The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1896-05-07
4 1 ESQ; & APE FRO M
& AN DTS.

Il BANDITS.
Dr. j Hamp,den Porter, the well
Known naturalist and one of the cob
aborators iii anth1op ology connected
with the National museum, has passed
through about as many adventures of
m uncomfDrtM ble. nature ais would sat
lsfY any one in the course Of ~ life
time. He has fBum youth been much
Df a traveller, and likes the free air of
outdoor life. He is not much given to
talking about himself, however, butt
0ursEes hiss scientific Investigations In
quiet way. taking as q matter of
course what comes with them as adj
Venturols adiuncts. He. was for a
long time, in Mexico, partic ulmlE be-
fore and, during the, thine Diaz. was OPP
posing the government of Juarez, and
had. a. narrow escape on one occasion,
from: capture and perhaps worse at
the. hands of Saturnino Ossuna,. one of
the most reckless of the free Eoyers Of
that stormy period. A Post reporter
managed to persuade him to. tell Of
this recently.
'Saturnino Ossuna,' 2. said DIR Porter,
twas, al ranchero of considerable
wealth. in land after he came into the
estate left him by his, father in the
province Of Sinaloa He soon achieved
an unenva BILE notoriety by several lit
tie episodes, of which rapine and mlM-
der were the outcome, but did not
come into particular prominence until
one dRY ait Rosario he committed an
act Of notoriety that made him forever
feared.
"OssunA was about as beautiful
specimen Of man as I have ever seen.
l say beautiful, because he WAS slender
of build, symmetrically rather than
strongly put together, and his, hands
and feet Were models of daintiness.
His face was fair, his voice as soft as
woman's. He always dressed gayly
in clothes Of the richest patterns and
made most picturesque figure on his
horse, which he sat as il nodded to it..
He was a gambler of reckless stamp,
and seemed to stop at nothing that
would satisfy vengeance or greed.
1T was in 1871 that I found myself
in Rosario, where I took a house op-
posite the carcel, or barracks, on the
main street. Looking southwark down
the street one could see the Catholic
church of the place, and every day I
used to see a woman pass the house at
the Angelus hour. She was dressed in
deepest mourning, and learned from
one Of the poems that she went to place
q wv on u 81 hot
stood in front of the church and re-
main there to pray for the soul of her
lover who had persisted by the hand
Of Ossuna some months before. :.
ssOssuna, it seemed, had once court
ed this fair creature; won her love and
then Tilted her. She afterward became
the sweetheart of a German engineer
who worked in the famous Rosario
silver mines. When Saturnino Ossuna
heard Of the new relationship it did not
take him long to plot revenge or to
swoOp down on the little town with a
band of rufians at his back, and, cap
turing the woman's lover drag him to
a clump Of trees that grew over the
| spot where the shrine afterward stood.
| Ossuna then had the man tied to one
Of the trees. He sent for some wine
and refreshments and calmly sat on
the ground and ate and drank while
he pricked the poor engineer to death
by degrees with the point Of his sword
THAT was my first information
about Saturnino Ossuna. Later I met
him, and came to know him casually,
for he freely made his appearance in
the place, fearless of attack by any of
the possible friends Of his late victim,
and usually accompanied by his trus-
| ties -
s'When the revolutionary times be-
gan Ossuna enlisted in the cause of
DiaZ, but his action was only a cloak
for his own deeds. When the govern
ment general, Corona, was holding
Durango and the adjacent country,
and Gen. Treveno moved down from
Sonora to Mazatlan and spread his
cavalry along the coast, there was a
small garrison left in the earcel at
Rosario. One Sunday morning, in
1872, when the sun had grown so
fierce that the citizens were driven
into their houses, I was standing in
the shade OF my house.
Without warning, in an instant, the
street was filed with horsemen.
Riding at their head was Ossuna, and
the band came down the street like a
WhirlWind. Before the sleepy senti-
mel at the gate of the carcel could give
the alarm he was shot by we'll di-
rected bullet, and the followers of Os-
suna crowded into the doorway on to
the unsuspecting garrison. 1t is need
less to go into the details Of that en-
counter-or massacre, for such it was
but there was not one Of the govern
ment troops left to tell the tale, except
the captain, who managed to escape
over the wall and hide in5some forage
in the shed Of a eighboring yard. He
was afterWard captured and killed in
the plaza.
= had tried to get into my house
) lffILI