The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-04-23

ard. charged with the murder Of eIo'er- nor'' William Goebel in 1900.
 They are interesting, not merely because of the part they have played in the iflos. violent political cabal of modern times' but because of their unusual life stories whlch are here recorded from their own IDS iof the first time since their arrest shoftis after tine shooting in Frankfort
 Their friends, who comprise large pro- portion of the citizens of Kentucky oe- lieve they are innocent So intense IS the partisan feeling in the State for ana against the two men that old poiltlcai party lines are practically forgotten anu men array themselves not as democrats and republicans, but as the friends or foes of the two men who are awaiting trlal III the old jail In the mountains Of the State are thousands of riflemen ready 10 s'dil at moments notice to assert by violence their belief in the innocence of Powers anu Howard, and because of this intense leei- ing there is a doubt in the minds or the State officials if a death sentence can ever be executed without threatening the State with civil war.
 For nearly five years these men have been in prison. Each has been once sentehceo to die on the gallows. Three times HOW ard has been convicted of firing the Shot that killed Goebei. and three times Powers has been convicted of laying the plot TOT his death. Twice each man has been seh- fenced to life Imprisonment by partisan juries, but in each case the same measure of bitter feeling that obtained the conVlc- tion has asserted itself on the other sloe and procured a stay of sentence. Powers. whose case has three times been reVerseu by the Appellate Court of KentucKy' IS preparing for a fourth trial, and Howaru' whose last conviction was sustained oy the higher court, has appealeo to LIE United States Supreme Court.
 Some Forgotten History.
 William Goebel was shot on January 30. 1900, as he was approaching the Court House in Frankfort, a few minutes before the argument was to begin in his contest for the Governorship of the State Goebel was a democrat Shortly before the shoot ing W, s. Taylor, republican, had been declared elected Governor and protest was immediately entered by Goebel and his friends. The matter was taken to the legislature and under the Goebel law the contest had been decided in Goebel's favor. For days before the tragedy Frankfort had been filling up with armed men from the mountain districts and partisan feeling was at fever heat.
 The fatal shot was fired from a window and immediately afterward many arrests were made. Among the suspects was Ser geant N. Wharton Golden, of the State militia, who made a confession duplicating Caleb Powers, then Secretary of State; James Ballard Howard and several others. Both Powers and Howard are Kentucky rnountadneers, and it s this very circum- stance that lies at the bottom of their trouble. It is in the mountains of Ken lucky where Is found the purest American blood, untainted by foreign mixture. It IS in these mountains that men grow brave and strong and remain at home; where the people are sufficiently independent to be republicans almost to a man. in State that produces the most radical democrats in the Republic. It was from these moun- tainS that came four-fifths of all the Ken tuckians who wore the blue in the days when to be Unionist was considered by the fathers of the enemies of Powers and Howard to be a sin impossible of forgive ness here or hereafter. It is held by the friends of these men that in the days of '61 might be found the beginning of the bitterness that now threatens their lives
 Although both are typical young noun taineers, they differ as do day and night. 5 Howard would have graced the senate of a Caesar. To see his broad symmetrical form emerge from the jail bath, enShroud- ed in sheet, is to be reminded of the statues of the noble Romans. The well shaped head, clear cut features, every line betokening strength, the straight nose. dark brown eyes, black hair, emphasize the likeness. He is thirty-eight years old and has in his veins the blood of one of the noblest families of England. He has three beautiful children and for sixteen years has been a member of the Christian Church. Those who know his history and that of his family say he was selected by the Goebe democrats as victim of their vengeance because he had been given the reputation of a feudist.
 Murder of the Family
 The original Towards in America helped to build Virginia and Carolina Recent oIst Kentucky, as the family seat. As "Jim' Howard grew into manhood he became 6 school teacher, and even studied law anC medicine. He was made storekeeoer anC gauger in the internal revenue service, position of trust and honor, and partic pated in many lively adventures witt ''moonshiners." He also served as deputy jailer and deputy sheriff, and in 1897 wa! elected assessor of Clay county.
 In this same year occurred the tragic events which were so distorted in theil transmission to the outer word that the, placed him before the public III fals, light-a light kept carefully burning b, his enemies to this day. Let Jim" EIowar, tell in his own words. as he told it to tn, writer in the gloomy old Jail Tt Louis vile. the story of what the world errone Ously knows as the Baker Howard feud.
 First, l want to impress 1t upon you mind that I am not feudist," he began in his soft, halting, Southern drawl. '' have been painted so before the world My name has been spread over the page of yellow newspapers and grab penn! magazines until have come to be regard ed as a red handed. long haired, rowling murderous grizzly from the mountains
 Why, I don't even use liquor or smoke have been an active member of tn Christian Church for sixteen years Feud lst indeed! Why. man, if protecting you mothers hearthstone from the bloody on -Ia -Iaf afo of a NF fIovr whose boots Is the blood of your fathe and brothers; if, with the marks of fftee bullets on your body and clothing, yo stand and face men indicted for ever crime on the calendar. Is being a feudis then I am feudist!
 q must begin at thes beginning. In tn first place never had been in trouble 1 my life before my folks were killet Neither had my father. nor my brothe nor my foster brother. They were assal sinated in cold blood and for no reasol Certain newspapers and one magazine particular have described an episode ths lasted less than twenty-tour hours as
 feud. They have said that l shot down
 decrept defenceless old man, afterwal tort,ring him by firing twenty-five bulle into his dying form
 My dislike for newspaper notoriety hs kent me heretofore from replying to the: fabrications. and 1t is with hesitancy tn; do so now l feel, however, that u words Baker Howard feud' should scratched from the hack writer's noteOoo