El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1901-03-27
A THRILLING TALE
Of the Life and Adventures of the
Notorious Texas Woman Bandit.

From the Chicago Tribune.
1t is conceded on the southern border
of Texas that the female bandit ant
| smuggler who was wounded and cap
tured by Mexican rurales after a des'
| perate battle a few days ago on tine
| Rio Grande is none other han a noted
adventures and %all-around bad woman
who is well known in the Indian e
ritory and Texas as Zalia. 1.-The Devils
Ace" She is now confined in a mil
itary hospital in Monterey, and her
physicians say that h has performed
her last daring exploit and fought her
last battle.
The strange character. which has ex-
perienced vicissitudes of fortune in her
short career without a parallel outside
of the widest dreams of fiction, was
born in an Indian village on the west
ern plains. Her father was a myster-
ious Frenchman who lived with the
Comanches for more than half a cen
fury. He married the daugher of Iron
Jacket and raised a large family of
children. After the Comanches set
tied on their present reservation this
Franchman. whom the Indians called
Heap Write. from the fact that he spent
a great deal of his time in writing,
built a home of no small proportions
and devoted all of his really fine abil-
tiles TO the education of his family. 1t
was said that he was a man of pro-
found erudition and an accomplished
iinguist. Some of his children showed
their Indian blood in their form. COM
plexion and every motion, while 9TH
ers were fair and of such fine address
hat strangers would never have sus-
pected that their mother was a Com
anche.
Blue Eyes Dealt Terror.
Zalia's eyes were blue. like her faith
er's. when she was afiame with an
ger. but when she was mad her eye
were any and all colors, seemingly ca
pable of emitting rays of terror.
The rurales who captured her IA
that she has been we'll named, for she
certainly fought as if she were the ace
of all outlaws inspired with the fury of
the devil.
Surprised by a shower of carbine
balls while her long train of burros
bearing packs of contraband goods was
lust entering the waters of the Rio
Grande. she rode straight toward the
soldiers lying in ambush. pouring a
blaze of fire from her Winchester as
she advanced. When her horse had
been sho. from under her and one arm
was hanging shattered by her side, she
u ScO hCl oNSo ~ -
ing her revolver over her head and
shriekins like a wounded panther, she
continued to advance until the last
cartridge of the smugglers had been
fired, and then. drawing a StilletO. she
Ordered her poems to assault the rurales
with the bowie knives. A soldier who
seized her by the shoulders lost one of
his fingers. She bit is of and spat 1t
in his face. While Captain Koran was
attempting to stanch the blood flowing
from her arm she attacked him with
her finger nails.
1t would doubtless be difficult to
make these rural guards believe that
not many years have passed sincet this
same incarnate fury who fought them
with such desperation was a greatly ad-
mired belle of the border. who sang
the sweetest of songs and was as gentle
as a cooling dove.
Zalia was the beauty of h family.
and no one ever suspected her when
she was a young girl of possessing the
terrible traits of character that she
afterwards displayed. She spent one
year at school.e ither at Jacksonville.
Ill. or a place of the same name in
some other state. and when she return
ed to the territory it was easy to see
that she had mastered many little
arts that gave her considerable ad-
vantage over her sisters.
Belle of the Frontier.
Few young girls were ever so greatly
admired as Zalia. Army officers on
duty at the frontier forts declared that
she was a strangely beautiful creature.
and there were plenty OF young men,
rich in cattle and lands, who were
ready to lay their fortunes at her feet.
lE-,-.ol -, 4, ~,aovi6can black h0rSQ
caparisoned with glittering t%rappings,
she often dashed through the streets of
Chickash. followed by ten or fifteen
young warriors riding white ponies
and carrying long, bright lances n
FURNISHED shields. After the death of
her father she began to extend her eX-
cursions to the frontier forts. where
she was always a welcome visitor She
knew how to array herself in pictur-
esque costumes we'll calculated to en-
nance her many charms of face and
form. Often she appeared on her black
horse enveloped in a loose, spCtless
white robe glittering with brillian jew
els. and. as she raced at furious speed
about the military reservations. with
her long. dark hair streaming in the
wind. there were few officers who did
not gaze after her in admiration.
Sometimes she came to Fort Sill,
when the IidianS were drawing sup
plies. dressed as n Comanche maiden.
In this costume it vas sale that h
was irresistible. She wore a robe lit
orally covered with variously colored
beads and sparkling gems. the making
of which had occupied h attention of
two generations OF the most skilled ar
lists of her tribe. Long chains of beads
of gold. intermingled with trands OF
elks' teeth that had been dipped in
molten gold. were wound about her
neck and allowed to hang in loops
below her waist. OF this period of her
career she afterward said that she had
moro thnn n hundred offers of mar