 Section 1 of the Complete Works of Brand the Iconoclast, Volume 12. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by William Jones. The Complete Works of Brand the Iconoclast, Volume 12, Section 1. Extracts from the Waco Weekly Tribune Issue of Saturday, April 2, 1898. A chapter written in the lifeblood of W. C. Brand and Thomas E. Davis. The Street Duel to the Death in Waco Streets. There are two more widows and eight more orphans. The full recital of the double tragedy, the deaths, the burials and subsequent events Will this end it? In God's name, let us hope it will. Died at 1.55 o'clock a.m. April 2, W. C. Brand. Died at 2.30 o'clock p.m. T. E. Davis. Friday afternoon, November 19, 1897, marked a street duel and tragedy in which two men were killed, one lost an arm and an innocent bystander was injured. Friday afternoon, April 1, 1898, within an hour of the time of the first tragedy and within half a block of the locality of the other, W. C. Brand and T. E. Davis engaged in a street duel in which each of them was mortally wounded and three others received slight wounds. Four fatalities within five months of each other are bloody records in the history of the city of Waco, all of which can be traced to the same source, all of which were born of the same cause. The publication last year in the Iconoclast and the incidents following the publication are well known. They have been published far and wide, the kidnapping of Brand, the assault upon him by the Scarborough's, the Gerald Harris Affair and the hurried departure of Brand on one occasion. During all these incidents, Tom E. Davis was an outspoken citizen of Waco. He denounced the author of the Iconoclast articles and said he should be run out of town and had continued throughout it all to condemn the apostle. This caused bad blood between them and although Davis had remained in the city all the time and Brand had been on the street constantly, there had been no outbreak or conflict. Each knew the feeling of the other in the matter. Such are incidents preceding the shooting and leading up to it. To trace the movements of the two men during Friday afternoon appears easy at first, but as the investigator proceeds in his search for information, he meets conflicting statements. Tom Davis left his office on South 4th Street, number 111, about five o'clock or a few minutes later. Brand, accompanied by W. H. Ward, his business manager, is alleged to have been standing at the corner of 4th and Franklin Streets as Davis passed to the post office corner unrued to the transfer stables. In his anti-mortem statement, Davis says that he heard Brand remark, there is the son of a bitch who caused my trouble. Davis didn't stop or resent the insult, but passed on. Soon after he called on James I. Moore at his office in the Pacific Hotel building and together they were discussing the city campaign. According to Mr. Moore's statement, he was standing with his back to the south, facing the door and was looking toward Austin Avenue. Davis was facing him, his back to the avenue and in a possession which prevented him from seeing anyone approaching from Austin Avenue. Brand and his companion approached coming south and as they passed, Mr. Moore says, Brand halted, looked at him squarely in the face and passed on. Davis did not see the editor and his manager as he chanced to turn just as they came up and as it happened he kept his back to the apostle and his companion. From Mr. Moore's office, Davis passed into the Pacific Hotel bar and thence to his office. Brand and Ward soon after returned to the Pacific. There they met Joe Earp of Guido from the western part of the county and the three walked together to George Linaire's saloon. Brand and Ward passed into the saloon, Earp remanning on the outside. They passed out within a short time and passed down 4th Street to the Cotton Belt ticket office. Thence onto the new stand of Jake French and while there, the shooting occurred. As to the shooting, there are conflicting statements. As in every tragedy, eye witnesses differ and citizens of equal reputation for veracity and conservatism tell different stories. They are all honest in what they say. They all believe they saw what they relate, but the conflict in statements is yet there. Messers W. W. Duggar, Joe Earp, M. C. Inslee and S. S. Hall agree as to the first shot. They say it was fired by T. E. Davis at W. C. Brand when Brand's back was turned. Others say Ward participated in the shooting while numbers say that Ward did not. Here a conflict occurs. At any rate, the first shot was fired by Davis and it was immediately returned by Brand. Ward got between the two and in the firing he was shot in the right hand. Davis fell at the first shot from Brand's pistol and writhed in agony. He soon recovered his presence of mind and raising himself upon his elbow returned the fire. Brand standing off shooting into the prostate form while Davis with unsteady aim was returning the fire. Every bullet from the Apostles' pistol found a lodgement in the form of the duelist engaged with him. All was excitement. It was an hour, 6 p.m., when South 4th Street was crowded and the rapid report of the pistols caused a stampede of pedestrians, each of which feared contact with a stray bullet. In it all there was one who displayed his devotion to duty, his bravery and coolness. Police Officer Sam S. Hall. Mr. Hall was standing near the insurance office of George Willig not 40 feet away. He turned at the first report and seeing the duel in progress bravely made his way toward the men. Brand was shooting from the north and it was toward the north the officer started. Davis was facing north. At each fire of the gun Officer Hall would screen himself in a doorway, dart out and rush to the next, gradually nearing them. Officer Dave Dury was across the street and he started also. But Officer Hall reached them first but too late. Each man had finished shooting. Davis had fallen back upon the pavement and his pistol rolled from his hand. Brand was standing, pistol in hand, its six chambers empty, looking upon the length and form of his antagonist. He had not spoken. Wounded in three places blood was soiling his linen and his clothes. He was yet upon his feet and Officer Hall, not knowing how serious were his wounds, started with him to the city hall being joined almost immediately by Officer Dury. Davis was wounded in many places. Bullets had plowed their way through the flesh and bone and unable himself to move, blood flowing freely from various wounds, his friends lifted him tenderly and gave him comfort as best they could, surgeons responding quickly to the call. Ward had been in the midst of the fray but received but one wound in a hand. He was between the two men at one time and then sought safety against the wall. When the smoke cleared away he went to the old corner drugstore to have his hand dressed. Here he was arrested later by Deputy Sheriff James Lockwood. During the shooting Eugene Kempner, a musician of Kansas City, was struck in the sole of the right foot by a stray bullet and a streetcar motorman, Kennedy by name, was struck in the left leg by a bullet. Neither of these injuries are serious. While in the newsstand Mr. Davis became conscious of approaching disillusion and desired to make an anti-mortem statement. Assistant County Attorney Saluder was present and County Clerk Joni Jones and to them he gave the following version of the affair. Davis Statement I left my office and started to Manchester's livery stable. At the corner of Franklin and 4th Street passed Bran and Ward. Bran remarked, there goes the damn son of a bitch that has caused all my trouble. Passed on and went to Manchester's stable on some business, then came back to wait saloon and stopped for a drink. I then started for my office but near Haver's store on Baker's Alley I met them again. They began to curse and abuse me again. Went on to the office, they followed me and I went to the urinal in the rear and came back to the front of the office. At the door Bran said, there comes the dirty cur and son of a bitch, he will take anything. Bran then pulled his gun and I shot at him. My gun hung in the scabbard. The reason he shot me was because I was loyal to my town and always expressed myself. He murdered me. They both shot me after I fell. They shot in my back, blinded me and I could not see. I make this statement for I know I am dying. He has been trying to kill me for three months. End of Section 1 Section 2 The Complete Works of Bran The Iconoclast Volume 12 This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Rita Boutros. The Complete Works of Bran The Iconoclast Volume 12 by William Cowper Bran Section 2 Other Statements Extracts from the Waco Weekly Tribune Issue of Saturday, April 2nd, 1898 Eyewitnesses give somewhat conflicting accounts. Joe Earp, a young fellow from the western part of the county, who was in town that day, said I met Mr. Bran in front of the Pacific Hotel and having heard of him and read after him, I was curious to know him. It was our first meeting. In fact, the first time I had ever seen him. We talked together, Mr. Ward with us, to Lanary Saloon. They went inside and I left them. In a few minutes they came out and crossed the street, going to the cotton belt ticket office. They moved together towards Austin Avenue, but half turned, conversing one with the other. They reached the newsstand and stopped. I saw a man whom I have been told was Tom E. Davis, come out of a door and shoot. Bran's back was turned to the man, and while I did not see the bullets strike him, I supposed he was shooting at Bran. Ward turned as soon as the shot was fired and reached for the pistol. Bran turned instantly, gun in hand, and commenced shooting. Ward got in between the two and then jumped away against the wall. Davis fell at Bran's first fire and rolled over a time or two and raising himself on his elbow returned Bran's fire. They emptied their pistols. When Davis fell, Bran stepped back a short distance and then advanced towards Davis shooting at him, but he never approached nearer than six feet. Ward never fired a shot. I saw the whole affair and never did he fire or produce a pistol. When the shooting was over, a man came out of the office and took Davis's pistol from the walk. J. C. Patterson was seen, he stated. I was with R. H. Brown of Calvert. We walked into the street from the Pacific Hotel sidewalk and were walking north when we heard a shot. Three shots were fired quickly