262 THE VIGILANCE COMMITTEE. 



places as Julesburg and Sheyenne, and often when I have heard 

 shots in the street as we sat round the stove in the evening, 

 and I have got up to go and see what was going on, some one 

 would say " It's only some poor devil gone under ; sit still 

 unless you wish to follow him/' On several occasions the 

 vigilance committee turned out and went by the hotel in a 

 double line, filling the street and arresting all they met, each 

 man wearing a black half -mask and carrying a revolver in his 

 right hand, and it was wonderful how soon the streets cleared 

 in front of them, even drunken men seeming to become sober 

 at once. One morning I was awakened by hearing a good 

 deal of talking downstairs, and on going to see what it was I 

 found that everyone was looking at the bodies of four men 

 which were hanging from telegraph-poles within sight of the 

 house, having been tried, condemned, and executed by the 

 vigilance committee during the night. While I was there they 

 put a man against a telegraph-pole telling him they were going 

 to shoot him, firing really only blank cartridge, but he was 

 found to be dead from fright. 



Among the men hung in Sheyenne was a noted desperado 

 named Hughes, who was supposed to have murdered five 

 or six men, and whose wife was as bad as himself; so after 

 hanging him they gave her twenty-four hours' notice to leave 

 the town, telling her that she would be hung if found there 

 after that time. I heard of this, and also that she was 

 going by the next train, so I went down to see her off. 

 A great crowd had assembled for the same purpose, and 

 when she appeared she was mobbed, most of the men seem- 

 ing to admire her pluck. She was driven to the station in 

 a carriage (as the line was now open to Sheyenne and was 



