The Cheyenne daily leader. [volume] (Cheyenne, Wyo.) 1870-1884, 1877-10-21
LEARNED CRIMINALS .inD OUR Law
OFFICERS.

LEARNED CRIMINALS ARD OUR LAW
OFFICERS.
The question-are our detectives as
expert as the professional criminalsP
has occurred to us frequently of late.
Are our officers as wide awake as the
~road-agents who haye plundered Black
Hills travellers and nearly closed the
Cheyenne route to the Hills? Was the
corporal as good as Collins at the policy
of '.Throw up your hands," He was
plucky, prompt and successful, AMI de-
serves applause and his share of the
reward. But why did he not say to
Collins and his pal what Collins and
his pal said TO the trainmen and PAS
sengers-''throw up your hands?"-
that is, if lie had made up his mind &c
capture the villains alive. To say Il
shall be SO, 600 better off from this"
or words to that effect, were not the
words of the wise under such circum-
stances. Nothing but a ''Tbrow up
your hands, and disarming the robbers
was necessary. The rest was imprudent.
perilous. This is the leaf we would
have all Sheriffs take from the book of
bandits. NUNS the word from the
attacking party, except-Throw up your
hands. "Boldness and coolness'' and
silence. "Let thy words be few when
the wicked are before thee"
Curiously enough, Captain" Collins
broke this rule of silence, another indf
cation that such long heads lose their
heads when the robbery is accomplished.
He draws the fire of the posse by re-
marking "Pal, if we must die. we
may as well die game" The best of
sentiments from the worst of men.
But it was bad policy. If the rascal
had been rs silent in the presence of his
captors as he had been in the presence
of his captives a few nights before, he
might have "died game'' in the sense
he meant it. He could not have saved
his own life, but he could easily have
taken that of Corporal Eddy who would
hardly have been $4,000 better off,
in that case. True, it may be said if
Collins had not been obstreperous, his
life would have been saved, and. he
would now be in Jail, with a chance for
escape, instead of being where the
authorities really do 'let no guilty man
man escape" On the other hand,
however, it "a the merest chance that
one, two or three valuable lives were
not lost before these two wicked
lives were destroyed. The same favor
able result under the same circum-
stances cannot be counted on by the
same posse again. So we contend that
if the two robbers were not to be shot
dead in their tracks as soon as they
were overtaken land if not, why notp),
they should have been subjected to their
own policy of "Throw up your hands,
or get out Of the world! Of course the
policy is understood to be accompanied
by q revolver loaded and cooked and
properly aimed.
1t is remarkable how much there Is
in those few words of exhortation I'M
der such circumstances. They import
a menace and imply a hope. They
mean that you will lose something, but
not everything. They are at once a
sudden stroke of strategy and a
premeditated policy. They may blend
humane regard for the life of your
victim with a deliberate resolve to put
an end to it if your demand is not
complied with. They serve the purpose
of the outlaw and the guardian of the
law as well. They may protect
the life of the most law-defying scoun-
drel.
The express agent, in charge of all
those bags of coin, was no sooner con-
fronted by the robbers than he was
startled and transfixed by the order:
"ThroW up your hands!" Why did
they not shoot rundown? Because they
had resolved to rob, and not to kill. I'M
less killing was unavoidable. All
robbers are not murderers. While it is
true, however, that professional
thieves are not, as a rule, professional
assassins, it is no less true that there
is n class of robbers who do not
hesitate to kill and destroy on the
slightest provocation. They begin
with robbery and end with murder, and
the two crimes are not far apart.
They are getting to be the horror and
terror Of IL towns and sparsely-settled
communities. This is the class which
every good citizen wishes were well out
of this world and into any other that
may be provided for them.
The Democrats of Lawrence county.
Dakota, met at Deadwood on the 10th
ona nonnfpofa1 fha f,1I1,r;n, a,~l: