The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-10-16
THE PRISON DAYS OF BILLY MACCHEECK.

between 'leveT1 n twelve he called out
to Billy that he was goin' home. he for
got all about the door an left 1t I'M
locked.
The minute Ball stepped outside the
jail door there was three or four shots;
them railroaders knew he was in there
an was waitin for him, an in the
moonlight they could see him most as
well as day. Ball pulled his pistol and
fred. an all the gang run but one big
devil of fellow. Ball shot at him, an
he shot at Ball an winged his right
arm. Ball took his pistol in his lett
hand and tried to shoot, but he couldn't
shoot hathaway any better'n woman.
Billy jumped when he first heard the
shots an come runnin' down the corri-
dor, an just then he come up TO the
door. He seen at once just how things
was; Ball not able to shoot an the big
fellow amin at him, an he grabbed
Balls pistol an raised it. The rail-
reader seen this an he turned his pis-
FOL from Ball to Billy They both
pulled the trigger at about the same
time. The railroader went down.
"'You got him, Billv.' Ball called out:
eyes, n / guess he got me, too, said
Billy
Ball turned, an there was Billy lean
in up again the door jamb, one hand
holdin' on to the edge o the door an
the other pressed again his chest; Ball
told me afterwards he was smilin' IN
a sort o way.
81 guess he got me, too, Ball. he
said again; an he fell down all in
heap. Ball got doctor there right off,
but Billy didn't live nore'rl-half an hour.
There never was such another funer-
al in Stringer County as Billy's funeral.
1t was to've been held in one O the
churches, but people begun to come IN
so that they seen the church wouldn't
begin to hold the crowd, so they held 1T
in the courthouse yard; an Ball, he
bawled like he might "a been Billy's
mother.
"A couple O weeks after young
woman put up at my place-pale an all
dressed in black. She asked me to tell
her where Billy was buried, an as this
tombstone wasn't III yet | come down
with her myself 70 show her the grave.
AS soon as she seen it she begun to cry,
an | come away. That afternoon she
had me tell her all about Billy, an
that night she come back down here
alone. The next mornin' she went away.
She didn't sign the register an she
didn't say nothin' about herself, so
don't know who she was. I'm purity
sure there was story ABOUT ner an
Billy, but | hain't no idea what it was.
If l knew, mebbe I'd understand Billy.
ball paid all the funeral expenses an
had this tombstone set up. AT first he
had put on it only just what you see
now. But about a month after Billy
was killed, canD-meetin' come along
an Ball got converted again; an he
wrote a verse O poetry for Biliy's tomb
stone He used to write consid' able
poetry Ball did, but I never thought
him much of hand at it even if the
editor o. the Cifigen did print one O
his poems once"
The old man ended and walked the
half dozen steps to the tombstone, pick
ing up a stick on the way Il darsen't
touch that with my hands; poison like
sixty" he said With stick he pushed
the skirtillg ivy down from about the
knees of the gravestone. and stood back.
That's the poetry Ball wrote after he
got religion again
| drew nearer, for the lettering was
small and indistinct, and read this poe
teal supplement to the epitaph of Will
liam MacCheeck:
Stranger hold on and raise prayer
That / 1OJto buried am dozen there,
When all are aeOke. beneath the sob
May S0neho9o manage to get to God"