Akron daily Democrat. [volume] (Akron, Ohio) 1892-1902, 1899-09-09

HOW RAMSEY AND MILLER MKT DEATH.
that all difficulties of progress are forgot
ten in the delight of prolonged vision.
The trip was enjoyable 10 the highest de-
gree, both from an artistic standpoint
and as an experiment in conipaniouship,
and every one who saw Ramsey and
Miller envied them the care free happi-
ness which was so evidently theirs. Not
until they were nearly at the end of their
expedition did the thunderclap Of doom
sound in their uubeiieying ears.
| The Indian nature loves to play cat
| like with its victims. writes Aivarudo
Fernandez in the San Francisco Call X
has theatrical appreciation of the value
of contrasts and high and low lights.
The swift descent from the heights of
happiness to the depths of despair adds
much in the savage mind to the desira-
bility of a situation. To merely kill for
the sake of removing an obnoxious in
dividual from this state of being is 4
very stale and uninteresting perform
ance.
Unknown to the two white men the
Yaqui rebellion, long smoldering, had
broken ont while they. unconscious even
that it had been planned, were peacefully
|
now comparatively near at hand. Un-
known to them. by means of the secret
telegraphy so well understood in all saw
| age nations, the very moment of their
setting forth had been noted. and every
turn of their cariIdg. wheels had been
marked by some unseen but vengeful
eye.
When Jack Ramsey's eyes fell on the
T,I -b.,e hat, ind
| a bush and leveled a rife at him, he
| knew that the hour of his death had
come. When he saw that every bush had
been shelter for an Indian, and that the
road was suddenly full of them, no lon
ger habited in the garments of civiliza-
tion, but clad only in stained and hid
eously painted skins decorated with hu-
man scalps, with bristiing feathers TAX
ing the place of hats and necklaces Of
human teeth and snake rattles taking
the place of the pumpkin seed and bead
adornments of peaceful times. he knew
that an uprising had taken place and
that many others beside himself were
destined TO a cruel death at the hands OF
these malignant and merciless creatures
-savages still and of the wickedest type,
in spite of all that had been done to re-
Chilli lueu he knew tHe well,
and he knew as he saw their fierce eyes
bent upon kim with demoniac joy that
there was in store for him torture as
excruciating as their ingenious minds
could plan. He had heard during the
previous WAR of their cutting off the
ears and noses of their victims, and
then their fingers and toes one by one.
He had heard of their soaring the flesh
Of their captives with hot irons and set
ting fire to their hair He himself had
once come upon Ii party of them en-
gagged in the pleasing operation of burn
ing a man at the stake. The scalps and
human teeth which adorned them were,
lie knew, mementos of past barbarities,
but what special form of suffering was |
destined for him he could not know; he |
only knew that it would be intense-slow, |
if possible-and i'll the end fatal.
1t was Millcr's misfortune that he had |
selected him for a comrade, for by this |
act he had signed his own death warrant. |
The Indians hated Ramsey. and they |
reasoned that any man who would asso-
ciate with him on terms of friendliness
was of his kind and therefore deserving
of similar punishment.
Resistance was useless, for two men
against -tU COUlu no uoluiuS. II 10 IL
ported that Ramsey, scorning to ask
mercy for himself, begged for the life of
his companion. but TO no avail. The two
were dragged to the ground, kicked, cuff
ed and beaten almost to the verge of in
sensibility. and then council was held
to determine their Ultimate disposal. The
motive power of horses and carriage was
there, and they had once before tried the
experiment of tying persons to the wheels
of a vehicle and Starting the horses on Il
wild runaway over these mountain roads
That had been n long time ago, and
the people upon whom they had tried the
effect of this forn of torture-they were
a young married couple on a pleasure trip
had become insepsible after the first
few bounds Of the fleeing horses, and the
delight of seeing their unconscious bodies
against the rocks and trees had
been qualified and chastened one, since
after the initial moments the victims had I
known no pain. 9