Morning journal and courier., 1888-02-08
NEEXEC0'S ROBIN HOOD.

More Stories About Bernal, Che Ban. dit, Whom she Poor People Loved. From Fannie B. Wards Mexico Lettsr.1 Strange to say, the death of Eraclio Ber-
 nal, the brutal robber chieftain, is generally
 deplored by the ignorant poor of the com
 munities he terrorized. There is no doubt
 that he had some noble qualities. It is said
 of him that while he would rob and murder
 the rich and commit the most diabolical out
 rages among the t'frst families" he would
 travel hundred miles, at great personal
 danger, to assist poor family with his ill-
 gotten gains. In this way he maintained the friendship of hundreds of people, who kept him posted as to the location ot the troops and assisted him in eluding them. This is the secret of the long and difficult dance he led the soldiers, though the Governors of Durango and Sinaloa had each offered re- ward of ten thousand dollars for Bernal, alive or dead, and the many months he es- capped capture while perpetrating atrocities under their very noses.
 His crimes and adventures are romantic and numerous enough to furnish dozen novels of the bleed and-thurder order. He was not yet thirty years old and had been 8 bandit about nine years. Those who have seen him say that he was exceptionally hand some, powerfully built and as white as an American. He was highly connected and we'll educated, and for years his one ambi- ! tion was to become Governor of the State of Sinalea. To this end he robbed and mur- dered all who resisted-calling upon rich mining companies for funds and weapons ''to carry on the war, i" enforcing his demands | ct any cost.
 He was born of good family in San Die mas, State of Durango, near Sinaloa border. His bandit career began when he was em- ployed in one of the large gold mills of San Diemas, brought about by his everweening ] ambition, which had become craze For a | lsng time he regularly stele small quantities | of ore, and when the owners finally called him to account he convinced them in such a gentlsmanly way that he needed all he had appropriated that they dropped the matter I and let him continue on as usual. But this l did not long satisfy him, and soon he started \ out with a crowd of followers to levy 'tas- sessments," as he called it, on mine owners. l He must have been man of unusual force of character, born leader of men, who in Mexico's earlier days would have been called ! 6 hero, since his methods were much like l those of the great military chieftains whose names are now enrolled in the temple of fame, and certainly his courage has never been surpassed. His men rendered him the homage and implicit obedience due to enc | born to command; but unfortunately they | were all desperate characters, gathered from | the worst clements of the republic, who II | than hunter does that of his ordinary game Tkeir way was to first terrorize the people, l and then they had them virtually in their 1 power.
 Bernal thought of attacking 8 town in | which he was likely to meet resistance by | ten times the number of men he command l ed, and the result was always the same-pi1- | lage, rapine and murder. In 1879 he sacked | the city of Mazatlan, which he held for a number of hours with band numbering not cne-twentieth of the city's population.
 Senor Hilario Maximus, a Sonora mine
 owner, says of the dead bandit: In June
 last I was employed by the Los Palnnos Min- ing company at Gividanias, Durango. At four o'clock one morning was awakened in my room by the sound of voices and loud
 beating against the door. Immediately after
 half dozen guns were brought to bear or
 me, and the leader, who was Bernal, stepped
 forward and asked me to deliver up the keys
 to the safe below, saying he wanted four
 thousand dollars. I told him was not the
 manager and had no power to grant his re
 quest, the manager being in another room 1 Then they made me point out the room ant