The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1892-01-11
The Border Land Which Is Being
Raided by the Bandit
CARA
A Region Where Desolation and
Confusion Has Reigned
Supreme.
The Road From Pena to Fort Rihggold
and tho Conntry Around About
That Fort.

dAoA4k eAo So W
towns and forts. OF the inhabitants, BY the
average American. that it is very easy for
all sorts Of rumors to get into circulation
and gain oredence, says the Chicago Inter
Ocean. Distance lends enchantment, and
Mexico and the Mexicans have been painted
so often with the brightest colors Of the
palette. that it takes only q very small
skirmish between the troops Of tho regular
army and a few border thieves to set the
columns of Far Oft newspapers ablaze with
lurid battle scenes that assume proportl onH
Of international Importance.
The land of the border has been for years
q land of .'pronunciamentos," or calls for
uprisings under political pretexts that are
really calls for assembling Of rutfianH for
murder and p~illaging. During the Mexi-
can war the region around Montery and
from there to Fort Ringgold became IA
NOUS for some severe fighting, and during
our civil war the region shown on the map
was ravaged by guerilla bands under such
leaders as the cruel Gen. Canales, and later
by the savage Cor tinas.
For twenty years, however, the bands of
common border thieves have known no
great leader. CARA has been compared to
Diaz, who started his revolution in the
north of Mexico and finally fought his way
to the presidency of the nation, but he had
already won an international reputation in
the war of Macmillan, gaining a name
that would rally around him the ablest sol
diers in the land.
Cara is unknown except upon the border,
where he can only collect under his standard
the lowest types of humanity, holding them
=. ~ - ~ g rroEIi,, khn
ranches and small towns. Outside of towns
along the railroads, and a few collections
of stone and adobe houses that have been
christened by such high-sounding names as
Gel Perdito, Animas, Mesquite. Concep-
cion, Paso del Toro, SabinRs, Hidalgo. and
San Isabel" there are no settlements in the
whole region, except those given on the
map, that are worthy of a name or a place
on any maps.
The whole region where CARA is operat-
ing ia one of desulation and abomination,
inhabited by the half-breed greasers living
in houses built of abode, or of sticks plas-
tered with mud; a land of chaparral, inca
pablo of irrigation, where no force of men,
not degraded almost to thu level of the
brutes, can live of the country; where e
few lean, weary cattle hide in the dense
mesquite thickets; where the best game is
the laok-rabbit or the coyote, which makes
night hideous with its Scottish bag-pipe
COlleCLlOn OF 6CgGG0leS anu nOWlS. @@ EG#
1t is a region where the lazy Mexican
holds the ground on both sides Of the river,
living q life as idle as an animal eating,
sleeping and dreaming. Too lazy to work,
only raising a little chill and sugar cane,
keeping a few kline and goats, the Greaser
neither knows nor cares what is going IN
ten miles away.
The country has very few roads over
which q wagon can be taken, and then it
will often pass through chapparal SO dense
that the hubs are striking the brush on
either side. Outside of the main roads it is
almost an impossibility for wagons to move
in any direction, the crossroads being mere
trails barely vide enough for mules and
burros, and impenetrable for cavalry.
From Pena to. Fort Ringgold, a distance
of eighty miles. the road is over u sandy
desert plain. covered with low, mesquite
chapparal, and with patches of bunch
grass. a road where the feet of man or beast
sink deep into the hot sand, and where the
wagon trains monotonously drag their
weary length along. To the inexperienced
traveller, coming from high prairie lands,
first glimpse of the wall of chap
paral that covers the land for miles
on each side of the river. He sees
only a line of foliage of richest green,
with occasional patches of bright yellow or
or purple of Northern forests, but a wood
that seems picturesque in the distance and
promises cooling shade and comfort when
within the long line that seems to stretch
illimitably along the horizon. Closer ac-
qualntance brings disappointment and dis
gust. TIL forest becomes a tangle of brush
where the long branches, springing from g
common center, sub-dlvide into innumer-
!, able smaller branches, each and. all armed
/ with countless needle-like tholns. A thicket
!, generally SO dense that a horseman depart
ing from the road is instantly hid from
sight; where cattle are invisible 100 feet
away; where hunting any one or anything
is worse than seeking a needle in the hay
stack.
The chapsrral is deceptive generally ir
one thing. While it is often for miles ut
terly impenetrable where it grows as a bush
4 in other portions the mesquite grows farther
apart, and assumes a more tree-like form
' and on entering it one finds the brush sew
eral feet apart, the interlapping branches
fosming arches above, giving passages
whore man and beast can enter and wine
around in the labyrinths of paths to open
places of from ono to many acres in extent,
that are covered with soft mesquite grass.
These open places are ideal retreats fol
cattle to gtaze and sleep in
| They are pretty PLACES to wander il
on foot, and they are secure hiding
places impsnetrable resorts fol
the thieves of the DO dor. ideal lurking
places of tho bandit. 1t is almost an i'm
possibility for troops to follow the greasers
into such a jungle, and dangerous even tt
travel along the roads, cut through thu
dense brush, where they can be- fired upon
by an invisible foe. On the stretches o1
sand plains, outside of the brush. there il
nothing for the cavalry horses to live on