and I saw Davis fall. I remarked, they have killed Tom Davis. I saw two men shooting or Bran had two pistols. Davis raised on his elbow and returned the fire. I did not see the first shot. Sherman Vaughn said, I was passing along 4th Street and reached a spot just in front of George Lanari's saloon. I heard a shot and looking towards the place from whence the sound came, I saw Tom Davis reeling backward toward the wall in front of his place of business. He either fell against the sign in front of his office or the wall, I could not tell which. Mr. Bran was standing some 8 or 10 feet from him with a pistol in his hand and smoke was between them. Then followed a rapid succession of shots. I could not see Mr. Davis shoot for the smoke but could see Mr. Bran plainly. Mr. Davis fell to the sidewalk and then almost rose to his feet and fell again. He then rolled along the sidewalk towards the alley and must have turned over half a dozen times. Then another man whom I do not know joined in and he and Bran fired shot after shot at Mr. Davis as he rolled along the sidewalk. The police then came up and took Bran away. I did not see what became of the other man. Mr. James I Moore said, I had met Tom Davis in front of my office in the Pacific Hotel building and we discussed the proposed meeting at the City Hall. He and I walked out on the sidewalk just in front of my office. I stood at the south side of the door facing north and Mr. Davis stood directly in front of me on the sidewalk by the wall. We were about 2 feet apart. While talking W. C. Bran came down the sidewalk and I walked from the direction of Austin Street. He advanced within 2 feet of Mr. Davis and myself and stopped, looked me squarely in the face and then at Mr. Davis. I did not speak to Bran and don't think Davis saw him until after he passed on. Bran passed on in the direction of the post office. Almost immediately after Bran left, Davis left me and walked up 4th Street towards his office and saw him cross the street to his office. I then advanced to the edge of the sidewalk and stood there alone about 4 or 5 minutes when I heard a shot in the direction of Davis' office. I looked that way and 3 shots seemed to be fired almost simultaneously. Davis fell to the sidewalk and arrived as if in terrible agony. Bran seemed to be closest to Davis, a very large man being close in Bran's rear. This man I learned afterwards was W. H. Ward. While Davis was rolling on the sidewalk, both of these men were very rapidly firing upon Davis. They seemed to poke their pistols almost against Davis' body as they fired. After the first 4 or 5 shots, the smoke became too dense to see all that occurred. The first sight seemed to chill my blood and I became too horrified to move. H. C. Chase, 509 North 9th Street I was standing at the alley near George Lanieri's saloon and heard somebody say, Look out! I glanced across the street and saw Tom Davis on the sidewalk. He had a gun in his hand and fired at once. Bran and Ward were a few feet distant. Bran had turned slightly, but his back was still towards Davis when the ladder fired. He jumped back and grabbed at Davis' gun as the ladder fired the second time. Bran fired as soon as he turned around and at his second shot Davis fell backwards. Ward, it seemed to me, had gotten to one side of Davis and was reaching for Davis' gun. As the ladder fell back, Ward backed up to the building. He did not have a gun and did not shoot. M. C. Inslee, I was standing in the doorway of Sam French's cigar store as Bran and Ward reached it. They had just passed the doorway, going toward Austin Street when Davis appeared with a gun in his hand. He fired at once. I could not see Bran at this time. Davis fired the first shot and immediately I heard another shot, I suppose, from Bran and almost simultaneously a second shot from Davis. As the ladder fired the first shot, Ward jumped and grabbed the muzzle of Davis' gun. He let go as the shot was fired. He did not have a gun. I backed away from the door. The shooting was thick and fast. Davis fell back at the door of French's as Bran fired the last shot and his gun dropped from his grasp. John Williams, who appeared quickly, grabbed it and screening himself with the door facing of the cigar store, tried twice to shoot it and then somebody grabbed him. W. W. Duggar, employed in the feed store of J. P. Nichols on North Second Street said, I was talking with policeman Sam Hall at the alley next to the cotton belt ticket office when the first shot was fired. We were close to the scene. I glanced instantly in that direction and saw Tom Davis with a smoking pistol in his hand. At the same time, I saw Bran turn around and face Davis from whom he appeared to be distant about 15 feet I should judge. He fired and fired again almost at the same time. In the meantime, the man with Bran, whom I learned afterward was Ward, had rushed up and caught Davis and it seemed as if he struggled with him a moment. When Bran fired a second shot, Davis fell. Ward had turned him loose at this time. Davis rolled over and over on the sidewalk and fired, I think, two shots while he was down. While he was rolling over, Bran kept shooting at him as fast as he could work the trigger. Mr. Ward did not fire a shot. I saw the whole affair and know that he did not and he did not exhibit a weapon of any kind. He slipped back close to the building when he let go of Davis and when the shooting was over walked up the street. I saw a man come out of Williams' place and make an effort to get Davis's pistol. I can't say whether or not he got it. I don't know where he went. Policemen had reached the scene and arrested Bran. Policemen Sam Hall said, I was standing in front of George Willock's office at the alley and 4th Street on the same side of the street and say 40 or 45 feet away from the place where the shooting took place. I was talking to Mr. Duggar and was standing out on the sidewalk. Some four or five minutes before the shooting occurred I looked across the street and saw Bran and Ward standing in front of the haberdasher store of L. Krause and at that time Davis passed them and went on a couple of doors and stepped inside of the storeroom at that point. I then looked away, not having any idea at all of any trouble but just happened to see them. The next thing I noticed was the men were close together in front of French's new stand with Davis between me and Bran and Ward. The first of the trouble I saw Davis had his pistol in his hand and instantly fired. Bran whirled and commenced firing at Davis. I immediately started to them but had to work my way in and out of one door to the other and work my way along the wall of the building as Bran was shooting directly toward me all the time. I hallowed several times at them to stop shooting and just before I reached them Davis fell on the sidewalk and Bran was still shooting. Davis attempted to rise and Ward caught Davis by the shoulders and pulled him back down on the sidewalk. Davis turned with his face towards Bran and kept trying to fire but his pistol snapped. I jumped over Davis and caught Bran and took the pistol out of his hands. Bran's pistol is a Colt 41, latest improved and was loaded all around and all chambers were freshly fired. I caught Bran, Ward was standing up by the wall holding his hand that was shot. I saw Ward fire no shots and I saw no pistol in his hand. I then started with Bran to the city hall and as I crossed the street towards the citizens national bank police officer Dury came up and assisted me in taking Bran on to the city hall. End of section 2 Section 3 The Complete Works of Bran The Iconoclast Volume 12 This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Rita Butros. The Complete Works of Bran The Iconoclast Volume 12 by William Kelper Bran Section 3 Bran's Death Extracts from the Waco Weekly Tribune Issue of Saturday, April 2nd, 1898 Bran's Death It came as peacefully as sleep to a babe. After being taken to the city hall Mr. Bran was removed to his home where doctors Foscue, Hale, Graves and C. E. Smith attended him. Soon after arriving there he appeared to have reacted from the shock and there was every indication of an improvement. At eleven o'clock there was a change hemorrhage of the lungs occurring frequently. In addition to the immediate family circle a number of devoted friends and no man ever had more devoted friends than Bran were at the home anxious to render the offices of friendship. At midnight the physician said there was no chance and the family gathered about the bedside. During the long minutes which followed a loving wife and two children sat by that bedside and watched the unconscious man. His life hung by a thread and while surgeon's science was being used to strengthen the strand that held the life Death's knife was on it. They watched by his side and as they watched they saw him seek sweet repose. The anguish of the wife and those children was terrible but they awaited the visitation to that happy home kind friends being near to speak sweet words of comfort. At one fifty-five a.m. he died. His features showed no pain and when life left his body the face appeared as that of one in a sweet peaceful sleep. The remains of W. C. Bran were prepared early Saturday morning and lay in state all day at the residence on North Fifth Street. Hundreds of ladies visited the home and viewed the face of the apostle. It was natural as life itself. He lay upon a catafalque in the parlors at home and the visitors passed around the lifeless form looked upon the face and passed out. Surviving Mr. Bran are his wife and two children. Grace aged eleven years and Willey a son aged six years. Bran himself was forty-four years old. Mr. Bran came to Texas about twelve years ago and has been engaged in the newspaper business ever since. He was connected in an editorial capacity with the Galveston News, Houston Post, San Antonio Express and Waco Daily News. In 1890 during the Hog Clark campaign he established the iconoclast in Austin, Texas and made a fight for Hog making his first appearance in the character which has made him famous. The paper suspended publication and Mr. Bran accepted a position on the San Antonio Express which he held until the latter part of 1894. He came to Waco in 1895 and began editorial writing on the Waco Daily News. He decided to re-establish the iconoclast and it has been a great success reaching a phenomenal circulation having readers all over this country. The tragedy of Friday can be traced to the attack