Arizona weekly citizen., 1886-04-03
rsoAPE or THE HosruEs

To say the people of Tucson were hor- ,ified upon receIpt of the news of the successful escape of the surrendered hostiles out feebly expresses the actual state of affairs. So high does lhe excl.c: men. run that even the professed friends | of General Crook acknowledge with sor- row and shame that he has grossly 1 blundered in placing such confidence in the fidelity of the outlaws who were marching up to tbe shsmbles.
 The willy hostiles have given into our safe keeping theIr worn out men, feetle children and useless squaws 10 be cared for, while they have gone forth fattened, rested, uninoumbered and fully armed to strike terror right and left, all along their trail.
 How yividly there comes to the mind of the reader the hundreds of uraccountable episodes iu the field that have been partly attributed to the sstute cunning of the hostilos and the stupidness of our own forces, even though of the latter very many were of the selfsame band of IndiaLs.
 We recall the imminent conflicts that were almost miraculously avoided. and the immunity of the Indian scouts from the deadly ann of the hostiIes when a conflict was necessary, and We cannot resist the belief that the treachery of the scouts WAS responsible therefor.
 The more recent commIDgling at pleasure, of scouts and hostiles, pending the professed surrender, IS evidence of ths mutual good feeling existing be- tween them. It amounted to simply an armistIce to be terminated at will by the hostiles.
 The "surrender" was q farce of the most ludicrous character, so far as the hostiles were concerned. We have not 8 particle of faith in their sincerity, and regard their profession If peaceful de sires as a mere play for time to recruit their supplies, and add to their arms and ammunition which had not been taken from them.
 We argue that they retained their arms from the testimony upon this very point given by Crook to the Holman con gressiond committee, who visited ArI- zona for few hours one day last fall. His opinion was asked as to the proprie- ty of dissrming the Apaches, and he re- piled that they should not be dissrmed. "Disarming them shows them that we are afraid of them" said the General, and added tha; If they were disarmed they would be at the mercy of the rustIers and cowboys who were deterred by nothing but fear. His regard was solely for the safety of the Indians.
 The Geronimo party of hostiles, We therefore reason, were not disErmed. There were TO means at the front to transport arms even though an attempt had been made to disarm them, and only the destruction of their guns could have followed their surrender, Tue hostIles-the muIderers and out lsws- were permitted to come in unshackled and fully armed ready for combat, aud m charge of small party of their kinsmen. They felt DO restraint when they had made up their minds to break faith and return to the warpath, and they deliberately prepared for the trail and were undOubt- edly aided by the treacbous scouts. What other explanation of the affair can be made? The outlaws were once, twice and thrice within our hles and could have been easily crushed. What the end will be, now, ws cannot even conjecture.
 We do not. with the meagre facts be- fore us at this time, arrsign General Crook as being wholly responsible for this bad state of affairs. We feel too ieep a sorrow that such a calamity has resulted from the promising outlook or yesterday, and We must await further de- tails before expressing the harsh opin- icns we can with difficulty repress even at this time.