Mission Statement:
To endeavor to bring to all residents of the Five States the most current and important news from across the entire Five States region. Never yellow, the Five States Herald vows to serve only the people of the Five States, from New Austin to Lemoyne, free of charge now and forever.
Gold Bug Fever Grips Five States Again!
By Sofia Kathleen Fairfax (Lead Correspondent)
It comes with the tide and the changing of seasons. Every year, when the leaves turn brown and fall to the wayside, they come. I, of course, refer to the vaunted treasure hunters who dig and search for something of value. It’s almost a tradition now.
Men young and old, with shovels sharpened and picks ready, go after any local tale or legend that may lead to treasure. Exactly what treasure? Buried gold, stolen diamonds, ancient alcohol, lost rifles, anything that might hold value to someone.
The most common legend now is some pirate whose name is lost to history buried so and so wealth and died before he could collect it. Yee, who finds the skull, finds the treasure, as they say. All hogwash, but people still come and dig. Another common rumor is that a spider’s web points to a great discovery; what that discovery is, nobody can say, or how exactly a spiderweb helps find it. A few are even finding these treasures so they can book passage to Florida; heaven knows why.
In a few months, they’ll move on, doubtless empty-handed as they always do. But who am I to complain? I was a child once who believed in such notions, and any harm is often done to just the treasure hunters themselves, plus it adds to the local economy. Dig away, I say; just be prepared to not find anything special.
Eccentric gunman kills deputy in Tumbleweed duel
By Jose Chavez
The brightly dressed killer sought across the Five States may have surfaced again, this time in Tumbleweed, where witnesses say a man matching the Eccentric Gunman’s peculiar appearance challenged a deputy to a duel in the street. Though the deputy agreed, Sheriff Sam Freeman intervened and declared no such contest could be lawful while his man remained on duty. The stranger apparently had no patience for that distinction and forced the deputy to draw then and there, killing him in the ensuing exchange. Freeman immediately pronounced the shooting murder and ordered his deputies to seize the gunman, who fled through town waving his revolver with seemingly reckless abandon and firing without anything resembling a proper aim. Yet witnesses insist every bullet found its mark, forcing Freeman’s men behind cover and making pursuit near suicidal.
The fugitive soon reached a horse and escaped Tumbleweed. One detail, however, may interest those hunting him: whatever remarkable revolver he carries, said to be the Dead Man’s Gun, it still requires ammunition. “I moved in when I realized he was reloading,” one deputy told the Herald, “but he reloaded quickly and I had to take cover.” The description, the stranger’s extraordinary marksmanship, and the distinctive revolver strongly suggest the same gunman implicated in the killing of Blackwater’s Trick Shooter.
Fatal photograph confirms grizzly attack
By Caylen V. Hornby
A woman found mauled to death in the Grizzlies West was believed by those unfortunate enough to discover her remains to have fallen victim to a grizzly bear, and a most dreadful piece of evidence has now proved their judgment correct. Near the body lay a camera, battered but intact, whose photographs were developed. The final photograph appears to have been taken by the deceased herself, having turned the apparatus upon her person for what seems an innocent self-portrait amid the mountain country. Yet behind her, caught with terrible clarity in that last fraction of peaceful life, is an enormous grizzly bear lunging toward her, jaws spread wide and forepaws raised. No further photographs followed and the family of the deceased did not let me take a copy. The photograph suggests that the woman was unaware of the beast at her back, the grim image a reminder of the dangers travelers face in the wild Grizzlies.
WANTED!
Investigators: Travel the Five States and report on what is going on.
Writers: Write the stories investigators find!
Photographers:
To take photographs to be used in the Herald.
Can also do all three!
Violent traveler beaten senseless on Blackwater road
By Odell Clifton
A savage disturbance upon the main road through Blackwater ended with the alleged aggressor unconscious in the dirt after his intended victim turned the tables upon him. Witnesses say the trouble began when a traveler brutally assaulted a local resident, then immediately turned upon a woman who had seen the attack, seizing her from behind by the throat and striking her repeatedly while holding her fast. The woman nevertheless wrested herself free and answered him with her own fists. The commotion soon drew another passerby, who, seeing the struggle, produced a pistol, only for the traveler to rush him and land a punch before any shot could be fired. That proved a poor decision. The woman came back into the fray with a furious succession of blows, beating her attacker until the fellow collapsed senseless in the middle of the road. Whatever possessed this traveler to assault one Blackwater citizen after another remains uncertain, but there is something satisfying in reporting that, on this occasion, the people he chose for victims proved considerably harder to victimize than he expected.
