Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1922-01-13

Late In the night he was awakened
by an unusual movement among the
horses. In the dim light Of the fire
he could see a man In the act Of
bridling Abe's horse.
"Hold up you hands," Samson
shouted as he covered the man with
his pistol. "If ye stir a foot I'll bore
a hole In ye."
The man threw up his hands and
stood still.
In half a moment Abe Lincoln and
Harry had got up and captured the
man and the loosed horse.
This is part Of the entry which
Samson made In his diary a week or
so later:
"Harry put some wood on the fire
while Abe and 1 led him up into the
light. He was one of the dirty white
men we had seen at the tavern.
"'Tll give you four hundred dollars
for a boss in good Michigan money
he said.
at We can't steal a horse you're
willin' to buy one l says.
"'No, sir. I only come to buy says
he.
IT Topped him sudden inc asked
him why he was putting on The bride.
HE owned up then. Said a man
had hired him to steal the horse.
"That man has got to have a hoss,'
he said. He'll give ye any price ye
want to ask. If you'll give me a few
dollars I'll take We to him.
"'You go and bring him here and
I'll talk to him. / said.
81 let the Teller go. / didn't sup
pose he'd come back, but he did.
Came a little before sunrise with that
well-dressed teller we saw at the
tavern.
"'What'S your manner / says.
HE handed me a card on which L
read the words Lionel Davis, Real Es-
tate, Loans and Insurance, IA South
Water Street, Chicago, H.
""There's one branch O. your bust
ness that isn't mentioned on the card
l says.
"'What's thatY says he.
"tHorse-thief,' says l. You sent
that Teller here to steal a horse and
he got caught
"'Well l told him If he'd get me a
good horse I'd give him five hundred
dollars and that 1 didn't care how he
got him. The fact is I'm desperate.
I'll give you a thousand dollars for one
of your horses
"fYou couldn't buy n of EN- at any
price, 1 said. There's two reasons. l
wouldn't do business with a horsethief
and no money would tempt me to sell
an animal to be ridden to DEATH
"The two thieves had had enough
of us and they got out"
That night our party camped on the
shore of the Kankakee and next day
they met the contractors. Lincoln
Joined the latter party and Harry and
Samson went on alone. Late that ar
ternoon they crossed the nine-mile prai
rie, beyond which they could see ths
simmer of the lake and the sunlit
structures Of the new city.
'"There 1t is" said Samson. "Foul
thousand, one hundred and eight!
people live there. 1t looks like a stur
dy tw~o-year-old."
The houses we're small and cheaply
built and of many colors. Some were
implanted. Near the prairie they
stood like people on the outer edge o.
a crowd, looking over one another's
shoulders and pushing in a disorderet
mass toward the center of interest
Some seemed to have struggled away
as if they had given up trying to SEA
or hear. So to one nearing it the towr
had a helter-skelter look.
Our travellers passed rough boarded
houses with gr~and-looking people in
their dooryards and on their small
porches-men in broadcloth and tail
hats and ladies in silk dresses. Il
was six o'clock and the men had com
home to supper. AS the horSemer
proceeded larger buildings surrounded
them, mostly two stories high. There
were some stores and houses built OF
red brick. Beyond the scatter of
cheap, wooden structures they came tC
streets well laid out and crowded and
busy and very soft" to quote a phrase
from the diary. Teams were strug-
Cling in the mud, drivers shouting and
lashing. Agents for hotels and board.
ing houses began to solicit the two
horsemen from the plank sidewalks
The latter were deeply impressed by
a negro in scarlet clothes, riding a
horse in scarlet housings. He carried
a scarlet banner and was advertising
in a loud voice the hour and place of
a great land sale that evening.
A sound of many hammers beating
upon boards could be heard above the
noises of the street and behind all was
the constant droning of a big steam
saw and the whir Of the heavy stones
in the new grist mill. 1t was the be-
ginning of that amazing diapason of