Читать книгу Vigilante Days and Ways. The pioneers of the Rockies; the makers and making of Montana and Idaho онлайн

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The leading men among this little band of pioneers were admirably qualified to grapple with the varied difficulties and dangers incident to their exposed situation. The brothers Stuart, Samuel T. Hauser, and Walter B. Dance were among the most enterprising and intelligent citizens of Montana, and to the direction which they, by their prudence and counsel, gave to public sentiment, when with twenty or thirty others, they organized the first mining camp in what is now Montana, was the Territory afterwards indebted for the predominance of those principles which saved the people from the bloody rule of assassins, robbers, and wholesale murderers. They were men bred in the hard school of labor. They brought their business habits and maxims with them, and put them rigidly into practice. Having heard of the lawlessness which characterized the Salmon River camps, and of the expulsions which had taken place there, they were on the alert for every suspicious arrival from that direction.

On the twenty-fifth of August, William Arnett, C. W. Spillman, and B. F. Jernigan arrived at Gold Creek from Elk City. They opened the first gambling establishment in Montana and satisfied the good people of Gold Creek before the close of their first day’s residence that they were the advance guard of the outcasts of Salmon River. Victims flocked around them in encouraging numbers. The highway of villainy seemed to stretch out before them with flattering promise. Four days had elapsed since their arrival. The little society was fearfully demoralized, and whiskey and dice ruled the hour, when the Nemesis appeared. Two men, Fox and Bull, came in pursuit of the gamblers for horse-stealing. Creeping upon them while busy at play, the first notice the poor wretches had of their approach was to find themselves covered with double-barrelled guns which were instantly discharged. Arnett fell, riddled with bullets. Fox’s gun missed fire. Jernigan threw up his hands, and he and Spillman were arrested without resistance. Arnett died with a death clutch of his cards in one hand and revolver in the other, and was so buried.