PERSONAL KNOWLEDGE OF THE EARLY EUROPEAN IMMIGRANT.
THE PARRICIDE: KILLS FATHER WITH AXE. {con't}
found with the hat on. The hat was full of blood from the wound. The
Sergeant removed the hat and pressed it together, cold thick blood and all.
By the time of the trial several weeks had elapsed and the blood had be-
come quite dry in the hat.
When the Judge said "Show the hat to the jury," the Sergeant leaned
forward and pulled the hat open as he handed it down to me. The blood
was now like glue. It cracked into pieces and fell rattling about me onto
the floor where it remained about my feet till the trial was over. I need
not stress the incident; but this very repulsive thing could not have hap-
pened but for the newness of the country which often necessitated assizes
being held in school houses, or whatever building was available. In a
proper courthouse Sergeant Quinn would not have been standing over
the foreman of the jury.
We acquitted the man without hesitation on the murder charge, and
found him guilty of manslaughter. Judge Wetmore said he quite agreed
with the verdict and sent the poor, sorry, unfortunate wretch down for
ten years. It was a necessary sentence for the benefit of those to whom
life was not held so sacredly as by those of British extraction.
The pleasant incident came about in this way. I was returning at
night from the Swede colony to Whitewood. It was in the fall; the day
had been warm. I was clad in summer raiment and that night there was
a sharp frost. I was driving in a road cart. These carts had a vogue at
one time. On a pinch two people might ride in them but they were built
for one. Climbing up and down the steep sides of the valleys with perhaps
one wheel cocked up on the side hill, the horse walking in a little gully
made by storm water, and the other wheel on a slant on the other side,
was a little tricky in the light, but at night one was apt to experience a
kind of perilous joy. Perched on this road cart my teeth rattled with cold.
We all know that to be caught at night, lightly clad, in one of those early
frosts, will set the teeth chattering more than forty below. Then, as I
climbed out of the valley, I thought of a certain camping place of the
foreigners and I hoped some one might be there with a fire going, and
when I came to the edge of the bench of the next valley there, far down
on the opposite side, twinkling like a star, was a light at the Scissors
Creek camping place. Hind says the Indians named it Scissors Creek
for a reason that he declines to state. However, there was the light.
With an ox-team it was impossible to make Whitewood and back in one
day; so some of the foreign settlers would start say on Wednesday in the
afternoon, make a night camp for a few hours at Scissors Creek, and make
Whitewood early next day; do their business; and then hit the long trail
for home which going light they could readily reach that night.
I found a man and a boy; one wagon and a team of oxen at the camp-
ing place. There was a small but very welcome fire on which water was
being boiled. The man could speak no English; the boy, twelve or thirteen
had been to school and was fairly fluent. The latter tied up my horse and
without being asked fed him hay. It was a cosy little camp, with poplars
nearly all round it; and I don't doubt that the Pole and I and the boy,
Bibliography follows:
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