Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1910-10-06
"A. c. erokaw in ths

"a. G. erokaw in the
What would John Deitz has said
what would he have done, had he been
permitted to witness the scene In WIN
ter yesterday morning when Aimyra'
his eldest daughter. weak, perhaps dy-
ing from a bullet wound which had
pierced her body, was carried uncer-
enormously thru the mire and Nth OF
the back alleys and deposited, none toe
gently, in q dismal baggage car
Around her Get Ave or six burly. un-
kempt special deputies stationed them
selves. while only one Of her own SCI
was permitted to Journey with he'
more than 200 miles to st. Joseph's
hispital at Ashland-and no physician
within call He would have done what
any father would have done under rnt
Same circumstances and not one living
soul in Winter could have mistaken his
purpose.
John Deitz is neither crazy mol
fanatical. He never boasts-but hi.
steel blue eyes flash like fire when the
wrongs that have unQuestionably beer
thrust upon him and his family, are
recalled. Had you gone to Winter
three weeks ago, or Immediately after
the Horel shooting. the citizens would
have told you that any attempt to in
tervieW him at his home on the
| Thornapple river meant sure death
They didn't think" ne would shoot
they "knew' it. AS q matter OF
fact, they were neither Ill informed MOI
soHcitious regarding the safety OF the
| individual addressed-they purposely
misstated conditions in order to make
Deitz appear in as bad light as pos
sible and prevent, II possible. the true
state Of affairs becoming public prop
erty.
John F. Deitz is, without doubt, the
victim of conspiracy. He has beer
forced to suffer many indignftfes. and
finally, driven to desperation. and see
ing no saving power by way OF the
| courts, he resorted to the only means
Of defense the pioneer woodsnan and
farmer ever knew-his gun. Today he
lis being hunted down and must suffer
the consequences for attempting to
fight for his peace Of mind, his family
and his home.
He Is absolutely fearless and the
| laugh, as chronicled in recent dis
patches, when told how the citizens OF
Winter were arming In fear OF his
single handed attempt to rescue his son
and daughter, is certainly character
! istic of the man. Technically and IN
4 the eyes Of the law John F. Deitz is an
outlaw. It is the duty OF the sheriff
therefore. to arrest and bring him into
court. Contrary to the general opinion
Deitz does not fear a trial by jury
| of his peers What he really fears and
what he knows to be a fact. is, that II
i would be impossible for him to secure
twelve unbiased and unprecedented men
merits of his case. Rather than suffer
such humiliation-rather than allow
| himself to become the leading man in
a farce Of such character, he declares
he will fight to the death and die with
his boots on. This he most certainly
will do unless the pleadings of his lit
tie daughter Helen and the thought
of leaving 7-year-old Johnnie father
less, prevail upon him at the last
moment, and he eurrenders. There IL
about one chance in ten thousand tina,
he will do this. I do not believe Mrs
IDeitz would consent to any such plan
On the contrary I can hear her say:
John, we will fight 1t out here
now.,. There will be some one who VII
take care of the little ones after we
are gone-if they shoot you they mus,
shoot me too"
Newspaper stories regarding John
i DeitZ and his household have been, al
most without exception, highly coloreo
and distorted to the injury of his rep
utation. One correspondent who claims
to have visited the little German al
his Cameron Dam home within the
past month, wrote a story for his paper
in which he said that Deitz sat at the
table while he was there with an auto
matte pistol on each side of his plate
and between bites watched his guest
furtively" If he did that he did more
than l ever saw him do. Possibly the
personal appearance and demeanor ca
the guest in question warranted such
unusual tactics. Who knows? The
same writer told how each of the chill
dren was assigned to watch a certain
window during daylight hours-hoW
| the walls of the cabin were lined with
fire arms of every description and what
extraordinary precautions were taken
night and day to prevent successful
rushing Of the cabin by posse.
| All that kind of talk is pure fabrica-
ton. The Deitz household has been
living as any other farmers household
lives. Every member of the family
| has been in the habit of going about
lIlS premises WlllAoul aPPoAS ASeAA
! The men folks have gone into the
fields, looked after their crops, built
fences, taken care of the garden-the
women folks have looked after things
nearer the home.
The cabin has never been barricaded
Just before Deitz retired the night
spent at the cabin, Sept. IL. he asked
me to step TO the door-there Is only
one-and see how he "barricaded the
house for the night" l wasn't fully
certain it was all a joke until saw
him pull the screen door shut and hook
1t with q common t1lree-inch hook OF
which there are q million, more or less,
In use right here in Minneapolis
Now" said John with a merry twinkle
in his eye, "one can go to bed and feel
perfectly secure"
That night the three automatic pis-
tolls hung in their holsters on the wall
not ten feet from my bed. Before blow
ting out the little oil lamp I looked
particularly to see whether Deitz and
his sons had taken their respective re
volvers to their rooms. They were all
In their proper places. In the morning
I asked John to let me examine one of
them. Without a moments hesitation
he lifted one from dts holster and hand
ed 1t to me. It was fully loaded and
to me looked fully capable, if in the
proper hands, of performing creditably,