UC-NRLF 
 
 
 $B 275 bb? 
 
 r. 
 
 34 
 C8 
 
 1890 
 MAIN 
 
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 Deceive 
 ^Accessions No. ^ 
 
 S. Class No. Y" ^ 
 
* Hi stop y 
 
 OF 
 
 GERONIMO S 
 
 SUMMER CAMPAIGN 
 
 IX 1S85. 
 
 A DRAMA. 
 
 BY G. D. CUMX1INGS. 
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1890, by G. D- CUMMINGS, 
 in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 
 
 All rights reserved. 
 
OF 
 
 GERONIMO S 
 
 SUMMER CAMPAIGN 
 
 IX 1885. 
 
 A DRAMA. 
 
 BY G. D. CUMNHNGS. 
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1890, by G. D. CUMMINGS, 
 in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 
 
 All rights reserved. 
 
 PRICE, oxt; 
 
Geronimo s Summer Campaign, 
 
 1885. 
 
 DRAMATIS PERSONS. 
 
 GERONIMO. Chief of a Band of Chiricahua Apache Indians. 
 GENERAL CROOK , | Qf he United Smes A 
 CAPTAIN CRAWFORD, j 
 
 NORRIAN, 1 
 
 WACLIFF, 
 
 PHIL, ! f a Band f Rustlers. 
 
 NEW YORKER, 
 
 PENNSYLVANIA, j 
 
 CARL MANDEN, | TwQ Prospectors . 
 
 McSWEEDON, j 
 
 HON. DUBRANS, from Washington. 
 
 PAROLENUS, a Stock Rancher. 
 
 LAURUNA, wife of Parolenus. 
 
 GENERAL JUAREZ, of the Mexican Army. 
 
 TARANTULAHAWK, next in command and follower to Ger- 
 
 CHIPMONK, Peon to Geronimo. [onimo. 
 
 Soldiers, Couriers, Rustlers, Prospectors, Indians, 
 etc., etc. 
 
 SCENE Dispersedly in Arizona and Sonora, Mexico, then 
 
 in Sonora. 
 
 The above are the characters of this Historical Drama, who 
 are, for the most part, the true reckless individuals who makeup 
 Hf eon the south-west fromier; so here I turn them hose to work 
 out their own salvation. 
 

 Prologue. 
 
 That rolling orb which wakes the smiling morn 
 Had just on highest summits cast a dawn, 
 And sent a streak of heaven- glancing light 
 Among the fading shadows ot the night ; 
 To open up, within a tropic clime, 
 A day of dryness, laziness and crime. 
 Within a land where Aztecs once have been, 
 And \varring Toltecs, passing o er the scene. 
 Have stamp d their image, rear d some walls on high, 
 Which now in flat-abandon d ruin lie; 
 Like all the palaces that man will rear, 
 To stand their useful day and disappear. 
 Now down the vale the morn begins to break, 
 And bids the creatures of ihe plains awake. 
 This is the valley of the Gila plain, 
 Where vegetation languishes for rain; 
 And all the cactus, ferns and straggling flowers 
 Do droop their heads beneath their leafy bowers, 
 And pray the sun this precious boon "to grant; 
 To give them rain for which their fiber pant, 
 Or they will hang their weary heads and die 
 For want of moisture to their cells supply. 
 Those plants, though bred to stand the sultry air, 
 Do wilt beneath this droughty season rare, 
 And close their calyx, so the sun can t wrest 
 The substance from their sensitive young breast. 
 And while the plants protect their virgin blooms 
 From the great ravisher s desire, the fumes 
 Of heat o ertake a herd oi antelope, 
 Who are just winding down the porphyry slope 
 To seek for water in the vales below. 
 They too do pant beneath the scorching glow, 
 And stretch their aching muzzles parch d and dry 
 Towards the valley where a stream rolls by; 
 Where Rio Gila pours his foaming tide 
 
Adown the mesa in a riff of pride. 
 
 There, standing on that fretful river s bank, 
 
 Some swarthy native tribes are forming rank; 
 
 A band of bucks and squaws, like shadows tramp 
 
 Upon the sands in haste to move their camp. 
 
 Geronimo stands on the Gila shore 
 
 And scans his warriors as they march before. 
 
 The bravest of his tribe are gather d there 
 
 To fill the setders with a dread despair, 
 
 For he hath muster d on the war-path now 
 
 The vilest cutthroats of the Chiricahua, 
 
 To raid from Gila plains to Mexico, 
 
 As our short drama doth intend to show. 
 
 He first exhorts them to obey his laws, 
 
 And then harangues injustice of his cause; 
 
 Then lightly on his stolen charger mounts, 
 
 And first his fluctuating stock he counts, 
 
 And then each warrior to his post commands. 
 
 Colt s awful standard flashes in his hands, 
 
 He waves the brand, and o er the plains they fly, 
 
 The clouds of dust are waited to the sky. 
 
 Our dark-brow d hero in the lead doth ride, 
 
 His latest squaw glides happy by his side; 
 
 His tribesmen follow with their hearts on fire, 
 
 To share his ventures is their sole desire. 
 
ACT I. 
 
 SCENE I. 
 
 Geronimo s camp near San Carlos, on the banks of the Gila river, 
 Arizona. 
 
 [ The Inaians are singing a Mar- }] hoob song and dancing around 
 the carcass of a Government mule, which they stole from the 
 Reservation and butchered for that purpose. } 
 
 All Whoop he lah, we gather here, 
 
 In this season of the year, 
 
 For to dance the waters by. 
 
 When the lesser streams are dry; 
 
 Oh, the bravest chiefs are we 
 
 Ever mortal man did see! 
 
