The Newtown bee., 1891-12-18
Ill
CLAUDIUs SMITH THE COWBOY

CLAUDIUS SMITH THE COWBOY.
| sometimes think we are descendants,
not from the monkey, but the wolf. All
civilization is organized against our lu-
pous tendencies. We build great walls
of stone with armed keepers for housing
the wolves of society. We keep 5000 po-
licemen and an unequallcd detective force
to protect us against those beasts who
are still at liberty. But every now and
then, they break forth from restraint and
we find the marks of their fangs upon
the body of some poor murdered crea-
ture. Human life weighs as naught
against their thirst for pelf and ease.
But it is when the strong arm of the
law is raised by war, and martial govern
ment, which means force and nothing
else, takes the place of civil, that the
wolf in men comes forth in all its hideous
nakedness, and it is the poor unhappy
people upon whose soil war. with its
bloody footsteps, marches, who most
suffer from the fangs of the cruel beast.
With nothing to protect them, helpless,
defenceless, they fall an easy prey to the
vile providers in the shadows of the ar
mics, than whom no other beasts of prey
are half so low. Happy they who escape
with no other loss than treasure! Happy
they who are saved from violence and
dishonorl
The history of the Neutral Ground has
yet to be written. 1t is one of those his
tories which never are told in print; a
history so black that readers would
scarcely believe it; for it would tell of
crimes appalling that forever went I'M
punished and deeds of cruelty done by
white men that would seem almost in
credible at the hands of Indians.
When Gen Delancey's brave corps of
horsemen were loosely yclept cowboys,
because they were so apt at foraging on
behalf of the British army, they little re-
allied that the name would be used to
stigmatize the mean pirates who sprang
up in the unguarded stretches of West
chester county and who used the name of
King George merely as cloak to rob-
berry and rapine. The name of SINNERS,
too, was at first not dishonorable title
for the whig marauders, who enriched
the messes of the Continental troops in
order to encourage the virtue of restitu-
ton. But in October, 17S0,it was a term
of such terror and reproach that no SOL
der would bear the appellation for an in
slant.
Claudius Smith, by right and title of
superior villainy, was king of all the cow
boys, and in his royal family were three
promising sons, almost as eminent rap
scallions as himself. He was burly fell
low. with no lack of animal courage nor
any of foxy cunning. He was skilled in
woodcraft, dead shot with his long bar
relied fiintlock, "a sturdy oarsman, tire
less pedestrian and he possessed limit
less thirst for the property of others. ?
His sons were able coadjutors, and in
their cavern in the valley of the Ramapo
for they were Orange county men, al
though their operations often took them
to the neutral ground, and even so far
from home as on Long Island, whittier
they rowed themselves in stout whale
oo"A3 hdO otOiSu PiuuuCl.
enough to make them wealthy, enough to
turn them into good citizens, if they
would only have done with brigandage-
in the businesses of the western high
lands.
Many murder was laid at the door of
the Smith quartet. They did not plead
innocence, for the reputation of being
able assassins was capital in their bush
ness. 1t is great thing to have name
which strikes terror in the heart of the
hoarder of bright sovereigns. IL often
saves vast amount of trouble to your
self and torture to your victim.
But the Smiths were murderers not
merely for the name. They seemed to
have a liking for the trade. They took
naturally TO it. And when, one day, long
after the events which I am recording,
the pirate Claudius was captured at Oy-
ster Bay, 4. l., and taxed to Goshen and
hanged for his crimes, his son Richard
became an avenger and murdered many
of those whom he conceived to have had
hand in his fathers only too we'll de-
served execution.
w.
FOR KING OR PEOPLE.