Arizona weekly enterprise., 1890-01-18
COCHISE COUNTY.
A RETROSPECT OF ITS RECORD OF
 OFFICIAL MALFEASANCE.
How the People were Plundered and De- fled by its Officials in Early Days-The
 Unwritten Chapters of it's Infancy.
Tn,IpSrnNE Ariu Ian 12tl

1OMBSIONE ATlZ., JdH 1OOh.
 EDITOR ENTERPRISE: The District Court has adjourned to February 10th, after trying few civil cases and clear ing the county jail of about 20 prison CTS, II of whom were sent to Yuma under sentences ranging from year up | to life.
 Judge Sloan has gone and opinions about him as a judge differ, but l think the better opinion and the one most entertained by those lawyers who have no pretensions to political pull, and citizens generally, is that he is a good lawyer, impartial, honest, and conscientious; extremely courteous and kind, but even in the opinion of
 these little given to hesitation-per-
 haps vacillation-but this his friends
 say will wear off as he learns to wear
 the harness.
 1 cannot give you any encouraging
 news about Tombstone, things gener-
 ally are getting no better very fast,
 and the only hope for this town IS
 that some company will undertake to
 work the mines below water level The
 prospect Is improving for water in the
 spring and summer. On Saturday we
 had fall of snow as great as any in
 Tombstone since January 1880, follow
 ed by frost on that night, said to be
 greater than any for ten years.
 And now to continue my history
 commenced i'll my letter of Dec. 3lst.
 When this county was formed out
 of Pima county, on February 1st, 1881,
 and for about year previous, it was
 generally admitted that new county was necessity. Therefore in the sum- mer and fall of 1880 a syndicate was
 formed of the worst element in Tomb stone, men who had no character and } had not come to Tombstone for their
 health. Their object was to get 8
 share of the representation ill the legislature and thereby make the new county their special property and divide the offices amongst themselves and friends. The plan succeeded ad
 mirably the able statesmen were cleo ted, they found plenty of other states
 men Of the Twelfth Legislature willing
 to help them for consideration-and , a governor who (whether he got any share in the plunder is now imma-
 terial) was ready to their hand. The
 new county was created and the gov , ernor empowered to appoint officers 5 with the advice and consent, etc., etc. t Of all these officers just one was cap :. able and fairly honest one or two : were honest enough but without any
 capacity for the office or knowledge of
 It's duties and these easily became the , dupes of the syndicate. At that time = real estate in Tombstone was booming . The county was organized in April I 1881, and immediately tax levy 6l e over $1S0,000 was made, of which T about $150000 was collected, besides Q about $50, 600 from license and othel a sources about the same amount wa' IF collected next ar-1SS2-making { total of more than $360, 900 for twenty
 two months to January, 1883, when tht @ county debt was found to be over S1l1, T, GOO. This enormous amount of money and nearly one-half as much more
 collected by extortion from the people o in the various county offices by ex n tortionate charges for office services D. was all got away with by the syndicate )I oOihO Ol. WLOlt SOO AAOAi "AN iNAo 'O D. pastures new, other spent their shar d of the plunder in gambling and othe n dissipation and, like the poor, ar e "always with us." The means ant d ways ny which all this was done ant e the number of people calling them es for share, were so many and variou is that it would require large book t Il detail all the facts.
 l- Suffice it to say, that forgery O n county warrants, false vouchers W double payments of salaries and fee m accompanied with false swearing, wer Id quite common. And the perpetrator 1t of these crimes became so brazen tha d. an officer taxed with charging unlawfu ts would excuse himself by saying tha d. fees he had to pay royalty of one-ha pr his office income to the statesmen wh D. got him appointed, as compensation V, and if upbraided for extortion, woul " ask "well what are you going to d of about it?" My next letter will COT h. tinue this subject.
 is Yours, QUARTZBURG.