LITERATURE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 4755, 27 July 1883, Page 4

LITERATURE.

♦ THS BOSS BRUIBEB.

(Chicago WeMji Tribune.) • Blaok Hills Bpoiting men are interested just now in a new candidate for pugilistic dorr, who hails from the head waters of the Niobrara. He has been known by reputation here for a lorg time, but not until Saturday last would he oonasub to show himself in Deadwood. His namo is John Zacoheus, but he calls himself the "Niobrara Triplet," for reasons whioh will appear further on. Ho is what is tsrmed a cow-boy. Hia whole life has been spent on the cattle ranges. He was born near tha site of old Julesburg in 1850, and is therefore about thirty- three years of age. His father, c. hunter and trapper, was a man of prodigiou a s zo and strength.of EDglißh descent, It is boUeved. Hia mother was a large and 'powerful woman. Soino f»id sbe vras a Mexican, and others that rhe wa.B an Ir.dian, but it is probable she was neither, partly, lhe best judges pronounced her a half-breed. They lived for many years along the old overUna trail. Nobody knew muoh about them, and no one oared to queition them much, lhe old woman had a pair of enormous hands, the flash being as hard and rough as a bricklayer's. She was perhaps the^ uglier of the two, bo'.h in appearance and in disposition. She was a great fighter herself. More than onoe at their ranoh on the Niobrara, when the cow-boys beoamo troublesome, she has been known to whip them into subjection. A blow from one of her iron-clad fists was not necessarily fatal, but few of either sex who ever received one had any desire to continue the argument with her. She subdued the old man in the oourse of time, and during the last two or three years of his life she had no one to fight with at home except her only Bon. The father died Very suddenly one day,- and was quietly buried on the river bank. Travellers say that the •Id woman and John had many a bout after this, in which first ono and then the other would get t v ie worst of it. The boy was growing, ho --■. ver, and his mother was getting old. The 0r..! fad to come. She never rallied. She keeps tho old man com, any in his lonely grave. When the old folks were both gone, John went on the oattle ranges. He was then a mere boy in years, but he was a giant in size. He early established a reputation as a fighter. His strength increased with great rapidity. The hardships whioh wreck the health of many men seemed only to give him new vigour and increased endurance. He became so powerful that at length his associates grew to like him. He had no enemies, for it did not pay to have his hostility. New men coming on the ranges sometimes had to be polished off, bat, as a rule, fresh arrivals, after sizing him up, were willing to take the woru of ths old settlers as to his prowess. He was the obief. He was willing and even anxious to prove his right to the title at all times. He would have travelled the entire length of the Niobrara Valley to accommodate a man, and on one or two occasions he is known to hire gone 40 or 50 miles on horse* baok to meet somebody who, report said, had spoken contemptuously of him. His fame spread to Doadwood, and many attempts were made to gpt him to come up to the mining xegions to show himself, Ihssa were at length successful. He came into town early on Saturday morning, accompanied by an old herder .who has been expatiating to the sports of 'Dead wood unceasingly almost on the merits of his man. This herder's name is Piggott. Last night, in the bar room of the Golden Horn Varieties, the Sun'i correspondent found Piggott in rather a sociable frame of mind. The mercury outside had gone down to the bulb, but the genial warmth imparted by the cord-wood stove, and sundry glasies of ardent spirits, was refleoted on Piggatt's weatherbeaten faco, and shone in his little round eyes. "John Zacoheus," said Piggott, "is the best man in the world for money. He's a man-killer, my son. He's done it afore, an* he kin do it agin. You ought ter been on the range and seen him paralyse a sooiety for the ; prevention of oattle stealing. That's how he kirn by the title the 'Triplet of the Niobrara.' Wonst he was a modest sort o' obap, but year arter year when there was no one to fight as could fight going by kinder made him egotistic. When the A nti-Gattle-Stealing Association held its meetings John got to thinking that he orter count for two among 'em, for he rather despised the rest on 'em, ye see, an' he wantod to vote double on all big pints. The other fellows looked foolish, an' got off one side and talked it over. Some waz for giving him his way, while some others wuz dead aot agin it. Arter a long debate they tuk a vote on it, and the majority ■ez Jaok wuz enly one man, and that he flhould vote ez only one man, same ez all the rest. The fellers who wuz in favour of 'lowing Jaok to double up knew there waz trouble ahed. Well, ez I was saying, when it kirn to the next vote Jaok Bez he would vote twice so and so. The Chairman aez that proposition had bin ruled out and defeated by the society. 'By whioh ? ' sez Jaok. 