Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-12-04

IN the summer Of 1893 Tom Grady, a
sturdy young sheepman. was shot
in the back and killed by q desper-
ado Mexican sheepherder named
Jose Garcia. The crime was COM
mitted fifty miles west Of Flagstaff, Ariz.
A party headed by the sheriff of Coconlo
county made a four-day search for the
trail Of the Mexican, failed to find IL
and gave up the hunt. The sheepmen
induced young Ralph Cameron, now dele
gate to the House Of Representatives,
in whom they had vast confidence. to
take I'D the abandoned chase Then
started a six-week pursuit of almost UNI
precedented hardships that illustrate the
qualities of the man who brought to a
successful conclusion the twenty-five-year
battle that the territory has waged for
statehood.
Cameron took the trail six days after
the crime had been committed. He has
a theory that murderer always goes
back to his old home and his own people.
He cited the Charlton case as recent
example Of the truth of this theory. The
crime was committed west of Flagstaff,
but New Mexico. the original home Of the
murderer. was to the east. The Mexican
had to pass through that wild which
lay between Flagstaff and the Grand
Canyon Of the Little Colorado to the
north.
*
Cameron set out to the north and east,
thus gaining many days. On the great
plain between Waterholes he abandoned
his horses and circled on foot in search
n;,ly< thn t-an nF
hobnailed shoe, where there only
Navajo Indians, and knew that he was
after his man.
He followed the trail for days. eating
occasionally at the camp of Indians. and
sleeping by night without blankets on the
ground. One night he had gone to sleep
In the sand in a gully with his hat for
pillow. 4 storm broke in the mountains
above him. and lie awoke to find himself
floating down the gully and his nat gone:
For days the rain poured. All trat es OF
a trail were obliterated. He decided TO
hurry on to Albuquerque. whittier he ielt
his quarry had gone. He walked thlfty
miles to the railroad. Here he found
that the freshets had washed out bridges
that put hundred miles OF railroad out
OF comm ssion and made the streams
impassabe for horse. fIe pushed on
afoot, ragged. hatless, hungry. He
climbed over spans that had been rail-
of rails that connected the banks.
At the end of five days he plunged
into Hells Half Acre. section of Albu-
querque inhabited by outlaw MeNicans
He found a sheepherder who he had
known III Arizona and WHO was an
enemy OF Garcia, the murderer THIS
Mexican had seen the outlaw the night
before Cameron spent a week search
ing Albuquerque without success. tie
went to Los Vegas. The man he wanted
had been there also, and lie found that
fourteen years before he had been mar
ried to a woman vino lived in sette e.
ment thirty miles out o. town. He fall
ed to find him there, however.
But he set a DIt 'hman to watch the
camp and continued his search. which
led through portions of Texas, much OF
New Mexico and particularly into Gay
ina Canyon, the la&less rendezvous Of
the worst gang of Mexicans the west
has ever known. Here he spent five
days facing a fight to the death IL his
mission was discovered and no less
delicate situation if he found his man.
:: ::
Finally he received word from his
Dutchman that Garcia had come into the
camp of his former wife: had come back
home, as nurderers always do. Cam
eron picked up another Mexican who was
said to be willing to undertake anything
from murder down for $50. He sur
prised the camp at daybreak. captured his
man and chained him to the hireling.
But I'm Los Vegas he encountered \ very