The Arizona sentinel., 1897-10-30
AT MAMMOTH TANK.
Deputy Sheriff U. Geo. Wilder HOr-
 ribIy Beaten by "Chollos :"

| the result of an encounter with 26O dangerous and half-ciyilized Mexican railway employees.
 Last Monday he received word that JosG Roderes, the Fortuna murderer, was at Mammoth Tank, forty miles west of Yuma, where 260 Mexicans were employed in re-railing the $. P. track In company with Constable Jones he went out to search for the murderer. When they arrived at Mommoth Tank they found the Mex ican laborers on a strike, the cause of which has never been made quite clear, and the camp in the widest state of disorder. Thinking man they were after was concealed some where about the camp the officers proceeded to search the tenement cars in which the Mexicans were liv- ing. The ignorant "Chollos" think ing the officers were after some of their own number on account of the strike, entered protest and would not permit the officers to enter the cars. Jones explained to them in Spanish the object of their mission, but they still protested, and insisted that the murderer was not in camp.
 The wrangle over searching the cars continued for some time, the officers believing the Mexicans were making bluff to protect their out lawed countryman.
 In the mean time Superintendent Stanton of the construction force had telegraphed to Los Angeles for help to auell the strikers, believing that himself and fellow foremen, eight pr ten white men, were in danger ot violence at the hands of the desperate leaders of the riot. The authorities at Los Angeles telegraphed Sheriff Greenleaf who was on the east bound train returning from the coast, to stop at the camp and arrest the lead CTS ot the strike, bring them to Yuma and turn them loose as the company did not care to prosecute them. At that time the strikers had done no particular damage, with the exception of threatening the foremen and in- timidating a couple of Yaquis who were willing to work.
 Sheriff Greenleaf did not know tn at his deputies were at the camp until the train arrived on the scene of the difficulty. When the train stopped Sheriff Greenleaf asked MT. Stanton to point out the men he wished to have taken out of camp The men were pointed out and the officers started to arroet- -thea4 ME " ilAor was near the ring leader and most dangerous man of the whole 260. The brave officer took hold of the viscious "Ch0llo" and started toward the train with him. Then the the trouble began. The leader yelled out in Spanish, "Ahora mu- chachosW and in an instant the air was filled with rocks. MT. Wilder fought like a demon against the ter rible odds. but was beaten to the ground. He was struck on the fore head with large stone and as he fell he pulled his gun and fired two shots, the first passed over the heads of his assailantS but the second tore the top comE letely out of the leaders hat. When MT. Wilder fell one of the "Chollus" picked up his gun and fired two or three shots at Superin- tendent Stanton who fled and did not stop until he reached the passenger tram that was waiting for the officers to make the arrest. MT. Greenleaf saw his valiant deputy fall and inn mediately ran to his rescue. The crowd was so dense that he had great difficulty in reaching the prostrate man who had been abandoned for dead and was lying on his face un- conscious and bleeding profusely from great gashcs cut in his face and head by the stones hurled at him by the frenzied rioters. Constable Jones saw the seriousness of the situation and ran to the express car and got d Wells-Fargo sawed-off shotgun which he turned loose twice into the angry mob, and the riot was over, the Mexi- cans rapidly retreating to their quar- ters.
 The party then brought the in jured man to Yuma and placed him under the care of Dr. Heffernan.
 Upon his arrival in Yuma Sheriff Greenleaf issued call for twenty five volunteers to go out and arrest the asSailants of his unfortunate deputy. Within an hour over fifty men will ing to risk their lives to avenge the wrong done their friend and fellow townsman U. Geo. Wilder, responded to the call. Guns and ammunition could be secured for only thirty five