which was made on Baylor University in the iconoclast. It was in Bran's peculiar style and attracted considerable attention throughout the country. Mr. Bran is a native of southern Illinois. End of Section 3 Section 4 The Complete Works of Bran The Iconoclast, Volume 12 This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Rita Butros The Complete Works of Bran The Iconoclast, Volume 12 by William Cowper Bran Section 4 Extracts from the Waco Weekly Tribune Issue of Saturday, April 2, 1898 Davis follows Bran The Death Struggle and Kindred Incidents While Breaking Hearts watched by Mr. Bran's bedside there was a loving wife, a dutiful son and kind friends sitting by the bedside of Tom E. Davis. For the first six hours Dr. J. C. J. King, Dr. Curtis and Dr. Olive endeavored to bring their patient about. He was perfectly conscious but was yet suffering from the shock. At midnight he was no better and a change for the worse was soon noted. The patient would awake from the effect of opiates, talk with those about him and then relapse again into slumber. He knew his son and wife, friends who called and friends who spoke to him but there was rapid pulse and a laboured breathing that indicated the approach of death. Throughout the small hours of the newborn day the wife sat by that couch and with her sat kind friends. Everything known to science was done to save the life that fleeting breath told was fast ebbing away. There was not a continued loss of blood but with a perforated frame the creature of nature could not exist and it was evident he was fast nearing the end. The dawn of early morning found the faithful watchers yet at the bedside and the rising sun peeped into the room and shed a glow about the sick room appearing to light the way for the soul which was soon to wing its flight to realms beyond. The circle about the couch enlarged children of the wounded man gathering about their weeping mother his sister and other relatives coming to watch and wait. During the early hours of the morning and until the forenoon was advanced friends paced the lobby of the Pacific hoping every moment for a report that the patient was better. Each minute passed as an hour and the hours seemed as long drawn out days each report from the sick room was no change. At noon it became evident that but a short time remained A.C. Riddle sat upon one side of the couch and Richard Selman at the other the first rubbing the injured portion of the wounded right arm while the other moistened the parched lips with constant applications of cold water. By Mr. Riddle sat the weeping wife soon to be a widow and about the apartment were gathered the children. The last hour of the citizen was one which will never be forgotten by those who watched his last moments. Labored was the breathing and every breath was a gasp and a groan. His children stood by the couch and saw the pain-wracked form and his wife held his hand and prayed to the God of all people to spare him to her for a longer time. Prayers were of no avail and tears did not soothe the pain. He was in agony and accompanied with that agony was a desire to say something. He relapsed into slumber at times and would at intervals awake. His eyes would roll about the gathered friends and relatives and an unintelligible sound would escape. There seemed to be no control of the tongue except at times he would utter the words wife and Molly. The silence in the sick room was disturbed by the gasp of the dying man and the weeping of his family. The hour of two o'clock came and the breath was shorter and harder. Little Nellie, two years of age was brought to the bedside and looking at her father in childish innocence smiled and cried, Mama, is that my Papa? Did Papa hear those words? It is to be hoped he did. They rung out loud within the quiet room. The walls caught them and echoed the music of the child's voice and probably that music joined the music of the great beyond where the soul was soon to be. If the ear of the dying man who gave every indication of consciousness caught the words of his baby his death was made happy even with the pain that wracked his wounded form. He saw the anguish of the wife and children. It was to comfort them with a last word that he sought to speak the last word that he could not utter. At two twenty it was seen that death was upon him and the rapid gasp for breath plunged the entire family into violent weeping. Mrs. Davis had controlled herself as best she could. The long hours were spent in a labored effort to hold back the anguish of her bleeding heart but when she saw her husband in the last moments of death she could control herself no longer. Death came at two thirty o'clock. The dissolution of Tom E. Davis was known upon the streets within a few minutes and the regret of the people was freely expressed. Tom E. Davis was forty-two years of age. He was born in Waco and was the son of judge James F. Davis a pioneer settler of Waco. Tribune readers who have lived here twenty years or more will remember Judge Davis. From 1876 to 1878 he was one of the two justices of the peace in Waco. He has followed the life of a railroad man for many years but finally gave it up to locate in his native city. He has been engaged in the real estate business recently. He was well thought of in this city had many friends, was a man of genial jovial nature and was a good citizen. His death is mourned by a large number. Surviving him is his wife and six children. James F. Flossie, Maddie, Lillian, Marjorie and Nelly the eldest being sixteen and the youngest two years old. In addition to those mentioned who were at the death bed was his sister, Mrs. Margaret Allen. Saturday afternoon doctors J. C. J. King, Frank Ross, A. M. Curtis and N. A. Olive made an examination of the wounds of T. E. Davis. Justice W. H. Davis had viewed the body and the examination was made at the request of Sheriff John W. Baker. They could trace four bullets as having struck Mr. Davis. While there were a number of wounds the surgeons found that the same bullet made more than one or two holes. Two were found to have struck in the left shoulder about the same place. One of these came out at the back and the other passed around the chest wall and lodged near the spine, near the waist. One went externally in the chest and came out of the armpit and another made a flesh wound in the arm. End of Section 4. Section 5 of the Complete Works of Bran The Iconoclast, Volume 12 This is the LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by John Brandon The Complete Works of Bran The Iconoclast, Volume 12 Section 5 W. H. Ward Business Manager for Bran's lecture tour and an intimate friend of the Apostle was arrested Friday night as stated above. Baker and Ross and Charles R. Sparks were retained as his attorneys and he was arraigned before Justice W. H. Davis at once on a charge of assault with intent to murder. Mr. Sparks appeared in court and waived all formalities and the question of the amount of a bond was discussed. Mr. Sparks suggested $4,000 and this was agreed upon and fixed by the Justice. Mr. Waller S. Baker was out of the city at the time and after presenting a certified check for the amount of the bond, Mr. Sparks decided to await Mr. Baker's return before acting in the matter. When Mr. Baker arrived at 10.30 o'clock there was some talk on the streets of the mob and it was decided that Ward would be safer in jail awaiting developments. When Mr. Davis died, Deputy Constable Cliff Torrance went before Justice Davis and made complaint charging murder. Mr. Ward had come downtown Friday to meet his brother whom he was expecting to arrive from Tyler. He joined Mr. Bran on the street and while they were together the tragedy occurred. Mr. Ward was at Mr. Bran's burial Sunday afternoon accompanied by Mr. Baker. His wounded hand was bandaged and in a sling. At the jail he had been called on by many friends and telegrams from various points for offering aid and sympathy came to him. Ward was greatly moved by the death of Bran. He did not talk much of the tragedy but to a tribune reporter who went to the jail Sunday to see him, Ward said, I do not at this time care to discuss the details. I wish however to deny the statement that I participated in the shooting or had a pistol. I did not expect a difficulty and the first shot startled me as a thunder clap in a clear sky. I turned to Davis with pistol drawn and grasped the muzzle of the weapon and was shot in the hand. I regret the death of my friend but cannot discuss the details of the tragedy. Messrs. Walrus Baker and Charles R. Sparks state that after the shooting they went to Mr. Bran's residence and in the presence of outside witnesses found Ward's pistol. It was loaded all round and showed no indication of having been discharged. Mr. Ward had been associated with Bran for some time. They were co-workers on Echo News and when the Apostle began lecturing Ward became his manager. They had been firm friends and when Ward was in the city he made his home with Mr. Bran and the two were always together. Ward is well liked by those who know him and he has a number of friends throughout the country. He is a magnifying physique and is a dignified courteous gentleman. While there was for a short time talk of a mob by day and night, Sheriff Baker believed that cool judgment would prevail and that nothing would be attempted. He was prepared however to protect his prisoner, had trouble been precipitated and a number of citizens volunteered their assistance had danger threatened. End of Section 5 Recording by John Brandon Section 6 of the Complete Works of Bran the Iconoclast Volume 12. