Year: 1876

No Protection for Whites beyond Laramie.


Immigrants Robbed by Lying Adventur-


ers--On the Road to Starvation and


Death.


A reporter of Chicago paper bad q
long interview with Gen. Merritt, OF the
United States army. We copy as fol.
lows:


Reporter-Ten me something about
the Black Hills country. Anything
fresh from there9


Gen. Merritt suppose you mean In
reference to the gold sensation out
there. Well, I'm free to venture an
opinion on that subject. Now, mind
you, don't say there is no gold there.
There is gold there, even in the area
they have opened up already for mining
purposes. But it is fact that the area
in which gold is found at present is so
limited that it wouldn't support one
half of the people whoare there already.
The gold yields at the best will not pay
more than wages; and wherever there
seems to be promising location it is
already covered with experienced and
practical gold miners, with whom the
crowds of people going there now could
not possibly compete even If they had a
chance. Away up north, now, it is as
serted that the region is more Largely
auriferous, but how are they going to
get there-north Of Fort Fetterman,
with wild bands of Sioux on every side 2
Con. Crook is after them now with q
large force, and I think will give them
O thrashing. But such an idea as going
q gold mining up there with swarms OF
hostile Indians to meet them is the most
preposterous folly that any lot OF too
credulous people ever took into their
heads. Grey Horse, too, has gathered
a band of oung and moody redskins
from Red Clouds band, and gone up
north to join the insurgents. Had they
not the conviction that large force was
after them to whip them, these malcon-
tents would attack miners even In the
already cleared mining area.


Reporter-The troops do not impede
the passage of the colonizers into the
Indian reservation any more, do theyi


Gen. Merritt-No, they do not i'm
pede it but beyond Laramie the people
have no protection, for it is an acknowl.
edged reservation, and settlers and
miners must go at their own risk. The
army authorities preserve q sort OF tacltly
understood neutrality upon this point.
Red Cloud and Spotted Tail both seem
to regard the loss of the land as fore
gone conclusion, and simply consider it
an additional encroachment. They lay
the blame of their loss in the matter,
however, upon the shoulders of those
who were prominent in opposing the sale
of the land.


Reporter-Dids you say the miners
are making but poor headway anyhow,
general9


Gen. Merritt under the most
favorable circumstances, the whole
thing is a wretched showing. Produce
is high, and the people cannot get
enough to live on. Besides, they are
not used to such country. Work they
cannot, for they ate not experienced
miners, and there is no other work tor
them to do. They 60 out there as for
lorn hope, totally unprovided with the
means of obtaining, for a reasonable
time, the necessaries of life d; and leaving
the crowded cities from the fear of star
vation, they find themselves in strange,
bleak, and inhospitable region, face to
face with the rtainty of starvation.
The great majority of the poor, deluded
people going there are broken down city
people. Their dress, demeanor, and
habits prove it beyond doubt. Re-
cruited by these lying adventures,
greedy to skin them Of what little means
friends have contributed to sustain their
delusive hopes, they come from Phila-
delphia, Boston, Chicago, and other
cities in parties of 300 and 400, and
when they arrive at Laramie City or
Sioux City, Sidney, or any other OF the
depots in which they are swindled and
feeced by these harpies for "imple-
ments," "outft," and what not, they
find themselves ushered into anew coun-
try, into what is, for the most OF them,
a wholly impossible life, and at their
wits ends to preserve themselves from
starvation.


Reporter-Not a very pleasant pic
ture, general?


Gen. Merritt-No, indeed; but there
is positively worse phase than that.
There are people in hundreds-iramps,
seedy clerks, and porters, and so on.
who, having no money at all, tramp 1t
through the snow, living upon the
wages of their daily labor, from hand
to mouth, and though their condition
can scarcely be more destitute than 1t
is, yet, when they reach their destlna-
tion, their case is the more necessltous
from the fact of there being no work to
do even for food. It is all very well for
these as far as Laramie City, we'll say,
but beyond that what are they going to
do9 I have seen these fellows myself
trudging it through melting snow and
borne up through many privations SIM
ply by the delusive hope that when
they reach the Black Hills they will
reach fortune. In my opinion the pres
ent spring will see many of these unfor-
tunates prostrated by exposure and dis
ease, and literally starved to death.
What can they doa Even putting the
most favorable construction upon the
case, they cannot mine for months, even
if they are fortunate enough to subsist.
The snow is deep on the ground, the
streams are all frozen hard, and the only
running water at present is upon the
superficial surface of the ice, and it
won't break till June. told you how
dreadfully cold it was out there; the
warm, mild weather which We expert
ence here has but very little effect out
there.