He then turned his gaze upon the prisoner. There sat John Henry in all his kingly dignity smoking the judge's cigar. The man who shot with intent to kill was fined $5.00 which he paid and was discharged. John Henry was fined $15.00 and sent to jail for being shot at. Whether or not the purloining of the judge's cigar had anything to do with John Henry's fine and sentence is still an unanswered question.

Up until 1900 Chadron had not made much progress as a business point. A fine roller mill had been erected and the company failed. Not less than twenty businesses went to the wall. Three banks closed their doors and the future was veiled by uncertainty. Nearly everybody who had means to purchase transportation left for other fields. Settlers had ruined the country for ranch purposes and farming was not profitable. People living on the prairie lands were compelled to give up. Those along the timbered creeks fared a little better. They could sell wood enough at $1.50 a load to purchase supplies. But it was difficult for the people in town to find money to buy a load even at that price. Chadron was destined however to come to its on. The perseverance of those who stood by the old ship through wreck and disaster, who faced poverty and

privations, who had lost their property and money and had seen the slender bridge of human life break under the heavy burden, saved the day, and dragged together the remnants of the almost bankrupt municipality. Inch by inch, step by step, the business men who were stayers recovered from the strain incident to the long drought and paralyzing panic. City improvements began and everybody worked together. Mrs. Mary E. Smith Hayward, labored almost day and night to beautify the city and the court house park is a proud monument to her memory.