Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 15, 1903)
v - t j.yJ. ! A CEMETERY IN (Copyright. 1903. by Arthur Morris.) Mf.iw.w iinu l-iii-.. r Fi i r i s rnn.i were aiiieu iu rvru -I tucky's feud country taut year by uiuunuiurrri wuu arc urTu enough when II comes to faring bullets In the open or In ambush. but who Incontinently turn tail and ntreak along rocky tralla whenever a man with a camera cornea along. Consider' the typical cane of "General" Hen Butler Bouders and Thomas Jefferson Henderson, old and bitter rivals In the Hell county feud that has cost thirty lives (o date. Putting aside their hatred for the time being, they had met on the banki Of "Yaller" creek, within sight of the no torious Quarter House, and had Just con summated the sale of a brlndle cow to their mutual satisfaction, when a camera man strolled along. The "general'! was the Ami to r.py the black-boxed Instru ment, and the Instant ho did so that In stant he stood not on the order of his charging full speed down the mountain Ide. Thomas Jefferson stood his ground until, a few moments later, he became acquainted with the causo of his oM enemy's precipitate flight, and then, he, too, took to his heels In tho direction marked out by the "general." Only the latter' s venerable father, 'Squlro Souders, stayed to face the camera. "Yer see," Ingenuously explained the 'squire, "th" general la right superstitious about them plctcr-drawlu' boxes. Tho gen eral hev Dt tome day an' time an' he ain't lookin' fer no trouble no more. They ain't a better man nor he be, an' it be'a bad klllln' ter do, bit were bekaxe they warnt no one else In Yaller creek good an' hefty enough ter do hit on'y him." Only after an hour's persuasion and de tailed explanation' of the working of the "rJcter-drawin' box" would the 'squire consent to be photographed, anJ It re quired all of two hours' diplomatic elo quence to Induce Thomas Jefferson Hen derson the next day to poso before the camera. Praise ot the plctureaqueness of bis dilapidated ahanty and the beauty of his age-withered mother, sitting In the doorway churning. Dually had the desired effect. "Wall, I reckon," said Thomas, "If you all Is agoln' ter make a drawls' o' th' old ahack, hit 'pears I oughter be In hit; but, durn It all. I'd ruthc hev a gun plntln at me." The only leader In all the feud country who showed no fear or backwardness ot the camera was Ansa Hatfield. The pos sible commercial value to him ot his like ness gave him courage to pose. "You-all kin draw my plcter." he salt, "an' atter hit's drawed, you-all kin write a hlatory In a book about hit, an' theu I'll tell you what we-all kin do. We klu tatke theae hyah dawgs, an' this hyah gun, an' th' plcter 'at you-all 'ill draw, She IPfDla IADfOIVf earVjo a(Mf.aJ I from her father's beautiful home I . .,-1 . . , . m m nifrruiit vn orpirwDrr 7, 1884, with the family coachman, Rrnest Srhllling-Huelscamp, is living In retirement at Rutland, Vt., where she la known aa Miaa Baldwin. Apparently she has absolutely forgotten her former husband. Schilling is coachman for Dr. John Jacob Kindred ot the Rlvercrest sani tarium at Astoria. He does not know where Victoria is, but he loves her aa fondly as ever. He cherishes the hope that she still cares for him and that some day they will be reunited for the rest ot their Uvea. Giovanni P. Moroalnl was the friend and bodyguard ot Jay Gould. He had fought and suffered with Garibaldi. Son of an tllustrtoaa Venetian family, he brought to this country old-fashioned Latin ideaa as to the aecluttoa of young girls. His daugh ters were allowed to have tew companions of their own age. They rarely saw young snea. and then only in the presence ot elderly relatives. . .. Ernest Schilling, the family coachman. Side Lights on Life in the Feud FEUP LAND. an' th' book, an' we kin show eve'ywbers In th' kentry, an' make a sight o' money. They'a money en these hyah feuds, even If they la worry an' divllrr.int. Why, I kla sell th' hide o' a b'ar fer $10 more nor hits worth Jest brkaze hit were killed by ole Devil Anse. An' they ain't a tooth In th'e Jawa o' th' varmint 'at I kalni sell fer SI a tooth fer th' same reason." ' These same camera-shy dare-devils ot. the miuntalns take particular delight In having their families and their cemeteries pictured. They will 'go to no end of troublo to Induce "th oP woman" and 'th' gals" to pose by tblr spinning wheels, which ara still universally used -in this region, and do anything to help In "th' drawin' o' th' wlnuneu folk." . . - i- The typical, feud land cemetery looks like nothing so much as a deserted vlllago of do 11 house proportions. The dead thi majority of whom have fallen In feuds are placed In little frame