Saturday, April 10, 2010

The latest from Medicine Lodge

The Gyp Hill Premiere of Medicine Lodge, Kan., offers a likeable bit of writing on a local cemetery, drawing liberally on a journal published much earlier in the town: -
On March 4, 1887, The Chief reported:
On Thursday evening of last week a young man 19 years of age, named George Castine was shot by the postmaster, David Stewart, of Elm Mills. It is charged by the postmaster, that Castine was attempting to rob the office at the time of the shooting, and the circumstances surrounding the case, seem to bear him out in the charge. Young Castine died on Friday, from the effects of the wound and a coroner’s jury rendered a verdict of justifiable homicide. It is a sad affair and should be a warning, boys, that there is no safety except in honest, manly conduct.
This shooting caused an uproar that resulted in the arrest of George’s father and sister and a much debated subject of who was in the right and who was in the wrong.
George Castine is buried in the Highland Cemetery.

There's a lot more here, including a son of one of the original Siamese Twins and an ex-slave who prospered in the all-white Kansas town. Wandering around in newspapers is one of the joys of the Net.

3 comments:

Edith Ann said...

Interesting stuff here, Loon. I particularly liked the 'last witness to the Jon Benet murder'.

You always find the most curious things for us to peruse. Thanks for doing that.

The Loon said...

A byproduct of endless hours piddled away on the Net.

Edith Ann said...

Well, my sincere thanks for taking on that task for the rest of us!

Always enlightening.

We haven't had a tango/Argentina story in a while. Anything new there?