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. This recording by Michelle Fry, Baton Rouge, Louisiana in October 2019. The Complete Works of Bran the Iconoclast Volume 12, Section 6 The Obsequies Bran and Davis Davis laid to rest Sunday. Beneath two mounds, each banked with flowers, one in Oakwood the other in First Street Cemetery were laid the victims of Friday's tragedy Sunday afternoon. Never were two funerals in this city more largely attended and never was the dead followed to the last resting place by sorrowing friends with the reverence that was shown yesterday. At each home, the Davis residence in the Fifth Ward and the Bran residence on North Fifth Street, friends began to gather shortly after noon and they crowded through the two homes on the lawn of one and about the yard of the other. Each man had his friends and each had hosts of them and they desired to show by their attendance at this last service their devotion to those friends who were now gone to the great beyond. Each procession was a long one. The Davis Quartet moved from the home on Dallas Street to Elm fence west on Elm to the suspension bridge. When the hearse which was preceded by vehicles covering three blocks containing Knights of the Maccabees turned into Elm Street vehicles were yet falling in line at the home, the procession extending more than a dozen blocks in length. All classes and conditions of men were in line from the lowest to the highest citizens of Waco joining in the respect to the citizen whose tragic death was known. He was well liked and being liked they sorrowfully joined in this tribute to his memory. There were services at the home conducted by Reverend Austin Crouch of East Waco Baptist Church. Dr. Nelms was to participate but a sudden illness prevented him being present. There is commenced by the singing by the choir of some sweet day those composing the choir were Mr. W.T. Hillman W.E.Bretain W.R. Covington J.S. Henderson Mrs. McDonald and Mrs. Josie Davis, Nanny Huff and Shirley Faulkner all of the East Waco Baptist Church. After the reading of the 23rd Psalm by Reverend Austin Crouch followed by the singing of My God to Thee by the choir Mr. Crouch began a short talk which went deep into the hearts of his hearers and was a beautiful tribute to the noble characteristics of the deceased. He began by quoting the poem The Hour of Death by Mrs. Hemmons to illustrate the thought that men cannot reckon upon the hour of the coming of death. He drew attention to the fact that it was said of Moses that he died when his eye was not dim or his natural strength abated. He said it had been thus with the deceased, he having been taken from life in the prime of manhood, age 42. He referred to him as a loving husband and devoted father and possessing the love of a host of friends as the vast concourse assembled about his beer testified. Mr. Crouch then referred to the words full of tenderness and pathos to the wife and six children the husband and father had left when taken from life and in this connection quoted from Tennyson's In Memoriam these lines I hold it true what error befalls I feel it when I sorrow most it is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all Touching upon the characteristics of the deceased Mr. Crouch eulogized his devotion to his family, his loyalty to his friends and his willingness always to sacrifice anything to them. He said of him that he was a good citizen who for the last several years had devoted much of time and talents to upholding all the virtues of good citizenship adding that it was not often that one met a man nowadays who could be called a good citizen. Mr. Crouch closed a talk that was well chosen and actively delivered by warning his hearers that they were but mortal and to be prepared for the hour of death. With his final words he commended the loving ones of the deceased to the mercy and care of Almighty God. The song The Unclouded Day closed the services at the house. When the procession reached the cemetery impressive services according to the ritual of the order were conducted by commander Ben Richards and the author of The Artesian Tent Knights of the Maccabees a final prayer was offered by Reverend Crouch and the body of Tom Davis was lowered to rest. The floral tributes were beautiful friends brought cut flowers and evergreens and two large designs especially were noticed. One was a large wreath of red and white flowers twined with crepe the red white and black being the colors of the Maccabees. The other was a large anchor fully four feet in length composed of yellow roses and white carnations. It was a huge piece beautifully made and testified the friendship of him who sent it Mr. Connor. The Paul bearers were judged W.H. Jenkins, J.E. Boynton, T.B. Williams, J.N. Harris, A.C. Riddle, J.K. Rose, J.H. Gouldy, W.H. Deaton, Robert Wright, S.F. Kirksey, Major A. Sims and James I. Moore. The funeral of W.C. Brand did not move promptly on the hour. It had been fixed for 3 p.m. but there was some delay. During the moments just proceeding the funeral services Mrs. Brand went upon the lawn herself accompanied by a friend and she directed the cutting of the roses which had been favorites of her departed husband and when the services were held in the parlor she placed this collection of cut flowers upon the head of the casket. The entire place was crowded with sympathetic friends and by her side were Mr. Brand's sister and her husband who came to Waco to attend the funeral being summoned from their Fort Worth home. A brass quartet composed by J.C. Arrat, 2nd Cornette, H.C. Collier, Trombone, Fred Pogen, Baritone Horn rendered sweet sacred music one selection being nearer My God to Thee. Mrs. Teclo Westlow Kempner sung Mr. Brand's favorite selection, The Bridge. The service was conducted by Reverend Frank Page of the Episcopal Church. The procession was a very long one. It extended all along 5th Street from the house and when Austin Avenue was reached a large number dropped out of the line as was done in the Ross, Koch and Harris funerals and proceeded to Oakwood by other streets. A brass band preceded the procession playing martial music. The street was lined with pedestrians and vehicles some of whom stood for 30 minutes waiting for the courtage. The delay was occasioned however at the home. Soon after the services were concluded Mrs. Brand requested that the casket be opened again and her request was complied with. For a few minutes she was alone with her dead and in that few minutes she gazed for the last time upon her companion, her loved one and her husband. When the procession reached the cemetery it was found that a large number had preceded the courtage to the grave, many vehicles and persons on foot being and waiting. A large number went on the cars, three cars leaving the home. The services at the grave consisted of an address by Mr. J. D. Shaw, friend of the deceased. He said quote, my friends and friends of W. C. Brand I come this evening at the request of Mr. Brand's family to lay tribute upon his grave. I speak as a friend living for a friend dead. No ordinary man has fallen in the person of W. C. Brand. Nature fashioned him to be a power among his fellow men. By industry, by hard study, by careful observation, by diligent research, by interminable effort, he rose from comparative obscurity to teach and impress the civilized world. In the person of W. C. Brand we have an illustration of what may be expected in a country like ours. He was a natural product of our American democracy. He was a star that rose by dint of his own effort, his own determination surrounded by circumstances that invited merit from the common people, from the whole people. W. C. Brand was a cosmopolitan character. He could never be confined within the limits of a party or a creed. So great was his grasp so far reaching his thought that he lived in the world of a mere party. He was found always with that party or with that sect that represented what he thought to be right and true. A peculiarity of this man was his dual personality. Few people fully understood him in this respect. As a bold genius, as an intellectual giant, as a man armed and equipped with intellectual fire, and as a man with a noble ambition to stand by the right, he was a sworn pro of hypocrisy and fraud. And when he took into his brave hands the pen he made fraud and hypocrisy quake and tremble. Burning words came from his tongue, scorching and branding every fraud. Men looked upon him then as a hard man, as a heartless man, because he told them the truth. But the other side of this man's individuality, I for one have had the opportunity to see him. He could not only so intellectually, he was not only able to entertain the civilized world with burning words, with thoughts that were winged and that went like lightning, but he was a man of heart and of honor and a man of the warmest and most generous love. He could go towards the skies intellectually, but in his heart he lived close to nature. He loved nature. He loved the very trees under and rested. He loved the little birds that sang in the trees, the grass upon which he walked, the flowers that bedecked the forest. And he loved his fellow man. He had a warm, generous heart and affection that went out to the poor and those who were needy. W. C. Brand was never known to attack a man who was a man. It was the strong and the defiant that he branded and not the weak and the needy or the deserving. For these he was the friend. I knew this man not only as the editor of the Iconoclast, not only as the utterer of grand and entertaining sentences, but I knew him as a man whose palm was stretched out to the man who was in need. Few men have been more generous with their charity than my neighbor and my friend whom we lay away today. No man within my knowledge ever presented the world with a purer, a nobler, a loftier home character than W. C. Brand. Oh, how he loved his wife and his dear little children, not only the children that were living, but the child that was dead. How ardently he strove to support, maintain and bless them. And what a friend they have lost. No man ever approached W. C. Brand for a penny that he did not respond and from his beautiful home no beggar was ever turned away. I am afraid many people who only knew Mr. Brand as a genius, as a man of eloquence and power with the pen knew little of him as a man of heart and affection. But I, as his friend, as a friend of his wife and his fatherless children, I thank the people of Waco today that they have testified of their affection for this man. We shall never see his life again here, perhaps. He was a rising star. How soon that star has set. But, my dear friends, he has left a memory. He has made his impression upon the world, and we will never forget him. Let me then say, for I must be brief, I am reminded by the stormy elements about us that I must not detain you longer. Let me say in conclusion that Brand is not dead. His burning words still live, and his thoughts will yet remain to affect the world and we will never forget him. And I say to his wife and children, though today you feel crushed by this great sorrow, I know by experience that our dead do not pass away from our minds. They grow more beautiful the longer we live. We remember them with greater pleasure, more tenderly. They will always be just like they had been. They will