The Tupelo journal., 1904-06-24
MARQUIS DE MORES' NERVE.
Fearless Frenchman Walked Through
Crowd of Cattlemen Waiting
to Kill Him.

Several men were sitting in the smok-
ing compartment of a car on the North
ern Pacific when, just after sunset, they
came in sight of the dark-red house,
trimmed with black, with its broad
piazza overlooking a tiny stream. which
the late Marquis de Mores built on his
headquarters ranch at Medora. The
view of that house, says an exchange,
caused one of them to remark:
Il was on a train coming out here one
day when the marquis had his private
car hitched to the end of the train. 1t
was just about at the height of the trou-
BILE he had with the rustlers, and If
hadn't known about it before | would
have learned about it that trip, sure.
Il had met the marquis as a cattle
man." he continued, and so when he
happened through the train and saw me
he invited me to have a cigar with him
in his car. 1t was a good cigar, too.
We'll we sat there talking until we
were 40 or so miles out of Medora, when
the conductor came IL with a telegram
that said that 800 men, all armed, had
gathered at Medora to give the marquis
a reception which would end in his kill
ing. The conductor wanted to know
what he should dc with the car of the
marquis.
oh said the nobleman, 1 wouldn't
bother about that now. Wait until we
get there and I'll tell you what to do
so the conductor went out, feeling
about as nervous as he ever felt in his
life, as he said afterward, for he knew
some of the gang to be very much in
earnest in their determination to kill
the Frenchman.
I'VE pulled up to the platform, and
it was well covered with men, every
one of whom would have been glad to
see the foreigner strung up to the tele-
graph pole, but the Frenchman, as chip
per and smiling as ever he was in a ball
room, stepped off the car, nodded to the
men here and there whom he knew by
sight, and, walking right through the
gang, went up to his house on the hill
there. 1t was his nerve hat saved him
they were just tough enough to
like it,
Yes, speaking of nerve" Clipped in
j. G. Chambers, who was at one time
in the service of the government at
Sidney, when that town was the tough
est place in Nebraska, if not in the west,
and from whence persons bound for the
Black Hills started, that reminds me
of the man of iron nerve | saw in Sid
ney in IT.
A usual, a woman was the indirect
cause of it. He was very much in love
with her, and a young fellow in Sidney
also made love to her, and when he
called upon her n night another fellow
came up to a gambling house where
Reed was playing and told him.
81 guess I'll go down and kill him.
he remarked in a cool, matter-of-fact
way, and he got up from the table and
went outdoors. He went right to her
home, and, walking in, saw the young
fellow sitting in the parlor talking to
the girl. Reed did not say a word, but
stepped up to him and shot him through
the head.
The news of his arrest got around, OF
course, and in a few hours several men
q do not believe there were over a
DOZEN went down to the Jail and de-
manded him
"'Good evening, gentlemen. / sup
pose you're going to take me out and
hang me- he said, as ~nonchalantly as
though he were asking them to take
a drink.
He was told that he was correct in
his supposition. He got up as uncon-
%cernedly as if he were going to sup
per, and, putting on his coat, he re-
marked. that he was ready if the rest
of the gentlemen were.
He was marched to a telegraph pole
which stood in the very heart of the
town. By this time half of the towns
people were around. A rope had been
brought along. This was slipped over
his head and he was bound.
- can't climb that pole and fall off,
he remarked. I ought to have a lad
der so as l can get up
Accordingly a ladder was brought
and placed against the pole. He was
asked if he had anything to say, and
he remarked that he hadn't. He climbed
up the pole as far as the ladder reached
and fastened the rope When he had
done this he looked around over the
crowd, standing very quietly then, and
called out:
"'Good-by, boys!'
With that he jumped off the ladder
and in a few minutes his lifeless body
was swinging there. His nerve never
forsook him once; he acted through it
all as though he was used to it. He