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N*' )&*&! f/ li'k' "nii' 1 a?4 fir fl 'T TZ£4- '.v Wfr-'T\..: :^]:r.:' .•' ./ -^vr characters on account of the murder of Pearl Taylor and Charles Striegle. Bert Benedict, better known in Minot, boa been sentenced to fifteen years in the penitentiary for killing the woman. The evidence was cir cumstantial entirely. Alice M. Hale, alias Pearl Brown who confessed to shooting Chas. Streigle, her lover, was sentenced to five years in the penitentiary. The cases were of more than or dinary interest here in Minot be cause all were known to some ex-, tent here and E. L. Sutton, of this city, defended Benedict and Alice M. Hale. Benedict had been ordered out of Williston by Sheriff Costello. Sunday afternoon and Monday he and Pearl Taylor had drank whiskey and quarrelled. He was heard to remark RECENT WILLISTON CRIMES AND TRIALS A Plea for Mercy Gave Alice M. Hale the Lightest Possible Sentence—The Peo ple of Williston Left no Stone Un turned to Prejudice the Jurors Against Bert Benedict. Witkk a few weeks Williston has loot lour of her objectionable 011 Monday afternoon by Clias. Moore, that he would kill Pearl Taylor if he had to leave town. He was seen to enter the woman's room Monday night at 11 o'clock and shortly after that he came out and went into the kitchen. He returned with a teaspoon and some water which he dissolved some morphine in. He then injected a dose of mor phine into his arm. He went back into the room and that was the last seen of him until the next morning at 6 o'clock. A man named Jamison, the wo man's lover, had returned from the east and Benedict thought it was the sheriff after him, so skipped out the back way and caught a west bound train. He went to Culbertson, Mont., and wrote the woman a letter from that place. It was a cold epistle however, entirely unlike his oth er letters of infatuation and this gave the state a leverage. It is believed that Benedict wrote the letter merely as a blind, knowing that Pearl Taylor was lying cold in death at the time he penned the few words. In it he says: "How do you like the "You Know" that I gave you last night?" According to expert testimony, the woman had been dead two hours when Bert Bene dict left her that morning. The stomach had been sent to Prof. Ladd at Fargo and upon ex amination he found that there were ten grains of morphine in it. Benedict testified that he had been lying asleep on the bed with the woman. After taking the shot with the morphine, he says the woman remarked, "I guess I will take some of the •tutfj: He said, "Who was your last year?" 'H^ften claims fallen to sleep and when next morning, he left a hurry tfcat he did not. at the woman was dead an was found on the the clothes were not' notice mussed W Her shoes were off. •pie of Williston were much worked up over the affair and did nM leave aleaf unturned to prejudicfe everyone against the objectionable characters. Some one published a leafiet with a poem rqgardling the affair. It is believed that this was done to influence the juom and if the guilty man can be found he will be severely dealt with. Mr. Sut ton was alone in the case and he did extremely well to get his client off with fifteen years. In both of the murder cases, the state hired John Burke, the well known Devils Lake attorney to prosecute. Mr. Sutton's argu ment to the jury before Benedict received his sentence, was as able a one as was ever made in Wil liams county. The case of Alice M. Hale is a particularly sad one. She is not yet 21 years of age and is a most beautiful girl. She is said to be refined in a way and had she been given a chance, could have been a useful woman. Down along the railroad track in the eastern part of Williston stands a log house in which Alice Hale better known as Pearl Brown or Cow Boy Pearl, and Charles Streigle lived. Streigle was con sidered a good hearted fellow, but worthless. He had another home, afar more unhappy one where lived his wife and two babies. Streigle was in the habit of bringing bad companions, both men and women, to the log house. The last night he spent on earth, he brought a crowd of his male and female friends to the log house and Pearl was in bed with her little brother. He commanded her to get up land dance and drink whiskey with the crowd. She did as she was bid den and then went and opened the door. The top hinge broke and the door fell over against Streigle. He was angered and jumping up, he grabbed the girl by the hair and struck her on the face. She rushed to the bed anil reaching under the pillow pulled out a revolver. Turning around she fired and the bullet struck him in the middle of the fore head. A second later she was sorry for what she had done and she pillowed his bleeding head in her lap but he was soon dead. Attorney Sutton arranged for the girl to plead guilty to man slaughter in the first degree. On account of the character of the man she killed and because of her youth, the Judge gave her