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01 - Dread Apache- That Early-Day Scourge of the Southwest by Merrill Pingree Freeman · Dread Apache- That Early-Day Scourge of the Southwest

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  Speaker 1: Section one of The Dread Apache, That early day Scourge
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  Speaker 1: of the Southwest. This is a libribox recording. All librebox
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  Speaker 1: recordings are in the public domain. For more information or
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  Speaker 1: to volunteer, please visit librebox dot org. Read by Lorie Banza.
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  Speaker 1: The Dread Apache, That early day Scourge of the Southwest
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  Speaker 1: by doctor Merril Pingree Freeman introduction through Paris adopts name
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  Speaker 1: of Apache. A short time ago. Idling through a collection
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  Speaker 1: of early day photographs, I came across too that vividly
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  Speaker 1: recalled the closing scenes in that bloody frontier drama in
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  Speaker 1: which the Apache was the chief actor for many years,
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  Speaker 1: the relentless foe of the pioneer, Wary, tireless, cowardly and treacherous.
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  Speaker 1: He was the very incarnation of fiendishness, if possible, more
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  Speaker 1: pronounced in the squaw than in the man. Never meeting
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  Speaker 1: you in the open, always in ambush, concealed behind the
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  Speaker 1: big granite boulder, the point of a hill, or a
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  Speaker 1: clump of brush, He and his fellows patiently awaited your
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  Speaker 1: solitary coming, all unconscious of danger. Then the crack of
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  Speaker 1: the rifle, and it is all over. Today. He might
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  Speaker 1: be a sniper, but in the days of his hellish activities,
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  Speaker 1: the word had not yet been given its more recently
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  Speaker 1: enlarged meaning. Two thousand pioneers victims of Apaches. How many
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  Speaker 1: breakers of the wilderness, hardy, fearless, old timers were sent
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  Speaker 1: to their final rest by this early scourge of the desert.
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  Speaker 1: Who can say? Some place their number at two thousand,
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  Speaker 1: some say more, others less. This does not include the boy,
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  Speaker 1: whose profession it is to risk his life, and, when
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  Speaker 1: necessary is duty its sacrifice. Of the number of these
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  Speaker 1: there is probably a record somewhere, but of the old pioneer,
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  Speaker 1: only an estimate. In the valley, on the Mesa, and
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  Speaker 1: the hillside, on the mountain top, and in the deep
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  Speaker 1: shadows of the canyon, everywhere this broad land is dotted
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  Speaker 1: with their unknown and unmarked graves. Captain John G. Bork,
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  Speaker 1: author of The Border with Crook and an Apache campaign,
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  Speaker 1: who was with General Crook, tells us that the Apache
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  Speaker 1: is no coward, but that he has no false ideas
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  Speaker 1: about courage, that he would prefer to skulk like a
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  Speaker 1: coyote for hours and then kill his enemy, rather than,
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  Speaker 1: by injudicious exposure, receive a moon. May we not attribute
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  Speaker 1: to the chivalrous spirit of Captain Bork, not to criticize
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  Speaker 1: a foe his delicate way of putting this. No, I
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  Speaker 1: do not recall that this early plague of the old
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  Speaker 1: Pioneer ever injudiciously exposed himself, unless driven to it, skulking
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  Speaker 1: like the coyote. As Captain Bork so well expresses, it
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  Speaker 1: is my conception of his bravery. If forced to the open,
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  Speaker 1: he would undoubtedly make a brave fight. But I have
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  Speaker 1: never heard of his voluntarily seeking that open, meeting his
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  Speaker 1: enemy on anything approaching equal terms. Paris adopts name of Apache.
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  Speaker 1: Being over in Paris. A few years ago, a friend
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  Speaker 1: who had lived there a number of years, and who
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  Speaker 1: was as familiar with Paris from basement to roof garden
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  Speaker 1: as I am with Congress Street of our good old
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  Speaker 1: town of Tucson, suggested one evening that we visit the Apaches.
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  Speaker 1: Expressing surprise that any of my people should have wandered
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  Speaker 1: so far from home, I suggested as a substitute the
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  Speaker 1: Mulawn Rouge. However, the Apaches were agreed upon, and in
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  Speaker 1: the evening my friend, bringing a policeman with him, called
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  Speaker 1: for me at my hotel. Arriving at the door of
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  Speaker 1: the Apache rendezvous. In due course we three, my friend,
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  Speaker 1: the policeman and myself are readily admitted, the presence of
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  Speaker 1: our policemen assuring that, and we find ourselves in an
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  Speaker 1: underground dive, a large room with a low ceiling, barely furnished,
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  Speaker 1: dimly lighted, and reeking with the sour odor of stale beer.
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  Speaker 1: Looking about the room by the dim light as it
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  Speaker 1: forces its way through the dense gloom of tobacco smoke,
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  Speaker 1: we are enabled to see two other policemen besides our own.
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  Speaker 1: There are two stationed there day and night, and a
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  Speaker 1: score or more of the toughest looking lot of cut
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  Speaker 1: throats I have ever had the pleasure of coming in
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  Speaker 1: contact with. This was the retreat the gathering of as
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  Speaker 1: bad a lot of thieves, thugs, robbers, burglars and murderers
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  Speaker 1: as the world could boast of. And Paris, in seeking
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  Speaker 1: a name for them that would embody all of these characteristics,
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  Speaker 1: had searched the world over, and was almost in despair
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  Speaker 1: of finding a single word that would express all that
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  Speaker 1: is mean, wantingly, cruel, murderous and cowardly. But at last
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  Speaker 1: attention was directed to the Apache of Arizona. And then
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  Speaker 1: it was discovered that the word which would embody all
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  Speaker 1: that and more had been found, and that was why
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  Speaker 1: I was enabled to find some of my own home
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  Speaker 1: people away off there in the world center of fashion,
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  Speaker 1: settling for a few bottles of the vile as beer
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  Speaker 1: possible to brew as a tip to the house, I
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  Speaker 1: was soon ready to ask my friend to call us
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  Speaker 1: policemen and get us away from this vile den. End
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  Speaker 1: of Section one.