The Washington herald., 1908-04-19
By DEXTER MARSHALL.


Tor Senator from Indiana and close friend
of Roosevelt. was once the center Of as
dramatic a bit of gun play as the stage
ever has seen. This thriller was Bev-
eFidges portion during the months that
he was on the frontier searching for the
health tR had lost by bending too assidu-
ously over his books while a student in
Purdue University, through which he put
himself on money earned by the sweat of
his brow.
Here Is the Senator's own story of the
incident, told especially for the readers
of this article.
My health broke from hard work and I
was in need OF money. I thought / would
try Kansas. / journeyed TO the very edge
of civilization, lived in a sod house, asso-
ciated with cowboys, chased antelopes
and saw shooting aud other rOugh-and-
ready frontier demonstrations. l found
work in Dighton, fourth county east of
Colorado. which consisted of four or five
houses made Of sod and a hotel made of
the same material The hotel contained
three rooms, the partitions being fiercely
ecolored calico hung on strings. 1 entered
into a partnership with D. G. Mcclellan
locating settlers on land
"One day I returned from a trip to an
other town and found a poor fellow in
custody and an organized plan 10 hang
him. He had been sleeping on the ground
after pTotracted session at a saloon
Near him was the stage drivers mule
anchored to the prairie by a piece of sod
tied to the halter strap. He and the
stage driver were not friends, and it look
ed TO me like a put-up job At my sug-
gestion the lynching was indefinitely post
poned.
BuIIied by Stage Driver.
The stage driver, a right bad man.
stopped next day at the hotel for dinner
he began to argue the mule case and be
came rather personal III his attentions TO
me. I took q lawyers view of the mat
ter. endeavoring to show him that it was
simply the word of one man against an
other. and therefore no conviction could
reasonably follow before a court. ] was
amateurish, I admit. 1 was neither a
cowboy nor real lawyer The stage
driver pulled his gun. but before he could
work the trigger the women shr!eked
and so he backed away, saying; I'll meet
you outside. I don't want to agitate the
ladies'
Il stretched my dinner as far as I
could, and then a murderer from Boston
whom / had nuTsed when he was Ill and
gambler accompanied me 10 the shack
where I had my office, The stage driver
trailed on US, gun in hand He was over
me when / sank into q chair at my desk
Il thought my last hour had come. 1
was unarmed Besides, I couldn't have
shot quickly enough nor hit the mark il
gun had been in each hand But
didn't purpose to pass away without some
kind of a protest, and so / threw a va
riety Of logging camp language at the
rUfIan, ornamenting it with ali the frilis
I had learned IN the woods
He slowly raised his pistol Then I
saw him blink and slowly step back. At
first I thought I had talked him 20 a
standstill had bullied him out Of heart,
stomach, and cOuntenance. but it was not
so. ] hadn't seen him, but al my side
sat the Boston assassin with his revolver
over his left forearm. the muzzle of il
tilted upward, so that when the bullet left
the barrel it would hit the stage driver
under the chin.
THAT night the stage driver under
curt orders from several persons as Ger
tain and speedy as himself, moved out of
town on d run and never came back"
Beveridge went to Kansas in 1855. fol-
lowing his graduation from Purdue. He
closed his Western experience two years
later. returning to Indiana i'm robust
health. The logging camp language that
he threw at the man who proposed to
bore him Beyeridge learned as a young
ster. when. at fifteen. he became a log
ger and teanstef.
When Heney Killed His Nan.
Francis J. Heney, who has gained ma
tional fame as the prosecutor of the graft
cases in San Francisco, spent a number
of strenuous years in frontier Arizona fol-
lowing his expulsion from college in 1882
because he challenged another student to
fight a duel, But though he was a cow
boy. an Indian trader. and a fighter Of
Apaches experiencing all the thrill in
cident to these occupations, the most ex-
citing chapter OF his rOugh-and-tum
life came when he killed his man."
Dr. J. c. Handy, Heney's victim, was
the bully of Tucson for years. His wife
had tried for months TO get legal help in
the divorce suit brought against her by
her husband, but each time she got
lawyer TO agree to take the case Handy
threatened him with death and the lawyer
threw up the brief Heney one day hap
pened TO be a witness 20 Handy's In
timidatiOn OF a lawyer. Boiling over with
indignation at the COWardice Of Tucson
legal lights. he resolved to defend Mrs
Handy, and stuck 10 his resolve. too, even
when his friends and friends Of the doctor
came to him and begged him to leave the
case alone.
During the next year and a half that
the case dragged its length through the
courts Heney was subjected to daily in
suit by Handy and the two gun men" he
-
any OF Heney's friends who might try to
take part in the inevitable duel to death.
The only reason that Heneys life was not
attempted during this period was that
Handy had sworn he would kill Heney
with his own revolver, and il was his hope
10 provoke Heney into drawing his
weapon. then take it away from him and
kill him. Handy. by the way. was
physical giant; Heney weighed less than
$50 pounds.
Crushed Against the WALL.
Finally. Handy set his divorce decree
and the custody of the children. Heney
promptly appealed. A short time after
that Handy seized Heney by the throat
and crushed him against a wall. Heney
did not draw hts pistol-just then; he
ndid not want the bully to kill him with his
own weapon Instead, he showed his
iempty hands to the doctor, who momen-
tarily relaxed his grip. Heney, quick to
take advantage of this slight opportu-
nifty, broke away from his assailant. ran
into the street. drew his revolver and,
as Handy reached for his, fired
The bullet tore through the giants in
testines, but he charged on Heney. never
theless, gripped him as with a wise of
steel and swung him around and around
IN his efforts 10 get hold of Heney's pis-
tol. Finally, the eombatants were sep