 We have left our penn d reserve 
 
 For to make intruders swerve. 
 
 While we round this dead stead prance, 
 
 Let s resound the war-whoop dance. 
 
 Call the Darkness, Wind and Air 
 
 Here to heed our fervent prayer, 
 
 CJngo-na-av, Yandestan, 
 
 Vengence on the paleface man; 
 
 He much lie, and glib ; and steal, 
 
 Sell our rations, feed our meal. 
 
 Topida and gods of air 
 
 Scorge the Chieftain who won t dare 
 
 Light upon him; raise his scalp, 
 
 Kill a cayote, gut a welp; 
 
 Catch a lion by the tail , 
 
 Eat a lizard, rat or snail; 
 
 Any chief who fails to do, 
 
 Cut his spotted heart in two. 
 
 Whoop -hoo-hoo! Whoop-hoo-hoo! 
 
 Enter Geronimo and Tarantulahawk. 
 
 Ger Vamose my lustv braves, break up the camp, 
 
 F or poco pronto o er the hills we tramp; 
 
 We re well prepared to make a daring raid, 
 
 Across this land; to draw the shining blade 
 
 On all our paleface foes; and then we ll go 
 
 Into the desert wilds of Mexico. 
 
 We ll climb Sierra Madra s loftv brow, 
 
And hunt wild deer, and Mexicans fat cow; 
 
 And slaughter all the Aztec tribes, who chance 
 
 Within a radius of our sacred dance. 
 
 Here, on these plains I hold the blade on high, 
 
 To sound the war-whoop, and the signal cry! 
 
 And any chief who fails to heed the call, 
 
 May Chigo-na-ay" s vengence on him fall. 
 
 Our people have humiliation long 
 
 Withstood from this intruding foreign throng ; 
 
 Who come with rifles shooting down our deer, 
 
 And herding us on Reservation here; 
 
 They first compell d us move our rancherias, 
 
 Then trampled down our crops of corn and maize; 
 
 So now we go to set our people right, 
 
 Or end our lives in an eternal night, 
 
 We have the agent s rations of stale beef. 
 
 And what s of more importance to a chief, 
 
 Good whiskey carried from the sutler s store; 
 
 For rifles, ammunitions, we have more 
 
 Than s good for these encroaching ranchers health, 
 
 Who prowl upon our grounds in search of wealth; 
 
 There s one of these lives over by Cochise, 
 
 They call him Parolenus (Moqui-quise) 
 
 He is the buck who wed the pretty maid, 
 
 Who crossed San Carlos in the cavalcade. 
 
 The same quick shooting paleface chief, you know, 
 
 Who riddled down the mighty Champero; 
 
 Well, he is spotted for to bite the plain 
 
 E re we return to this Reserve again. 
 
 I ll feast my fancy on his pretty spouse, 
 
 And you can have his burros and his ccws. 
 
 All Whoop! whoo! whoo! Lets speed away, 
 And on this rancher s cattle prey. 
 
 Tar. Now slaughter soon will pant along the line, 
 As we toward destruction do incline; 
 We ll win the land our old ancestors trod, 
 And lay the paleface tribes beneath the sod; 
 Their ponies and their squaws will all be good, 
 And think upon their blankets and rich food. 
 
 All Whoop! whoo! whoop! whoo! Lets to horse ! 
 Over Rincon mountain cross, 
 
E re their general comes to field 
 Armed to make our forces yield. 
 
 Ger. Whoo, brother Redmen of the western soil, 
 
 Don t think their General Crook shall seize our spoil; 
 
 I ve seen his army travel like a snail, 
 
 When looking- up our bloodbespattered trail; 
 
 He once did cross Sierra Madra s brow, 
 
 I saw his bold exploits, and wander d how 
 
 He got those soldiers up among the spires, 
 
 Where we had lur d him by our signal fires. 
 
 He was so worried on that rugged brow, 
 
 That he won t venture on the warpath now; 
 
 Think ye he ll leave his cozy nook of ease, 
 
 Beneath the shadow of those lofty trees; 
 
 To push his fortune in a doubtful war, 
 
 Where his reputation might receive a scar? 
 
 Not he! I ll lay my richest blanket down 
 
 That he don t venture to yon mountain s crown. 
 
 And for the hordes that Mexico can raise 
 
 To bear the arms of war; to charge, to blaze! 
 
 Upon our mighty dark-brow d warrior Dand, 
 
 Who own no force within this spacious land ; 
 
 To be superior to this awful arm. 
 
 Which rises fury and surceases harm; 
 
 Nor swiftness fleeter than this flying steed, 
 
 An offspring of the tireless coyuse breed; 
 
 Nor tribe more daring than ye chieftains here, 
 
 I scorn them, as the lion scorns the deer, 
 
 Who ventures out upon a shelf of rock, 
 
 And stamps his foot, though startled at the shock; 
 
 His hazardous adventure there had made, 
 
 Which echos down the canon s sounding glade 
 
 I scorn them ! And I think our band complete 
 
 To make the armies of the gull retreat. 
 
 So here we go, ye chieftains now take heed. 
 
 All those who intersect our path must bleed. 
 
 [EXUNT. 
 
SCENE II. 
 
 Parolenus 1 Cattle Ranch in Mountain, Arizona. 
 
 Parolenus and wife are discovered sitting beneath a verander in 
 front of their house. 
 
 Par. Yes, sweet Lauruna, I am quite fatigued, 
 
 It was a weary ride I had upon 
 
 The range to-day. You should have seen me rope 
 
 A maverick who stray d among our herd 
 
 To frolic with the heifer element. 
 
