DIVISION TWO — COl^ONIAL. 147 



No bear appeared that night, and the hunters returned without their 

 game. But they told the story of Baker's cautious "H'sh! h'sh! Pll kill 

 the bear f" and from that time it became a local by -word, applied in all 

 sorts of jocular ways — some of the old settlers using it even yet occasionally 

 as an illustrative figure of speech. And this is the incident referred to in 

 the chorus of Charlie Bell's negro minstrel song quoted above. 



THE N. N. N.'S. 

 These cabalistic letters being interpreted meant "Nine Nobby Nig- 

 gers," which was the title of the minstrel troupe formed by the colony boys, 

 just for the fun of it, in 1875-76, some months before Charlie Bell's arrival 

 in 1877. The original N. N. N.'s were: Clarence Martin, Will Martin, 

 Mercer Moody, Will Moody, Arthur Day, Mr. Breand, Fred Muehler, Sey- 

 mour lyocke, Fred lyippincott. This feature and resource of colony fun was 

 kept up for several years, and others took part in it from time to time ; but 

 it was always the " N. N. N.'s" or the minstrel troupe. It is related that 

 even Judge Eaton, Col. Banbury, J. H. Baker, and C. P. Brown occasion- 

 ally helped the boys out by adding their special skill with instrumental 

 music. 



"who KILI^ED JESSE LEE?" 



This burlesque murder trial occurred in the old original school-house 

 on lower Orange Grove Avenue (where Mrs. Sarah Ware now resides) be- 

 fore its removal up to Fair Oaks and Colorado, and was a "put-up-job," as 

 the boys say — really the most striking piece of grim drollery that occurred 

 in all the colony annals of fun-making. It was a local farce, well contrived, 

 and enacted with excellent dramatic skill. A youth named Jesse I^ee was 

 supposed to have been murdered by Mart. Weight ; and he was arrested for 

 this breach of civil order by Frank lyowe, acting as sheriff, with Seymour 

 Ivocke as deputy. B. S. Eaton sat as judge; P. M. Green appeared as at- 

 torney for the State, and Dr. O. H. Conger as attorney for the accused. 

 The jury was Dr. T. B. Elliott, foreman ; A. O. Porter, John Eowe, Will 

 Martin (other names not learned). The principal witness was young Mor- 

 ton Banbury, who had found in the Arroyo the skull of some animal. This 

 he produced in court from a bag, and identified it as the skull of Jesse Lee. 

 Dr. J. C. Newton was called as a medical expert ; and he came with wig 

 and gown and solemn face, using a long section or tube of sheet-iron water 

 pipe for a microscope to examine the skull, and determine by the molecular 

 structure of its ultimate particles whether it was veritably bone of man or 

 beast, that question having been vigorously raised by Dr. Conger, the attor- 

 ney for the defense. Young Clarence Martin was also dressed with wig 

 and spectacles, and some foreign-looking garments, and was introduced as 

 the eminent savant, Dr. Brown-Sequard. He was sworn as a medical ex- 

 pert, too, and gave a learned disquisition on "the polariscopistic intussuscep- 