never change. The little girl that you laid away in Houston is today, in your mind, just what she was then. And the dear husband that you lay away now will always be just what he is today. No changes can come. He is fixed in the memory. Now, my friends, on behalf of Mrs. Brand and her children, let me thank you for this presence, for this demonstration of your man who has so suddenly, so unexpectedly fallen in our midst. Let us cherish his memory, remember his virtue, and imitate his daring courage in defiance of that which he thought was evil and wrong. He was not without his faults, none of us are. He was always ready and willing to admit that. No man was more willing to answer for his work than W. C. Brand. Therefore, I ask him that judgment today we shall all crave of one another when we shall have passed away. We will now lay his body in the grave, we will cover it with Mother Earth, and upon it place these flowers as a testimonial of our love and affection for him." At the grave, the bouquet which Mrs. Brand had laid on the casket before leaving home was returned to her, and just before the casket was lowered into the grave she stepped forward and lovingly placed the floral piece upon the casket, and it was closed in the grave. There was a large number of floral offerings, flowers were there in profusion, but as at the other funeral, two pieces were especially noticeable. One was a huge broken wheel full three feet in diameter all in white, composed of lilies of the valley, hyacinths and roses. It was the gift of the employees of the iconoclast and William Marion Reedy of St. Louis. The night printing company sent a large anchor about three feet long, which was composed of pink carnations and white roses. The following were the pallbearers, J.W. Shaw, G.B. Gerald, D.R. Wallace, L. Ithe, Waller S. Baker, Dr. W. Hale, H.B. Mistracht, John D. Mayfield and James M. Drake. End of Section 6, The Obsequies. The Complete Works of Bran, The Iconoclast, Volume 12, Section 7, The Latest Tragedy. Editorial of hearing in the Waco Weekly Tribune issue April 9, 1898 and written by Hon. A.R. McCollum, Editor and State Senator of the Texas Legislature. What use to write or read or talk of the tragic deaths of Bran and Davis unless those who survive are to draw from the tragedy, lessons which rightly applied will bring peace and good to society and especially to this community. If not this, then far better silence. In the news columns of the paper, we have told the story of the battle to the death fought on the public streets of the death scenes and burial and all over this land where newspapers are printed the story has been told and millions have read. There will be no adequate estimate of the effect the reading will have upon the minds of the millions. It is certain that the most patent result will be to discredit this community in the esteem of the people whose good opinion our people would like to have and to react in ways that will affect the material welfare of this city and very likely of the county too. Beyond all question the deplorable events of last year opening with October have operated to the detriment of Waco and beyond all question the latest chapter of blood and violence will intensify the distrust unless it is evidenced that this is to be the end and that hereafter peace and order are to prevail and the sacredness of human life be more assured. This is why we say it is little use to write or discuss the passing of Bran and Davis beyond rendering the tributes of love and affection unless our people are to learn from the deaths, the lessons of forbearance and tolerance and subordination of passion and prejudice to the nobler and better ends and aims of life asperity and bitterness must be buried in the graves Bran and Davis have gone to a judgment higher than that of men and both, we venture to hope and believe have found how true it is that God is mercy as well as justice for our part we would rather let them rest in peace and not essay an analysis of their attributes and actions we will say this of Bran that though he could write for all in his private life he could be and was as gentle as a woman and his aspirations were those of generosity and kindness a faithfulness to friends his home life with wife and children was a poem that never ended till he died his genius was superhuman as Mr. Shaw truly said in his remarks at the grave it is not likely that we shall ever see his like again in this community Davis was cast in a different mold mentally a man of quite another type he was sturdy and practical and took the world precisely as he found it it was indeed a strange fate that brought these two men face to face in deadly conflict and made of Davis the instrument to put an end to Bran's earthly career both men loved and were beloved widows and orphans mourned them let the dead rest in peace for good can be said of each it is the manifest duty of this community to forbear from discussion of what might have been or who sowed the wind that brought the whirlwind at the best years of patience unselfish earnest work to restore our city to the place it might hold in the esteem of men the fool will say it makes no difference what others think it is a fool's consolation and a fool's argument with the cold truth is that not alone the prestige and good repute of our fair city have been marred of material progress and posterity have been affected population, capital skill, brawn, industry morality hold aloof not holy of course yet to a degree that is material and unfortunate it is possible to remedy this but not until we prove to the world the toleration and peace are to rule here and that human life is not to be held as the cheapest thing society has to lose end of section 7 recording by John Brandon Section 8 of the Complete Works of Brand the Iconoclast Volume 12 This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by William Jones Benita Springs, Florida The Complete Works of Brand the Iconoclast Volume 12 Section 8 Brand and Baylor The following account of the mobbing of Brand in the fall preceding his death see Brand's article Ropes, Revolvers and Religion in Volume 10 is taken from the Waco Tribune for October 9th 1897 It is reproduced here to enable the reader to better interpret the circumstances of Brand's death As to the Brand-Baylor episode the old adage two rungs will not make it right is certainly applicable to it Brand's article on Baylor University was fully indefensible essentially ill-timed and could not possibly have wrought any good either to Baylor or the cause of morality in general It merited the protest and indignation it evoked and if Brand, when he wrote it really appreciated its full import for had he reflected he would have known that he placed his friends at a disadvantage in that men who hold the views respecting virtuous womanhood that most southern men and himself included do could not defend the article and Brand is a man who we have always found to be true to his friend and to place a friend in an embarrassing or unpleasant position he illustrated how a wonderfully brilliant men may astonish the world and himself to by perpetrating a grave blunder or mistake we cannot understand how he came to print the article and is for the course of the Baylor students who laid forcible hands upon Brand and by mob power compelled him to sign humiliating admissions and apologies their course was about as grave a blunder as was Brand's it is not palliation to argue how indignant they were and how natural their indignation perhaps those in authority at Baylor who are said to have known beforehand the purpose of the student mob and quietly winked at it if they did not openly commend it are more to blame than the boys and the work for the older heads were naturally expected to display the wisdom of mature years it is the truth that the authorities who condoned and the students who perpetrated the lawlessness are equally beyond the pale of defense it was thus that two wrongs and not even one right were done all the parties to the wrong will have to take the consequence Brand has impaired the nature of the iconoclast students and university authorities have brought unnecessary reproach on Baylor and given it undesirable notoriety Baylor is part and parcel of Waco all of us regardless of creed helped to rear it it's good name in welfare or matters of concern to all Brand if he knew of disgraceful facts or episodes connected with names dates and specific details and some student professor patron or friend of Baylor someone with a daughter sister or female relative there thus vested with the God given right of resenting slurs on the virtue of girl students should have been found willing to deal with brand personally and somewhere else then on the university grounds with brand helpless and bulldozed and thus acting with defense of his woman kind as his plea may if his pretensions are valid always risk public opinion and jury verdict in this county we hope this matter will end where it is nobody wants to see brand driven away from Waco nor do we believe such a thing can be done men will be found in ample numbers to maintain his right to dwell here he is a brilliant man who can be distinctly useful as a writer on his part he owes something to the community which is willing to maintain his every right to the friends who are still his friends even if he makes a mistake and that is to remember that Baylor University is part and parcel of Waco and that the reputable element of society here does not share his views concerning the disreput alleged to attach to Baylor most of us wish brand well most of us wish Baylor well it has been said that this is a matter of religious differences and prejudices it is not so safer individuals want and see fit to make it so it has been said personal liberty and bigotry are involved in this matter we failed to comprehend how or where in God knows there is not a spot on the globe where there is more diversity of opinion more freedom of expression and action as to religion than in this town once more we hope this matter is ended and for good since the above was put in type the assault made by Judge Scarborough R.H. Hamilton and George Scarborough on Mr. Brand has occurred Judge Scarborough has a daughter Judge Scarborough a sister who has recently been a student and is now a member of the faculty at Baylor he will thus be understood how Brand's article could aggrieve the father and brother if either one had taken a shotgun and killed Brand on