Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1901-12-27
AMERICAN CRIME BELT.
EXTENDS FROM THE BRITISH LINE
TO MEXICO.

The Cheyenne (Wyoming) cores
spondent Of the New York Commercial
Advertiser writes: We've heard a
good deal Of late about the corn belt,
the arid belt and the mineral belt"
said western sheriff recently. But
it seems to me that some attention
should be paid to what call the crime
belt. 1t is as clearly marked from the
British line to Mexico as any old belt
and produces a crop which is never
failing and always commands wide
public attention at harvest time. If
you will take a map of the United
States and draw your finger from the
northern line of Montana at about the
centre down across western Wyoming
through New Mexico and Arizona, and
then to the Rio Grande, you will fol-
low roughly the territory l include in
my crime belt. If you want to, you
can go on south of the Rio Grande
through Chihuahua and the other
Mexican states clear down to Oxaca
and you will not get far away from it,
but l don't know so much about that
country as l do about our own terri
tory.
81 would even commence this crime
belt up in the British country some
where around Calgary or Mcleod, for
those places have been in the past,
and are yet to a certain extent the
rendezvous for some Of the most
expert horse thieves the world has
ever seen. South of there is the
Piegan country. Those Indians have
been known as the most wonderful
horse stealers among the red men,
and nearly all of them are experts.
remember one time two tenderfeet
started out to drive through their
country in buggy. They were
warned that the Piegans would steal
their horses, so they bought some
chains, and at night they slept under
the buggy and padlocked the horses
to the hind wheels. In the morning
when they woke up the horses were
gone. The Indians had taken off both
hind wheels and taken them also,
leaving the axle propped up on sticks,
and during the entire operation hal
not awakened either of the travellers.
Coming down south of the British
line, you cross the Missouri valley, the
Judith river, the Mussell Shell, the
Yellowstone, and finally the Grow res
ervation, on the southern boundary
of the state OF course that country
is quiet now, but every once in
while there is an outbreak of the old
spirit such as made it dangerous ten
years ago for white men to cross the
country unless they were prepared to
stand guard at night and put up
fight if necessary. The Mussell Shell
valley was the scene of Granville
Stuart's famous raid, when he and his
band Of cowboys are said to have
shot, hanged or otherwise disposed of
nearly sixty men who lived in the in
fected districts. 1t is many years
since the Yellowstone valley has
shown any spirit of outlawry, yet 1t is
d favorite ground Of this day for the
capture of fugitives from justice.
They seem to go to that valley as
naturally as they did twenty years
ago, wnen they outnumbered the law
abiding people.
when you get down into Wyoming
you must skirt the eastern slope OF
the mountains in the western half of
the state to find the famous Jackson's
Hole and other places which have
been the retreat for many years of
horse thieves and murderers when
pursued by posses. Crossing the Red
Desert into Wyoming we find here
convenient wilderness for those de-
string to escape observation. In
Browns Park, Col, and all along the
eastern mountains of Utah tragedies
have been of frequent occurrence. In
the unsettled portions of New Mexico
and Arizona the skin of the highway
man is OF darker color, for many Of
them are MeXicans. Down on the
Rio Grande these people actually as
sumo tae character of banditti, and
in old Mexico, across the border, we
fnd the fellow with the black eyes
and black beard. tall peaked nat, red
blanket and the knife. These fellows
guide the strangers seeking ranches
or mines and murder them for The
contents of their purses.
"The character of the lesperadoes
has changed, however, wonderfully in
the last twenty years. There are
very few of the bad men left. The
desperate of today is a common thief
or murderer. In the old days he lived
his life more as Dick Turpin. He
had some sense of honor and selected
his victims for reason of their ability
to yield rich return. He did not go
into hiding between his exploits, but
lived openly in the frontier settle
ments and prided himself upon his
reputation as a desperate character.
"The only thing which We nave now
which savors of this is the robbery of
trains on overland roads, and it is q
curious fact that nearly all the train
hold-ups, with the exception of those
which take place in Missouri, you will
find are in this crime belt of which l
speak. The Northern Pacific, Union
Pacific and Texas Pacific look upon
this heIt as dangerous territorv for