Latest / Dread Apache- That Early-Day Scourge of the Southwest / 09 - Dread Apache- That Early-Day Scourge of the Southwest by Merrill Pingree Freeman

Transcript

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

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Section nine of the Dread Apache That Early Day Scourge
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: of the Southwest by doctor Merle Pingree Freeman. This Lieberbox
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: recording is in the public domain. Kidd Near's end of
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: his trail of blood. Through Kidd's career ended Kidd Near's
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: end of his trail of blood. But at last the
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: end of his career of robbery and bloodshed is approaching.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: The opportunity that Clark has been waiting all these years
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: is nigh at hand. The Apache Kidd's race is about run.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: Clark had been away from home, and when returning on
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: February fourth, eighteen ninety four, passing by the house of Emerson,
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: a neighbor about a mile from his own home, he
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: noticed the tracks of three Indians about the house, and,
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: going inside, found that they had robbed it of its contents.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: Going on home, he found his partner, Scanlon, whom the
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: Indians had not disturbed, and said to him, Scanlon, your
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: old friend, the kid has been around again. Soon after, Clark,
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: taking his gun, went out of the house for the
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: purpose of scouting the country around and seeing whether he
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: might get sight of the Indians, going to the top
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: of the peak near by, where he could overlook the
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: surrounding country without unduly exposing himself. He awaited events, not
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: realizing what an approaching one should mean to himself and
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: to an old enemy on whom he had bowed vengeance
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: for the death of his old time partner, and that
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: this event would mark an era in a life ever
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: filled with its dangers, not one of which had ever
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: been shirked, but always bravely met. The opportunity for which
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: he had waited, and in his way away, probably familiar
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: only to the old scout, had prayed for, was but
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: a few short hours away. The language of his prayers,
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: except for its fervency, may not have been up to
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: the Orthodox standard, but he knew what he wanted, and
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: in asking for it, used the language with which he
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: was familiar, the language of the desert and the mountain,
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: the campfire, and the trail closing act in great drama.
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: Clark had been there for probably twenty minutes when looking
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: off across an intervening canyon, he noticed three Indians approaching
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: his horse where it was grazing, about one thousand, five
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: hundred yards away. The Indians, not having discovered Clark, who
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: knowing it would be impossible to get across the canyon
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: in time to save his horse, raised the sights of
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: his gun and fired at them, not expecting, however, to
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: hit any one of them at that distance, but hoping
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: to frighten them away from his horse. On firing, Clark
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: immediately ducked into the canyon, out of sight of the Indians,
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: who were evidently frightened by the shot. Waiting there until dusk,
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: He cautiously crawled towards his horse for the purpose of
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: taking him to the house, and was within about seventy
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: five yards of him, it being too dark to see
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: an object distinctly at any distance, when he saw two
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: Indians approaching the horse, and only a few steps from
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: the animal, and about fifty yards from where Clark was.
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: Owing to the darkness, it was impossible to more than
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: distinguish the two Indians, who were but a few feet apart,
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: one ahead of the other. These were subsequently found to
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: be the kid and his squaw. The squaw in front
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: and nearest to Clark, but owing to the darkness it
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: was impossible to distinguish one from the other. Clark instantly
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: raised his gun and fired at the one nearest to him,
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: but being unable to see the sights could only take
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: a quick aim along the barrel. By his long experience
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: with a gun, he knew the danger of overshooting in
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: the dark and made allowance accordingly. As Clark fired, there
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: came a simultaneous report from the kid's rifle and an
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: outcry from the squaw. And from the character of this outcry,
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: Clark knew that he had made the mistake of firing
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: at the wrong Indian. The ball from the kid's gun
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: whistled alarmingly close to Clark's head, but fortunately did no harm.
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: Following the shots, the two Indians immediately dropped to the ground,
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: and as fast as the old scout could work his rifle,
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: he pumped the lead into where he had dropped, firing
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: several shots. The Indian, however, fired but the one shot.
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: Clark then made a run for his but the animal,
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: being frightened, he was unable to catch him. Not knowing
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: how many of the Indians there might be about, Clark
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: immediately set out for Mammoth on the San Pedro, where
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: he procured a small posse and was back at the
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: scene of the shooting by morning, finding the squad dead
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: a short distance from where she had been shot. Following
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: the kid's trail, they found that he had hopped on
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: one foot to where he had left his horse, one
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: of his legs evidently being broken. Scouts from San Carlos,
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: following his trail, found some bloody rags where he had
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: built a little fire and probably dressed his wounds. Kidd's
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: career ended. Thus ended the murderous career of the kid,
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: the terror of the Southwest. Clark had undoubtedly hit him
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: with one or more of his shots. Where or how
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: soon after he may have died. No white man knows,
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: Clark being the last one to see him, as the
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: two shots simultaneously rang out on the silence of that night.
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: Had it been the kid instead of the squaw, Clark
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: would have earned the large reward that was offered for him,
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: dead or alive. Tom Horn, an old scout who spoke
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: the Apache language like a native, came from Denver subsequently,
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: hoping that by some chance the kid might still be
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: living somewhere and that he might earn the reward. The
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: mother and the sister, however, both assured him that the
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: kid was dead, but beyond this would say nothing. It
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: would seem that there could be no more fitting ending
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: to this little sketch than its dedication to the memory
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: of those old timers, makers of early day history. The
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: old pioneers each well played his individual part in that
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: great border drama. On them, a curtain has rung down
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: for the last time. To them, the succeeding generations owe much.
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: End of Section nine. End of the Dread Apache, that
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: early day scourge of the Southwest, by doctor Merle Pingree Freeman,
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: read by Laurie Benza,