St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1886-02-20

rested men, and that the company
would ruin the business of any one who
dared to do SO *@'"
After lying in jail all night they were
taken before the court and dismissed
without a hearing, and in spite OF their
protest and demands to be given an OPP
portunity to explain to the court the
circumstances of their arrest, and so
were forced to return to their homes
and their waiting neighbors and report
that no mercy was to be expected from
those who had conspired to reduce
them to serfdom upon their own lands
Still these men retained possession OF
their homes, and though they had
ceased making Improvements, were
able to obtain subsistence therefrom.
Time passed, and the railroad com
pany obtained from the Government
patents for the amount of land specliled
in the original grant. The road was
not completed as the law making the
grant required that it should be before
the patents should issue, one hundred
and ten miles of it being then, as now
18S4), untouched, and no portion of it
being upon the line specified in their
charter, which was the only line upon
which they had the right to build a
road. much less to claim grant OF land
for building, even under the resolution
of Congress, it being plainly absurd to
say that one hundred and fifty miles
was as near to their original line as 1t
was possible to build.
The settlers were now powerless IN
tha Ic nf h1
played with them much as cat does
with mouse before craupchlng Its
bones for the final act of swallowing.
Their first act after having completed
the road through the Slough and formed
connection with a road leading to San
Francisco was to place the price OF
freight so high as to consume the entire
profit of all labor upon the irrigated
lands, thus seeking to prevent the set
tiers from obtaining further means with
which to continue the contest and trans
form them into the selfs of the COM
pany.
The outside world during all this
time remained in almost absolute 1g-
norance of the desperate attempt being
made upon the rights of a portion of our
citizens. The greater part. of the press
of the Pacific coast wore the muzzle OF
the corporations, and only the most
meager reports Of these matters were
sent out through the Associated Press,
and such as were sent were tlnged With
the coloring furnished by the conspira-
tors.
The first year after the completion OF
the main irrigating ditch the settlers
had get apart the eleventh day of May
as day of general rejoicing and
thanksgiving for the harvest which fol-
lowed the coming of the waters, and
through all their troubles they had
regularly observed it, their festivities
usually taking the form of a picnic,
which was attended by everybody, re-
CARELESS of age or sex, and it was this
eleventh day OF May, 1880, that the
corporate conspirators fixed upon for
the contamination of their scheme for
possessing themselves of the homes OF
these people
In order to secure fit tools for this
purpose. the company had made pre-
tended sales ST the homes of portion
of the settlers to men of known des-
perate character, among others to a
noted desperate and crack-shot; and
it was these men whom the United
States Marshal was ordered to take
upon his raid Of eviction. The Mar
shal left San Francisco before day and
arrived at Hanford, the station nearest
the Slough lands. at seven o'clock in
the morning. Here he was met by the
gang of desperadoes armed to the teeth,
and all started together in wagons
The leader of the gang carried two
bulldog revolvers and knife in his
belt, and had a repeating rifle and a
double barreled fowling piece in the
wagon in which he rode, and all bristled
with deadly weapons, principally re-
volvers and knives.
AS was anticipated by the Marshal,
they arrived at the first house in the
Slough settlement after its occupants
had left for the picnic. Without cere.
mony the door of this peaceful dwelling
was broken down and everything in Il
pitched into the highway. This done,
they placed three No. 10 cartridges
upon the doorstep as an indication OF
the fate which awaited the honest
settler and his family if they dared re-
place their household goods and re-
sumed the occupancy Of their home.
They then started in the direction OF
the next settlers claim, intending to
proceed in the same manner with each
of the twenty-five houses against whose
owners the Marshal had writs of eject
ment. But they were not destined to
proceed so far. Unknown TO them the
gang had been seen to leave Hanford
BY one who, surmising the nature Of
their errand, fastened to notify the
settlers of what was about to be at
tempted. Mounting horse he rode