shacks, about six feet wide by ten feet long, which boasts a door In one end wide enough to . admit a coffin and high enough to make a . six-foot mountaineer bend double when hi enters to place a body Inside. No fasten ing other than a bit of revolving .wood, with a nail as a pivot, la on any door. The active, participants In the feuds are not the only people In their blood -be spat tered world . who have - rather . remarkable Ideas of. law and Its enforcement. Even tho 'authorities have their own peculiar, ways of Interpreting Justice. "If a civil citizen kills another clttten and It la clearly in self-defense, don't In dict him," said a Judge to a grand Jury In Letcher, one of the feud counties, re cently. "If a civil citizen kills an outlaw, don't Indict him. no matter whether he killed in self-defense or not. If one out law kills another outlaw. Indict him with out questioning the motive for killing. In such a case it would be well to sentence the outlaw for lite and so get rid of him as well at his victim. If a civil citizen takes a bag ot provisions on his back and pursues an outlaw all week, and then kills him as he would wild game, don't indict him. If you want to do anything, give him a better gun and more ammunition, so that he can get the next outlaw more easily. If you do Indict suih a man, be sure that I will file the indictment away aa soon as I reach it," Quite as remarkable as these instruc tions Is the fact that the records of the feud counties show that out ot a total of between 300 and 400 murders occurring during the past twenty years, there has been only one official hanging. This was the execution of Ellison Mounts, In the famoua HatGeld-McCoy feud. Mounts was a half-witted boy accused ot complicity with the Hatflelds in the burning of tht McCoy homeatead in Pike county. As this exploit waa one at the most spectacular Married Her Father's Coachman was a tall, slender, good-natured youth, with faint red cheeks and straw-colored hair. It was his duty to take Victoria driving, to accompany her when she rode. In the summer of 1884 the Morosinis saw that be and Victoria were too food of each other. They discharged him. Schilling returned to the place on Sep tember 9. 1SS4, ostensibly to collect money from a fellow servant. Victoria ran across the lawn and kissed him. Mrs. Morotinl saw and stormed. That night Victoria eloped with Ernest. They went to Europe, but returned to New York In a few months. Ernest got a Job as rood actor on a Second avenue car. Victoria became a superior chorus girl In "Amorita." which was being played at the Casino. She " tinkled on a mandolin, sang with a pleasant little voice and tried hard to dance gracefully. She waa too big. Still she was a popular success because ot her notoriety. Ernest sat in a front row and ground H. teeth. Also in a front seat waa a young New York rubber merchant, friend of the Morotino family. ijj w s w i C3 U . it b US -A r if., A FAMILY OF SQUIRE SOUDERS, FATHER OF THE GENERAL IN THE BELL COUNTY FEUD " " . . - ' - ' s - and revolting In the entire .feud,' the au thorities bestirred . themselves in the mat ter. But there are many who hold that Mounts was Innocent, and the leader of the McCoy faction is one of them. The sverage feud man thinks about the courts as does Thomas Jefferson Henderson. "Yer see." he said, 'W cohts hev four killln's agin me, an' I reckon ef I keep my mouth shet they'll be Ices trouble. So long aa th' cohta aiu't talkln' any, I ain't talkln' neither." When the courts do begin to talk, then it Is that the feud country sends represent atives from far and near. Court week and election day are its red-letter events, the only times In the year when there Is a gen eral outpouring of dwellers of mountain side shacks to a common center. The Judge who presides over court gen erally manages to maintain the requisite amount of Judicial dignity while in his shirt sleeves, and often he spends his time reading a newspaper while the tobacco spitting Jury is confused by counsel, also Inveterate users of the weed, and, like the Judge, minus coats. Until an old dinner bell dissolves court for recess the mountaineer spectators emu late the Jury In adorning with tobacco Juice the floor of the dingy room, with its many broken window panes. Then they slouch out onto the green surrounding the beat of Justice, lie around In groups, swap yarns and tobacco plugs, devour watermelons, whittle boards and sticks until the grass is After many efforts the merchant brought Victoria and her father together. On September 1, l&SS, she vanished from New York. Ernest has never seen her since nor known her whereabouts. She has not communicated with him nor admitted hr identity to any one of the hundreds