 Mrs. P. What news is heifer, maverick to me? 
 
 P. Oh, say! I have some more important news, 
 I met our neighbor Slag beyond the Butte, 
 He told me quite a lengthy tale about 
 That surly friend of yours. Ah! Norrian, 
 He was your friend e re I 
 
 Mrs. P. What said your Slag? 
 
 P. He said that Norrian had turned out bad, 
 He is the boldest robber on the plains; 
 And now devotes his very precious time 
 As leader ot an outlawed band, who raids 
 In Mexico, and steals fat horses, beeves 
 And other booty from the rancheros. 
 
 Mrs. P. Well, really, is that all he does? 
 
 P. No faith, 
 
 He steals the lordly rancher s daughters too. 
 
 Mrs. P. What, Norrian accused of theft? 
 It is not so, base slander man. 
 
 P. Well, honey wife 
 
 Don t fly so in a rage till I have spun 
 
 My yarn. Which do you treat as slanderous? 
 
 The theft of maid or cow ? For my own part 
 
 I don t believe he d leave a lithe young dame 
 
 To languish on the old parental stem, 
 
 If he could fretter her away. 
 
 Mrs. P. O, shame! 
 
 P. Well, this is what our neighbor Slag declares, 
 That when this Norrian heard that you and I 
 
Had married, he became so much enraged 
 That he has muster d up some followers, 
 And started out to have revenge upon 
 Ourselves, the world and all society. 
 
 Mrs. P. That Slag man knows too much. Why should I be 
 The cause of any man s downfall ? 
 
 P. I did 
 
 Not say you were; but Thomas Slag affirms, 
 
 Or hints as much, which is about the same, 
 
 That you evinced a preference for me 
 
 Because I had more worldly goods than he; 
 
 And on account of this he sicken d, sour d, 
 
 And seems determined to make it appear 
 
 That all accumulations of much wealth 
 
 Are got dishonestly. This man has much 
 
 Ambition, and too anxious to keep still; 
 
 He is both powerful for good and bad, 
 
 And since he has prefer 1 d the latter course, 
 
 There is no knowing what deeds of villainy 
 
 He may be tempted for to perpetrate. 
 
 Mrs. P. Wise nature was too lavish in her plans, 
 When molding such a man, to leave him waste 
 His life among the men who dig in mines: 
 He was above the class who claim to be 
 His masters; and I think more of him since 
 He is the master of these Territories. 
 
 P. I don t believe, myself, the rough frontier 
 Is any place for men of talent; they 
 Will quicker waste the gifts they brought with them 
 Than cultivate new ones. Where is that poem 
 He wrote to you ? You never showed it up. 
 Won t you produce it now and read it for 
 My sake? You said it rous d a tender chord, 
 I would be pleased to hear the drift of it. 
 
 Mrs. P. You are not jealous of him then ? 
 
 P. O,no! 
 
 Why should I be? I d sooner show a strain 
 Of jealousy toward Carl Manden, that 
 Bright gold expert. He is a genius, too, 
 Though with some queer eccentricities, and 
 
10 
 
 A character deuced hard to measure up, 
 
 And then you ve shown a prefeience for me, 
 
 That proves 1 need have no concern about 
 
 The man you left. When woman once withdraws 
 
 Her love, she seldom ever changes back. 
 
 Read us the warrior s song. 
 
 Mrs. / .Reads. 
 
 Dear Lauruna, far from thee 
 
 Thou hath cruelly banish d me, 
 From the only place I d rest 
 
 On this earth, thy soothing breast. 
 Yt-t that freezing mood and look 
 
 Was a blow I could not brook; 
 Though I flee the deadly stroke, 
 
 I cannot my sorrows choke; 
 Did thou wish it from thy heart 
 
 That forever we should part ? 
 O, Lauruna, say not so! 
 
 Murder not this soul with woe. 
 
 Though I knew when first we met 
 
 That some awful doom was set 
 On my life for meeting thee, 
 
 Death or happiness tor me. 
 Yet I do not, will not blame 
 
 Thee for severing the claim, 
 If it will but bring to thee 
 
 Joys thou couldst not have with me. 
 
 Grant me this before I leave, 
 
 Though the asking make thee grieve. 
 That thou sometimes think of me, 
 
 When forever dead to thee; 
 It will ease a pang to know 
 
 Thou a trace of feeling show 
 For a man who d give his soul. 
 
 Place his heart at thy control, 
 Thou mightst feed it bit by bit, 
 
 To the buzzards casting it; 
 If it would but give thee joy, 
 
 1 would welcome thus to die. 
 
11 
 
 This is all the boon I crave, 
 
 That when neath a lonely grave 
 Somewhere on the arid plain, 
 
 Thou wilt think of me again; 
 For I with prophetic eye 
 
 See a tragedy draw nigh; 
 I can hear the coyotes howl 
 
 Through the glens of darkness prowl, 
 Over blood-stained sands, where lay 
 
 Moldering some human clay, 
 That had gain d the righc of birth 
 
 From the proudest of the earth, 
 Will thou then without disdain 
 
 Kindly think of me again? 
 
 P* I know my story and this reading must 
 Have hurt your feelings, dearest wife be good, 
 Why should I say be good just now? O, wife! 
 This must have raised unpleasant memories, 
 Your glowing cheek is pale, and sad am I, 
 
 love! My heaven! I ll lay my head upon 
 This precious couch to rest. 
 
 [He lays his head on her lap. ] 
 
 Why are you so 
 
 Wrapped up in moody silence now? I do 
 Believe you would prefer the sunny rhymes 
 And pleasant discourse that Carl Manden plies 
 To this distracted, passion d, wayward man. 
 