'By the majority of the association,' lez the chairman. ' Where is that majority ? ' hollered Jaok. Well, then, about seven or eight of 'em »aid : <We is the majority, Jack Zaccheus, right here. 1 I hope to die, sonny, if I kin give enny straight account o' what happened in the next four minits, but I'll try. The meetin' wuz in a log house witb one door and two windows. The men as wuz frens to Jack, and come o* the others, too, dim* oufc the winders, but there wuz six on 'em ez staid in. No six men ez over lived ever had quite snob a exoiting time, my boy. Jaok, you know, is almighty tall. Well, before the six could collect their ideas, so to speak, Jaok had driv two on 'em into the ground, pretty nigh, by a hitting of 'em on top of the head. Oh, that's a man-killing blow. It kinder shatters 'em. It drives their scalps down over their eyes, sets their jaws, dielocates their necks, -curves their spines, and makes 'em bowlegged for life. " Well, as I wuz saying, he gare two on 'em that sort of a prescription, and the other f our were hollerin' for their lives before he hit 'em. He didn't let up, though. Two or three on 'em drew their knives, but he never louohed hiz'n. He just reaohed and reaohed for 'm two at a time. Jaok hez arms longer'n a lasso. No man can git near enuff to Jaok when he's movin' to break his skin with a knife. No, Bir'ee, they oan't. Well, my son, there wuz nobody in that cabin to fight. In less time th&n it takes to tell it, Jaok picked 'em up and oordad 'em up in one corner of the ranch, one atop o' the other, and then he steps smilin' to the door, and sez to the gentlemen outen the scow : ' Will the minority kirn in ter resume buiiness ?" Well, you can bet yer life they kirn in. " Hold oh, seztfaok, as they were about to peroeed to buiiness; 'hold on, you fellers. Arter this I votes three in this association. D'ye hear?' They all said, kinder agreeablelike, that ib is perfeolly proper that he should count three. An', sonny, count three he does on the Niobrara. That's why he calls himself the < triplet.' D'ye see the pint ? But you O'ter seen him put that pile driver «f hu on top o' Beefer Ben's nut. The Boefer had been licked wonst by the man kilbr's old mother, bpt he nwer knew what trouble wuz until he met the boy. Jaok didn't want ter fight. He never dvi. But the Beefer kept looking at him ugly when they met, and Jaok got tired. He get's tired o' some things awful easy, my son. Well, one time when the boys wuz together, down sear the Bad Lands, Beefer and Jack had a little falling out, and Ben squared off for a fight. Some one in the crowd hollered out to Ben that he was committing suicide, but Boa never heard it. He made a kind of^ a lunge and jump at Jack, and Jack's left stopped hint so quick he saw all the stars at onoet. The worst was to Idm. Before the Beefer could think what hit him, Jaok got in his man-killer on top o' the head. Ben was as handsome a man as ever Jou see afore that. He was nigh six foot igh, an' had a fine face. As the boys xtfshed in to pick him up, someone sings out, ' I thought the Beefer wuz a fighting Jack.' 'It wuz the Boefer,' atz the crowd. It didn't seem so, though. His feeohera were all ohanged. His forehead hed shrunk. His faoe hed kinder broadened out, and his nose was not the same nose at all. His head seemed to set down in his coat too much, and he looked irreg'lar somehow. Well, he hez always staid just so. He's the quietest man in the valley now, with no more fun in him than there is in a graveyard. Oh, but " Piggott was about to relite another anecdote, when in walked the Niobrara Triplet himself, accompanied by a, host of admiring friends. He had on a bearskin cap, a buffalorobe coat, and a pair of encrmoas high-topped hoots. He towered head a* I shoulders above every man in the room. Jle good-naturedly answered questions, and permitted the flnt fiituJeitf p'JJu Hilli to inspect his. band 4 &nd

musoles. Zaooheus stands 6ft 7in in his stockings, and weighs 2901 b. His arms are of remarkable length even for a man of his size, and his bands are aB big and heavy as granitepaving stones, and about aa hard. He is fullohested, but Kb body in short when his height is taken into consideration. His legs are long and solid as adamant. His faoe is round and rather pleasant, but there is a hard look about the mouth when in repose. He says he has never had any training as a fighter except that given him by his mother, who, he declared, with a show of filial pride, had a good deal of Boienoe. He has never been away from home before, and is anxious to return to his ranoh. He is not particularly anxious to go inte the priza-ring, but, as he said tho other night, he doesn't like to hear about the prize-fighters of the States without finding out what manner of men they are. In all his talks thua far he has not onoe suggested a fight with less than two of them at a time. Prominent miners who havo seen him offer to bet any sum from lOOOdol to lO.OOOdoI that ho can kill any bruiser in the States with one blow. One thing is certain. If he should enter the prize ring, two thirds of all the real and personal property in the Black Hills will be at his baok.