The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1884-10-24
Captive Apacnes.

The scalp-bearers had hardly passed
at chihuahua, Mex. before there came
the squaws who had been taken. The
minute these bare.heaLed, dirty, home
ly, hard faced women we're seen, the
cheering and the excitement increased,
while the boys in the street pressed
hard against the guards and tried to
strike at the wives of those who had
killed and tortured their parents. broth
ers and sisters. Some of the prisoners
held their nursing babes in their arms
and needed only them. The biggest
nurselings, held as lovingly by their wild
mothers az ever the of civil.
ization hold their young in times Of dan
ger, cried with fear, and even the food
their mothers offered them SO ~piteously
did not serve to comfort them. 1t was
enough to make the heart ache to see
these ignorant mothers, hated and struck
at because born i'll a wilderness, and
wives of savages, press their children to
their breasts and hold them awav from
the cruel hands outstretched to strike.
And yet so hated is an Apache that
every wall was hailed with JOY by the
friends of the victors. l saw not one
face among all the mothers there that
had pity written on it. Women held
their children up to see the ragged
eouaws and laughed at the unhappy
got its Sunday and the people forgot
their religion The spectacle was as bar
barous as that which must have been the
accompaniment OF Cnsar's entry into
Rome, with the bleeding captives from
Gaul following his victorious chariot.
Did any Of those who looked upon these
poor women, who were doomed to live
hereafter in dreary prisons far away and
who marched now within hearing of the
bells which only a few hours ago had
called the people to mass, stop to THINK
what their religion taught, or did the
ciamor of the Spanish brass up there in
the graceful towers only serve to drown
their reason and int1ame their hate?
soft and beautiful, and still not IL
mothers heart apparently pitied or
prayed for the unfortunate who marched
to q living death with the scalps of their
husbands swinging before them.
The spectacle was barbarous and in
human, and taught once more that vic.
tory knows no pity and unchecked
| hatred rules the day in times of war.
| Later on, WI en- the procession had
reached the plaza, the Mayor meets the
ranchmen and welcomes them to the
| city and congratulates them on their
victory. At the end Of this speech the
band plays q march again; the bells are
rnng louder than ever, the dust is raised
around the square the pageant passes
out of sight up the street. An hour
later, when the city was enjoying its
Sunday evening quiet, l met the Consul
of the United States and asked him what
became of the CAPTURED women.
"rhey are confined in the fort at Vera
Cruz for life" he said.
"And the children"
"They are given to whoever wants
them, and are brought up as servants"
"Slaves, then, you mean?" / said.
Hardly that. They viii! be paid wages
when they earn them, and such lives
will be better for them, far better, than
il they had lever been captured"
"The scalps-whati is done with them?"
I asked.
THE scalps? Why, the government
buy them. Every one brings 5000.
The Apache have long been the scourge
of Northern Mexico"
Laters still and heard the bells calling
for prayers. Entering the dimly lighted
church, where patches o fyellow light
fell upon the bare floor of the place, l
saw the Bonded forms ofthose who were
lisping their prayers, and l wondered if
they, so quiet now and 80 aevout, could
be the same whom l had seen 50 short
a time ago shouting with delight at the
sight of a few bloody scalps and a dozen
f~ootsore women, who had never seer a
church nor had been allowed to worship
anything but q crying baby.-Corres-
| pondence San Francisco Chronicle.