Waterbury evening Democrat., 1907-01-14

S-Ao " IVY OiAu uiiy pO0piDIllty VI HOAl-
 GSt question that some individuals
 among the colored troops whom l
 have dismissed committed the out
 rages mentioned; and that some or
 all of the other individuals whom I
 dismissed had knowledge of the deed
 and shielded from the law those who committed 1t.
 The only motive suggested as pos
 sibly influencing anyone else was a
 desire to get rid of the colored troopS
 so strong that 1t impelled the citizens
 of Brownsville to shoot up their OWL
 houses, to kill one of their own num-
 Der, to assault their own police,
 wounding the lieutenant, who had been an officer for 20 years--all with the purpose of discrediting the negro
 troops. The question is on its face
 so ludicrously impossibly that i. is difficult to treat it as honestly made. This theory supposes that the assail- ants succeeded in obtaining the uni- form of the negro soldiers; that be- fore starting on their raid they got over the fence of the fort unchn!- lenged and without discovery by rne negro troops opened fire on the town from within the forts; that they
 blackened their faces so that 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 being those op negroes. They were not Mexlcans. for they were heard by various witnesses to speak in English. The weapons they used were Springfield rifles. for the ammunition they used was that of the Springfield rife and no other, and in Texas or any part of the union or in Mexico, or in any part of the world save only in the Springfield rifle now used by the United States troops. in cluding the negro troops in the gar- rison at Brownsville, and by no oth- CT persons save these troops, wea- pon which had only been in use by the Unified States troops from some four or five months prior to the shoot- ing in question. and which is not in the possession of private citizens.
 The cartridges used will go into one other rife used in the United States. when especially chambered- the Winchester of the '9J model = hut it will rarely if ever go off when in it; and, moreover. the bullets pick cd out of the building show the mark ings of the four so-called ..lantls' which come from being fired through the Springfield but not through the Winchester, the latter showing six. The,sbullets which I herewith subnit. which were found in the houses. could not therefore have been fired from q Winchester or any other sporting rife. although the cartridges might have been put into Winchester model of '95. The bullets might have been fired from Il Krag, but the cartridges would not have gone into n Krag. Taking the shells and bull lets together the proof is conclusive that the new Springfield rife was the weapon used by the midnight assas- sins. and could not by any possibil- ity have been any other rife of any kind in the world. This of itself es- tuuIlbueb Iuc idtt tuut tiS uSSoH"iito 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.
 Fourteen eye-witnesses namely, Charles R. Chase AmadO Martinez, Mrs Kate Leahy. Palermo Preciado, Ignacio Dominguez, Macedonia Ba- mireu George w. Bendall, Jose Mar tinez, !. r. Mcdonald F. H. A. San born, Herbert Elkins, Hale Odkin, Mrs Hale Odkin and Judge Parks, testified that they saw the assailants or some of them at varying distances and that they were negro roops, most of the witnesses giving their tcsti- mony in such shape that there is no of their having been mis- taken. Two other witnesses. Joseph Bodin and Genero Padron, saw some of the assailants and testified that they were soldiers the only soldiers in the neighborhood being colored troops.) Four other witnesses, name ly s. C. Moore, Doctor Thorn, Charles s. Canada and Charles \. Hammond testified to hearing the shooting and hearing the voices of the men who were doing 1t and that these voices were those of negroes. but did not actually see the men who were doing the shooting. About other witnesses gave tes- timony corroborating to 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 establish beyond all possibility of contradiction inc fact that the shooting was com mitted by ten of fifteen or more of the negro troops from the garrison, and this testimony of theirs, wo,ild be amply sufficient in itself if not I cartridge or bullet had been found: exactly as the bullets and cartridges that were found would have cstab- lisbed the guilt of the troops even had not a single eyewitness seen them or other witnesses heard them. 2 The testimony of the witnesses and the position of the bullet holes show hat fifteen or twenty of the negro troops gathered inside the fort and hat the first shots fired into the town were fired from within the 'ort; some of them at least from the upper galleries of the barracks.
 The testimony further shows that he troops then came out over the walls. some of them perhaps going the gate and advanced a dis ance of 300 yards or thereabout into he town. During their advance they ,hot into two hotels and some nine ,r ten other houses. Three of the