The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-05-27
EARLY OUTLAWS OF SAN LUIS.
Desperate Mexican Bandits Who Made
of Death a Sport.
From The Ne,o York Press.

| OF Death a sport.
From the NetC York Press.
From out of the west there comes to the
| Press writer there some old stories of ban
dts of the early days, and he retells them
to you here to-day. The pioneers of the
| Central California counties have many in
teresting aud curious stories TO tell of the
footpads. highwaymen, and small but well
| organized bands of robbers who infested
| the hills and drove off sheep, cattle and
/ horses, even as late as twenty-five
years ago. There was, in some cases,
another side TO the story, side that one
seldom hears of, but that is worth taking
| into consideration. Most of the robbers were
Mexicans. who had hung around the great
Spanish ranches in the old days doing moth
ing but vaquero work, and, in fact, looking
| with intense scorn on any manual labor.
| Driven from the valleys to little huts and
| shelters in the mountains, they became
mere thieves, but they themselves held that
| the grudge they bore to the American set
tiers was praiseworthy, and they felt that
they only visited upon the ''gringoes" a
righteous retribution for sins against their
| race.
After the turmoil of the first settlement
| of the richer valleys. and the refiuent wave
| from the mines toward the farms in the
| later SOS, the idle class of Mexicans and a
number of degraded white men drew close
| together and formed a large body of out
door criminals, fierce riders and dangerous
| characters.
There were some Spaniards of nerve and
| brains who took sides with the Americans
and were of great service; one of the most
remarkable of these was famous grizzly
| bear hunter, Ramon Romero of San
| Leandro, who accompanied Sheriff Harry
Morse of Alameda in his great expedition
after Tiburcio Vasquez. Romero once
killed two outlaws with his immense
Mexican knife or ''machete" before they
could draw their pistols.
The outlaws of the Mexican type were
terrible antagonists to the first settlers in
| all the coast counties; for years they m ade
San Joaquin county unsafe, until men like
brave and jovial old Tom Cunningham
took the war path; they terrorized many
districts in Ventura. Santa Barbara and
Los Angeles, but they held their own as
long in San Luis Obispo as anywhere else
in California, because San Luis is wild,
mountainous country, which was one of
the last strongholds of the native Califor-
mans, and one of the last districts to be
reached by the railroads.
One of the great San Luis outlaws was
Manuel Lopez who committed at least half
a dozen murders in the county. Harry
Morse, Tom Cunningham aud Caderwood
of Santa Cruz got trail of him in 1874, in
the Jolon region and about the rocky San
Antonio pass. Lopez was with a band of
stolen horses, but although he was seen, the
pursuers horses were too exhausted, and he
escaped and probably went TO Mexico, as
every wise outlaw did when these three
officers camped on his trail.
AS an old pioneer of San Luis told ME one
day, sitting under "bull pine" tree by his
log cabin:
''Old San Luis was tough place. Lots
of Mexicans wuZ up an down the hills ana
gulches, from Piedras Blancas past Cayucos,
Toro, Moro, San Luis an south to Gaviota
Lots of men had married Spanish girls aud
Mexican women, or mebbe they wuz a
courtin' them an havin' fights about it:
generally there wuz a dead Mexican after a
row, but not always.
Then the Mexicans got even half dozen
of them would ride up to a traveller, an
throw their riatas over his head, rob him,
an mebbe drop him over a cliff Worst OF
all were the daredevil, freebooter Mexicans,
such as those that infested Contra Costa,
Alameda, Santa Cruz, Santa Clara and
Monterey; they were all the same sort, an
SIGH riders the would never saw.
Everybody went on horseback, an horses
cost mebbe couple of dollars. A FIVE
dollar horse wuz an extra good mustang.
They wuz wicked sinners, too, the mus
OtuSo, nOb lIb LOT u CDTlSIld0 Ter rue.
When the Americans brought better stock
the Mexicans stole it; then, if they were
caught, the boys had a necktie party.
San Luis wuz Mexican town; Jest a
| few bold an keerless Americans there, an
all the rest 'dobies' an wickiups. That's the
kind of county old San Luis wuz thirty
| years ago. tell you, young Teller, to sit
here an sec the corn fields tossed out on the
| mesa, an the wheat over yam an the top of
1.ax 1, -. y
actually apple an peach trees agrowin' in a
| mans dooryard, is astoaishingly good to an
! old pioneer. They tells me that old San
| Luis is agoin' to be a famous fruit county.
| Them fellers thet used ter rip an tear about
| the gulches an make honest men afraid of
| their lives are all dead an gone, an here ]
| be yit.
Ibid l ever tell yer about old Uncle
Wrights He wuz the wuSt man to cuss iu
all San Luis. an old Faxon at Billiards. gu7
| the wust one in that county. We were
| reckless young fellers them days, an we
| wanted ter hev' q barbecue an have the
main attraction cussin' match between
| Wright and Faxon. We sent a man down
| to Faxon, an no sent us word that it wuz
| onfair to burn up the cattle feed in San
| Luis. He cussed sayin' it so much that the
| man come back pretty white, but we sem
| him off to see Wright, an Wright said i
wuz impossible fer him to go ter Ballard s
| for he never could cuss cuss worth outside
his own county. The captain Of coastin
schooner heard that, an laughs right out
he said tibet once he he'd to put Wrigh
| ashore ter keep the schooner from goin,
| straight ter Davy Jones.
About the greasers! Well, there wu
some hundred or so of notorious ones. bu
most of them wuz brung ter grief elsewhere
They went to richer counties to rob anC
murder folks. and then the sheriffs got afte
them with rifles. We had all the famou
ones here one time or another: Procopic
Chaves, Three Fingered Jack, an Vasque
knew the Mexican fondas and whisk,
shanties as well as anybody did,"
The old pioneer went on in his simple, gar
rulous fashion, telling the stories of the day
of the outlaws. Here they had robbed an
murdered party in the Upper Salinas
there they threw the body of travele
from the rocks into the ocean. Their re
treats were in the northern part of th
county and the extreme southwest Theme
they could escape into the San Joaquin.
whole family of strangers was murdered i
an old adobe under the most terrible cir
cumstances, and the perpetrators wer
never discovered. Ross Browne describe
in a powerful sketch the Upper Salinas val
ley before it was fenced or subdued bv tn
plow, the broad "Salimas Plains,' til
dangerous river crossings, the old mission G
San Miguel, the older San Luis, the grea
herds of cattle the prizzlias faadino on tb