the lightest possible sentence, five years in the penitentiary. Mr. Sutton for three quarters of an hour plead for the girl and not an eye in that large crowd which filled the court house, was dry. The girl sobbed as if her heart would break. Even the Judge was visably affected and when Mr. Sutton had finished his eloquent plea, he himself was al most broken down. The maxi mum limit was fifteen years and it is due considerably to Mr. But ton that the sentence was so 1 VOLUME a. NUMBER 3* Ml NOT, WARD COUNTY, NORTH DAKOTA, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 9, j'--- ^TookCrlsp and Haraess. Charles Crisp, who came here from€ando with a stolen harness, feas taken* btick to that place Fri day night by the sheriff from that place. The harness which he stole was sold to an employe of Tom Johnson's livery stable and it was recovered. It is believed that Crisp will be convicted of gr&ndlarceny, f'! jj ?v$':•$ "7t *,.<p></p>COUNTY .-AV1' S .. 'it,' ,', ,'• THE WARD INDEPENDENT. WILUSTON HAS A HOUSE CLEANING Obfrctlensbla Characters Force* to Leove the Ttwi but Mmy Ctmt to Mtoot. The Independent learns from E. L. Sutton, Attorney for the Great Northern, who has been defending two murders at Willis ton, that that city has harbored within her borders criminals of the worst character and the scenes enacted in that place every night heretofore," would put to shame the worst dives of South Clark street Chicago, or the Chinese dens of San Francisco. A hop joint has been running in full Wast right in the city. Four or five sporting houses havebeen the scenes of the worst form of rowdyism and within one week two murders were committed in them. Gambling honses were in full operation and beer was sold in them as well as in the sporting houses. Morphine fiends of the worst character made Williston their headquarters. The recfent murders have had a tendency to clean out these joints and Williston has seen the best house cleaning of her histoiy. The court ordered that the state's attorney investigate the condi tion of affairs in the slums aid he has done so. It seeml&iilrat in Williams county, the officials! do not do anything- in the way of getting rid of objectionable characters, until ordered to do so by the courThe afternoon that Pearl Taylor was found murdered, one of the sporting houses, was moved out of the town, goods and all. The inmat es scattered, some coming to Mi not and others going west. The hangers-on came to Minot. Thus our city has been flooded with more of this worthless set. An information has been filed against Charlie, the Chinaman, who is accused of running a hop joint. Another against Ethel King and ltose Dow. It is {presumed that their eases will come up at the next term of court. Court will convene at Williston again Dec. 21 at wnich time the case of the state vs. Sennet, charged with gambling, will come up. Operated With a Jack Knife, Mrs. Jos. Clement ich, who had her fingers jerked off by an angry cow sometime ago, had a second operation 011 the hand Saturday and believes the hand is doing nicely now. At the time of the accident she displayed great fortitude. The fingers were but partially pulled off, so her hus band finished the job with his jack knife. A physician was called in and put the finishing touches 011 the job. Farrell Returned to Jail. James Farrell, who has been lathing for D. A. Dinnie for some time, was taken to Grand ForKS Friday by Sheriff Scofleld and placed in the jail at that place. Farrell is connected in some way with a holdup in Xarhnore and D. A. Dinnie put uj. a cash bond for the man. Recently he had reasons to believe that the man was going t« skip, so ordered him returned to jail. Portal Pitger la Hock. James Early, a Portal pigger, was brought to the Minot jail Friday night by United States Commissioner Gil Haggart. The commissioner took his man to Grand ForKs Sunday where he will be tried before the U. S. court. Early is up the second time and will liKely get a severe sentence. He will undoubtedly be found guilty. A. P. Slocum has a very beau tiful Christmas display at his drug store. Several hundred dolls arranged on a pyramid present a beautiful sight. V- MANY CHILDREN WITH OUT SCHOOL ADVANTAGES la Sam* Parts of the Cosotry tbe Condition ts Appalling—It Will Take Time and Money to Establish the Hundreds of Schools Desired bit tbe W»rW Should Not be Neglected. Des Lacs. Ward Co. N. Dec. 4, 1903 To the Editor of Independent. My Dear Sir: Askingyour indulgence I wish to air the subject of schools in a few communites of which 1 am conversant. In n. e. corner of 155-84 on 4 sections in square are souie 30 children of school age. In n. e. corner of 155-84 the same is true—s. w. of the last mentioned instance the condition is repeated. The cry ing need of schools has been here for three years already with no apparent hope of relief. Burke says—Education is the chief defense of nations—Horace Mann says—Jails and state pri sons are the complement of schools. So