^60 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



September 



clerk Wilberforce explained that he was 

 now Wildcat Bill, the Rattlesuake of Ben- 

 der's Flat, and that all he asked was the 

 simple privilege of waiting behind the half 

 open door of the office for Pete Smith of 

 Patchin's ranch. The clerk had never 

 heard any of these names before, but as 

 there was no rule against it he consented. 



"It was not long before the train arriv- 

 ed and an elderly and correct appearing 

 man alighted and made his way toward 

 the hotel. He was, in fact, a prominent 

 Boston capitalist, and this was his first 

 trip to the somewhat extensive region west 

 of the Conuccticnt river. As he entered 

 the door of the hotel his eye cauglit the 

 muzzle of the shotgun, with its two cav- 

 ernous shafts, apparently about the size of 

 sewer pipes, which projected an inch be- 

 yond the edge of the open door. A glance 

 behind showed a most murderous individ- 

 ual, breathing sliort, and with his fingers 

 moving nervously on both triggers. The 

 Boston man stepped quickly to the clerk 

 and wliispered: 



" 'Who — ^who is that man?' 



" 'That's Wildcat Bill, the Rattlesnake 

 of Bender's Flat,' answered the clerk. 



" 'Wha-what is he doing"?' 



" 'Waiting for Pete Smith of Patchin's 

 ranch,' replied tlie clerk. 



" 'Will— will he shoot him?' 



" 'He will blow him into pieces — unless 

 Pete shoots first. ' 



"'Is the — the — gentleman expected 

 soon?' went on the man from the Hub. 



" 'Pete comes in at 2:45 for a drink.' 



"The visitor consulted his watch and 

 found it was 3:30. 



" 'Is there no way to stop such fi terri- 

 ble thing:-'' lie inquired earnest!?. 



"The clerk shook his head. 'No,' he re- 

 plied. 'Bill has shot 23 men, and you see 

 he's got a three cornered file in his mouth 

 now to file the twenty-third notch in his 

 six shooter alter he gets through with Pete. 

 But, ' added the clerk confidentially, 'per- 

 haps lie coulil be hired to postpone the op- 

 eration for a few hours — say till after you 

 have left for the mines.' 



"The upshot of it was that for . $10 the 

 Rattlesnake agreed not to shoot Pete till 

 after 5 o'clock, and the Boston man again 

 drew a full lireath. 



"Naturally so easy and rapid a way of 

 making money could not be left unculti- 

 vated, and Wildcat Bill became a regular 

 thing behind the hotel door at train time. 

 He divided profits with the clerk, and they 

 did a thriving business. His terms for 

 consenting to postpone temporarily tlie 

 aW'ful slaughter of his enemy varied from 

 $5 to ?.50, accnrdiiig to the means or ter- 

 ror of the suliject. Only one attempt 

 provnd a total failure. This was in the 

 case of a roliickina' vouth from Louisville, 



who sat down and anni>unced that he was 

 going to wait and see the fun. He was 

 finally tired out by the inexplicable failure 

 of Pete Smith to arrive. 



"The game was kept up several years 

 and would perhaps have been still going 

 on had it not been for an unfortunate acci- 

 dent. One day a man came into the office 

 witri a black ebony cane. Having a valise 

 in either hand, he was carrying this cane 

 in a horizontal position under his arm. 

 When the end of it poked around the door, 

 Wildcat Bill, the Rattlesnake of Bender's 

 Flat, mistook it for the muzzle of some 

 sort of a weapon, uttered an agonized cry, 

 dropped his own gun, leaped through a 

 window and ran a half mile for safety. It 

 unnervi>d him to such an extent that he 

 never r!.>turned to his profession and final- 

 ly dropped out of sight." — New York 

 Tribu ne. 



The Stopping of Fast Trains. 



When railway roadbeds have been made 

 as nearly jierfect as possible, when the 

 lines have been straightened and as far as 

 practicable leveled, and when the best 

 types of locomotives and cars have been 

 devised, how fast will steam be able to 

 carry us? An answer to this question, 

 based on a scientific examination of the 

 conditions involved, is furnished by Mr. 

 Theodore N. Ely. an authority on facts re- 

 lating to railways. One hundred miles an 

 hour is about the limit of speed suggested 

 by him. Another very important question 

 growing out of the first is. Within what 

 distance can a train running 100 miles an 

 hotir, or but little less than 150 feet in a 

 second, be stopped? The reply is that, un- 

 der the most favorable circumstances, a 

 distance of nearly half a mile would be re- 

 quired. A train running a jnile a minute 

 can be stoijped, it is estimated, within a 

 distance of 900 feet. By adding only two- 

 thirds to the speed, therefore, the distance 

 required for bringing the train to a stand 

 still would lie increased almost three times. 

 It is evideiit that when we are whirled 

 across the country at the rate of 100 in lies 

 an hour ''a clear track" will become a far 

 more important thing even than it is to- 

 day. 



Early Religion In Chicago. 



Philo Carpeniir, John Wright and Cap- 

 tain Johnson or;;anized the first Sunday 

 school and held the first religious meeting 

 in Chicago about 1833. In 1833 the Rev. 

 Jeremiah Porter, an army chaplain, locat- 

 ed at Fort Di'arhorn with troops, and he 

 was Chicago's first resident pastor. 



Men attending the pans in salt works 

 are never known to have cholera, small- 

 pox, .scarlet lever or influenza. 