site public opinion would have held such a course far more commendable than the policy adopted if either one had challenged him given him a show for his life and told him public sentiment would have condoned such a step and no jury in this country would have worn any penalty for this slain but the overpowering attack by three men was itself a mob attack three may constitute a mob as well as 10 or 20 of course there will be some to defend the trio of assaulters but the consensus of public opinion will be against it and by the greater part of the people it will be regarded as essentially unfair it is not served so far as we can see any good purpose but to the contrary has intensified the bitter feeling existing here Brand's friends never endorsed his article on Baylor but this assault justified their indignation as for Judge Scarborough we must regret his act and express surprise that he has been sent to such a course as for Hamilton his participation is altogether indefensible end of section 8 Brand and Baylor section 9 of the complete works of Brand the Iconoclast volume 12 this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Rita Boutros the complete works of Brand the Iconoclast volume 12 by William Cowper Brand section 9 the following is the account of the shooting of Brand from the Waco Times Herald see the editorial for the attitude of this paper the anti-mortem statement of Davis and the statements of Moore, Hall and Sherman Vaughn are identical in both papers and are therefore not repeated the Times Herald gave no statements from Erp, Peterson, Chase, Inslee nor Duggar note other statements not given in the Tribune terrific deadly conflict a fearful street fight in which WC Brand and Tom E. Davis were riddled with pistol shots and William H. Ward shot through the hand Brand, editor of Iconoclast dead the life of Tom E. Davis the well-known real estate man of Waco hangs by a slender thread with almost every chance against him Brand, Baylor Affair the Cause a motorman and musician wounded by flying missiles ward in jail on a charge of assault to murder the city thrown into a whirlwind of excitement over the fearful affair and happy homes made sad at this writing 9 o'clock WC Brand editor of Brand's Iconoclast and Tom E. Davis a prominent real estate man of this city lie dangerously wounded with a likelihood of their dying at any moment William H. Ward an employee of WC Brand is shot through the right hand Sy Kennedy a motorman on the street car line is shot in the right knee and Kepler a traveling musician is shot in the right foot the three men last named are only slightly wounded WC Brand is shot through the left groin in the right foot and through the middle of the back about the lower part of the shoulder blade ranged upward and outward coming out at the front side near the point where the arm joins the body Tom E. Davis is shot twice in the right arm the balls going through the arm leaving four holes one in the upper left arm near the shoulder on the outer part of the arm this ball range to the back and came out just a little ways in the left shoulder another shot took effect in the right breast near the nipple ranged outward and backward coming out of the back near the side another shot took effect in the back near the right side about the waistband ranged outward and downward and lodged just over the spine just under the skin another shot took effect just under the right arm ranged backward coming out about six inches in the back this made a total of six shots that took effect in Davis's body from best information obtained the cause of the trouble dates back to the old brand baler affair it was during this trouble that Mr. Davis was an outspoken advocate for baler and had made the same statement that scores of other people in Waco are accredited with having made that brand is a scoundrel and ought to be run out of town Mr. Davis was fearless and outspoken and Mr. Brand learned of the stand he took yesterday it seems that Mr. Brand in company with Mr. W. H. Ward an employee of his made it convenient to come in contact with Mr. Davis and one of them supposed to be Mr. Brand Mr. Davis had been out on the street where he had just been passed by the men a couple of times and returned to his office on 4th street between Franklin and Austin streets he had been in his office only a minute or so when Mr. Brand and Ward passed with Brand on the inside as the two men passed Mr. Davis says that one of them remarked with a loud voice there is the damned cowardly son of a blank he will take anything to which Mr. Davis replied are you scoundrels talking about me the shooting followed immediately when the shooting ended Davis was taken into French's newsstand and several physicians were called in opiates were administered and it looked as if Davis would die at any moment to his friends frequently saying they have got me I am bound to go county clerk Joni Jones was present and all being fearful that Davis might die at any moment Mr. Jones took his anti-mortem statement which is given below Mr. Brand was taken to the city hall by officers Sam Hall and Dury where he was laid upon a couch and other physicians attended him until 7.20 o'clock when he was taken home being accompanied by physicians and friends Ward, Kennedy and Kepler all repaired to the drug stores and had their wounds dressed something near an hour after the shooting Mrs. Davis and her children came from their home in East Waco to the side of the wounded husband and father at dark Davis was removed to the Pacific Hotel and D.C.J. King attended him in his official capacity Mrs. Davis was with her husband and numerous friends were present to administer every want Mr. Ward employed an attorney Justice W.H. Davis was called up by telephone and about 9 o'clock he opened court in his courtroom Mr. Ward through his attorney waved all formalities preliminaries and examination and was granted bond in the sum of $4,000 which he failed to give and went to jail from the moment the first shot was fired citizens rushed to the scene from every part of the city and in a moment after the firing had ceased there were fully 1,000 persons on 4th Street surging around French's newsstand while there were two thirds that number at the city hall where Mr. Bran was being attended to and up until after midnight the streets were filled with hundreds and hundreds of citizens grouped here and there in all of the hotels and on the street corners discussing the one absorbing question the shooting at midnight both Mr. Davis and Mr. Bran were alive with the former resting much easier E.P. Norwood Mr. E.P. Norwood said just prior to the shooting I had walked up 4th Street passing Mr. Bran and Ward standing in front of Krause's store near Bankers Alley when I met Herman Strauss who insisted that I go back across the alley to Leneri's Saloon as we went back I saw Bran and Ward still standing where they were and at that moment Tom Davis had just come up the sidewalk in front of Leneri's and leaving Bankers Alley without crossing it he went immediately to his office in a moment I saw Bran and Ward go directly to Davis's office I thought nothing unusual of this not knowing that any difficulty was liable to occur and went into Leneri's to take a drink in a moment or so I heard 2 or 3 shots fired and I immediately ran to the door I could see the man I saw Davis on the ground and Bran and Ward standing up firing at him I am positive that Ward fired 1 shot if not 2 shots he ceased and Bran continued firing until an officer rushed right into the shooting and caught Bran John Sleeper Mr. John Sleeper was an eyewitness and made the following statement on the 4th Street entrance to my store and was looking south on 4th Street and saw Mr. Bran and Mr. Ward coming up the sidewalk from the alley in front of the Cotton Belt Ticket Office and then turned and looked north towards Austin Street and while looking in that direction I heard 3 pistol shots almost simultaneously and turned and looked in the direction from which the pistol shots came and saw Mr. Tom Davis reeling and falling to the sidewalk and Mr. Bran firing upon him Mr. Davis fell to the ground almost in a heap and rolled over as many as 4 times Mr. Ward handed Mr. Bran a pistol and Bran stepped forward towards Davis and began firing on him as he was rolling upon the sidewalk Bran and Ward then turned and walked away on 4th Street towards Austin Street to a point directly opposite my door where I was standing when two police officers came across 4th Street from the direction of the Citizens National Bank and as they came up to Bran he remarked gentlemen I am shot but Ward said nothing I noticed blood flowing from Ward's right hand as if he was wounded in it I did not see Mr. Davis or Mr. Ward either shoot at any time Ab Vaughn Mr. Ab Vaughn a well-known man about town says that while crossing 4th Street from the Cotton Belt ticket office towards the Pacific Hotel he passed Bran and Ward in the street on the east side of the street railway track and that he overheard one of them say to the other I wouldn't do it though which one spoke he was unable to say he paid no attention to the remark at the time and stepped into the Pacific Saloon the next instant he heard the reports of a pistol followed in rapid succession by a number of other shots W. O. Brown Mr. W. O. Brown made the following statement a few minutes before 6 o'clock I was at the Pacific Hotel Bar in company with W. C. Bran we converse together for 15 or 20 minutes during the course of which Baylor University was discussed as well as the trouble attendant upon his Philopix against it before parting Mr. Bran remarked in rather a sneering way I expect to get killed but when I am Baylor will have become a thing of the past or words to that effect we separated and I walked down 4th Street to Austin where I met my wife and a lady friend in our Fayeton and after a moment's conversation with her entered a buggy with Mr. C. M. Clisby and started to the opera house just as we turned the corner I heard a pistol shot perhaps two and turning my head saw Tom Davis fall to the sidewalk I jumped from the buggy and ran towards my wife's Fayeton fearing her horse would take fright leaving my fears groundless hastened to the scene of the shooting and there found Tom Davis lying on the sidewalk and assisted in carrying him into French's newsstand I heard several shots fired after I saw Davis fall but who fired them I am unable to say Judge J. W. Davis Judge John W. Davis