Waterbury evening Democrat., 1908-12-09

weekly paper in this country editor less Is wonder to us, for he was only eight feet away. Even as the bullets tut our clothing and whizzed by our tars we said to oursclf that 1t was mighty poor shooting for holy terror 10 do.
 We had a distance of six feet to go and then to pull gun from it's holster, and our first shot was fired as Mir. Spooner fired his last. No second was needed. He went down, and he ex. pired while breathing out the words:
 "Why didn't l come in and attack him with a crowbarT'
 Of course 1t was case for the coro- ner, and that official was soon on the spot and his jury summoned. Our of. flee devil had seen the last of the fracas, and the late deceased had boasted on the street of what he was going to do At the end of half an hour verdict of justitiable homicide was rendered and the body removed. We have had but one policy ever since the first man was planted in our pri- vate editorial graveyard. We have always paid all funeral expenses and taken q carriage at the head of the procession. Later on we have erected tombstones with lamps on top and decorated the graves until they were pleasant and artistic objects to con- template.
 Nothing was found on the body of the deceased to show that he had a living relative. All that was discover cd in his pockets consisted of few shillings in change, dozen extra car tridges and poem entitled Bury Me Meath the Willow" This had been cut | from a newspaper, and it looked as if the deceased had read it over many times. It seemed to show that he had q deep feeling of sentiment way down In his heart after all,
 Laid Him to Rest.
 On Thursday we saw the mistaken man laid in his last resting place He brought the number of mounds in our graveyard up to nineteen, but there was no feeling of exultatlon in our soul as we looked around.
 Some editors would have striven 10 turn the affair to their benefit in the way of increased subscriptions and ad- vcrtising, but not so with us We have ever kept the two things apart We take advertising at regular rates, and we remove men who seek to remove us, and even if 1t does occur under the sa me roof we keep the accounts sep arate
 MT. Spooner had large and liberal funeral. There was nothing to mar the harmony of the occasion. It was q cloudless day, and his coffin cost S25, to say nothing of the Gravedigging | and the hacks. We also gave the off ciating minister q five dollar bill, and i he was pleased to praise our straight shooting and to observe at the grave that the deceased would never more know weariness and pain.
 A week hence we shall erect tomb stone over the grave of our mistaken brother and next spring the trailing arbutus will be taught to trail OCT the mound covering him In.
 We don't think he was a bad man at heart. but was simply mistaken in his mission here on earth. He thought 1t was to remove an Arizona editor, but 1t was more likely to have been to run a sawmill
 We have no word of criticism. One must take this life as one thinks best. Mir Spooner may have decided in his own mind that the holy terror busi- ness just fitted him. He might have made an even greater failure at any thing else. We are sorry that we could not bury him under a willow, but that kind of tree does not flourish here. He shall have a cottonwood i'll place of 1t, and we shall personally see to 1t that 1t is enriched and watered and made a thing of beauty on the landscape. M QUAD