 Mrs. P. What makes you think I fancy Manden, sir ? 
 He has ne er entered in my thoughts. Can t one 
 Look at a clever gentleman, and take 
 A little interest in his noble work. 
 Although she is another s spouse, without 
 Her ancient husband marking every thought ; 
 
 1 wash that I was dead. I was not born 
 To be a rancher s slave. 
 
 P. Don t fret, sweet wife ; 
 
 And I won t hurt your feelings any more. 
 
 I won t run down Carl Manden. but will praise 
 
 He s one of these progressive characters 
 
 Who is not troubled with the phrase, "I can t;" 
 
 One who may make himself be known yet . 
 
A man experience will teach to change 
 
 His course when wrong-, and rectify mistakes. 
 
 But how it happens that odd sorts will match, 
 
 See what an awkward cuss his partner is. 
 
 He quick, observant, and quite practical. 
 
 His partner, old McSweedon, filled with queer 
 
 Conceits, cracked and a sacred lunatic. 
 
 Mrs. P. Heaven knows what may befal us yet out here 
 
 Lets leave the ranch in some trustworthy hands, 
 
 And go reside like other civilians in 
 
 Some city, where we ll be protected from 
 
 This frontier war, and savage Indian raids, 
 
 I m heartily sick of such a life as this, 
 
 You know the Indians are a menace of 
 
 Perpetual danger of the deepest dye. 
 
 P. Why think not so. For me I fear them not, 
 
 And furthermore, I would not live within 
 
 The cramp d up confines of a rumbling town; 
 
 Just look at these two pictures, which I ve long 
 
 Revolved within my mind. One pictures out 
 
 A dreary night spent on the chilly plains, 
 
 A ride along the dustv road beneath 
 
 The twinkling stars, till all my bones were chill d, 
 
 My muscles stiff and sore. I ride towards 
 
 This mountain-sheltered home, where all is cold 
 
 And still, no person living here. Though in 
 
 My soul a secret dread of what may ve chanced 
 
 Since I road out; my mind a conjuring up 
 
 The image of some fearful ghost to meet 
 
 Me in the threshold of my house when I 
 
 Unlock the door, or some wild robber fall 
 
 Upon me from behind. At least the place 
 
 Is lonely, dark and cold, and I must cheer 
 
 It for myself. And then I d picture out 
 
 A wife at home, a casa snug and warm, 
 
 And when I reached the portal of the door, 
 
 I d throw me from my stead, bound in the house 
 
 To meet a warm embrace. That would repay 
 
 A thousand fold for all I suffered on 
 
 The plain. But then, alas, such boon could not 
 
 Be mine. I reach rnv rancho home and all 
 
The pleasant thoughts disperse, tis cold and chill. 
 
 I grope around the dreary rooms to chase 
 
 The darkness, and the shadowy ghosts away, 
 
 With friendly pistol in my nervous hand. 
 
 But now the wheel of time rolls slowly on, 
 
 So please attend the pleasant history of 
 
 Another similar night spent on the plains, 
 
 Tis same in like unto the first I named, 
 
 Save only this: I was much worse fatigued 
 
 And freted with the cold. But when I reached 
 
 The guarded embrasure of my retreat 
 
 (For fortified and guarded well it is 
 
 Since it gives shelter to so fair a dove,) 
 
 What greeted me! By heaven it would repay 
 
 (The greeting I received) a wanderer for 
 
 A life of toil. The pleasure was away 
 
 Beyond the fancy of my brightest dreams; 
 
 A pleasant fire a blazing on the hearth, 
 
 The smell of flavored victuals steaming warm, 
 
 Which always tastes sweet to the weary swain 
 
 When worn out from a long day s last, and then 
 
 The warm nest feathered, all in waiting for 
 
 My head to nestle down beneath a solt, 
 
 Hot wing. No down from panting breast of dove 
 
 Could make a pretense to compare to this; 
 
 This joy uncrossed, unfettered lets resign 
 
 All else to feeling. Yea ! A bosh to all 
 
 The world s philosophy. I like to ride 
 
 Out every day to encounter this return. 
 
 The man who runs to daily business on 
 
 A crowded street knows naught of this, 
 
 His life s a humdrum all the season round; 
 
 Therefore, I would discourage all your thoughts 
 
 Of moving cityward, dear wife. We ve lived 
 
 Here as it neath a happy spell, so don t 
 
 Do any rash act that might tend to break 
 
 The charm We ll live as happy here as our 
 
 Fat beeves who browze among the mountain glens, 
 
 And think of naught but water, food and love. 
 
 Mrs. P. We ll think some day of Indians though, I fear. 
 You know they always come this way, when oft 
 The Reservation on their predatory raids, 
 
14 
 
 And you did tell me once you kill d one of 
 
 Their tribe while they were shooting down your stock. 
 
 P. Faith, that I did. I filled a thieving Ing 
 So full oflead, that neither Satan or 
 His other black companions recognized 
 His hide. That was the only Indian killed 
 For many years, though army men boast of 
 Their fine exploits and many conquests won, 
 While hunting desperate, bold Apaches down; 
 Though I believe thev seized upon an old lame squaw, 
 In one campaign, and made her prisoner of war. 
 
 [Indians are seen hiding behind the cactus, and creeping up from 
 every direction till thev completely surround the house. , ] 
 
 There is an Indian now, run for your life! 
 My rifle, ha! Quick in the house dear wife. 
 
 [ The Indians shoot at him.~\ 
 O, I am wounded unto death! We re lost! 
 