said I was standing on 4th Street although the Pacific Hotel entrance talking to a number of gentlemen among them John W. Marshall I heard a pistol shot up 4th Street and turned and saw in front of W. F. Williams and company's office what appeared to be several men in a scuffle the larger man was falling toward the street shots were fired into him as he was falling and continued after he was lying on the sidewalk and was rolling over the shots were fired in such rapid succession that it seemed impossible for them to have come from one pistol I did not recognize the participants at first but thought that the man falling was Tom Davis after 8 or 10 shots had been fired I recognized W. C. Bran with a policeman I could not tell what was the relative position of the party they all seemed to be in a clump J. W. Williams John W. Williams says just a few moments before this shooting Tom Davis came into our office that of Williams and company and said hello to Tom Sparks who was talking to me he then turned and went out in a moment I heard a click as though a pistol was being cocked and at that time recognized the voice of Davis saying something like talk to me at the same time I saw the tail of Davis's coat go back as if he was trying to draw his pistol rapid shooting followed as if from several pistols when I reached the door I saw Ward either shoot or push Davis down his hand being almost or quite against Davis and Davis between me and him at the same time as the push or shot from Ward and the firing was continued by Bran Davis at this time struggling on the ground or sidewalk and called out to me that he was murdered I got his pistol Bran continued to fire and snapped his pistol several times after Davis was down the shots were fired very rapidly and as I was looking at and watching Bran so intently I cannot say whether Ward was shooting or not as I was not looking at him W. S. Gillespie Mr. W. S. Gillespie said I was sitting in my office a few minutes prior to the shooting and noticed Mr. Bran and Mr. Ward his business manager standing across the street on the corner of Bankers Alley in very earnest conversation looking across the street as if watching someone or something and finally came across to the corner in front of my office and after they passed going north towards Austin Street I heard the rapid firing of guns and ran out and found T. E. Davis lying on the sidewalk and I went up to him and asked him if he was very badly hurt and he remarked they have assassinated me they have murdered me and friends came up to my assistance at the French's Cigar store B. H. Kirk Mr. B. H. Kirk said at the time of the shooting I was on the sidewalk in front of Mr. Mackey's office I noticed W. C. Bran and W. H. Ward together crossing 4th Street from the direction of Cross's store and walking towards Tom Davis's office a moment or two after I heard two shots fired very near together I saw Tom Davis on the sidewalk in front of his office in the act of falling as he lay on the sidewalk two more shots were fired into him after these last two shots Davis rolled over and fired at Bran and I thought hit him in the breast after that several more shots were fired into Davis Bran and Ward were about 3 feet from Davis during the firing standing near the outside of the sidewalk and perhaps a little nearer to Austin Street I cannot say I saw W. H. Ward fire but my impression is that all three were shooting R. H. Kingsbury R. H. Kingsbury said I was standing close to the telephone post between Pacific Hotel Bar and Moses Newsstand when I heard one or two shots fired almost together I exclaimed Tom Davis is killed for I saw him on the sidewalk in front of his office struggling and rolling as Davis lay on the sidewalk dead as I thought there were two men shooting at him these men I learned were W. C. Bran and his bodyguard W. H. Ward while so shooting at Davis Bran was in front of Ward and both were firing I do not know if Davis fired or not later at 1 a.m. a Times Herald reporter visited the home of Mr. Bran and found him dying at 10 30 o'clock he had a hemorrhage of the lungs which filled one of them up and the lung was still bleeding at 1 a.m. and his vitality was fast ebbing away Dr. M. L. Graves said that the sufferer was dying and was liable to die at any moment at 1 a.m. Mr. Tom Davis had not rallied from the effects of his wounds but little hope was entertained for his recovery Mr. Davis has wonderful vitality and his great strength may yet pull him through though there is but the faintest hope that it will Dr. King is still at his bedside doing all that is possible later at 1.55 o'clock this morning W. C. Bran the noted editor of Bran's iconoclast breathed his last just before the end came his family and intimate friends were gathered about him his lungs were filled from the internal hemorrhage and he passed peacefully away 3 a.m. at this hour Mr. Tom E. Davis is rapidly sinking and it is thought that the end will be at hand it may be possible for the wounded man to live as long as two hours but all hope has fled and the end is watched for which may come at any minute his physicians say he is dying End of Section 9 Section 10 of the complete works of Bran the iconoclast volume 12 this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by John Brandon the complete works of Bran the iconoclast volume 12 Section 10 editorial The Late Tragedy the details of the awful tragedy of Friday evening are yet fresh in the minds of the people of Waco and it is bootless to recount them two of the principals there too have passed to the beyond and a third is in the hands of the outraged law and with him let the law deal in life Captain Davis was our friend his assailant was our enemy in death they take on the proportions of common humanity upon the beer one we belay the myrtle of never dying remembrance over the coffin of the other let the mantle of forgetfulness rest the times herald makes no war upon the dead it is not with the dead we deal today but the living the citizenship the municipality the people of Waco who must suffer who must endure and who must survive the blow that has fallen upon us not because too brave men are dead but because of the stain of blood guiltiness that has again besmirched our fair escutcheon this tragedy has harmed Waco almost beyond the power of men to help because it has again been blazing to the world that here human life is cheapened that men's passions rule rather than the written law and that our Christian civilization is but the thinnest veneer atop of the savage yet out of this may come a blessing to Waco if it shall teach men to rule their passions and their speech if it shall show us the way to lean upon the arm of the law rather than upon the might of our own strength if it shall make us more tolerant of the opinions of our neighbor if it shall incline us to encourage the public wheel rather than private animosities the shadow of tragedy may yet pass and the sunlight of humanity prevail the charms has no heart for moralizing it will add no pang to the grief of those who mourn it asks of the people of Waco that upon the two new mounds made in Oakland today the seeds of forgetfulness may spring into Verdor covering the food and hiding passion and that the dead past will bury its dead leaving to the present hope and to the future fruition and of section 10 recording by John Brandon section 11 of the complete works of Bran the iconoclast volume 12 this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings if you have more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Rita Butros the complete works of Bran the iconoclast volume 12 by William Cowper Bran section 11 here follow the contents of the May 1898 iconoclast published by Bran's friends after his death the passing of William Cowper Bran by GP Gerald poetic legend says that on a moonlight night 2000 years ago along the shores of the Gulf of Patras a mighty voice was heard crying great Pan is dead and from the mountains and the valleys the woods and grottoes where stood the altars of those who worshipped at the shrine of Pan was re-echoed back the cry great Pan is dead on the second of April when the winged lightning bore over a continent and to foreign lands beyond the sea the news that W.C. Bran of the iconoclast was dead in every land where his writings are known from men and women who worship at the shrine of genius went up the wailing cry Bran of the iconoclast is dead oh death how grim and imperious master of us all how dreadful to the living are your silent darts that are ever striking with impartial hand the old man in his dotage the strong man in his prime the brave man in his courage and the craven in his fear W.C. Bran was 43 years of age and had just arrived at that period when he was beginning to realize and aspirations of years when he was stricken down amid the rejoicings of many and the sorrows of many thousands more he was born in Coles County Illinois and at the age of two and a half years by the death of his mother was placed with a sister some two years older than himself in the care of Mr. Hawkins and his wife who lived on a farm in that county he remained with them 10 years and then longing to be something more than a farm hand he packed his small belongings in a little box and at night when all was still he took the box under his arm and went out into the lonely darkness of the moonless night without money friends or education to commence the struggle which ended in his untimely death at Waco Mr. Bran always spoke in the most kindly terms of Mr. and Mrs. Hawkins and when he purchased his home in this city he offered to share it with them but having grown old and being comfortably situated they did not desire to change the first place he secured was that of a bell boy in a hotel and from that passed on to other situations realizing all the time what every proud spirited boy knew under the circumstances the bitterness that friendlessness ignorance and poverty bring to the struggle of life among other things he learned the trade of painter and grainer also that of printer all the time storing his mind with what scraps of education that his life of poverty and toil permitted after he gathered sufficient education he became a newspaper writer and in 1877 at Rochelle Illinois was married to Miss Carrie Martin who with two children Grace and William Carlisle little Billy as we call him survive him after the death of Mrs. Bran's mother he took to his home one of her sisters now Mrs. Marple of Fort