The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1875-04-29
a Bandits waning.

The Advice Given to Parents by Vasauez,
the Aoted CaltEOrnia Bandit, on The
sen1teld' ~ - =
Tibureio Yasqaez was a Bandit. He
and his band ravaged at viii several of
the lower counties of California. In the
wild, free, Andalusian life of Los An
gelos and Santa Clara. these brigands
found ample room and verge enough
for exploits whose recital takes us back
TO the medieval times when robber
barons aud predatory knights swooped
down upon the plains and valleys, and
bore away TO their mountain Businesses
the spoil of beauty and pelf. An adven-
turous and romantic career was that of
Fasquez and his company. Their ex-
ploits have furnished forth material for
cheap novels and 8 Observation-Disclosures
dramas. They stole. ravaged. burned.
plundered, and murdered in that gay
and dashing manner which fasciuates
callow youth, and sets romantic maidens
to sighing for g such man. p The
country through which these bandits
ranged is thinlv populated, ranches and
trading posts dotting at long intervals
the vast treeless plains which lie be
tween woody hills and mountains cleft
by secret gorges and canyons. For
years these precious rascals deied the
law, and sUbsisted on a country laid
under contribution as thoroughly as
Mexico was under Cortez. Mothers
scared their children into silence with
the name of Vasquez, and young men
toiling in the vineyard or sultry glebe,
locked at the dust arising from the
hoofs of his rough riders on the noun
tain side, half in fear and half in ad-
miration. The chief bandit bore a
charmed life. He was thought invul-
nerable. No bullet ever reached him,
and no deputY-sheriff came near enough
to see the color of his horse.
In an evil hour fer the young robber,
he fell into the tolls and was captured,
tried, convicted, and hanged By the
neck until he was dead. The bold,
dashing, handsome cG66IIeTo died the
death of a dog. He carried himself
with ightness and jolly recklessness to
the scaffold bat when he was hanged,
no man in the throng that looked at his
taking of lamented his ignobBe end.
The general verdict was, g Served him
ria ht. Z" And so it did. The night before
this wretch was hanged, he asked to see
his coffin. 1t was shown him. He read
curiously the inscription which set
forth that ne ed tomorrow" and he
felt the lSaing tenderly, saying "I
shall sleep long and we'll here. Then
he discoursed Of that silent land into
which he was to travel, saying, with
some show of seriousness, that he was
not sure of an eternity. "The ssges
say there is one" he remarked, with a
shrug of the shoulders and he added
that if there were an eternity of life, he
should meet all his sweethearts next
T-5AAs,,~. Il I. IL
an address which he wished directed
'' To fathers and mothers of children"
This singular document began thus
6 Standing at the portals of the un-
known and unknoyable world, and
looking back upon the life of this, as
have seen it, I would urge upon you
to make your greatest care to so train,
influence, instruct, and govern the
young to whom you have given life,
that they be kept aloof, as far as in the
nature of things is possible, from the
degrading companionship of the i'm
moral and vicious. The general welfare
of society depends upon the strict per
formauee of this part of your duty"
This was the bandits homily and
warning. To his former associates he
dictated an equally unique address, in
which he deprecated their reButed in
tention to make bloody reparation for
his death, and bade them to take warn
ing by his fate and change their course
while life was left them. On the fol
lowing day, accompanied by a priest
who bade his beads and pattered prayer,
the brigand chiet stepped lightly to the
fatal tree. ioked about the dread here
after, told the hangman to be quick
about it, and so was launched into
eternity.