The Cheyenne Daily Leader

CHEYENNE, WYO., SUNDAY MORNING, JUNE 24, 1894.

SHOCKING DEED.

Adjutant General of Colorado Tarred and Feathered.

KIDNAPED AT COLORADO SPRINGS

General Condemnation in Colorado of the Cowardly Deed—Rewards Offered for the Perpetrators.

Colorado Springs, Col., June 23.—Adjt. Gen. Tarsney was kidnaped from the Alamo hotel, a few minutes after midnight this morning by masked men, taken to the suburbs in a hack and there tarred and feathered. Gen. Tarsney has been in the city for several days past attending the examination of the arrested Bull Hill miners. Tarsney, together with Col. B. F. Montgomery of Cripple Creek, appeared as attorneys for the miners. Today Messrs. Tarsney and Montgomery drove through the Garden of the Gods and other points of interest and returned to the Springs this evening. Shortly before midnight Tarsney retired in his room at the Alamo hotel. At five minutes past 12 o'clock a call came over the telephone. It was answered by the clerk. The telephone said that Cripple Creek had a message for Gen. Tarsney and asking that gentleman to step to the 'phone. The clerk, knowing that Gen. Tarsney had gone to his room only a short time previously, sent the night porter, the only other man in the hotel office to Tarsney's room.

Gen. Tarsney appeared in a very few moments and stepped up to the 'phone. He had hardly spoken a word into the receiver when two men, with masks on their faces, entered the door of the hotel office from the street. One of them hastily advanced upon Gen. Tarsney, the other remained near the door, just inside the office.

"We want you!" was the demand of the first masked man, made almost into Tarsney's ear, as the general turned his face from the 'phone hearing footsteps.

"What do you want?" quietly asked Tarsney.

"We want you to come with us," was the only reply.

"But I don't want to go anywhere," returned Tarsney, at the same time making an effort to retreat.

At this the masked man lunged forward, pistol in hand, and struck Gen. Tarsney a vicious blow with the weapon. The masked man near the door advanced to his companion's assistance. Tarsney staggered toward the office counter. He was ruthlessly seized by the two masked men and hurried toward the street. The clerk did not interfere. He had been warned to keep hands off by a third masked man who had suddenly appeared at the door. In front of the hotel two hacks were standing. Four other masked men were also to be seen there. Drivers, who it was afterwards learned had been intimidated, sat on the cab boxes. The victim was hustled into one of the vehicles, the masked men scrambled into them, the drivers were ordered to be off, and up the street the party moved at a mad gallop.

It was fully fifteen minutes before the officers were in pursuit. The hotel people were not slow in making the outrage public, but the delay came about in saddling horses. In fifteen minutes Police Captain Gaithright and Officers Harlan and Henry were on horses and riding furiously in the direction taken by the white cappers and their victim.

The officers had a poor trail to follow. It was pitch dark, and they only knew that the masked party had gone out of town to the north. It was over an hour before the facts became known. The drivers of the two hacks first brought the news to town. It was that the maskers had taken their victim to a point near Austin bluffs, between two and three miles out of town, and there, after removing Gen. Tarsney's clothes, had covered him over with tar and feathers, a mixture which the cappers had with them.

From Driver Crumley it is learned that Officers Gaithright, Harlan and Henry arrived on the scene just as the coat of tar and feather was being put on. Officer Steve Harlan was in advance. Two of the masked men advanced to meet him and commanded him to remain on his horse where he was. Other officers came up and were stopped by other maskers. A few minutes later Tarsney was left lying on the ground and the masked men took to the hacks. They drove to the Rock Island tracks and there dismissed their drivers, and not paying them but simply saying: "Good night, Johnny." That was the last seen of the masked men, and the drivers came on to the city.

Driver Crumley says that after the tar and feathers had been applied Tarsney was told to move on out of El Paso county; that he was not wanted either in Cripple Creek or Colorado Springs, and that if he ever showed up again he would meet a worse fate than a dose of tar and feathers.

Found at Palmer Lake.

Denver, June 23.—At 1 p. m. Gov. Waite received a dispatch from Gen. Tarsney, who is at Palmer Lake, twenty-five miles from Colorado Springs. He will be met there by the governor's special train and brought to Denver. The governor will offer a reward of $1,000 for the arrest of the miscreants.