Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1911-10-17
FoUR-EYED JACK.
Montana Tenderfoot Was a Bad
Man.


Around the table in a Montana ranch
house a circle of weather-tanned faces
bent in perplexed contemplation one
night in 1894, is the setting Of story
in the Spokane Spokesman-Re Review.
The lamplight cleaned on steel work
of revolver butts curving from hol-
sters and fiickered along rifle barrels
set handily against the wall. Spurs
iingled as the men occasionally shifted
position. Rain beat heavily on the roof
and glistened down the illuminated
square of window pane.
With their big, dripping hats pushed
back several Of the men eagerly sorted
scraps of paper from the remnants of
torn-up letter carefully piled in the
centre of the table. Painstakingly and
not altogether in tame silence another
Of the number tried to match these
scraps on a short piece Of board, pin
ming the pieces in place when he found
what seemed to be fit.
They looked like d roomful of rough,
healthy men absorbed for the moment
in freaky pastime, but each face re-
mained fixed in purposeful expression
until the man with the board announc-
ed his success by reading out the name
of John Chapman" as the person to
whom the letter had been addressed.
Then each looked at the other in COM
ical query and everybody laughed.
-Four Eyed Jack" they chorused,
with the emphasis that resolves the
most solemn proposition into absurdity.
But the letter piecing went steadily on
and the gayety simmered down into a
hum of shrew question and specula-
ton.
The ranch house was situated near
Judith Gap, between the Show and
Belt mountains, and 1t was occupied by
]. c. Harrington, now business man
of Spokane. His guests that night
comprised a posse under the leadership
of Sheriffs Ramsey of Yellowstone, and
Conway Of Park counties, each with a
following of resolute, impatient men
from Billings, Livingston and Big Tim
Der, hurriedly impressed into the pur-
suit of three uncommonly nervy hold
UPS who had robbed the Northern Pa
cific train the night before just east
of Reeds Point. The robbers were
masked and the smallest Of the three,
boy in build and manner, held doz-
ems of passengers under the muzzies Of
his revolvers while his companions
gathered in a harvest that amounted to
several thousand dollars in cash and
jewelry. They also took registered
mail sack, proceeding leisurely In the
taking. Many of the passengers were
as heavily armed as the hold-ups, but
the little fellow with the big guns look
ed altogether too business-like to tri-
fie with over a mere matter of being
robbed.
With an expert trailer the posse had
followed the tracks of the flying three
up into Judith Gap and there they lost
them. exactly as If the trio had taken
an aeroplane at this point. In the
search for footprints, however, the
keen-eyed riders noted torn scraps OF
letter scattered in the grass, and
these they gathered. 1t has been windy
the day before and the scraps must
have been dropped since then, they
reasoned otherwise they would have
blown away. AS no other tracks led
up to the place but those they had fol-
lowed, hence the letter must have been
discarded by one of the gang whose
trail they were sure they were on. So
they came together that night at Far
rington's ranch to put together the let
ter and confront themselves with the
ridiculous possibility of "Four-Eyed
Jack" as a train robber.
Chapman had come into the country
some time before. He brought MS
spectacles with him and wore them
constantly, by reason OF Whlch ne
quickly acquired the nickname sug-
gestive of quadruple optics. 1t was al
ways used hilariously and never had
it aroused a symptom of resentment
from Chapman. If resentment, resist
ance or any other human trait useful
in Montana had been included In Jacks
disposition no one had yet found occa-
sion to suspect 1t. In carriage and
conversation he was the typical mis-
placed refugee from some divinity
school, cast by heartless circumstances
into the cow country. The range
roamers used to take a look at his
smooth, boyish face and then theorize
exhaustively on how and why Jack
ever escaped from his mothers apron
strings. 1t was a standing bet at big
odds with no takers that Jack would
faint dead away If a bloody nose ever
assailed his vision. He couldn't stay
in a saddle with anything under 1t
that moved perceptibly and his state of
mind in the presence Of firearms was
similar to that of wild pony observ-
ing a train collision at short range. In
brief Jack passed, pitied and protect
ed, as the mildest and most hopeless
form of tenderfoot imaginable. To
find, at the end of hard, wet, deter
mined day on the trail nothing Of more
consequence as a clew to train robbers
than his name on a torn letter possi-
bly, proved as fatal as anything to the
pursuit. 1t appealed to the posse as
about the same thing as discovering a
pussy cat in the man-eating tigers
cage at the circus.
Harrington was one of those who
couldn't get the mental focus Of gentle
-Four Eyed Jack" holding up trains.
He was not the only one there thus
handicapped, and the chase begged
down." as they expressed it. But they
did some figuring before they quit, and
by a process of elimination deduced
that if Jack was one of the robbers
Charley Jones must be the other. Jones
appealed to Harrington as a pretty fair
hold-up probability on account Of pre-
vious experience. He had drifted in
from nowhere in particular, so appar-