New-York tribune., 1902-03-09
THE BOLD, BAD BRIGANDS.
THEY ARE HARD TO FIND AND HARD
TO CATCH

IAAEs HENRY AND HIS GRANDFATHER TALK
ABOUT BRIGANDs NOW AND LONG AGO.
James Henry and some other boys had been
playing brigands and he telling his grand
hther about it They had even allowed two
girls to play with them, so as to have some
prisoners. It often happens that boys of James
Henry's age find that they can get along in their
games quite as We'll without girls, but this time
somebody was needed 70 represent Miss Stone
and her companion. Even this time they didn't
nave quite such good time as the boys did
iney were bhndi9-aed, and led long way around
noin NE cave where they were put when they
were first captured. and then back to it again,
and finally, after James Henry who was the
chief Of the band. had received several letters
rom tn United States consul. had written sew
efa 70 Aln and had got good deal Of money,
he girls were led TO place which they knew.
une Dahlases were taken from their eyes, they
were ordered not to move TIL they had counted
five hundred and the game was over
James Henrys grandfather was much inter
ested in the story. When 1 was boy Of your
Sze," he said, I didn't know much about
hrigands."
'oh, We'll" said James Henry, Il don't know
much about them, either; we were just playing
hrigandsr
When / was a boy" his grandfather sad,
We use 10 play Indians. Some Of US were
Indians and some of US were coIonists and we
had bows and arrows and guns and tomaha ks,
and We had battles and scalped one another, and
1t was al very dreadful and beautiful And
now IT'S DTigands. is it? Did the Turkish sol
deEs come after you pretty hard, or didn't you
have much trouble with them?'
There weren't any soldiers" said James
Henry: ought there to be soldiers when there
are brigands?"
Why, yes" his grandfather answered; 1T
seems to me that there ought TO be- However,
appears there are not always any soldiers, so
perhaps you were right to do without them.
ihere were some soldiers in Miss Stones case,
put don't hear that they did much | am
Analc that in the countries where there are a
koOo many brlgands a good many of the sol
uiHfs would Ike TO be brigands too because
e "OIk IS not so hard, and the pay is better
ana SO they don't feel SO very unfriendly toward
ue Dflganas. And then it may be sometimes
oiAt ne governments to which the soldiers be-
ohg don't care so much about getting nd of the
hrigands"
But brgands are robbers" James Henry put
NJ ooesnt the government everywhere always
want to catch robbers"
NO doubt good governments do but some
governments are not strong enough to catch
'o~-4--5 ana some DO not care to If they could
- Is not an easy thing, by any means. And
S4eH We must remember that some governments
lave not gone 50 far and learned so much as
SoiA Some are no better than they were five
hundred years ago or thousand years. Ia
1O'e days you know, there were many gov
eAMehts which were themselves not much more
1@n bancs Of brigands One little king or
F''HVe or duke would start out with his men
~ Hsht with another. and TO see what ne could
set rom him. The one who could fight longest
--a' mere was anything wrong about it. I:ut
wen mat was not the beginning of brig Ands.
-"e! mad them in Greece, and in many other
- TIlules no doubt, as long ago as Hercules.
~ 'ought against them, and so did some Of the
'ener Greek heroes
"u 1 suppose there are some OF them there
AO"' never heard Robin Hood and his merry
. eH called brigands. but they were not very
eieht from them. were they? Germany
iul Of them much later than Robin
D'o' and so was France 1t Ma
q, nuhared years ago. He tried to crush them
= -laly TOO when he was in power there. and
O'o Keep the roads safer than they had ever
been before.
u'h think the people Of Italy objected
80 80 70 brigands. OF course, they did not steal
., Om the poor people. since they had nothing to
- q On the contrary. they probably spent