The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1899-07-12

Tested if their business in the locality
was clearly peaceful. A few have en-
gagged in "A fight with the outlaws. VINO
were retreating to their granite fortress,
and have lived to tell about it. From
th ase sources faint idea has been gain
ed of the character Of the place. NOW
and then one of the band, while visiting
a town not many miles away, has re-
yealed number of things in his cups
Fortress Luxuriouslv Furnished.
The exact locality of the retreat OF
Mccarthy and his men is not known,
though there are persons who cOuld
guide party within three or four miles
of it. The path runs through narrow
CANYON and leaves it at particularly
wild and tortuous place for serpenune
trail rraning mile or more up ana
down the lights. Again, at the epdl OF
this trail. there is a passageway blasted
aud cut through the sold rock. The
termination of this shorter pathway
brings the robber 10 the entrance of the
gathering place, which is nothing less
than great cave or amphitheatre in the
centre of the rock This is the throne
room OF the IrishmaD, and from this
there run in all directions tunnels, their
openings artfully concealed, so great
are the precautions of the band. and
their other ends terminating at one end
or the other of the mountain. This is
known from statements made by miners
and mechanics who we've taken by the
gang to 90 the work AMI who were
blndfolded while approaching and
leaving the place.
floor 1ncfr Orly q a
is the fact, boasted of by more than one
of the gang, that the cave possesses an
excellent electric motor and dynamo
taken there piecemeal on horseback. Ii
is even said that the system is used to
light the rocky recesses, but the chief
b. asts that it is for another purpose.
Robbers say that wires run from the
room of the chief to all approaches of
the fortress and communicate with
charges If dynamite. They have stated
that it would be possible for them to an
initiate regiment of soldiers and that
the exploding of dynamite in the ap-
proach from the west side would close
the passage instantly, after which they
could lie in the cave with security or es-
cape from from one Of the many open
ingS and scatter over the country.
Has a Representative in Chicago.
The fortress is about fifteen miles
from settlement, on the edge of the
desert called Court House. Ii is about
thirty miles east and north of the county
seat of Grand county, Moab, and from
this place the band gets all its supplies. |
In fact, the town is almost owned by the |
bandits and none of the inhabitants has |
sufficient courage to inform against |
them. It is said that there are abont !
200 men in the gang, and it is known |
that many fugitive muTderers and es~
capped convicts, the latter from all states,
and especially from Colorado, Utah.
Wyoming and Nevada, are in the nuns
her,
AS the country gradually fills up the
robbers are abandoning their practice ct
holding up trains and travellers and are
confirming their depredations mostly to
herds of cattle and sheep. They are ex-
pert in re branding cattle and make
speciality of gathering up stray maVer-
icks. The police believe that the band
has Representatives 10 Chicago, Cheyenne
and Denver. while there are firms in the
east in Illusion with the gang. McCar-
thy ships his cattle east, where they are
sold, and he receives the checks in re-
turn by mail. These checks are cashed
almost daily in western banks through
third party.
Several of the outlaws have been tried
:or murders committed in the county and
n the town of Moab Itself, but the juries
Invariably acquit the accused. People
say that no one can tell who are members
If the gang, and there is never trial bat
hat one of them gets on the jury. The
len of the mountain Businesses always
pose as mountain herders and dress as
such. Mccarthy has spent large sums
N getting the best counsel to defend |
any of his men who have been placed on
trial.
A former United States deputy mar
shat of Utah is authority tor the state
ment that there are fifty skeletons lying |
ma gulch not great way from the
mouth of McCarthy's canyon. The mar
shall says that he saw the place himself |
and that the skeletons represented per-
sons put out of the wav by robbers, who
feared they would reveal secrets they |
had stumbled across San Francisco
Examiner.
Qualified.