A TRAGEDY OF THE WILD

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 30, 29 July 1911, Page 9 (Supplement)

A TRAGEDY OF THE WILD

GIRLS SHOOT TO KILL. Two girls from the mountains of Kentucky will ihe put on trial for murder shortly. They are Eannie Tackitt, aged fifteen, and Bettie Tackitt, aged eighteen—sisters. The Tackitts live far up Crown gulch, which splits the mountain and opens a way for Honey Brook to come tumbling down to Long Fork Creek. It is forty miles from a railroad, and is a wilderness.

Revenue nostrils which ■ catch the scent of stewing mash, even as a cow finds a salt-lick, discovered a still on the side of a hill in which corn was being converted into whisky in violation of at least, seven pages of (Government statutes, and of course it had to be raided . The job was assigned to De-puty-Marshal J. Mart Potter, who picked Levi Small wood and Charlie Smith—a 'trio of men with nerve. They crept up the gulch while the scrub oak and walnuts were dripping with dew, and came to a mountain-side clearing at midday.

"Uncle George" Tackitt, head of the family, was away from home. Charlie Tackitt, who learned how to coil a worm for a still and vaporise spirits, was carrying water from a spring, and in the direction of the mashtub. Mother Tackitt was in the kitchen. Fannie sat in a swing screeching a song about someone who loves me every true, and Bettie was busy working a yellow cupid on a red tidy on the porch.

In an instant this domestic scene shifted. Charlie Tackitt, down in the gulch, cried, "They're coming!" and the three revenue men emerged from the roadside brush. Two of them grappled with young Tackitt, who at twenty was as strong as a bull, and as unmoved by fear as the mountain pines.

Smallwood and Smith ran around to the rear of the house, expecting to capture Uncle George. They came face to face with Mother Tackitt, who was carrying an armful of stove-size wood in from the shed. They laid hands on her and she defended herself well and ably with a billet. Much occurs in as incredibly short time on occasions of this kind—action is swift, intermission brief. There was a pistol' shot and Mother Tackitt's grey hair became crimson. A bullet had coursed along her temple, just breaking the skin. Then another liored its way into her shoulder, and she sank on the threshold. The next pufT of smoke came from a rifle the muzzle of which showed under the kitchen window-sash. Fannie Tackitt's finger pressed the trigger. The bullet opened an air-hole in the crown of Deputy Smalhvood's hat one inch above his thinking machinery, which he ducked naturally, knowing the revenue method.

Charlie Tackitt had been thrown on the grass by the deputies after he had been handcuffed. They expected him to lie there, but he didn't. , As the conflict became warmer the deputies, recognising in him a non-combatant, massed for the larger struggle. Then Charlie crawled to a protected place behind a rock where he could make signs to his fighting party.

Two shots cut finger-size holes in the window pane, and Smallwood. _ backing away towards a tree, was reloading when a bullet from another window entered his left arm, which supported his rifle. He knotted his handkerchief above the wound and returned the fire. Mother Tackitt had by this time crawled into the house. Her hand was gashed in half-a-dozen places. Marshal Smith had beaten her with the butt of his revolver. She moaned . There was no time to dress her wounds, no time to carry her to bed. She lay upon the floor feebly trying to stop the flow of blood with the' crumpled folds of her apron. And the fight went on. All three of the deputies now had positions offering some protection. Marshal Potter was at the edge of tho winter cut of firewood. Smith with a tree between him and danger, and Smallwood, from a point to the left, blazed away over a stump.

Growing bitter as the fight advanced, Bettie Tackitt threw open the door to the end that her aim might bo direct. A bullet, from without passed over her shoulder in an instant. Before Smallwood couid lower his weapon she pressed the trigger. The shot was true. 11. tore the finger from tho hand that held the gun. .A man twice shot has the status of a dead man,' so far as warfare effectiveness is concerned. So Smallwood's rifle became silent', and the fight was now two to two—men against women—and one wounded on each side, a man and a woman.

And so. for a full hour, shots from the open were answered by shots from the house. Marshal Smith was inclined to belittle the bravery of the mountainside garrison. He wanted to take it by storm. Creeping out from his sheltered spot he advanced with gun muzzle moving like a pendulum to cover both windows. He saw a girl at one window and momentarily forgot the other. A i spit of fire was the answer. Smith dropped and never moved. Marshal Mart Potter didn't wait for that. Tie hurried down the gulch, and the fight was over. Mountain folk have an abiding hatred for "revenues.' and, strange to say. a sort of respect for peace officers of a county's choosing. Deputy-Sheriff Osborne and a posse went later in to the Tackitt home. Charlie Tackitt was not there. A sharp file had cut the steel bands that held his wrists together and he had become a fugitive. But the girls were there and ready to give themselves up. They were taken to Pikeville and arraigned before County Judge Fuel. The town and countryside turned out to see them; some to applaud, none to condemn; for Pike County admires bravery and has rude respect for women.

The girls were bound in bonds of 200(1 dollars each for appearance at court. Freeholders stood ready to become surety ] for them. The girls rodo out of town j through thin lines of interested folk and back to their home hanging on the cliffside: Marshal Potter says he was lucky to escape with his life in the mountain fight. "T escaped without a scratch," he said, "but the shots flew thick and fast around mv head, and more than once.it seemed that 1 would have to retreat. However, after my best man. Charlie Smith, was shot down, I thought it best to get out. T did so. and after everything calmed down I went back and carried the wounded man to the home of a physician and had his wounds dressed." Siuallwood was hurt but little. Charlie Taekitt escaped.'