The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1908-05-24
Pretty Young Real Estate 49,
ent Left in Desert to
Suffer and Die.
SHEEP MEN DO THE DEED.
MISS DAWSON WAS RESPONSE
BILE FOR EFFORT TO coLoNiZE
SHEEP LANDS AND THIS WAY
WAS TAKEN GET RID OF HER

Rock Springs, Wyo., May 23-One of
the most hideous and revolving acts of
cruelty ever committed in the United
states is charged against the wealthy
sheep range men of Wyoming.
They carried a young and pretty
woman far out into the sage brush
desert and left her where she would be
sure to die, if not rescued, of thirst
and madness and horrible torture re-
sulting from the peculiar character OF
the vegetation.
The worst has happened, according
to a report brought in from the des
ert. The victim of the sheep men,
Miss Alice Dawson, has been seen
but not rescued-a raving maniac, sub
sisting entirely upon sage brush, de-
prived of water tortured almost be-
yond human semblance, looking more
like a rabid and starving wolf than
once pretty young woman.
This amazing outrage, which should
make the blood of every man with a
shred of chivalry boil in his veins, was
perpetrated simply because Miss Daw
son persisted in pursuing a perfectly
legitimate and useful occupation which
interfered with the business interests
of the sheep men.
Miss Dawson was one of the clever
est real estate agents in the middle
west She began to make a remark
able success in selling lots to farmers
on the sheep ranges of Wyoming and
for this reason alone the sheep men
condemned her to her terrible fate.
Millions of acres of fine, rich soil
are open to public occupation in Wy
oming at prices ranging from 30 cents
to $1.25 an acre. The land IS splen-
didly fitted for farming purposes, but
the men who now use it without cost
to themselves as sheep ranges seem
determined to keep the farmers away
by crime and violence.
They employ cowboys to meet in
coming trains and dissuade farmers
from settling in the country by vari-
Gus arguments, including elaborate elo-
quence, plain profanity, making the
visitors drunk and occasionally shoot
ing them. They bride many colonial
districts. When farmers insist on
coming into the country to settle the
sheep men employ forcible means to
drive them away. They pull down
their fences MAIN their cattle. burn
their houses and farms, and if all this
does not send them to a milder climate
they murder them.
Many scenes of cruelty and violence
have occurred in this enormous, wild
and scarcely inhabited region. Many
forgotten victims have died out in the
desert and probably no one will ever
know how they met their fate.
Miss Dawson was real estate agent
, engaged in what is called the coloni-
ration business with offices in Chi
oago and Kansas City. She was per-
suasive in her methods and always
fairly. Consequently she was able to
lead large numbers of farmers into
Texas and New Mexico.
Miss Dawson was not only clever
business woman, but she was hand
some as well, and more than one farm
er who was persuaded by her to go
west found himself offering her more
than the money for the land she sold
Often he supplemented it by offering
her his hand and his heart and the rest
of his property.
But Miss Dawson always refused
these offers politely but firmly. The
life of a farmers wife in new country
is hard one. and she had dreams of a
brilliant social career in one of the
Centers of civilization.
Six months ago she gave up her land
business in Texas and made contract
With large firm at. Riverton, Wyo.,
Is colonize 10000 acres of desert land
opened to the public under the Carey
act in Southern Wyoming. 1t was a
large undertaking, involving the plac-
ing of family on every quarter sec
ton, but she was equal to the task.
Her first trip to Wyoming was made
in March-the first homeseekerS' ex-
cursion being March ). She had fiji
teen farmers with her. most of them
being from Central Illinois. At Riv-
erton she was met by number of