The Press., 1884-04-03
AN ARIZONA INCIDENT.

lG was nearly o clock Tn the 1OfenOOn. l Work was going on as usual in the quartz l mill and the heavy ''crunch'' of the stamps, crushing up ore, drowned out every other | sound. Ransom Flint and were at this hour | the only two workmen in the mill. Gar
 t-r, the engineer, was in the engine house, and the foreman, MT. Crocker, was taking nap, I think for he had had trouble with the ''analgam" (quick-silver process) ] the afternoon before. and had been on duty
 the most of the night We were running ! night and day then. But the night hands had left work at o'clock in the morning, I and were sound asleep in their shanties, l fifty or sixty rods down the bank. | The ''lead, or ledge from which we took 1 our ore, was now almost as far up the canob l the other way. A railway track took tn
 cars with the quartz down to the mill There were four miners at work in the 1 lead, , Jeff Whittle, James Ba: es, Raph- ael Covelo and Carl Hanson-thirteen oi
 us in all at the mine but so separated hat we were in no plight for defence, though each was provided with a carbine. The mine was the one formerly know. in the stock market as "The Candidate, ! but afterwards as the Los Nogales." While we We're in this condition we wer surpris by the sudden appearance of a band of hostile Apaches, that began an at tack
 There were but nine of the Apaches, at least I only saw nine. But they had been accommodating us no doubt all the morn iag, and knew that there were but few men at work, and so concluded it was safe to attack us. They were part of band of Tonto renegad~s that had been down into Sonora, on murdering and scalping raid The first that Ranse and I kn-w of tine attack was the sound of three or four rife shots ill the direction of the s'lead." We had barely heard the reports above the noise.
 ''Indians Y Ranse exclaimed :; and we 10th turned from the ''shute, where we
 we're feeding ore, to look out at the opei
 9nd of the mill, where the track came in. suppose that some of the Indians had crept in and were behind the large pile o1
 Der. For the moment we turned, recol- feet hearing an explosion behind me and had the sense of a tremendous shock
 I also recall the feeling that I vas sent l~ad;ong over & heap of picks and old drills. That was the last I knew for some
 minutes, think. Later found that a
 ,all had struck me on the back of the head, and without quite fracturing my skull had .>lowed furrow along my scalp. The h. iians probably thought that was safely disposed of, or they would have followed
 ID the shot by killing me. .t~
 the same time, but only slightly wounded
 lie leaped out of the mill on the side next the engine-house, and ran few yards
 Town the bank, when another of the Apaches shot him dead.
 The engineer, Garter, was the only man who made anything like an effective re- ,istance. Hearing the firing he seiz, d his carbine, and coming out, shot one of the indians. Then seeing four of them aim ing their rifles at him, he ran through the sngine-house and down the bank-thre, oalls whistling past his head The men asleep in the shanties showed the white feather Bidwell, Marsten, Roth rock, every one of them did the best he could for his own safety. They were il4 5 parate shanties. When the firing awoke hem, thinking the mill was taken, each dipped out of his shaLsy and ran dow the bauk into the arroyo. Bidwell and Rothrock did not come in for two days. Whittle was easing car of ore down the ! track when the first shots were fired at the
 hill. He let go the car aud ran back
 That Car came near killing me. lay
 ,t.nseless, with my head within six inches of the track, when it came into the mill with crash-judging by the wreck it made. The wheels must have brushed past my head.
 The gang had all left the mill when I came to my senses, and were trying to break into the powder house where the powder and dynamite were stored.
 This was small structure about ten 1,,i1t <>f roof.d with zinc. It was placed in the side of the bank, about half way from the mill up to the 'lead," so as to be at good distance both from the jar of the stamps and the shock of the blasts.
 Here there were stored, at the time, some five hundred pounds of dynamite, to- .yether with quantity of cartridges, and several cases of "rend-rock"- kind of blasting powder.
 There was strong door in the front side of the powder-house which the fore nan always kept locked, but there was no window in the structure, nor any other means of ingress. On account of the zinc drawing the sun heat, layer of turf had been piled on the roof.
 The redskins saw this strong little house and probably mistook it for the place where the bullion was stored. The door resisted all their pushing and kicking. Then they tried to break it with rocks, and finally came back to the burning mill, after sledges and crowbars.
 It was about this time that I began to come to my senses. A horrible burning in my eyes and humming in my ears, were the first feelings of which was conscious. Then got up on my hands and knees and partly remembered what had happened.
 The roaring in my ears and the flashing m my eyes blinded me so much that I could hardly distinguish one object from another but I perceived that the mill was afire, for felt the heat, and began to crawl along the track to get away from it. It was in vain that tried to stand: was too dizzy.
 Then I heard two shots fired, and my eyes clearing little, for the moment, I saw five of the savages at the door of the powder-house trying to stave it in. The firing was up toward the ledge. As soon as had made out how affairs stood, I crawled off the track and got out of sight down the bank and minute later there came fearful explosion.
 It shook the whole bank to pieces above me, and sent the dirt aud stones in every direction. Great rocks went whirring across the canon, and in moment or two stones began to drop all about me.
 l knew the explosion was in the powder house and hoped it had killed the mur- derous redskins. But lay still. Stone