The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1880-09-23
bElLENuE La, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 49, 1880

qeite aware that the most pleasant nor,
OF their duty is to draw their wa~a' paa
once month. They NAV actnal,v sos
sorsoa sn~ smeves eve ioosening their masters
ngtSes ";ts; and the groom may be lyino
WIN w;ehia a yard of the horses, watcbine
WIN iear and trembling every move.
ngnt; yet neither will interfere. Tbey
wll not even show any sign of be;no
amaAe, because any attempt on their
part to disturb what is going on q,
70 raise an alarm, would make the
.ineves take notice of them in q way 70,
from pleasant. There is, in fact. no nlan
10 protect horses which has not occa.
sionally proved a failure. The Gallant
General commanding the Peshawnr
DIVISION at the time to which i am al. Il
luaing, had very valuable mule-an
animal greatly priced in hilly conn.
try-which he placed for security in
lront OF guard of native soldiers and
Wlthln few yards of the sentry,s heat
it ATTRACTED the notice Of soma Of the
! hlllsmen, and a little cautious DARING
niaue IL Their prize. Selecting a dark
hight Tor their enterprise, thet crawled
along the ground until they reached the
animal. With one slash OF their knives
the head and heel ropes were cut. and
oe1ore the sentry could do ANYTHING.
one OF the thieyesswas. on thes back. of
the mule, and both were lost in dark.
ness. rz-rnr "''' N
1. Inc most popular plan of horse steal
ing is.showevers's some what different. n
requires at least three men to carry #
cut comfortably and successfully. One
pi them quietly steals his way into the
stable and lays hold of a cord which
has been pushed Through one of the
holes in the wall by one of his friends
outside. The two use the string as the
saw, while the third man pours upon il
a aplentiful supplyS-of water. The cord
silently and speedily cuts it's way down
the mud wall. In. a wonderfuljv short
time the three craftsmen II anaye Il, sav
round portion of the wall, which
J when pushed outwards. leaves a space
sufficient to allow horse to pass out.
Ihls done, the remaining work presents
no difficulty. The ropes which bind
the horse are cut, and in short time
ne is cantering to the hills with gener-
ally two and sometimes his three naw
masters on his back.
A somewhat bold and impudent ex-
plot in the horse stealing line was the
amusement and the talk of the station
for some days. . The cantonment is
literally a camp. At sundown a chain
OF sentinels communicating with each
other ispostedE El5ght rOnnSi ita TKis des
mands great number of men, and all
regiments, cavalry and Infantry, Euro
pean andsnative, nightly give their pro-
portions. A native trooper on the oc-
casion to which l refer, fastened his
horse to- the peg fixed about theniddle
OF his "beat;S and to keepsup hisscour-
age and himself warm-the night was
very dark and bitterly coldowalked
pretty ysmaatdyr back kwards lsnag forwards |
on his 8 beat, The extent of his walk
was not more than thirty yards, ands|
thus at no time could he have been more
than fifteen yards from his charger. He
was armed in the usual way with a
short rifle and q tulWar or sword. While 4
thus doing duty a hillman was watch
ing him with an eye to business. He |
to crawl quite close to him
without exciting notice, and waiting j
quietly until the. sentry was near the
end of his walk, and of course with his
back to the horse, the robber cut the
chargers rope, mounted him and in
momentswas Ge}lQping from the station.
The sentry ffed his rife in the direc-
ion in which his steed had gone; guards
,urned out and lot of noise was raised; I
out the outwitted soldier never saw his
lorss again.g Tohim the loss was se-z
.ious one, as the horses of the nativey
cavalry regiments do not belong to the
Government but to the troopers them
'elves. XII sss ssssegg
The Peshawur robbers are not only
laring fellows by nature and training
being . commodity of which
hey have really no word in their lam
their courage in their. en-
erprises is kept up by the careful prep
srations which they max before be-
inning any serious Undertaking in their
inc. They strip themselves Of everyl
rticle of clothing and then smear them
elves over with oil or ghee, which iss1
,utter prepared in a particular way for
.eeping. Thus they can literally give
he slip to any one, attempting to lay I,
old of them. In addition to this pre-
aution they carry a knife about the
ength OF the arm, somewhat heavy and
t the keenest edge. eszi +,
Farther "down country" there pre-
allied strange custom among the pro-
essional thieYesswAieh l haVe not seen
oticed in Knysb6okB. They fastensiron ,
ooks-very similar in shape to our or
mary fish-hooks their fingers. {
hould they, be disturbed in their opera t
ons and attacked, they claw the faces I
those trying toscapf6re them and thus 1
lflict four terrible wounds. I
One Of the most common preparA- /
ons to insure safety made by the hill '
len when they intend to rob house in t
le cantonments is' avery simple one. 4
he provide themselves with ten or t
oxen stones half the size of the fist, a
hich they lay on the ground at inter- Q
als on their approach to the house on
hich they Contemplate operations. v
hould they be disturbed or pursued, j
lev retreat on the line of the stones, g
Id picking them up as they retire. il
row them at their pursuers. and with o
lch precision and force that we have n