The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, October 2, 1898, Page 22

v‘Singular Career - Hilgard, Who of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. OBERT LOUIS“STEVENSO} conception of the strange of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde h its counterpart in a remarkable case in South Dakota. that fur- nishes the theme for a thrilling story to the New Yorkx Herald from Fairfax. It is a story of the career of “ Rev. Myron Hilgard, evangelist, cattle thief, highwayman and Jjail breaker. The most vivid flights of the imagina- “fion of the lurid border fiction writer could scarcely conc amything more picturesque than Rev. Mr. Hilgard, while “"his adventures are full of daring and audacity equally striking. A preacher by day and a masked highwayman by night, he managed to deceive his trusting flock for four years. The climax finally came when :he was caught red handed, narrowly éscaped lynching, was jailed and es- caped after a murderous asault on his ‘keeper that landed him a free man otice more. This is the Fairfax corre- spondent’s story: :. Rev. Myron Hilgard came to these parts in 1894. He just dropped down © in Bonesteel one autumn day and an- ounced that he had come to settle and grow up with the countr: He had his wife and thrge little children with him, R 2 v lot fo! ty likel and th a these par ) h looks on the de by the cur Grub e a delusion ancy. “I ar Rev. announced to th with a wave of h ed the balance f the Hilgard family “these are my pearls. A man may have pearls in this life, but he should lay. up his gifts in heaven, and strive to gain the pearl without rice. have come to preach the-gospel among “*One-eyed Ike,” whose other name is Perkins, one of Nicholas Hammil’s cow punchers, happened to be in the “post- office when the ranger delivered him- self of his troduc 4 eech. Tke never. minces his words, and on this oct casion he chimed right in. vell, T ,” he remarked, “I recs kon you about struck the right spot. Everything around the seems goin’ right p reckon the only thing that can b is souls. ~So pitch right in, an ante in every Sunday ter help ye along.” * The clerical stranger grasped the hard hand of the cowboy in ‘his own : goft one. ‘“‘God bless you, my noble - brather,” he exclaimed, “God bless you.” Rather abashed at this unexpected outburst, Ike blushed to the roots of his sandy hair and siunk off into the :crowd. Thig was four years ago. One day last ek 1 met » from Hammil's ranch. He had been drink- ing heavily. 1 was amazed, for he hadn’t touched a drop in a long time. - In fact, he was popularly supposed to have gotten religion. He, In common with othe had come under the spell . Myron Hilgard. s undeniably drunk, and as I approached him I noticed t he was engaged in the remarkable pastime -of spitting on his own hand. When I asked what he was doing he looked at me in a most maudlin manner and re- marked: ““An’ ter think I was the first man in this county ter shake him by the hand. The viper! The four flush, double tongued hypocrite!”” He held his hand off at arm’s length, gazed reproachfully at that offending member and again deliberately spat in his palm. I knew without as! g that he referred to the Rev. Myron Hilgard. But Tke was not alone in the feeling of resentment against the man who of Rev. Myrori Acted the Part to take up a collection and occastnally through the week he held meerings which he styled revivals. He was re- :d by his neighbors as such a gond that they lled him into tkeir .onferences, both spiritual and tem- poral. One thing, however, they had great difficulty in understanding—he was nearly always absent from home at night. It was finally explained to them that Rev. Mr. Hilgard had two or three other charges, one of them on the east side of the Missouri River, and on that account he.was mot able to spend many of his evenings at home, It is no-easy matter to kill time In a sparsely settled region of South Dako- ta, especially during the winter months, so the Rev. Myron's Sunday services and weekly revivals became very popu- lar. He was a persuasive talker, with a certain amount of rough eloquence that appealed to-the farmers and cat- tlemen, who, with their families—those who had familiés—seldom .missed a service. In tir‘e a gradual change be- came noticeable in the dally lives of the natives which finally deyeloped into a great wave of religious fervor. The little school house was scarcely large enough to hdld the crowds gath- ered there to hear the teachings of the Rev. Myron andto ponder upon the straight and narrow way that leadeth to eternal life. The revival services developed into good old camp meeting times. As an exhorter the new parson was a tremendous success. The mourn- ers’ bench was continually crowded with repentant sinners. For, as the preacher ften remarked, no man knoweth the or the hour when his soul may be required of him. And vet it was often noticed that he felt nervously in the region of the hip pocket beneath his long black coat. Then came numerous my redations.” In January, 189 an living in the neighborhood of Fair- lost-twenty-eight head af fat cattle ioh he was abett to drive to a sta- tion’ for ~shipment to Chicagbd.© They disappeared in the night, and_no trace whatever could be found of them then or afterward. Five or six days later a farmer, - west of Bonesteel, n horses, four of them Percherons, which he had brought in to do his spring Xk with. rch was made for them all over tern part of the county, but they worl were as completely lost as if th had 2 llowed up by the earth. About E er ranchman was hteen cow c; s and belleved him to exist. The common notion was that he was a big 200-pound depredations we half breed, who spent his nights rob- Four or flve farm fol- lowed living in isolated. parts of the county, bing farmers and ranchmen, killing held up at the point of the rifle, those who resisted him and fleeing robbed of their money and their houses across the Nebraska border in the early Were ransacked of their valuables, dawn to the friendly Ponca Indian During the next two months several Treservation. travelers were held up and robbed. There he was safe until the shades of The community was thoroughly another night should afford him the op- aroused, the Mr. Hilgard portunity to go forth for another sea- ing in the most the search for the a person the ranchmen spoke of as “Ponca Jim,” who got his name from the river of that name running symhv'wl\'.;xrd through the county. Nobody could say definitely that he had seen this awful person, but everybody one of enthusiastic scoundrel, THE SHADED SECTION iR R ConTamms nvo ReEGuAR | ] CHURCH.... @ SALVATION ARMY AND OTIER 7/5 5S/0NS. e REET ST = il e il M Dx_n_. ARKIN 0 had decelved an entire county. He was a most plausible scoundrel. He ‘was a striking figure, tall, smooth shaven and with a mass of long black ‘hair brushed back from a high, well- developed forehead. His features we clean cut and denoted no little inte lectuality. But at that time Bonesteel gave a great deal more attention to getting three square meals by day and keeping an eye on the Ponca Indlans just over the border in Nebraska by night than to the soul’s prospects in the region be- yond the Styx. So Rev. Mr. Hilgard's exhortations to the South Dakotans to forsake their evil ways were not at first productive of much fruit. The hour had struck for him to begin to dig for a living, so early in December he got possession of a one-story farm house three miles north of Bonesteel, together with a quarter section of land. It was a hard winter and Hilgard had to borrow supplies from his neighbors for a time, promising that he would re- imburse them from his crop the follow- ing year. In a school house hard “y he held Sunday services, never forgetting e SN NG 05 N S S O T ‘*th\& SRR IR ll o ”4 g i Wi hinfl i % 7//[" L SSE SN EE LY |t NS AN -\i§s\§\\§ 2L l%, ik i 4 ) i % / L /) /] i y J] SF———+= y// DIAGRAM SHOWING THE CHURCHLES DISTRICT OF sanN ERANCISCO. The churchless section of San Francisco shown on the above diagram contains 70,000 regular population and a floating population of 10,000, at least one-fourth of the pop- ulation of the city. In this district is located most of the hotels, one-half of the saloons and over one-half of the cheaper lodging-houses of the city. N\ W N \\}\\}}“} N 3 N N NS N \ son of rapine and murder. Plans with- out number were laid to catch him. He was several times chased at a furious pace—so the natives said—to the bor- der of the reservation, but they had\ to turn back in rage and disappoint- ment because, they dared not rush in among the teffees of the red men. Thus matters ran on, “Ponca Jim"” in the meantime increasing his string of crimes to more than a score of great robberies, until the ranchmen conclud- ed to send a committee to the Ponca reservation with the view of getting the Indians, by bribery or otherwise, to give up the terror of Gregory County. The chief of the tribe and his big and little chiefs expressed surprise and in- dignation at the insinuation that they were harboring a thief and murderer, and by implication getting a portion of the plunder. They felt sure, they said, that the mysterious plunderer did not live on the reservation and that, at least, there was nobody on the reserva- tion who went by the name of ‘“Ponca Jim."” The . delegation did not believe the story of the Indians, although there was no positive evidence that theguilty person was one of them, but t went thoughtfully back to their homes around Bonesteel and Fairfax, and re- solved to catch the prince of rascals if it took all of several summers. Rev. Mr. Hilgard threw his caster into the ring by praying that the arch fiend of Gregory County mi~ht be delivered into the hands of the righteous citizens of that community. and gained fresh popularity by promising to help pull the rope which should send him into eternity. They like muscular Christian- ity out here. Time wore on into weeks, into months, Into yvears. The robberies and murders continued, but the rascal was as elusive as a Tennessee flea. After a while the ranchmen rechristened him “Montana Jake,” but this only excited him to mirth and didn’t help the tillers of South Dakota much to catch him. There was talk of calling out the 2 Vit R e “'Q‘%\u U\ B militia, and talk, talk, talk, all of which ended in more talk. All this time “One-eyed Ike,” though a convert to Christianity and one of the leading pfllars in the Rev. Myron Hilgard's