The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1921-08-09
HATFIELD, BORN IN A MORE
PEACEFUL ERRITOR Y,
WOULD HAVE BEEN MERE
LY HARUM-SCARUM INDI-
VIDUAL.

WASHINGTON, D. C.-Strangely
enough the killing today OF Sid Hat
field. the West Virginia gun fighter,
was surprising occurrence. 1t ought
not to have been surprising, for he
had lived with a gun in his hand, fig
uratively, and he was hated by scores
of men, and with very deadly hatred
by the Baldwin Felts detective force.
But it was surprising, none the less,
because one unConSc1ouSly classlhed
Hatfield as one OF those men apart
from the general run-free not only
from the usual restraints OF the laws
of men but from fate's ordinary pen
alties.
In another environment he might
have been a sort OF rough Peter Fan.
He was a killer because killing was
the conventional thing, the thing done
by the big men" in the primitive
and. if the truth must be told, degen-
erate-society in which he was reared.
Had the accident of birth put him in,
say, Talbot county, Maryland, he
would not have been a killer. He
would have been merely harum-
scarum boy, driving horses faster than
any other boy, taking chances that no
other boy would take in rounding a
curve behind big ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
playing and always light-hearted and
kind-hearted in his playing.
Always Gay and Careless.
Strip him of his killing record he
was essentially a light-hearted, kind
hearted creature ack in those moody
West Virginia hills, and almost the
OF the very few who revealed at first
meeting any particular kind-hearted
ness. Before, during and after his trial
he moved about with gay and care
less smile on his face, talking amiably
about killings or anything else with
anyone who CHANGED to run into him.
He seemed to have none of the mean
suspiciousness that is common out
there. He had rather child's friend
illness toward strangers.
People seeing him for the first time
during his trial for the killing of the
seven Baldwin, detectives at
Matewan in May a year ago often
spoke OF his callousness. They mar
veled as he sat and smiled while wit
nesses told of the bloody doing in that
fight 1t was not callousness, as people
in this country know the word. He
simply was cheerful fellow. And to
a cheerful boy in that country killing
man is no particular mattel of con-
Germ. 1t is rather an adventure, the
sort of adventure that he has heard
the older people talk about clamly, and
often approvingly, especially if the per
son or persons killed were represented
as enemies of the natives.
Sure of His Acquittal.
This was shown while his trial was
on. Weeks passed, during which the
examination OF hundreds of veniremen
failed to produce jury. Hatfield be-
came impatient. and asked his lawyers
to let up in the strictness of their ex-
animation of the men called for jury
service. Harold w. Houston, of Char
lesion, one of the lawyers, asked him
if he did not know that the jury be-
ing selected could hang him. Hatfield
grinned merrily, and said there was no
danger Of that. Just tell II men about
what happened he said and they
would let him go. They would under
stand.
He was dressy fellow, in the rath-
er bizarre fashion that prevailed in
Mingo county, where ancient back
woodsism and modern industrialism
met and mingled. He liked to wear