Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1902-03-27
New York World.

Geronimo, Apache lndlan cnleI ana thS
man whom General Miles has named 1.-THE
Human Tiger" is to be released from cap
tlvity at last and may be given citizenship.
Geronimo is the most terrible name in
the history of two hundred years or
bloody Indian fighting
For the last fourteen years Geronimo
asfbeen a military prisoner at Fort Sill,
Oklahoma.
Now. at. the age of eighty. he has signi-
fed his wish to become a docile subject
of the Great Father at Washington.
Geronimo is old and weak; Great Faith
er is young and strong. His arm is like
withe and his teeth are long and sharp,
said the broken old warrior a few days
ago as he affixed his mark to the legal
papers that go with his application for re-
lease.
General Frank Armstrong, Of the regu-
lar army, has been looking into the ques-
ton and has recommended that Geronimo
be paroled and made citizen.
Geronimo has been free practically for
several years now, or ever since his re-
moval from captivity in the Florida Ever
glades to barracks at Fort sill. Although
under constant surveillance, he has a
small farm and receives $50 month as
government scout"
This sum is in the nature of a bonus.
and Geronimo has been known to chuckle
shrewdly at the queer tactics of a Great
Father who hires scouts TO watch scouts.
With Geronimo 29S Apaches, the remnant
OF the Chiricahuas, win be released.
Geronimo is said by Indian fighters like
General Miles, Leonard Wood and others
to be the worst Indian that ever lived.
1t cost the United States government ST.,
900, 900 and hundreds OF lives to capture
him and put him in irons. Three times he
surrendered and escaped before his final
capture by the late General Lawton, then
under command of General Nelson A.
Miles.
Geronimo's death hunts the annual
excursions for plumber and murder which
the Apache chief carried on for many
years, are still remembered with horrible
distinctness by settlers of the southwest.
Geronimo was born on his fathers
ranch away up on the tableland at the
head of the ella river, in Arizona.
His Story of His Life.
GAS a boy" he said in telling the story
of his life. ''I worke j with the rest plant
ing corn, pulling grass for the cattle, and
such things. We had to pull up the grass
by the roots or else twist If off, for we
had no way of cutting It. We did not
know what scythes and sickles were, and
the big knives cost much money, or, what
was the same as money to us, our corn
and wheat and stock and skins.
Geronimo was ten years old before he
ever saw a white man.
His grandfather had been chief, and
"Giatly," as the Apaches called Geronimo,
early became a trusted man at the camp
fire councils.
From the first he hated white men. He
despised civilized customs and the dress
of the paleface.
This is his picturesque account Of his
first entry on the warpath:
ST got married." he says, 'aDd supported
my wife and my family by hunting.
bought horses The valleys and the table,
lands of the ella are good places for
horses. / always liked horses for hunting,
and was getting rich
zone day some Mexicans came to our
village to steal while / was on hunt
During the fight they killed my wife and
my two papoooses, about three and i've
years old.
''Vhen came back and found my wife
dead and my children dead 1t made my
heart sorry for myself and hard for the
Mexicans!"
Geronimo became the merciless enemy
of the Mexican and the paleface, and for
twenty-five years he was dreaded as
scourge.
The Mexicans believed he was god and
used to sacrifice their cattle in the hope
of appeasing his wrath.
From the rocky Businesses Of the ella
river he sailed out at intervals with his
band of Chiricahuas, the f1ercest of the
Apaches, to murder and to torture VIC
tins who were not so fortunate as to be
killed at once.
His endurance was wonderful. Once he
rode horseback five hundred miles without
rest.
On another occasion he ran forty miles
on foot in a day to escape from his pur-
suers.
He made an excursion Of twelve hundred
miles with his band in a month murdered
fifty settlers and reached his mountain
lair in safety before the United States
troops were on his trail.
Sergeant James G. Warren, who saw
Geronimo at the height Of his power as
an outlaw, declares that his face was then
of dennoniacal ferocity. His fury knew no
bounds His temper was so terrible that
he frothed at the mouth when enraged.
Awful Record of Murder.
If a horse did not do as he wished he
killed it, If sqaws displeased him he or
dered them put to death.
In six years 425 white settlers, half the
population of Arizona at that time, were
murdered by Geronimo and his band.
The last death trail in which Geronimo !
engaged was in 1885. He and his band kill
ed a rancher named Becker in Arizona.
torturing his wife and children to death.
Before the party of Indians left the war