St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-08-19
BODIES COVERED WITH HAIR
ANARCHISTIC AND CoMnIUNISTIC
TO THE VERY LAST DE-
GREE.
FEW WOMEN IN THE TRIBE
Four of the Toughest of Them in
Jail on Charges of Sheep
Stealing.

Would the reader believe that there
are within the limits of civilized
New England actual wild men?
Well, there are, in the state of
Maine, and enough of them to be
called a tribe, at that.
In the town of Brighton, about
twenty miles north of Skowhe, in
the woods bordering on the little
village of West Athens, there lives
tribe of men that would, in some
respects, put to blush the uncivil-
lied cave jewellers of years agoue.
and give points to the now somewhat
enlightened savages of the Fiji ISL
ands.
For years they have been the ter
ror of the country for ten miles
around. They subsist mainly on
sheep and cattle that they steal, and
when an honest turn strikes them
they vary their stolen bill of fare
with cartridges or trout.
WOMEN IN THE TRIBE.
There are, as near as can be as
certained, about forty of these un-
civilized creatures, a few of whom
are females. They are about all
known by the name of Brown, and
are largely inbred, according to the
testimony Of their long-suffering
neighbors. They dwell in rude huts
or shanties, and some of the younger
and more enlightened of them make
occasional feeble attempts at agri-
culture, at least to the extent of rails
ing a few potatoes or planting a
rocky half acre Of corn.
Only a few of these peonIe as wa
will charitably term them are often
seen by the neighboring folk. who are
thrifty and law-abiding farmers and
they are not particular about cultivat-
ing the acquaintance of the rest. who
are supposed to be worse and more de-
graded than the samples which occa-
slonally visit neighboring towns after
an overindulgence of hard cider. which
Is their steady beverage, as it is very
dlh1cult in that country TO find rim to
steal.
SOME TALK ONLY BY GRJJNTs
Inc younger members of the savage
tribe are more intelligent than their
parents as rule, but they are all
WIG enough, as when one grows I'M
ana becomes possessed of more than
the average intelligence of his peopIe
he speedily shakes the dust of Brighton
and departs for parts unknown. and
never cares to visit his relatives in the
deep recesses of the Brighton woods.
1t is doubtful if any of these people
can read or write, and the circulation
OF newspapers is probably not largely
increased by the fact of the existence
OF this tribe of Browns But among
them are many who cannot even speak
any language, and are able to con-
verse with each other only by grunts
| and cultural sounds, entirely meaning
| less save to the ears of a brother saw
| age. These wild mentor there are
none wilder in this country-have no
respect for the laws of the land in
which they dwell, and it is doubtful if
they realize any law. They are in some
respects of an anarcnistic turn of
mind, in that they believe they have 2.
free and equal right to any propertv
they see, and not only steal everything.
they can, but do not seem to realize
! they are tranSgressing in the least nv
so doing.
The towns of Brighton and West
| Athens have lost more cattle and sheen
during the last twenty years than any
other dozen towns in Maine, and the
sufferers lay this wholesale thieving
| entirely at the doors of the untutored
| Browns.
MET WITH BUCKSHOT.
During recent months their losses
| nave become so frequent, especially of
sheep and lambs, that the good farm
efs thought it was high time something
was done to put stop to them, and
accordingly the sheriff was sent down
INTO the territory of the thieves to try
and arrest one or two of the most
active. He was welcomed by a couple
OF loads of buckshot, and did not stand
upon the order of his returning to the
haunts of civilized men, but returned
| at once and finally
Thereupon a constable of Brighton,
who is also tax collector, and had a
slight acquaintance with some of the
gang, tried his hand He called on
| one or two of the creatures whom he
knew, and, by dint of persuasion and
promises of dainties, succeeded in
enticing four of the tribe to Norridge-
Wock and into the county Jail, when
| the strong doors were locked upon
| them.
WILD AND WOOLLY.
And there they are today. No pris-
oners ever created so much curiosity
among the good people of Norridge-
wock and the surrounding country as
do these wild and woolly denizens of
the forest. Jailer Smith, kindly
gentleman with a long white beard,
| who has kept the jail for some years,
and who, with his family, lives in the
| building, says that the train wreckers,
Gregg and Durham, who were con-.
fined there last fall and who had hun
| dreds of visitors, did not attract one
tenth of the curious who now call
hourly for a glimpse Of the men.
When captured they wore scarcely
anything that could be called clothing,
and were almost naked. The bodies of
the two elder were covered with a
thick growth of black hair. Since
their arrival the jailer has procured
shirts and overalls, and these they now
| wear.
The names of these wild people are
not savage in sound. The elder, who
is about forty years of age, is called
"Gabe' by the others, who are his
nephews. He is very tall and strong
man, and cannot talk or speak a word
of any language except the STANDARD
Yankee oath, which he has learned to
utter. His older nephew, asa" is a
strongly-built man, about twenty
three years old, and the ugliest and
most dangerous of them all. The other
two are about sixteen to nineteen, and
talk very fair English.
SHOUTING LIKE MANIACS.
visited the jail. When an eighth of
mile distant the shouting of the wild
men could be plainly heard, and in
volume and character it was calculated
to send a cold chill down mans
spinal column. They are all kept in
one cell and howl almost perpetually,
save when fighting among themselves.
| The other day CASA" as his brother