 \_TheIndiansshootdoivn Parolenus, and take Mrs. Patolenus a 
 
 prisoner. ] 
 
 [Geronimo, to Mrs. Parolemts.] 
 
 What makes you stare with those great big round eyes? 
 As though the sun had scorch d to cinders all 
 The happy hunting grounds of my obscure 
 Ancestry, who once owned this broad-green land, 
 Or most of it. For many, many moons 
 Ago, they drove the war-like Zunis from 
 This very spot. Slew their surrender d braves; 
 Seized their maturing squaws, who followed our 
 Victorious, young valuptuous chiefs 
 To shady nooks to share the sweetness of 
 Enamor d bliss without a murmur. Ha! 
 White squaw, you look upon your paramour. 
 We owed the brave that death for shooting down 
 The mighty Champero some years gone by, 
 (Cactus-worm-sucker, you lift off his scalp, 
 And stretch it round your war- like saddle-bow.) 
 You stare! No cry. A woman ought to shed 
 A flood of tears. Your mouth seems to be glued; 
 O, now the color in your face doth change, 
 As though the heart beat hard against your cheek. 
 I thought from the dead whiteness of your face 
 
You had no heart to actuate the blood; 
 
 But now it moves like flashes of the great 
 
 Electric streak, when playing havoc mong 
 
 The over-weighted clouds. 
 
 NOTE. While this Indian language is a translation, this particular 
 harangue of Geronimo s was gotten off in a villianous mixture 
 of Apache, bad Mexican, and worse English. THE AUTHOR. 
 
 Mrs. P. O, kill me too! 
 
 Give me your pistol Ing? 
 
 Ger. Not now, my squaw, 
 
 We have some other use for you. 
 
 f To Tarantulahawk.~\ Take her 
 Away, Tarantula-hawk. But poco soon 
 Sefiora may be granted such a boon 
 
 Tar. (Bearing her off. Come on, my doe-faced squaw, 
 
 I ll guide you where 
 You may our gallant chief s affection share. 
 
 Exunt. 
 
 SCENE III. 
 
 General Crook 1 s headquarters at Fort Arizona. Enter Gen, 
 Crook and Capt. Crawford. 
 
 Crook Well, now, my valorous Crawford, we have all 
 
 The warring Indians pacified. Thanks to 
 
 Our calm, pacific rule. The land can now 
 
 Enjoy a blissful summer peace, for all 
 
 The depredations on the border hence 
 
 Shall cease. How many little mounds of hope 
 
 Shall sprinkle the rude hills. Instead 
 
 Of digging graves, the miners will convert 
 
 Their brawn to sinking prospect holes to find 
 
 The precious ore. 
 
 Craw. Perhaps. But who comes here! 
 
 \_Entet a prospector. } 
 Pros. Who is commander of this fort ? 
 
 Crook I am 
 
 Sir at your pleasure here. What do you wish? 
 
16 
 
 Pros. I come to bring- you news that that bad Ing, 
 Geronimo, with more n a hundred bucks 
 And squaws, have left San Carlos Reservation. 
 They ve raided through the mountains of Dragoon, 
 And killed three men near that great natural fort; 
 Where old Cochise defied the troops so long, 
 And made it famous as Cochise stronghold. 
 
 Crook Do you know this, sir, as a fact? 
 
 Pros. I do. 
 
 Enter McSweedon, a prospector, with his traps packed tipon a, 
 burro, and driving him with a mescal pole. 
 
 McS. Wogh, Simon! You terrestrial wanderer, wogh! 
 
 You d run your sanctimonious snout right in 
 
 The General s private quarters, and knock down 
 
 His polish d army-scorifying blade. 
 
 Hello, there, Generals, Colonels, Captains and 
 
 Whatnots! How are all of your sorts to-day? 
 
 Capt. Cr. O, charming, Mr. Jackass driver. How 
 
 Is everything preambulating on 
 
 The cactus-belted deserts now with you? 
 
 McS. You know not, army-straps whom you address, 
 
 Tis queer what cruel havocs, ills and freaks, 
 
 This sulky world plays with her greatest men. 
 
 Diogenes lived neath a wooden tub, 
 
 Mahomed drove a surly team of mules; 
 
 Confucius scarce had rice enough to eat, 
 
 And Christ, our Lord, was but a fisherman; 
 
 While, as you see, the greatest of them all, 
 
 Myself, doth punch about a burro train. 
 
 Capt. Cr. "A burry train," I had a late idea 
 He was a very scurvy-looking ass; 
 Do you pretend to be a greater man 
 Than those you mentioned now? 
 
 McS. That is about 
 
 The size of what McSweedon now pretends. 
 Those sacred names of yore discovered new 
 Religions, or phylosophies, things which 
 Are visionary, chemerically While I 
 Discover that which is more solid and 
 
Substantial veins of gold and silver ore. 
 
 There was our savior, he fished after men, 
 
 But now we have a savage Ingin chief 
 
 A scalping after men. We ve been way up 
 
 Upon the Final mountains, where we found 
 
 A spacious ledge of rich wire silver ore; 
 
 In fact it was the biggest thing that s been 
 
 Unearth d for years. You ought have seen the chunks 
 
 Ot chlorides, held within a network of 
 
 The precious wire. In fact I was prepared 
 
 To dig a million out and go back to 
 
 Kentucky, when (the devil lake the welps) 
 
 Geronimo, with his coyoty thieves 
 
 Came prowling on our camp, which made us go 
 
 As if a cyclone had us held in tow. 
 