congregation, with prospects of becoming a deacon, had been most zealous in pursuit of “Ponca Jim” and his imaginary successor, “Montana Jake.” Prayers were offered up in the little improvised pulpit in the school house for the capture of the marauder, and _‘“One-eved Ike's” “amens”’ were of the loudest and most approved Methodist type. Late in July Nicholas Hammil, “One- eved Ike's” employer, who owns a ranch fourteen miles north of Bonesteel, had a bunch of steers, numbering sixty- three, which he intended to ship to Chicago the first week in August. Mr. Hammil got up one morning to find that all but four of this splendid bunch of cattle had vanished without his con- nivance. Mr. Hammil is a man of few words. Action is his strong specialty. Calling together six cowboys a few minutes after sunrise, he armed them tooth and leel and told them to go forth and bring back the cattle if pos- sible, but under mno circumstances to return without “Montana Jake,” dead or alive. “One-eyed Ike,” much to his delight, was put in command of the outfit. The pursuers started to the west- ward, following the trail of the cattle, provisioned for several days of hard riding. About noon they found the cattle, exhausted from a hard drive and lying down in the water of a swamp. They pushed on, and half an hour later caught sight of the “rustler” riding at full speed to the northwest. The cow- boys got in range of him and fired sev- eral shots with a view to forcing him to surrender, but he only rode the harder. For three hours the chase continued, the horses of both pursuers and pur- sued laboring painfully from the ef- fects of the hard riding. The cow- boys were satisfied to keep their man s ORI \ «UP WITH YOUR HANDS!" SHOUTED THE . HIGHWAYMAN. in sight, but he was spurring his horse on over the rolling prairie in sheer des- peration.* Suddenly the exhausted horse ridden by the cattle thief plunged heavily for- ward and fell. . The rider picked him- self up and, as luck would have it, found himself within a_ few yards.of an abandoned dugout. Here he sought shelter, and ‘being heavily armed with a Winchester and a brace of pistols, which fact he quickly announced ‘as soon as his pursuers closed in on him, succeeded in keeping them at bay. YOO00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 000000C0000 IKE most other large cities in the United States and many, too, in Europe, San Francisco has its “churchless section”; that is a section of the city, generally the most densely populated, too, which has been deserted by the regularly or- ganized church congregations as a site for a place of worship. In this city this churchless section not more than three decades ago con- tained nearly all if not all of the regu- lar places of worship for the various congregational bodies. One after an- other they have abandoned their older church homes and, following the better classes of permanent residents, have sought new locations in the less crowd- ed outer districts. A few general causes have operated in all these changes of location. Sometimes the majority of the mem- bers of the congregation have moved their homes far from the old church, and not caring to come down town to worship the church has been obliged to follow them to distant quarters in or- der to retain them on its membership rolls. Then again the down-town building is usually old-fashioned, dark and uncomfortable generally, while the ground on which it stands has large value for business purposes. By sgll- ing enough money can be realized to purchase a much larger lot in a suitable and more convenient quarter and to erect thereon a large and more modern church edifice that will be an attrac- tion to good paying pew renters. The churchless section of San Fran- cisco would be nearly If npot quite doubled in area and population were it not for three or four churches that for one reason or another still stand their ground, far out from the general gathering of the church buildings, and thus, like grim forts against evil, they THE CHURCHLESS DISTRICT OF SAN FRANCISCO. Section of the City Where Over 70,000 People Live—The Churches Have All Moved From the Territory and Turned It Over to a Few Missions. 0000000000000 0000000CO000000CO000000000000000C0CD00000000 prevent the extension of the lines of the “churchless” area. . Along Powell and Stockton, from Geary north, the churches seem to have made a more decided stand, six or more holding their ground on a line that promises at least for long time to come to be more or less permanent. ‘Within this churchless section are to be found nearly all the regular hotels, high grade as well as low, and the great majority of lodging and rooming houses, especially those of the cheaper grades, besides the vast number of separate abodes occupied by one or more families. On a reasonable esti- mate the population, permanent and transient, will reach 90,000, more than one-fourth of the whole population in- cluded within the limits of the city. In this churchless section, too, are to be found far more than one-haif of all the saloons of the city and nearly all the low dives and dancehalls and other places of degrading vice, besides Chinatown and its immediate sur- roundings. Though the churches have gone this