The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-01-15

/ troops whom had dismissed committed
| the outrages mentioned: and that some
! or an OF the other individuals whom |
dismissed had knowledge of the deed
| and shielded from the law those who
committed IL.
Dismissed as Foolish.
The only motive suggested as possibly
influencing any one else was a desire
! 10 get rid Of the colored troops. so strong
/ that 1t impened the citizens of Browns
vile 10 shoot up their own houses to
4 XII one Of their own number, to assault
/ their own police, wOunding the Iieuten-
ant, who had been an officer for twenty
years-all with the purpose Of discredit-
/ on its face so ludicrously impossible that
/ IL Is difficult To treat It as honestly made
! This theory supposes that the assailants
| succeeded in obtaining the uniforms of
1 the negro soldiers; that before starting
/ on their raid they got over the fence of
/ the fort unchalenged and without dis
/ covery by the negro troops. opened fire
| on the town from within the fort: that
/ they BACKED their faces so thar at least
| fourteen eye witnesses mistOOk them for
] negroes; that they disguised their voices
so that at least six witnesses who heard
/ them speak mistOOk their voices as be-
/ ing those Of negroes. They were not Mex
! leans for they were heard by various
| witnesses to speak in English. The weap-
ons they used were Springfield rifles
for the ammunition which they used was
i that OF the Springfield rifle and no other
and could not have been used in any e1rn
/ in Texas or any part of the Union or
/ in Mexico. or in any other part of the
world, save only in the Springfield now
used by the United States troops includ-
/ ing the negro troops in the garrison at
/ Brownsville, and by no other persons
save these troops-a weapon which had
! only been in use by the United States
| troops for some four or five months prior
TO the shOoung IN question and which is
not in the possession of private individu-
ais. The cartridges used will 40 into
no other rifle used in the United States
except when specially chambered-
the Winchester Of the '95 model-but it
and. moreover the bullets picked ont OF
the buildings show the marking of the
four so-called lands" which come from
being fired through the Springfield hut
not through the Winchester the latter
showing six.
Bullets in Evidence.
The bullets which 7 herewith submit.
which were found in the houses. could not
therefore have been fired from a Win
| chester or any other sporting rifle, al
though the cartridges might have been
put into a Winchester model '95. The bull
lets might have been fired from Krag.
but the cartridges would not have gone
into Krdg.. Taking the shells and the
bullets together the proof is conclusive
that the new Springfield rifle was the
weapon used by the midnight assassins
and could not by any possibility have been
any other rifle of any kind i'm the world
This Of itself establishes the fact that the
assalants were United States soldiers and
would be conclusive on this point if not
one soldier had been seen or heard by
any residents in Brownsville on the night
in question. and if nothing were known
save the finding Of the Shells clips and
bullets.
Cloud of Witnesses.
Fourteen eye-witnesses. namely. Charles
u A 10 10 ffra..~ H. 20
Leahy, Palermo PreciadO Ynacio DOmin-
gueZ. Macedonia Ramirez George w.
Randall. jose Martinez. J. +. Mcdonald.
+. II. SanbOrn Herbert ElkinS, Hale Odin.
Mrs. Hale Odin and Judge Parks. testified
that they saw the assailantS or some of
Them at varying distances. and that they
were negro troops, most Of the witnesses
giving their testimony in such shape that
there Is possibility of their having
been mistaken. Two other witnesses. 10
seph BOdin and Genera PadrOn saw some
of the assaiants and testified that they
were soldiers (the only soldiers in the
neighborhOod being the colored troopsl
Four other witnesses. namely. ). 6
Moore. DR.. Thorn. Charles s. Scanada
and Charles r Hammond. testified to
hearing the shooting and hearing the
voices Of the men who were doing II, and
that these voices were those Of negroes
but did not actually see the men who
were doing the shooting. About twenty
five other witnesses gave testimony cor
rOborating 10 a greater or less degree the
testimony Of those who thus saw the
shooters or heard them. The testimony
of these eye and ear-witnesses would es-
tablsh beyond all possibility of contradtc-
ton the fact that the shooting was COM
mitted by ten or fifteen or more Of the
negro troops from the garrison, and this
testimony Of theirs would be amply suf-
ficient i'm itself If not a cartridge or
bullet had been found: exactly as the bull
lets and cartridges that were found would
have established the guilt of the troops
even had not a single eyewitness seen
them or any witnesses heard them.
Fired From the Fort.
The testimony OF the witnesses on the
position of the bullet holes shows that
fifteen or twenty Of the negro troops
gathered inside the fort. and that the first
shots fired into the town were fired from
within the fort; some of them at least
from the upper galleries of the barracks
The testimony further shows that the
troops then came out over the walls. some
of them perhaps going through the gate.
and advanced distance o. goo yards or
Whereabouts into the town. During their
advance they shot into two hotels ana
some nine or ten other houses. Three-of
the private houses into which they fired
contained women and children. They de-
liberately killed Frank Natus, the bar
tender. shooting him down from dis
lance of about fifteen yards. They shot
at a man aud woman. Mr.. and Mrs Odln.
lttA fIrfr 10 hr.r- Nc ha