The Ronan pioneer., 1917-11-16

men. One of them said, 1--WE want to
see you back here They crossed
the street, one man leading the way,
Colonel Sanders following him, the
other two following him, and ! fol-
lowing them between the log houses
which were built a little apart.
The front man and Colonel San
ders had gotten out of the passage
way in the rear of the house and the
rest of us were following, when,
bang went gun. The two men in
front of me jumped out behind the
houses and / rushed out as fast as
could, expecting to find the colonel
killed. When l got out, however, !
saw that all three of the men were
running away; and Colonel Sanders
was standing there with his overcoat
on fire. / asked him it he was hurt
He said, "No."
The truth of it was that about the
time the killing was to have COM
menced, Colonel Sanders pistol was
discharged in his overcoat pocket, as
he was in the act of drawing the wea-
pom. This stampeded the assassins
and saved his life and perhaps mine
Colonel Sanders had taken, as is
known, a fearless and active part in
the prosecution of Ives. 1t was be-
yond doubt the purpose of these men
to murder him as a matter of re-
Vengc.
Sanders Magnificent Effort.
1t is great pity--an irreparable
loss, amounting to a calamity, that no
copy of the great speech of Colonel
Sanders in the Ives trial was ever
taken or preserved. Colonel Sanders
was a great orator, and thousands of
our people have heard and enjoyed
his splendid speeches in the courts
and on the platform. But those who
did not hear his speech in the Ives
trial never heard the best effort in
the lifetime of this gifted man. Dur
ing it's delivery on that cold Wintry
day, there stood these hundreds Of
sturdy miners in the street of Neva-
da, motionless and spell bound by the
marvellous appeal on that marvellous
occasion by this wonderful man, to
the jury and the struggle for the pro-
lection of their homes, property and
lives in their new mountain land. And
never did a great speech go home
with more directness and force to the
hearts of honest and determined men.
This great speech, if we had it in
the archives and history of the state,
would constitute monument to this
peerless pioneer that would stand in
glory's sky, hallowed with the golden
sunlight, when the bronze statue be-
ing erected now by grateful people,
to his memory, shall have crumbled
into dust. On the day George Ives
was hung a real democracy was es-
tablished in these mountains. Its
foundation was laid upon the bones
of the desperate and outlaw. And
Sanders is entitled to be called it's
Pericles.
A generation has passed away since
those dreadful days with their excit-
miners courts, and especially of the
Ives trial, upon the people of Mon
tana has not passed away, and VIII
not for generations to come. These
courts and the result Of this trial
taught the people that life and prop
erty were worth defending at all haz-
ards, and that the enforcement OF the
law was the only hope OF human
safety and liberty.
Since Montana has had a history,
the people have never forgotten the
lessons they learned in those early
crucial days. The devotion of the
people to the law, the estimate they
early learned to place upon life, lib
erty and property have made our
state a palladium of safety to the
peaceable, law-loving citizens, and a
place to be avoided by the assassin
and dasperado, So long as our peO-