 The redskins are so plenty in the land 
 
 That one can t hold his scalp on with his hand. 
 
 Capt. Cr, How do you know it was Geronimo? 
 
 \_Enter Carl Manden on horseback.] 
 What did these Indians look like anyway? 
 
 McS. Ho, Carl! This military fied galoot 
 Asks how the red-faced centipedes were dressed. 
 (This is my partner, Colonels Carl Mandon.) 
 Carl tell the Army what the reds had on 
 When they surprised us at our silver mine, 
 And sent us scooting down a steep incline. 
 Old Simon, like a. meteor, dash d ahead, 
 And I was next him, like a charge of lead; 
 Carl was the only one who saw the tribe. 
 Therefore he can their likenesses describe. 
 
 Carl M. Geronimo road proudly in the lead, 
 A long- repeater slung across his steed; 
 A tattered gee-string round his loins; his breast 
 Was manteled in a parson s Sunday vest; 
 His feet in moccasins incased; his head 
 Was wrapp d up in a handkerchief blood -red. 
 These were the only garments that he wore. 
 As down the crags he road his tribe before; 
 His latest squaw was gliding by his side. 
 And gazed upon her lord with amorous pride. 
 His older loves were rearer in the van. 
 
Bestride their steeds, superior to a man. 
 
 Their gee-strings round their wide equators girt, 
 
 A rament scant as Eve s old fig-leaf skirt; 
 
 (I call their waist equator, for you know 
 
 A squaw s plump form is bulkiest below; 
 
 They learn to grow so wide and large and round 
 
 From falling, while too young, upon the ground.) 
 
 Their breasts were dangling in the summer sun. 
 
 Like gossamer cocoons by silkworm spun; 
 
 Some of the chiefs were scantier dressed than they, 
 
 They even lack d a tail to scare away 
 
 The buzzing flies, which other brutes possess, 
 
 But cloth d their persons in. the frailest dress 
 
 That ever mortal spread across his front, 
 
 Viz: Uncle Sam s permission to go hunt. 
 
 Though some were clad in less or more gear, 
 
 I saw one s hide bared to the atmosphere; 
 
 Save where a soldier s hat his brow conceal d, 
 
 And Spanish spurs clink d at his naked heel, 
 
 And others with a string of beads were blessed, 
 
 For tis against their laws to ride undressed. 
 
 T was thus they came. Their trail of guiltless blood 
 
 Will stain old Arizona s virgin sod. 
 
 Capt. Cr. Well, I should say those Indians were well- 
 dressed, 
 I ve seen a squaw wear a pappoose for a fig leaf. 
 
 [ Enter a Courier. ] 
 
 Cour. The outlaw d chief, Geronimo, has killed 
 One Parolenus, at his ranch, and taken 
 His wife a prisoner. 
 
 McS. Electric Jove! 
 
 Who us; d to throw red lightning from the clouds, 
 
 Is Parolenus slain? 
 
 Cour. He s deader 
 
 The government s late Indian policy. 
 
 McS Now, by the mummy of the King Cheopes, 
 Who built his pyramid with vainest hopes, 
 May enterprises wither on the plain 
 Since Parolenus is among the slain. 
 
19 
 
 ist Pros. O Parolenus, to thy memory 
 
 A lasting homage I alone may pay, 
 
 Thou wast my Iriend, magnanimous and kind, 
 
 A nobler, truer soul I ne er shaU find. 
 
 And thou didst not escape their savage rage, 
 
 Though armed with guns secure within thy cage; 
 
 A fort that Montazuma might envy, 
 
 With admiration in his sunlit eye. 
 
 A home like Crusoe s, perch d against a rock, 
 
 With smiling valleys round where graze thy stock; 
 
 And there thou tended to thy herd of cows, 
 
 In peace, oblivious of the Chiricahuas; 
 
 But now the vipers have assail d thy bower, 
 
 Thy agile form hath perished in an hour; 
 
 But yesterday thou hadst no time to spare 
 
 From off thy ranch, the center of thy care, 
 
 But now thy stock doth wander o er the plain, 
 
 Till seized by other hands, their owner slain. 
 
 The aims of man are vain as leaves of trees, 
 
 That bloom till nature s pores by Boreas freeze, 
 
 And then they scatter on the lightest breeze; 
 
 To-day he may gain wealth he calls his own, 
 
 To-morrow life and savings all are gone. 
 
 Cour. And his ill-fated wife is now being dragged 
 Ignominiously through thorny chaparral, 
 L ashed to a wild bronco, what comes of her? 
 
 Carl M. McSweedon, let s decamp, and take the trail 
 Of these unamiable Apache welps. 
 
 McS. Tis dangercus O, Carl! I d rather hide 
 My *kin than lose it in this Ingin fray. 
 
 Cat I JlfOur life must end, and why not lose it now? 
 For me I d pawn a thousand lives to save 
 O, her! O, heaven preserve! 
 
 McS. All right, O, Carl, 
 
 If you in earnest shout, we ll rescue her, 
 
 1 know some miners will accompany us; 
 
 Come Courier, mount thy steed and be our guide. 
 
 Cour. No, I ll stay with the army where I m safe. 
 
 McS. All right. As fortune favors us we speed, 
 
 And if it goes against us then we bleed. 
 
ist Pros. McSweedon, I along with you will go, 
 But you will have to spur that dull burro, 
 If you expect to cross the hill and plain 
 As soon as we can give our horses rein. 
 
 McS. Don t fret, old Simon can get up and fly 
 When fate hangs on the casting of the die. 
 
