Arizona republican. [volume] (Phoenix, Ariz.) 1890-1930, 1903-10-23
CITIZENS CHASE MYTHS
Tricks Of the Tramp and Tribulations
Of the Police.

Excited declarations of good citizens
If this town who insisted to the police
that an organized gang of horse
thieves exist in Phoenix. have ex-
ploded all along the firing line. In
a ike manner has the theory Of All
epidemic of burglary fallen into. dfs.n-
tregation.
The band of horse thieves existed
only in the imagination of various
owners of horses Of inferior breed.
These people deluged the police with
complaints. With strange frequency
"ayuses We're missed and the work
was ascribed to bandits. The pol &c
wondered that Indian ponies sh9ul
hH stolen in preference to blood stock
which as rule is equally as acces.
sihle for thieving purposes The
solution of the mystery was this: In
dian ponies snow an acuteness in ur-
tying themselves from the hitching
post unequaled by their sturdy but
less tough and less ingenious Norman
brothers. The Indian masters tic n
Knot which holds the mustang. but
the average pale face, especially from
far away effete lands. underestimate
the acumen of his Indian riding ami
NAL and the pony disadvantages him.
self and sallies forth in the full enjoy
n,ent of his liberty the moment the
master turns his beck. Stray stock
advertised recently included a long
list of ponies belonging TO the rece mt
arrivals who announced to the police
me existence of gang of hn:sa
! thieves.
Worse yet is the reign of terror in
the BENNETT edition due to the in
Vestnent of the neighbCrhood with
chirnerlcal crooks. No house thus far
has been burSlariZed there. but the
district is said to swarm with Jack
the-Peepers.' Most every woman in
addition has seen suspicious looking
characters lettering about the neigh
horhood apparently planning robber-
les. Some of the women have heard
: lightfcoted men accommodating porch
as and have known them to peep
through windows and key holes until
the women were almost frightened to
death.
"Will you permit me to kill a man2"
was a. question put trcmously to the
city marshal by one little woman on
North Third avenue
She had succeeded in frightening
herself to the verge of hysteria and
the gun seemed the only recourse.
Are you sure you wouldn't be- too
frightened to use Il gun if you saw y
burglar, and are you sure you
wouldn't kill the milknan?" queried
City Marshal Kinney. Have you a
telephone in your house, he asked.
YES, with rising infection
Then why don't you call up the po-
lice With these new noiseless phones
when you think crooks are planning
to ransack your silverware?"
"Oh. I was so frightened when I
saw that shadow On the porch could
not move muscle
And the marshal unused 10 evolve =
plan by which a woman frightened
into total paralysis could use a loaded
siX-shootar without endangerine her
own life.
Phoenix. a town with a population
reaching as much as 15.0N0 souls. is
| policed by the city marshal, fcu:
officers and Il jailor.
Rome. Ca, a town of 5000 people
has G policeman at every corner-a
total force of about thirty men. In
Rome. Ga. men. women and children
-everybody-are adept with the six
shooter. In Phoenix none of the wo-
men and children and very few of the
I men understand the use of fire arms.
ard yet the necessity for greater ne
/ lice protection here is not apparent.
The criminal records show a smaller
percentage of crime in Phoenix. per-
haps. than in any other town in the
country.
There are reaso for this showing
In the first place the citizenship il
neither volatile nor emotional. Then
the surrounding deserts furnish To
criminals a warning of the difficulty
of escaping capture by leaving town
Much petit larceny and burglsry is
avoided by subjecting ragged lookinT
strangers to inquisition and usually
to eiectment from town. A few no
boes are comparatively harmless, bu