The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1917-04-27

tackled by William Eugene Johnson
In the summer of 1907. 1t was the
case of the Monte Carlo of No Mans
Land, as it was called, and called for
an exhibition of grit, courage. and
self-reliance that was not shown by
any other persons interested in the
affair.
BY the middle of 1907 Johnson, big,
bald, and xX-feet-three, had pretty
well cleaned up the bootleggers in In
dian Territory. He had made him
self terror to those who were de-
bauching the Indians with spirits and
afterward plundering them. He had
become something of legend. I'M
agine a male Carrie Nation, armed
mot only with Ratchet and sledge-
hammer, but with a pair of mailed
fists and all the resources Of the
United States Indian Department at
his back. He had run up the price
OF spirits per pint from twenty-five
cents to three dollars, and even then
the trade was risky. He had herded
hundreds to Jail and several into the
penitentiary. He had earned the I'M
dying enmity of the gamblers, and
all the vicious members of the COM
munity. He had earned the sobr1-
quet "Pussyfoot" throughout the West
by reason of his cat-like pounces
where he was least expected. Now
he was to tackle the strangest situa-
ton that has ever arisen in the case
Of western outlawry.
To quote comment which was
made at the time: Special Officer
Johnson has the distinction of being
the only man in the United States
who ever arrested a bunch of no.
bodies for conducting saloon and
gambling resort nowhere, in violation
of the laws of no one. But the fact
Is that the Monte Carlo of No Mans
Land has been put out of business
by the velvet-footed man with the
soft voice and the mailed first"
Now for the explanation of the at
fair, which was to produce crop OF
tragical deaths at subsequent
period:
Some years previously man
named Ernest Lewis was in charge OF
some logging work along the bound
airy between Kansas and the Indian
Territory. A log drawn by six horses
struck a stone boundary post and
drew it ten feet and nine inches north
of the surveyed line. Lewis thought
that it would be joke on Kansas to
give the Territory some of Kansas
land Accordingly he set up the post
in its new position, and the removal
remained undiscovered until after the
occurrence of the episodes with which
this story deals.
The apparent result of this prank
was that there remained, in the mid
die of a road, tract of land some
three-quarters of mile long and some
twelve feet wide which did not be-
long either to the Indian Territory or
to Kansas. Lewis was a bad man,
and most of his time was devoted to
violations of the revenue and states
laws Some years afterward he found
himself released from Jail, together
with two boon companions named
Mark Killion and Elijah Paradise, and
began to cast round for the means of
a livelihood 1t was then that he. hap
pened to remember his prank in NOV
ing the boundry post. He hurried to
the locality and found the stone still
in its new position; and it was then
that his fertile brain conceived the
idea of setting up gambling estab-
lishment upon this No Mans Land
that he had created.
Since Kansas is a prohibition state,
and the sale of liquor was forbidden
in what was then Indian Territory,
the three outlaws saw a fine oppor
tunity of making fortune in quick
and not illegitimate manner by sell
ing whiskey on the tract of land over
which they claimed dominion. There
was no doubt that customers would
flock from far and near on either side
of the border Accordingly. in the
center of the road they built house
sixty feet long by ten feet wide, with
a gambling den at one end and
saloon at the other, being financed
in their enterprise by two men who
preferred to take a share of the prof
its and to remain in the background.
This extraordinary road-house
speedily became a fourishing center
of crime. Drink was sold freely to
whites, negroes and Indians alike, and
riot, robbery and murder were en-
acted there. The authorities were
quite helpless. They got as far as
the boundary on either side, and then
looked on helplessly, while king"
Lewis, as he was designated, did a
roaring business under their noses.
Undoubtedly Lewis had hit upon
paying scheme. His kingdom pro-
duced a revenue, in proportion to its
size, greater than that of any other
kingdom on earth. Upon the wall
federal license to sell liquor was
prominently displayed, and, armed
with this weapon and not amenable,
apparently, to the laws of either the
Territory or Kansas, he seemed to
stand well within his rights. At the
station at Caney, Kansas, one mile
away, stood long lines of conveyances
waiting for the nobility who came on
every train to pay their respects to
his majesty. The highways were
filled with men hurrying to court, and
with others struggling back. Drunken
men lay comfortably asleep in their
tracks all along the roads. It needed
a Napoleon to evolve a strategy
strong enough to pull King Lewis
from his throne.
The gambling outlay was the most
complete in the West. Games that
had passed from memory as the lid"
l,novod westward were resurrecfod