 Carl M Come on, all ye who honor me as friend, 
 This is a cause that heaven will commend. 
 [Exit Carl Manden.~] 
 
 Capt Cr Why, that is nothing new, chivalrous friends, 
 
 In Arizona, to perceive a score 
 
 Of men and several tribes of Indians 
 
 In wild distraction after one man s wife. 
 
 Gen. Crook. Those married men ought to have left their 
 
 wives 
 
 Back in the States. Great Horace Greely once 
 Did say: "Go west young man and grow up with 
 The country," and is not that wisdom now? 
 
 McS. Yes, General, I should solemnizely say, 
 And had not this great government of ours 
 Paid some of us war gods our fare out west, 
 We never would have come so far from home, 
 Gee Simon! Lets for desperate ventures roam. 
 
 [Exit McSweedon and Prospector. ~\ 
 
 \_Enter another Courier J\ 
 
 2d. Cour. Rouse up your forces, General, and to field, 
 
 For the death-dealing red-skins are turned loose, 
 
 To sca.lp and viscerate the commonwealth. 
 
 As I road through Deadcoyote pass, I saw 
 
 ( Tis sickening to describe the ghastly scene;) 
 
 The villains had a man tied to a tree 
 
 With his own entrails, while they stood apart 
 
 And threw hot burning knots into his wounds. 
 
 Four dead prospectors lay upon the trail, 
 
 All gashed and cruelly disfigured. 
 
 Gen. Crook.- Oh! 
 
 For goodness sake you harping fiends let up, 
 Tis Injin, Injin, Injin that you roar; 
 Prospectors, miners, cranks and fools have all 
 
-21 
 
 Seen Injins on their trail and in their sleep. 
 
 Till one is doubtful oi the truth they speak; 
 
 They fancy every cactus, bush and crag 
 
 To be a roving band of savages. 
 
 Go, Crawford, muster up a company straight, 
 
 Fit thee a band of scouts, and take the trail 
 
 Of this Geronimo and followers, 
 
 Whom, I expect, are heading for Madra. 
 
 Don t you let up till they are run to earth, 
 
 Then bring them back as prisoners of war, 
 
 Surrendered unconditionally to us; 
 
 Call at my quarters, where you will receive 
 
 Such documents of extradition that 
 
 Will give you safe convoy through Mexico. 
 
 \_ExunL~\ 
 
 ACT II. 
 
 SCENE I. 
 
 Norriatfs Camp in Mexico. Enter Norrian and tn o prospectors. 
 A0r. Where heard you so much Indian news? 
 
 ist Pros. Why man 
 
 We only left Tombstone five days ago, 
 
 And have been riding rapidly e er since; 
 
 Report reached Tombstone on the day we left 
 
 That one stock-rancher, Parolenus, had 
 
 Been butchered at his ranch, and his young wife 
 
 (The fairest mortal in Cochise, ) is now 
 
 A captive to Geronimo, which leaves 
 
 Her in a state that some considers worse 
 
 Than death. For me, I leave you free to draw 
 
 Your own conclusions as your fancy may. 
 
 Nor. Is Parolenus dead? His wife in peril! 
 A captive! 
 
 ist Pros. Indeed, tis true. I hear that Crook 
 Has set a company on the Indian s trail, 
 More to contract a peace than fight with them. 
 All the prospectors in the hills do hunt 
 Their holes, like you may ve seen prairie-dogs 
 
In their quaint burro w d towns; each seated on 
 
 His sterile dump, beside his hole, gay a s 
 
 You please, until a hunter comes along 
 
 And fires a gun. Then, lo! Quick as the flash, 
 
 Reverberates the hills among, Co chuck! 
 
 Each rodent darts in s excavated cave, 
 
 From whence he s seen no more. So tumble all 
 
 The miners in their prospect-holes as though 
 
 The planet sal urn mounted on his rings 
 
 Bicycly-wise, come whirling round our earth. 
 
 While Indians murder, rob and plunder all 
 
 Their camps without e r check or hinderance; 
 
 Look how a tree doth breast him to the breeze, 
 
 Till woodman comes with ax and saw, and quick 
 
 Dissects the trunk part from the roots, it reels! 
 
 It falling, cleaves the air with Irightful clash! 
 
 Great caves of vacuum chasing after it 
 
 With hissing fury, in its wild descent 
 
 To earth. While fly the woodmen, all the squirrels 
 
 And lizards scramble off So flies the whole 
 
 Caucasian race with fear and dread of this 
 
 Destroying Chief Geronimo, who keeps 
 
 The elements continually full of lead. 
 
 Nor. Where is the source from which he draws such large 
 Supplies of ammunition. 
 
 ist Pros. Sure he has 
 
 The best that s used. The Government forty-five 
 
 Seventy. 
 
 2nd Pros. Bejabbers man, they ve kept a sthreake 
 
 Ov mettal in the air from way beyent 
 
 San Carlos Reservation, to the line 
 
 Ov Mexico forninst yez here; sometimes 
 
 The bullets comes so fernal close upon 
 
 Each others hals that yez could not commince 
 
 To drive a gad betwixt em, sure yez couldn t. 
 
 ist Pros. Could you sell >ome provisions, Mr. Norrian? 
 
 Nor. How much provisions do you wish ? 
 
 ist Pros. I have 
 
 Some forty dollars here. I would lay in 
 
 Two sacks of flour, five pounds of Mexican beans, 
 
Ten pounds of bacon, and some coffee, and 
 We ll keep the balance to buy whiskey with. 
 
 2d Pros. O, Howl y Moses pard, what dos yez want 
 Two sacks ov flour for! Buy twinty pounds 
 Ov flour, and keep the rest for whiskey; we 
 Will need it in this droughty land. 
 
