Arizona silver belt., 1886-01-09
CORRESPONDENCE.
SAN PEDRO, A. T., Jan. 3, 1886.

SAN PEDRO, A. T., Jan. 3, 1886.
 EDITOR BELT:-The humdrum mo
 notony of this quiet valley is seriously
 threatened. Already the sluggish un.
 dercurrent of public sentiment ha;
 begun to ripple angrily at the insolent
 actions of our recently erected fellow citizen, Mister Captain Es-kim-in-zin,
 EsquIre.
 It seems not generally known that
 this same gentleman of the aboriginal
 pedigree, but few short years ago,
 wantonly murdered a lone German,
 with his own hand. The Germans ranch lay few hundred yards below the mesa on which brlstled the bayo- nets of old Camp Grant.
 One sultry day "Old Skim" came swaggering by and was invited by the misguided Dutchman to share his mid day meal of beans and bacon. The invitation was informally accepted on the spot, and the two extremes sat down together-the kindly German and his treacherous friend. The meal was finished. The chief arose, thanked the German in civil terms for his hos pitality, and bowed himself beyond the door. But this was not the end. An instant afterwards rife shot rang out from that secluded spot, and the generous host lay gasping Tn death among the debris on his table. It is needless to say who fired the missile. The demoniac spirit. winch is one of the indispensable attributes of a noble red man, began to bubble up, and the lOathsome crime followed as a conse- quence. He was my friend" said "Old Skim" in explanation; "my heart swelled and 1 shot him. Any man can kill his enemy; brave man, only, can kill his friend"
 That was the whole of his defense, and the crime for which any white man would have justly met his doom, was excused in him because 'he knew no better"
 And now, it seems, he knows no better than to threaten Charles Odell, an honest Dane, with extermination if he ever dares to again enter certain fraction of the territory which Mir Odell had located and filed upon sev- eral months previously. As the En- -erprise has sagely remarked, such a threat from this especially noble rcd man cannot be treated lightly, and in Mr. OdelI has prudently abandoned the land to the Indians. When threatened with arrest for his awless conduct, he insolently defed my such attempt, and openly sneered tt the ability of the civil authorities o effect it. Notwithstanding, it is luthentically stated that he has re- :eiyed his final papers, and is now a citizen, with power to hold | and in h1s own name and swear lies n any court of this grand old nation. But why all this? He must be ex7 used, because the poor innocent lnows no better.
 One of those little army poodles- ,eg pardon, mean Oficers-just out rom West Point, a very pleasant -oung man, and also very soft in the lead, was here several weeks ago, and, t is believed, caused all the distur- 'ance by assuring the Indians that the government was on their side, and hat the land belonged to them by -irtue of some vague treaty ratified ong before the white settlers entered he valley.
 MT. ONlH4le owns LfacJ or lana djoining the Indians, for which he olds patent. A portion of this is laimed by "Old Sklm' under the bove mentioned treaty. The genial, ut soft-headed gentleman, before nentioned, accoSted Mr. Swingle Tn 'ehalf of his wards: "We can hold the and anyway" he said, "but to avoid rouble, will give you (with an ap- gesture) this piece of gov rnment land adjoining on the north"
 The ignorance which his language ietrayed, will excite derision; but i'm, too, we must excuse, because he new no better. ROLAND.