The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-05-23
A A
A Mine superintendent Gives Reasons for Pur-
auInR n Pence Policy in Strike Tinica.

four OF tho younger men in authority were for
taking the most aggressive course and meeting
the strikers in the same spirit they were meas
uring 10 the owners. But the superintendent Of
the mine argued for a policy of peace.
Let me tell you a story" he said as they sat
around tho dim and dingy lamp in the office of
tho works at midnight waiting for anything to
turn up that might turn up, and ut such times
there is no telling what the next event on tho
card will be. 1T may not be the pleasantest
surroundings for n story he said, "but it
will prove the point I wish to make Just
as well and give you young fellows some
thing else to think about. / am now 81
years old, and when l was 81 I had Just
graduated in a course of civil engineering and
had been sent to Mexico to take charge of u
silver mine owned by my father and uncle. 1
had two or three Americans and an Englishman
and a German as assistants, and We felt that we
could handle whatever might be presented,
though we understood that We were going into
a bad country far from civilization. l remember
that part of it pleased INC. for l was very fresh.
as they say nowadays. and was eager to tackle
the Mexican In his lair and show him how n free
American citizen would cngraft his ideas upon
an ignorant populace, or words to that effect.
I'VE got to the place all right, and we soon
had a force of men at work, but we did not
make any money. The trouble was that we
were SO remote from transportation that we
could not get our stuff to mill after we got it
out of the mine. Then we had an almost con-
slant fight on with a gang of brigands that in
tested tho country. These gave us so much
annoyance and destroyed so much of our prop
erty that | at last organized the bes; of my
twenty-five miners into n home guard with
muskets. and every day the German drilled
them until they were IA very creditable lot of
soldiers, and l was proud of them. This made
the brigands a bit moro careful, for my army
was solemnly sworn to shoot a brigand on sight,
and they had banged away at them on several
occasions, or at least had so reported to me.
"The leader OF the robbers was named Jose
Calixto. or Greaser Ho, as we called him. and he
was n bad man from Bitter Creek and had his
tyrant heel on tho neck of everybody in that
community except the few of US who were for
eigners. Us he tried to scare out; but / was
fresh and sassy, as | said, and l sent word TO the
Greaser at last that il / ever caught him at any
Of his tricks l would try him by court-nartial
and shoot him. 1t was rather taking the law in
my own hands. but it was no worse than our
lynch law in the States, SO / didn't worry.
About two weeks after this order went forth,
and we were mighty blue around the mines, for
they were really petering out, he sailed in and
burned down our stable and office. both cheap
structures. but no less to 10 protected, and we
gave him n chase over the mountains and cap
tured him. The German did the work, and he
came very near shooting one OF our men before
he got the Grcaser., but he got him.. We carried
him back in triumph. and the next day we had a
court martial called together consisting of the
foreigners exclusively, and in two hours SEN
tencc of death had been passed on jose Calixto
by myself as Judge Advocate and chief mogul.
against the decision, but the preparations for his
shooting ut d~aybrcak next day went ahead. and
early the next morning we marched our shoot
jose in the middle blindfolded. The priest had
had been on guard. There were no civil author
tiles in our camp, so we were not bothered.
fore me with his hands tied behind him and his
eyes blindfolded. and not twenty PAGES in front
OF him my shooting squad of ten men with their
would gladly have retired from my position and
Then. When the prisoner asked to have the
b~lindfold removed and the priest took II from
ingly, | wondered whether l wouldn't worry a
great deal more over this affair than the poor
However, this was scarcely the time for such
thoughts, and l nerved myself and thought of
desperate diseases requiring desperate remedies
and other palatabic maXims as Il tonic.
Wei the time, came. and. with a word to my
mand, and as the ten guns exploded almost
simultaneously for my soldiers were really well
trained, the body of Jose Calixto sprang into the
in such a disagreeable fashion that I could not
stand to look at it. and, turning the command
the funeral to the care Of the priest. / went back
to the shack we had improvised for an office
home in the great State Of New York, three
miles from the town of schenectady and three
thousand from the whole Mexican gang.
They had a big funeral over the dead brigand,
and that night to the beating OF tomtoms and
other lugubrious music that made death seem
more terrible than anything else on earth in
any form, they had a procession with dismal
ton from Jos6's late command who were to join
they dared come. 1t was 10 O'Clock as the
Struggling lights Of that gruesome procession
dying out OF Il misty sky. and when l went back
into the shack l was feeling ten times worse
TEN days later l was sitting in my room one
night ut 10 o'clock, with the windows opening
was going. when / was startled by. the sudden
entrance OF II man in the nativc dress with n
occupied my apartments alone. each OF my
companions having his separate, bungalow, but
been stopping with me; as 10 snakes had got
bad In his place. and at the moment OF the
i1ra" Outside ef the WINDOW vi in W the i shadow SH t a fogf To
keep cool. As turned to ask the intruder what
he wanted and why ne had come in that guise,
stood jose CaliXto, smiling at me as he had
smiled that morning when gave the command
You were not expecting me, my FRIEND he
said in Spanish, and Will that shrieked and
when / recovered consciousness tho Ger
man. with q cut on his arm, was dashing water
SHARP md soon over e FOR Jose had not looked ( for
an attack in the rear and particularly from the
powerful German, who had jumped at my yell
IN time to interfere with any projects jose might
have had with reference to mo as nm Offset TO
what i had tried To do for him u few days before.
I'm explanation l may say that what got mo
down was the sudden sense that n ghost had APP
pearcd before me, and being very nervous over
my part in the whole affair, Jos6's unexpected
call on me was more than my overstrained
nerves could bear. Tor II must not be forgotten
that / was very little more than II boy. What
might have happened IL the German had not
been present can be guessed at:
The rest OF II was soon told. jose and our
miners had combined against us and when the
shooting time came my soldiers had only made
believe they were shooting to kill, for there
were no ball cartridges in their guns. and Jos6's
death and the funeral, and all the rest OF it, was
merely a trick TO fool us SO as to take us una
wares and rob US Of several thousand dollars in
gold that We had discovered in the noun.
tains at an old mine long ago shut up.
IT was not the intention 10 work 1t that way, but
the chances made 1t possible, and they. or Jose.
rather, had wit enough to fix up the scheme,