X.
“Tombstone,” he said presently, “is a curious name for a town.”
“Some friends of mine,” I said, “have business interests there. It got its name in this way: a party of young pioneers decided to go there on a prospecting expedition. They were ridiculed, and told by another party, who had refused to join them, that all they would find would be a tomb. The adventurers, however, discovered mineral treasures, of enormous extent, started a town, and, as a derisive answer to their prophetic friend, called it Tombstone. This is the story of only a few years. Tombstone is now a prosperous community, and has a daily paper. What do you think its title is?”
“I cannot guess.”
“Eugene Field, a journalist whose name is well-known throughout the West, gave me a copy of it only yesterday.”
I went to my room and brought down a well-printed four-page paper, entitled “The Tombstone Epitaph.”
“And not a funny paper at all,” said Irving, examining it; “a regular business-like paper, newsy and prosaic, except for the short literary story and the poem that begin its pages.”
“Mr. Field gave me some remarkable newspaper trophies of these mining towns, that may be said to grow up outside the pale of civilization, to be eventually incorporated into the world of law and order. Here, for instance, is a placard issued by ‘The Bazoo,’ a newspaper published at the little town of Sedalia:—
BAZOO NEWS TRAIN!
—to—
NEVADA, MO.,
Friday, December 28, 1883.
BILL FOX’S PUBLIC EXECUTION
For the murder of Tom Howard, at Nevada, Mo., May 20,1883.
The “Sedalia Bazoo” has chartered a special train, which will run to Nevada from Joplin on that day. Leaving Jopling at 8.10 o’clock A.M., and returning in thirty minutes after the death-scene at the gallows.
| Time-table. | Rate of Fare for Round Trip. | |||
| Leave | Joplin, | 8.10 | A.M. | $2.00 |
| ” | Webb City, | 8.25 | ” | 1.75 |
| ” | Edwin, | 8.43 | ” | 1.50 |
| ” | Carthage, | 8.53 | ” | 1.45 |
| ” | Carey, | 9.05 | ” | 1.25 |
| ” | Jasper, | 9.15 | ” | 1.10 |
| ” | Carleton, | 9.27 | ” | .95 |
| ” | Lamar, | 9.40 | ” | .75 |
| ” | Irwin, | 9.57 | ” | .60 |
| ” | Sheldon, | 10.07 | ” | .50 |
| ” | Milo, | 10.20 | ” | .25 |
| Arrive | Nevada, | 10.35 | ||
☞Tickets for Sale at the Depot.☜
Returning, the train will leave Nevada thirty minutes after the execution, giving plenty of time for all to get to the train. Tickets sold for this train will not be good on any other but the “Bazoo” News Train, this day only.
THE BAZOO!
Is a Daily and Weekly newspaper published at
SEDALIA, MO.,
For the People now on Earth.
| Terms. | ||
| Daily, | per Annum | $10.00 |
| Sunday, | ” | 2.50 |
| Weekly, | ” | 1.00 |
☞Subscriptions will be received on the Train by a Solicitor.☜
The “Sedalia Morning Bazoo” of Dec. 29 will contain a picture of FOX, who is to be executed, with a full history of his crime, his trial, and the last words of the dying man on the gallows.
Secure a copy of the news agent on the train, or of your news-dealer, for Five Cents.
“And here is the free pass (printed on a mourning card) which accompanied the announcement that was sent to Mr. Field in his journalistic capacity:—
| Good for Special News Train only. | THE BAZOO NEWS TRAIN, On the occasion of the Public Execution of Bill Fox. Pass Miss Eugenia Field, Acc’t of Boss Bog, To Nevada and Return, Dec. 28, 1883. J. West Goodwin. |
“Bill Fox, I understood, was a noted criminal, and everybody was glad to have him hanged out of the way.”