Caxton's Book: A Collection of Essays, Poems, Tales, and Sketches.Rhodes, W. H. (William Henry)
Science
Caxton's Book: A Collection of Essays, Poems, Tales, and Sketches.
Rhodes, W. H. (William Henry)
Science fiction
By virtue of the authority in me vested, I do hereby offer the
above reward of ten thousand dollars, in gold coin of the
United States, for the Arrest of Bartholomew Graham,
familiarly known as Black Bart. Said Graham is accused of the
murder of C. P. Gillson, late of Auburn, county of Placer, on
the 14th ultimo. He is five feet ten inches and a half in
height, thick set, has a mustache sprinkled with gray,
grizzled hair, clear blue eyes, walks stooping, and served in
the late civil war under Price and Quantrell, in the
Confederate army. He may be lurking in some of the
mining-camps near the foot-hills, as he was a Washoe teamster
during the Comstock excitement. The above reward will be paid
for him, _dead or alive_, as he possessed himself of an
important secret by robbing the body of the late Gregory
Summerfield.
By the Governor: H. G. NICHOLSON,
Secretary of State.
Given at Sacramento, this the fifth day of June, 1871.
Our correspondent continues:
I am sorry to say that Sheriff Higgins has not been so active in
the discharge of his duty as the urgency of the case required, but
he is perhaps excusable on account of the criminal interference of
the editor above alluded to. But I am detaining you from more
important matters. Your Saturday's paper reached here at 4
o'clock, Saturday, 13th May, and, as it now appears from the
evidence taken before the coroner, several persons left Auburn on
the same errand, but without any previous conference. Two of these
were named respectively Charles P. Gillson and Bartholomew Graham,
or, as he was usually called, "Black Bart." Gillson kept a saloon
at the corner of Prickly Ash Street and the Old Spring Road; and
Black Bart was in the employ of Conrad & Co., keepers of the
Norfolk livery stable. Gillson was a son-in-law of ex-Governor
Roberts, of Iowa, and leaves a wife and two children to mourn his
untimely end. As for Graham, nothing certain is known of his
antecedents. It is said that he was engaged in the late robbery of
Wells & Fargo's express at Grizzly Bend, and that he was an
habitual gambler. Only one thing about him is certainly well
known: he was a lieutenant in the Confederate army, and served
under General Price and the outlaw Quantrell. He was a man
originally of fine education, plausible manners and good family;
but strong drink seems early in life to have overmastered him, and
left him but a wreck of himself. But he was not incapable of
generous, or rather, romantic, acts; for, during the burning of
the Putnam House, in this town, last summer, he rescued two ladies
from the flames. In so doing he scorched his left hand so
seriously as to contract the tendons of two fingers, and this very
scar may lead to his apprehension. There is no doubt about his
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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