vast field has not been entirely left un- tilled by Gospel messengers. Some pro- vislon is being made for the spiritual needs of these people, and in ways, too, probably more fruitful of visible re- sults than those followed by the regu- lar church methods. In Chinatown sev- eral of these latter have their Chinese and Japanese missions, which are manfully battling against heathen prejudice and vice. On the very edge of the Barbary Coast the Salyation Army has three active posts, besides a woman’s shelter. Three other posts and another shelter are stationed elsewhere in the shaded section of the city. Two Peniel mis- sions are located on Kearny street at either end of the Barbary Coast, while another is on Third and Stevenson streets. All these, as well as the “vol- unteers” and other bands, are to be 0000000000 seen nightly on the street corners tell- ing the Gospel story to the passing throngs and cordially inviting them to their home halls to hear more. Down near the water front is the Finnish Seamen’s Mission, and not far away over on Sacramento and Drumm streets is the Mariners’ Church, one of the oldest mission stations in the city and one which covers a broad field. —_——— The following is an amusing story of young Prince Alexander of Batten- berg, now at Eton: “Like many other little boys he ran short of pocket money and wrote an ingenious letter to his august grand- mother, Queen Victoria, asking for some slight pecuniary assistance. He received in return a just rebuke, tell- ing him that little boys should keep within their limits and that he must wait until his allowance next became due. Shortly afterward the undefeated little Prince resumed the correspond- ence in something like the following form: ‘My dear grandmamma—I am sure you will be glad to know that I need not trouble you for any- money Just now, for I sold your last letter to another boy here for 30 shillings.” ” b i e A I wooed my peerless Edith " Some twenty years ago, But Danvers had me bested A million plunks or so. Yet winning Edith’s daughter, This happy day, I know T've got the best of Danvers A milllon plunks or_so. —New York Herald. —_— For thirty yvears the beard and mus- ache of James Brown of Benlngton, W. Wa., have been untrimmed. ith his arms extended, he stretches full six feet from tip to tip of nis fingers, l;;et the ends of his mustache, when held horizontally, extend beyond his fingers. He braids hY wonderful beard and mustache and tucks them under his vest. The dugout was in the-open ' and there was no way of approaching it without being. exposed to fire.. That the rustler was no slouch with a gun- was ‘shown when he plu through “One-eyed Ike that zealous Christian was trying to. ~worm his way through-the grass to- ward the cabin. Aftér that and a number of similar experiences, in which three other cowboys Treceived slight wounds, they came to ‘the con- clusion that, having the best hand, they could afford to wait for a call.: - All night long the vigil was képt up. On several occasions the . imprisoned one attempted to sneak.away under cover of .the darkness, but was ‘driven back by .a heavy fire. - Dawn- came, and as the sun popped up over the eastern range the watchérs saw. & white handkerchief waving from. a stick in the doorwiy of:the dugout. Fearful of a trick, they rode up in a: bunch, with weapons harndy.~ There, standing in the low doerway, ‘wounded in seven places, was thé figure of a pale-faced,- smooth shaven man, with. his long black hair thrown: back over his shoulders. “One-eyed Ike” led the charge. As he came hin seeing . distance of the cattle thief he réeled ahd nearly fell from his saddle. .- “My God!” he gdsped; “it's-the par- son!” - & 5 £ Sure enough, there in.the -doorway stood the Rev. Myron Hiigayd: “Come on, boys,” he shouted; “the game's up. Only see that I get safely “into: jail.” He was thinking of : the reception that awaited him at- Bomesteel. Back to town rode the cowboys. with their prisoner. He was badk but he chuckled. as he hnotized. only two of his captors were free.from the effects of his own fire. O shattered arm- and the others- bleeding from flesh . wounds, eyed Ike” rode in the lead. Not a- word would he exchange with his prisoner. He was too busy thinking—and trying to stanch the flow of blood from™his left ear. S s SR Last Saturday night. he “brol He must have. had.confederate everybody is looking askance. at--his neighbor. ~ The imembers’ of the Rev. Myron’s flock are ail suspicidusiof éach other,. - and it has driven . “Ohe-eyed Ike” to drink. = Somebody.supplied the prisoner with a file and-a pistol. - With the first he cut the bars of his’ cell dogar. : 2 When the jailer came in with his sup-. per he knocked -him down with the pis-~ tol butt and pounded him untjl he was insensible. ~Then he opened the outer door with the jailer’s key and made his escape. - . All attempts at pursuic have proven unavading. Whea .a strange preacher tarns up anywhere in. South Dakota they won’t cotton td him 80 closely now. But it’s too bad about “One-eyed Ike,” for 1t has mads a thorough pessimist of him. - ‘In - fact, there is quite a ‘crop of misanthropes in Gregory County. . Ttalians, as a rule, make better musi- clans than people of any.other .nation.