of per sons with whom she came In contact. The World has learned that she went to a con vent In Paris, whera remained until early in 18S. From then he tuddenly went to Vancouver, B. C, at-J took train for Rutland. Vt. where she arrived at night and waa driven to fi convent of the Sisters of St. Joseph, where she was taken as a boarder under the name of Mias Baldwin. She left the protecting walla of the convent seldom, iml then a V always wore large green glasses. But even these could not.oonoeai her. una ral , beauty of features and richness .ot coin ing. She was the source of much devia tion among the Vermonters and at last a few of them learned her secret- But ite would not admit when 4uesti--oed that she waa Victoria Moroaini-Schlllias. ' J J - j 1 ' s " I J ' ' - i i man 'i pmma Land w c w . !Mfvwf J ,: ! FEUDISTS. Uttered with countleaa pine slivers, and now( and then look. af(er their mules and "plugs," hitched to the court house fence in the rear. - Recess over, a court attendant sticks his -head out ol a second-story window, rings the bell lu.klly, and bawls for the wltnefiseo in the murder case on trial --to come into court. - .. But there is no immediate response to tbe official summons.' The Kentucky .moun taineer is nothing If not deliberate in all his movements and methods. A quarter of an hour later, one homespun-clad man after another struggles upon his feet. There Is a laugh and an extra Joke cracked as the fat man and principal wit and gossip ot the town Is hoisted from the grass by two ot his satellites and waddles off on his pudgy foet. Then, in-leisurely Indian file, the outdoor gathering slouchily adjourns to the ancient court house, leaving a wide trail ot tobacco Juice in its wake.- ' L. - The courthouse of Harlan county Is typ ical of similar structures In feud land. Twenty years ago It was besieged by one half the town's male popuUtion, while the other half was barricaded within during onb of the bitterest 'of the early feudal wars. Fcores of men were' ki'lled in those days, and for three years the military arm of the state, was unable to suppress this mihia "ture revolution, which finally iught Itself out In the mountains that cluster about and overhang the picturesque little county seat. At that time the Howard party, as an or ganized feudal body, was broken up and Its famous leader, Wilse Howard, fled to Cali fornia. There, some say, he was hanged; others that he eluded the vigilance of his Jailors and the sheriff, who performed a mock execution In his behalf, thus leaving It open to the conjecture that he may still be lurking in mountain faBtnesses ready to sweep down upon his old feudal enemies. In Harlan courthouse are still the marks of this dare-devil's prowess and that of his followers when they stormed its brick walls In the endeavor to dislodge and put to flight the town authorities. The courtroom Is grimy with age, desolate and bare. Its window panes are broken and the shutters creak dolefully in the wind. And the rest of the building Is iu keeping with the room where many a murderer has been t'.ied but neter brought to Justice. It la an unusual election day that does not give cause for the beginning of at least three feuds. A quarrel at the polls started the famous Bell county feud. In which the massacre at the Quarter house only a year ago was a chapter. "General" Souders and Henderson, mentioned above, are the pres - ent rival chieftains of this feud. A similar cause started the trouble between the Hent leys snd Rameys, the Justices and Bevlns, the Harglses and Cockril's last year; while among the older feuds there Is scarcely one that does not count an election day dispute among its leading motives. When Mrs. G. P. Moroslnl died fn Proem bcr 3, 183, her fuueral waa delayed until the fourth day so that her daulitsr, Vic toria, might attend It. Tho reconciliation with her family waa complete. She after ward returned to Rutland, where aho re mained in the convent until three years ago, when she left because ot a disagree ment with the mother superior. Her father agaiu cast her off. Still Known Mias Baldwin, she has boarded ever since with a Rutland family, who live In West street, nesr the bridge. They are In mod erate circumstances. Two prominent young tven cf Rutland have been devoted to "Mtss Baldwin," but she has given them little encouragement. Schilling enlieted in the United States Marine .corps three weeks after hW wife disappeared. - When ha returned at he end of.lais 4ve -.Mrso he aaade his, hosne at Steiaway, Aatnria. where he has since remained. -He is hottest, sober and industrious. Hia nearest friends say that he is . certainly shadow by detectives, who hope to furaik .evidence, against hiss. .. aw