Worth and although often driven to the most desperate straits to make a living he proved to her as a brother and a father he continued his newspaper career in Illinois and Missouri until some 13 years ago when he came to Texas and gradually became known by his connection with various papers of the state for a short time he had an interest in a paper called The Iconoclast published in Austin but he soon found himself back at his old trade that of driving his pen for others at last worn out by long years of unremitting and generally poorly requited toil wearied with waiting for opportunity to write as he wished but could not do as an employee of others he determined to again strike out for himself as he had done in his early boyhood and in 1894 came to this city and established The Iconoclast which was a success from its first issue and continued to grow in circulation as he grew in reputation as a writer until the copy that witnessed his death reached an issue of nearly 90,000 the world for several generations has been discussing whether Shakespeare wrote the plays that bear his name thousands believing that it was impossible for a man who had no more education than Shakespeare had in his youth and exhibited the varied knowledge and learning that characterized his works therefore these attribute them to Sir Francis Bacon one of the most brilliant and best educated men of his time all the evidence goes to show that at the age of 18 when Shakespeare married that he had acquired with a little Latin and less Greek the ordinary education accorded to the sons of the well-to-do middle class in his time of which his father was one at 18 Mr. Bran had barely secured the rudiments of an English education and had he lived to the age of Shakespeare there is no telling to what heights intellectually he would have risen from a slight knowledge of his hopes and aspirations I can say that while he dearly loved The Iconoclast as a vehicle by which he could not he had aspirations that went far beyond it and proposed that during the next 10 nor 12 years after his mind had been fully stored for the work to leave as a legacy to the world in a continuous work his conception of the wrongs done to humanity the evils that spring from them and the remedies to be applied and all who have read him closely and noticed how month by month he grew greater and brighter will surely join in saying that the loss of such a work from such a man at the meridian of his intellectual life is only second if not equal to the loss of the unwritten volumes of Buckle's history of civilization alas that such a man with such a great future before him should have died standing on the very shoulder of his work in the private relations of life Mr. Bran was as extraordinary as in his public career he presented that combination that is so rare that even novelists do not attempt to paint it the combination of the lover and the husband and as a father a friend a lover of humanity with a broad mantle of charity for all he had few equals while he wrote in prose he was a poet and of him can be truly said the thoughts that stir the poet's heart are not the thoughts that others feel from the world's creed they are all apart and often are work his woe than wheel they are born of high imaginings kindled to life by passions fire and or earth's dross his fancy flings olden dreams that wrap his lyre as a writer Mr. Bran had his faults but they were the heritage of this God-given son of genius and with them he climbed the heights and died among the greatest both of the living and the dead and had he lived ten years longer in all probability the intellectual world would have held him as the grandest writer that this earth has ever known since the days when Old Homer painted the matchless beauty of the bride of Menelos and told of the godlike courage of the Greek and Trojan as they fought for her from the Scamander to the sea while the ignorant the bigoted and intolerant are rejoicing in his death and garnishing his grave with the slime of their slander they may be assured that his name and writings will live until the English language dies and when W. C. Bran is dead and forgotten so will be stern smalle, fielding swift, pope steel, Addison Goldsmith, Shakespeare Ben and Sam Johnson Byron, Shelley Keats, Carlisle George Elliot and all that mighty host that have made the English language what it is the language that the little tribe of the Angles brought from the forest of Germany to Britain swallowed the Britain and survived the Norman conquest and then absorbed both the conqueror and his language and in the dead centuries of over a thousand years in every generation has produced some mighty intellect to speed it on in building up the bulwarks of human rights and human liberty until they have grown so high that dust boots turn from it with loathing and slaves cannot speak it the language of the Magna Carta and the declaration of American independence the two instruments that have spread the breadth of liberty before a hungry world and as a writer of this language with all its mighty past and greater future W. C. Bran had few equals and no superiors I have been asked both before and since his death what were his religious opinions and while every man's religious opinions are his own and no one has the right to question them I will say he was a deist something after the manner of Thomas Paine and for the benefit of some of our professors and preachers who do not know the difference between an atheist and a deist I will say that a deist is one who believes in one God and rejects all forms of so-called revealed religion Mr. Bran loved nature and when he looked upon it he saw nature's God that with eternal fingers has written his message on earth and sky so that savage and civilized Christian and infidelo like could read that has by immutable and unvarying laws regulated the bloom of the flowers the course of the winds and the fall of the leaf as well as the revolutions of the countless millions of worlds that are ever speeding through the unmeasurable realms of space he believed that this mighty power that men call God could perpetuate man in the hereafter as easily as he had placed him here and while he like many others knew that all his hopes and faith did not furnish one atom of real proof as to what lies beyond the gates of death still he hoped for the brighter and better life and when that beautiful smile overspread his face when he died those who beheld it felt that he had realized his hopes and in the shadowy realm that bounds the Stygian river that met his little girl Ainez whose untimely death at the age of barely twelve years had worked such havoc in his heart Mr. Bran loved nature not only when the gorgeous god of day threw over earth and sky the flashing strands of his golden hair but in the night time when all else was wrapped in the arms of sleep the twin sister of death and the belated passerby of his home often saw the gleam of his cigar as he sat or walked upon the lawn in the small hours of the night and at such time I know there came through his soul the thoughts if not the words of that death devoted Greek who to the question from the woman that he loved oh Aion, shall we meet again answered I have asked that dreadful question of the hills that look eternal clear streams that flow on forever of the bright stars amid whose fields of azure my raised spirit has walked in glory all, all are dumb but when I gaze upon thy face I feel that there is something in the love that mantles through its beauty that cannot wholly perish we shall meet again, Clemante but it was not the name of Clemante that passed his lips it was ever Aionez, darling Aionez we shall meet again I hear reproduced in his own words an extract appropriate to this subject it is from the iconoclast of March 1896 and an article headed Beecher on the Bible I know nothing of the future I spend no time speculating upon it I am overwhelmed by the past and at death grips with the present at the grave God draws the line between the two eternities never has living man lifted the sombre veil of death and looked beyond there is a deity I have felt his presence I have heard his voice I have been cradled in his imperial robe all that is or was or can ever be is but the visible garment of God I seek to know nothing of his plans and purposes I ask no written covenant with God for he is my father I will trust him without requiring priests or prophets to endorse his note as I write my little son awake alarmed by some unusual noise and come groping through the darkness to my door he sees the light shining through the transom returns to his trundle bed and lies down to peaceful dreams he knows that beyond that gleam his father keeps watch and ward and he asks no more through a thousand celestial transoms streams the light of God why should I fear the sleep of death the unknown terrors of that starless night the waves of the river sticks why should I seek assurance from the lips of men that the wisdom, love of my heavenly father will not fail like the lowly Judean carpenter who gave his life in a protest against the wrongs which wealth and power had done to his fellow man he was hated by the Pharisees and hypocrites but he never cast a stone at the poor and unfortunate but was ever ready to support the weak battling in the cause of right against the cohorts of the wrong he was not only a poet but was a prophet and a priest not the prophet and priest of orthodoxy that has handed down to us through the ages written in the blood of slaughtered millions that dark story of fork-tailed demons and flaming hells that has given us a God that loves us better than an earthly father can yet permits us in the sight of his great white throne and suffer through the endless ages of eternity in the flames of hell but he was a priest and prophet of a greater and grander faith that in the evolution of the unborn centuries yet to come will strip from the Godhead all of the horrid concepts born of the puny hate of man for his fellow man Mr. Bran was a man of the highest moral courage no one doubted this but some doubted whether he had that kind of physical courage that is necessary to contend with mobs and assassins but when the hour came when without the slightest warning or anticipation of danger the death wound tore through his back with a coolness that few even of the bravest of men would have possessed under the circumstances with a courage that could have led the Irish exiles in that desperate and desperate