many less of the latter you have, so many .more of the former. Franklin says— A bible and a newspaper in every honse—a good school in every district—all studied and appre ciated as themerit— are the prin cipal support of virtue, morality and civil liberty. From the above quotations and the in telligence of your readers, it is not necessary for me to speak further on the need of schools. Now, these people, parents and citizens have been asking peti tioning and voting and are no nearer cured that they were when they began to sufer. And why they don't have and can't get schools "no fellow can find out." The all pay school tax however. If North Dakota 4HI iw •••qr 1903. Christmas Satisfaction And Saving Ifthere is ever a time during the whole year when you want your money to go farthest it is rigt)t ittw. Eveiyone likes to giVe The problem is what you can give that is.wdrthy of giving and still make your money go around. In both oft neee respects this store can be of service to you. What to riypDecomes an eaay matter when you have such an ample stock of desirable goods to select from as we are showing this year. It combines every element of Beauty, Usefulness, Novelty and real worth. Many items in our stock that you cannot get elsewhere and nothing that you can get elsewhere that is worth having that you cannot get here for the lowest obtainable prices. ActuaJ bargains in goods of worthy quality are what we promise you. or Ward countv cairt furnish the facilities for a common school education to her citizens for pecuniary reason*, why don't she make her wants known, and enough *harit iwle people in the United States will send relief I am positive. Public opinion says the above conditions are due to careless ness or dillatoriness of some body—and the "powers that be" have schools verj conveniently qituated and with an exceptional attendance of 6 pupils. Why must there be hund reds of children of school age in Ward county deprived of com mon school priveleges? And we have a compulsory attendance law to. If it wasn't so serious, it would be amusing. 3 or 4 more years out of school is an irreparable loss tc|a child and if one class of children need a common school education more than another, it is the class that are holding down homesteads in North Dakota or anywhere else for that matter. Now 1 haven't mentioned my own district s. w. corner of 154 85. If anybody should be in a \u Come Soon & We would like to impress upon everyone the desirability of making their selections soon. Every aay will count from now until Christmas, and every day the task of making selections if put off will only increase your worry. The prices cannot be lower than they now are and the assortments will constantly grow less. Our stock is too large to be completely exhausted but it is so much easier to pick .your gifts before the final rush begins. at Let Us Help You We want to lend every assistance in our power that will help a satisfactory holiday season for you. If desired, goods 011 which a small payment has been made will be set aside for you. We will pack and ship'goods for you to out of town friends and will deliver goods in town Christinas morning. If there is any other accommodations that we can extend to vou. let us know. Paul V. McCoy, Druggist, Jeweler Leland Hotel, Minot, N. D. "Nothing But The Very Best.' .v\ SUBSCRIPTION $1.00 PER ANNUM. to makf this CHRISTMAS GIFTs Our business i- i-imstiintly on the increase, so that sin addition to our force was necessary. We employ more hefp than any other gallery in western North Dakota. If you can arrange to call soon we can get your work cut before Christ mas. Nothing is nicer and as inexiien sive as a niee photo for a Christmas gift, and our photos are extra nice on our new swell line of cards. You should call at once and let us show them to oou Miss Olson the hair dresses will re turn soon to assist our lady patrons in the arrangement of their hair, should they so desire. Yours to please VAN EXIE, Souris Studio. MINOT. 3f. terested in our own welfare let them inquire. Now I only represent my own indignation and am open for suggestions for relief. Res p. yours, W. S. Groniiiger. Deering Closes Norstrum Mine. E. J. Deering was down from Burlington Monday and filed an injunction on the Norstrum coal mine, one the best in the state, and it has been dosed. He filed on the land a few days ago. The filing had run out which had been placed upon it by one of the members of the coal com pany. It had been the habit of the members of the company to file consecutively on the land when the time of filing had run but Deering claimed that the last filing had run out nine months. The claim is worth $20,000 when developed as there is a ten foot vein of coal. Al ready 1000 feet of entry has been made and it will take but a little more expenditure to place the mine in condition to get out from eighty to one hundred tons of coal in a day. 'Wl tv: ts! I'Ttl v. I- fa-.! .x I J, 1 *s 4KS1 1 .' -5 $) r--l%{