Being pressingly importuned, Bill at length gave his opinion as follows: “If you Yankee women have as small legs as the sample of Yankee men we have here, then I have a d—d poor opinion of the tribe.”
The frankness with which Bill spoke, no less than his remarks, threw the entire party into disorder. The young ladies hid their faces, and the men generally exhibited their umbrage, but Mr. and Mrs. Wilson were fairly convulsed with laughter. The sting was taken out of Bill’s opinion by Mrs. Wilson exclaiming, “Well, Mr. Hickok, that is just my sentiment.”
HOW BILL KILLED JACK STRAWHAN.
After Bill’s return from the trip with the Wilson company of wealthy “Yankees,” he resumed his duties as city marshal of Hays City. It would be difficult for any one not familiar with the terrorism of border life to form an approximate estimate of the condition of society in Hays City when Bill became the custodian of its peace. Saloons and gambling hells were the most flourishing branches of business, and never closed their doors. The Sabbath was ignored, and the revelry of ruffians continued day and night. The population, it is true, was not a large one, but it was an exceedingly vicious and lively one. There were, of course, many good citizens, but, to use a border expression, “they never aired themselves,” yet it was through their instrumentality that Bill became marshal. Among the most violent and dangerous of the rowdy element in Hays City was Jack Strawhan, a large, double-fisted bully who boasted that he could clean out the town, and who had his record well made by killing several men.
Some months previous to the occurrence about to be related, Strawhan had visited Ellsworth, and after getting fighting drunk, he and his gang undertook to “clean out the place,” as they expressed it. Capt. Kingsbury, the gentleman before referred to, was sheriff of Ellsworth county at the time, and being a man of equally desperate pluck, he called his deputy, Whitney, and Wild Bill, who was also in Ellsworth on that day, to his assistance, and after a slight skirmish arrested the gang. Strawhan was so violent and abusive that it became necessary, owing to there being no secure jail in the place, to tie him to a post, his arms being thrown around it and fastened in front. This position was a punishment as well as a secure one, and he was kept there until thoroughly sober and subjugated.
This severe treatment caused Jack to take a public oath to kill Kingsbury, Whitney and Wild Bill at the first opportunity, and every one who knew the man felt that he would keep his word.
Death of Jack Strawhan.