealthy
New York banker. From this residence
he Quilted for his numerous hunting
expeditions. Hundreds of men were in
his employ, cowboys, butchers, slaugh-
ter house men, ana his plentiful dol
lars were lavishiy expended in his
schemes to revolutionize the beef pack
ing industry. Thousands of his beef
steers roained the prairies and hills of
the Bad Lands, and for several years
he was easily the most conspicuous fig
ure in' the then new West. He over
shadoWed even the splendid personality
of Theodore Roosevelt, who was then
Bad Lands ranchman, with his impuls-
i've reclslessness, immense schemes and
lavish expenditure of money.
Those We're troublesome times in the
cattle regions of the West ard De
Mores did not escape them. There
We're n:any dad men," with reputa-
lions TO sustain, through that Wild
country, and some of them threatened
DE Mores, declaring that he must
leave the country. The fiery French
man was not easily affrighted. and had
he been better Fnown possibly the
death of one man would have been
avoided. At any rate, out of the
threats and counter-threats that We're
passed, there grew a shooting affray
on the banks of the Little Missouri.
DE Mores and a party of friends We're
crossing the river, and two plainsmen
We're rounding q bluff on the opposite
side Of the Little Missouri. Shots We're
exchanged between the two parties and
Of ha onnocita
killed. De Mores was arrested and
tried st Bismarck for the killing, but
vas acquitted.
His Western life was full OF excite
ment and adventure. He throve on the
wild life of the West, but his beef-pack
ing industry proved failure, and the
immense plant was shut down, his cat
tie disposed Of, his fine residence shut
up, and the West knew De Mores no
more, except by report Of his advent
ules elsewhere. He went to China, and
was there interested in railway conces-
sions. Returning to France, he plunged
ardently into politics, and several duels
resulted, in each Of which he came Off
victorious. France. however, despite
the field Of politics. proved too tame for
him, and he plunged again, with all
the fervor Of his disposition, into an
African venture, which cost him his
life. Setting out from Tunis, through
the wild ad desert country, he took with
him alone as escort a band of Touar-
egs. a wild and savage tribe Of desert
followers, with whom, for some reason,
he had struck up a remarkable friend
ship Against the protest of some OF
his friends he dismissed his safer es-
cort and plunged into the desert with
the Touaregs. A few days after. ana
they attacked him from behind, killing
him treacherously, but not until after
he hat. made brave stand and struck
down q number of them in the hand-to-
hand battle against odds. His camels
were stripped of their valuables, and
the body was robbed Of everything
worth taking by the treacherous ma
tves. His body was afterwards re-
covered and taken back to France, and
Inferred at the family home at Cannes.
His widow, since his death, has been
endeavoring to obtain the punishment
of his murderers. 1t was declared that
they were we'll known, and could have
been apprehendel at any time, had the
French government chosen to take
steps for their punishment. But is was
claimed that the French government
was not active, for the reason that DE
Mores, in the political field of Franco.
had come to know too much. 1t was
rumored that he knew too much of the
Dreyfus affair, and for that or some
other reason, little effort was made by
the government to reach or punish his
nurderers. Largely through the ef-
forts Of his wife and family, investiga-
lions were set on foot in Africa, which
resulted in the arrest of the murdereIs
of the marquis, and their Forthcoming
trial will determine whether his death
:: to be avenged.
~