Arizona republican., 1909-10-21
RENEWING HISTORY TO
 PERFECT THE RECORD
It Is Necessary to Retoueh it Now and Then to Preserve Its
 Delicate Coiors.

History as it is written is not al- ways more dependable than fairy tale. but the fine thing about it is that if the critic digs into it without waiting too disastrously long. it can be doctored up in the weak places very nicely. Let somebody only start something and truth immediately feels the jolt and comes out of hiding. Colonel McClintock took occasion the other day to put few patches on the weak places in General Chaffee's story about meeting President Hayes at Maricopa, or rather failing to meet him by about twenty yards. Now comes pr. R. E. Lightburne of this city to verify Colonel McClintock's story and add some interesting feat ures of his own knowledge.
 When Colonel McClintock was in terviewed he was a trifle in doubt about the event being 1880. for he believed. as most people do, that President Hayes would hardly be travelling through this country ex- cept on a railroad. and he knew that the railroad which was built east from it's western terminus was only passed Maricopa in 1879. pr. Light burne. however. says it is correct that the president passed Maricopa in the fall of 1880. October. he believes. just twenty-nine years ago. and that the only reached Benson during the months immediately preceding. With out reference to books or records. therefore, it is evident on the face of things that the president must have taken a stage journey from the end of the railroad to Fl Paso. or some other western railroad terminal, And that was a trip. too. that had enough of the clements of danger in it to be interesting There was no fear of an- archists of white assassins in those days. but the wild Apache with his whetted knife lurked on either side of the section now traversed by the Southern Pacific in the vicinity of the Arizona New Mexican boundary. old man Geronimo would have liked noth- ing better than to lift the forelock of the nations chief executive, but he doubtless had no chance, for there were many soldiers then in that part
  ing. however. to recall that one presi- dent visited Arizona in the days when the through line was patched out with stages.
 Dr. .Lightburne in October. 1880. was stationed at Fort Mcdowell as post surgeon. He had been there a couple of years before for a short time on temporary duty, but had only few days before reached there on a regular assignment He remembers the occasion of Captain Chaffee leav- ing the post for Maricopa- The or der to do so came in the night with the sound of boots and saddles that awoke everybody with a start. The call was sounded immediately on the order being received at the post for the time was short and it was about about sixty-mile horseback ride from Mcdowell to Maricopa. Hayes passed through Maricopa some time during the forenoon Of Sunday and as the doctor remembers it was early Saturday evening when the order reached Mcdowell. It might have been Friday evening, which was little enough time to make an easy trip. but he thinks it was Saturday evening. which accounts for the night call. and that made a hard ride to get to Mari copa in time.
 The doctor did not go to Maricopa. and an incident that occurred at the post the next morning after the sol- diers left served to impress the whole event on his mind. He was a new conner at the post and so was the wife of one of the officers. At break fast the next morning this lady re- marked her fright when she heard the call of boots and saddles. with which she was familiar. for she did not know of the plan to send the soldiers to Maricopa, and she naturally thought the post was attacked by the Apache Indians.
 The doctor also recites two incl dents of the stop at Maricopa which were related to him at the time One was indicative of the rough and ready manner of General Sherman, who was then at the head of the army and travelling as the presidents personal guard. Someone who knew General Sherman told him at Maricopa that the chief justice of the territory. an elderly gentleman, now gathered to