Arizona republican., 1894-12-19
THE INDICTMENT OF COL. RICE

Col. James Rice of Peoria, Ill.,, is groveI- ing beneath the weight of the law. Re cent Associated Press dispatches state that along with eighteen other culprits he has been indicted by grand jury of Peoria county. Col. Rice's ofense is cruelty to an animal, and that animal, the least susceptible to cruelty, was a burro, a gift to the distinguished colonel from admiring friends in Arizona on the occasion of recent visit to this ter. ritory. His friends and acquaintances here, learn with surprise and grief min- gled in equal parts, of the gallant colo nel's fall. It may be some modifca- tion of their sorrow for the woes of the burro and Col. Rice's turpitude to know that the cruelty was of passive char acter, the result of an unfamiliaritv with the nature of burro rather than the active devilishness of a malignant and abandoned heart.
 It is not within the range of human possi bility that one man should know every thing; otherwise God would have no advantage over the talented children of men.
 Nature and circumstance had invest ed Colonel Rice with many gifts. Na- ture bestowed upon him a tall and commanding figure, a sonorous voice and a massive brow abutted by an abund- ance of convoluted gray matter. Circum- stance developed it in the direction of the law. The war of the rebellion arose for the triple purpose of welding more closely the bond of union between the states, extirpating the system of fslavery and affording Colonel Rice an opportu- nifty to distinguish himself as & war rior. When the latter purpose was ac, complished the two former had already been fulfilled and the war closed. There seemed to be no limit to the possible attainments of Colonel Rice so the Almighty was at a loss to know from what branch of learning or science to restrict him. It was doomed that this proud and petted child should some time be brought to shame and degradation on account of his ignor- ance of the habits of the burro.
 It appears from the dispatch that Colonel Rice soon tired of the mark of esteem conferred upon him by his friends in Arizona and as the indict- ment specifically states turned it out to shift for itself"
 The burro indigenous to the soil of Arizona can shift for itself with impun- ity in it's native home. The burro is 30 adapted to it's natural surroundings that 1t cannot starve, but amid unnatur- al environment may languish and even die of surfeiting. Cactus, grease wood and mesquite bramble, it's homely fare. are filling. satisfying, but not fatteniny or enervating. Colonel Rice, in the course of his numerous visits to Arizona had observed hundreds of burros wan dering upon the deserts and rocks in the vicinity of the Lower Gila, devoid of parental or proprietary care.
 He remem bered this when he wearied and loathed the sight and resonant voice of his long cared Arizona memen- to. II it had held it's own amid the sands and cactus of it's native waste, surely it could more than exist upon the succulent grass which lines the green road sides and verdant lanes which lead to the beautiful home of the Whisky Trust.
 The end may be anticipated. The burro fed as if it were feeding upon the innutritive cactus and the dissatisfying greasewood and the unfattening mes- quite. It was as ignorant and unreason- ing as Colonel Rice of the difference between cactus and clover.
 Like Colonel Rica if had m eonco, tion of satisfaction except an ex- hausted capacity. The result of this limitless diet was necessarily the death of the burro for which Colonel Rice ia