Is the devil loose in New Hanover?
By Donna Deshner
Is the devil loose in New Hanover? That is the question passing from campfire to saloon counter after a growing number of travelers reported being tormented by what they have taken to calling the “devil goat.” The creature is said to wear the ordinary shape of a goat, yet behaves with a spite and cunning its frightened witnesses insist belongs to something considerably less earthly. The strangest account comes from Emerald Ranch, where several witnesses claim the beast appeared among the livestock with one unmistakable feature separating it from every other horned nuisance in the territory: flames of hell sprouting from its head. Witnesses describe fire dancing above the animal as it darted about the ranch, apparently unharmed by its own infernal crown and quite determined to send any unsuspecting soul who crossed its path stumbling backward in terror.
Attempts to capture the supposed devil have thus far produced more embarrassment than evidence. Whenever a brave hand approaches with rope, rifle, or determination, the goat reportedly bolts away with remarkable speed, vanishing around barns, over fences, or into the countryside before anyone can lay hands upon it. Yet it seems considerably bolder with those who do not see it coming, suddenly charging or appearing close enough to give travelers a fright they are unlikely to forget. Whether New Hanover is suffering an invasion from Hell, an unusually wicked goat, or the handiwork of some clever scoundrel with a taste for frightening honest folk remains unanswered. This correspondent has heard enough nonsense dressed as certainty to reserve judgment. But should any reader encounter a goat with fire burning from its skull, prudence suggests postponing the theological questions until after putting a good deal of road between yourself and the beast.
Poker wager ends in killing at Bastille Saloon
By Aloysius Levron
A man was placed under arrest at the Bastille Saloon in Saint Denis after a quarrel at the poker table ended with another player shot dead, in an occurrence regrettably familiar wherever cards, liquor, money, and firearms are permitted to share the same room. Witnesses state the deceased had spent much of the game dropping the maximum wager from the very beginning of nearly every hand, an aggressive habit said to have steadily aggravated his fellow players until one man finally answered the betting not with chips, but with a pistol. The victim was struck and killed, while the shooter was subsequently taken into custody before the affair could claim another life. Such killings are hardly unheard of across the Five States, where a man may lose his wages at cards, his temper immediately afterward, and his freedom, or his life, before the dealer has gathered the pot. Once again, the Bastille’s tables have furnished the old lesson that no hand of poker, however rich, is worth dying over.
Bizarre tracks sent anonymously to the Herald
By Lucien Privitt
The Herald has received, without return address, explanation, or so much as a scrawled indication of state, a photograph depicting what may be among the strangest tracks yet brought to this paper’s attention. The ground appears to be a muddy riverbank, upon which run two remarkably orderly lines of round impressions, each marked at intervals by curious raised shapes, with a lone trail of boot prints proceeding directly between them. The outer marks might reasonably belong to wagon wheels deliberately fitted with knobs, blocks, or some eccentric patterned tread, an invention possessing no obvious advantage upon mud and perhaps constructed merely as a prank. But the boot prints are considerably harder to dismiss. There are not two alternating rows as would be left by an ordinary man walking between the wheels, but one repeated impression, as though a one-legged traveler had hopped along at considerable persistence in pursuit of the wagon down the bank. Other possibilities offered around our office have included a wooden-legged man whose artificial limb leaves no recognizable print, some peculiar wheeled agricultural contraption attended by a hopping operator, or a circus apparatus of a sort sensible people have fortunately never encountered. The photograph provides no horizon, landmark, building, vegetation of distinction, or other clue by which the place might be identified, and whether its anonymous sender wished to warn the Five States, amuse them, or merely ensure somebody else lost sleep considering the matter is presently impossible to say.
The Five States Herald 