The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-12-21
LaWton, the Nations MatChIesy
Indian Fighter and His Life
On the Plains
HOW HE CAPTURED
CHIEF GERONIMO
TireleSS in Discharge of Duty He
Spent Days Without Food
or Sleep

The death of Gen. Lawton will be
sincerely mourned by every man who
has worn the uniform of the army of
the United States,
There is not one but would consider
it the happiest privilege of his life to
be permitted to pay proper tribute to
the noble manhood and the sodierly
qualities of the man who gave up his
life fighting, as he would have wished,
at the head of his troops in front of
San Mateo, on Tuesday
Maj. Gen. Lawton is dead; but he fell
as he undoubtedly hoped to fall, a
thoroughbred specimen of an American
soldier, at the head of his men and
with his face to the foe.
1t was my fortune to follow this
famous fighter as a newspaper CORE
spondent in the famous Geronimo cam
paign in New Mexico and Arizona, in
the summer of 1886, and later to serve
under him as a soldier and correspond
ent in the invasion of Cuba But no
more interesting developments of his
character and abilities We're ever
Brought to light than in that Indian
campaign of 1886. 1t was in the period
that marked the passing of the old
Apache chief Geronimo, the terror of
the border. At that time and for a
score of years previous, he had the
reputation from the Rio Grande border
way back to western Arizona as a
bad, bad Indian. He had murdered
scores and scores of men, he had
burned women alive and had smiled to
see little babies tortured to death. He
had been captured by the soldiers five
times and five times he had escaped.
He had lived for days on a handful of
parched corn. He had hidden for a
week within rifle shot of a cavalry
company, which had been instructed
to bring him in dead or alive. He had
ridden 500 miles on a stretch; had run
rs miles in two days; had starved and
frozen; had lain in the burning heat
of the desert and called on the Great
Spirit for water for three days, when
the men with him had lain down like
sheep and died. He had been wounded
and betrayed by his own men, sold for
few drinks of whisky, and even then
he would not die. He never led his
enemy
THE SLIGHTEST CHANCE FOR
Lit T.
He was the last of the great Indian
chiefs. The men who live in Arizona,
Colorado and New Mexico never trem-
BILE at shadows. but the name of Gero-
nimo would even at this day cause
them to shake like aspen leaves.
He kept his band in the alkali desert.
where there isn't a stick of brush wood
Ii
OF spear 81 grass , two lnches hlgh, ana
floor; but he and his band would lie
there and wait within a quarter of a
mile of the pack trailers, and not one
of those men, more keen eyed and alert
than any other class upon this earth,
would see them.
He had a trick of sending out bunch
of warriors on a death trail. It was
their fashion to hide behind rock and
wait until the break of day, and then
when the ranchman came out. with a
whoop scalp-cry, they would murder
him. burn the house, carry off his wife
and babies. and then follow the death
tfail to another lonely ranch Geroni-
mo knew every inch of the desert, and
after killing and torturing, he would be
rales away before the day had fairly
Begun.
AEyerv time he was captured he
turned into a good Indian and every
time that he was believed, he escaped
and went on the death trail again.
Gin 1856 the United States troops got
after him in earnest. In Nav of that
wear was at Planches de Plata when
Eawton came on with a force of so sol
diers l1tantry and cavalry, and 20 In
han scouts. They had been instructed
II General Miles 10 hunt for Geronimo
Is tbe Sonora mountains.
81
Fl LAWTONS SPECIAL Duty
,,os 70 i-oa,, Tho Indians on +be 90 Old
,l7isi, rT,ara lions bad az
fended t,nyl Canta Rita n1o11ntains ON
r. - 80 az NJ NTa1yico boundary
so',fb a ~ w Voc of NogaIas T'awton
r',,esi1. us ia cbief hard
~. +ta ~ go. Iae,, 1reseed ba-
fare a,,d u caroni,oo co.. tba first time
- ia IL alS,,ai in craft
"a oo'1,',r m IT,, 49,. :, or,o of The
,,oe+ 49, 49, go On rae
IA 80 ~ of nod
~ Li,,li - ~ IH;,st =, o,,f,,1o
S[o,,1d 10 baard 60 Iar,1ito then
~ pi,,s,I CO. Tosa,.~- go pna1,a vista
a. Nfnt4i1o A'''i ni",1 az e,Idiors
4 ~ - - 1S $500 TO- 10
ISs I,1 $500 toN -
was an easy reach Tor Geronimo, but a
ton was there ia stav and Miles had