 Nor. Well, I 
 
 Can spare you no supplies. You d better keep 
 
 I tall for whiskey. Adios. 
 
 ist Pros- Well health, 
 
 To you, good -by. 
 
 2d Pros Good -by, and may 
 
 Yez for the want of tangle-foot go dry. 
 
 [Exit Prospectors. .] 
 
 Nor. So Parolenus (my old rival once 
 
 In love,) that selfish, grasping miser, who 
 
 Conspired away a love-affair of mine, 
 
 Is now commingled with the common earth; 
 
 And she a helpless, fettered prisoner 
 
 To renegade Apache savages. 
 
 Can this be so? Or am I a victim of 
 
 Some hideous dream? Tis so! For there still goes 
 
 The persons who inform d me. Traveling south 
 
 Like demons laden with ill-news. The love 
 
 I bear that woman, whom I should have tain 
 
 Forgotten long ago 5 still sways me I, 
 
 Who hold myself a subject to no laws. 
 
 Nor mortal man, would fall a willing slave 
 
 To one who spurns me. Twas her love that bore 
 
 Me down; but still I love and bow to her; 
 
 I love her, though she s lost Time only seems 
 
 To make that fire take stronger hold on me, 
 
 Though men have often tried to rule and crush 
 
 Me, some to trample on me yet I own 
 
 No master on this earth. I stand as free 
 
 As these shrub-garland hill>; and yet I would 
 
 Be ruled by her, but could not. Now old fate! 
 
 Great Destiny has placed her in a plight 
 
 Far worse than mine. My passions all dissolve 
 
 To pity. I would risk both earth and heaven 
 
24 
 
 To save her. Now I go to rescue her; 
 If I succeed, I wonder if she ll scorn 
 Me then; if I should fail O, then am I 
 Food for the sulphur pit. Then roar corruption! 
 Dart thunderbolts! Gap earthquakes, and raise up 
 Old Bedlam! But I ll never speak that word, 
 For I shall rescue her. Henceforth on that 
 New expedition shall I bend my soul s 
 Whole energy and force. For this I go. 
 If I can only rescue her in time, 
 There may yet be some ray of heaven for me; 
 Far from this place forever shall I go 
 What? With that noble nature to sustain 
 What little s in me left, I might still dare 
 To hope. When Wacliff doth return, we ll leave 
 All our incumbrances behind, and hunt 
 The filthy redskins from their lair, and then 
 O, heavens ! the greatest devil will survive 
 The fray the longest. For the movers of 
 That irrepressible wage will hold their lives 
 At lesser value than the powder which 
 Destroys them. Soft, here comes my men. 
 [Enter Phil, Pennsylvanian, New Yorker and other followers of 
 Norrian. ] 
 
 Phil. Who were those men you talked with now? 
 
 Nor. They were 
 
 Tombstone prospectors, bound in search of mines 
 In Mexico. 
 
 N. Y. They ll get a tombstone ere 
 They leave old Mexico. 
 
 Penn They ride fine horses, 
 
 Their traps are packed upon high-stepping mules. 
 What said they in the shape of news? Came they 
 From our proud union of the stripes and stars. 
 
 Nor. They said that Saturn s> outer tire came off, 
 And whirl d itself to atoms round the face 
 Of earth. 
 
 N. Y. If that is all the news they brought, 
 I d like to see them wear old Saturn s rings 
 About their necks till I come cut them off. 
 
25 
 
 Nor. Well, they brought other news of Indian raids; 
 How would you like to hunt the redskins from 
 Their lairs among the crags? 
 
 N. K I like it not. 
 
 Nor. Well, anyhow we go to fight the reds, 
 And anyone don t want to follow me 
 Can tarry here. Some of you go in search 
 Of Wacliff, he has gone out to locate 
 The whereabouts of the collectors of 
 The Custom House. 
 
 [Exit some in search of Wacliff. } 
 
 N. Y. I have no appetite 
 
 Myself to go on Indian raids. 
 
 Nor. Why did you not then stay back in New York, 
 
 You ve traveled many miles from home already 
 
 To get this good position stealing beeves; 
 
 I s pose you were a model boy at home, 
 
 Your mother s own sweet darling child, whom she 
 
 Did dote upon reared tenderly to fear 
 
 The Lord, or were you not their prodigal? 
 
 The only black sheep of the flock; and can 
 
 Return at any time, if you would but 
 
 Consent. Your father would send wealth to bring 
 
 You home, and kill the fatted calf, and have 
 
 An antique feast about their wayward boy. 
 
 N. Y. Well, now, to tell you what s the simple truth 
 I am no Pilgrim who left wealth at home, 
 But was invited once to leave New York, 
 Or you d have probably never met me here. 
 
 Nor. How is it with you, Ned, from Pennsylvania? 
 Pen. You mean what caused me to come West ? 
 Nor. Ay, Ned. 
 
 Pen Some of my charming lady friends conceived 
 A weakness, which I think s peculiar to 
 Their sex to soon conceive which weakness in 
 Such friend, I did not much admire, and thought 
 It very wise in me to take a change 
 
Of venue straight, and lost no time in doing so. 
 Thus you behold me here. 
 
 Nor. I will believe 
 
 Your story, Ned, tis as we might suppose, 
 
 I ve never met a Pennsylvania!! 
 
 In Arizona, or old Mexico, 
 
 Who did not tell that very yarn. Where is 
 
 The pirate from Missouri ? 
 
 Phil.- He 
 
 Is herding of the stock. 
 
 Nor. Well, I suppose 
 
 That he became insulted with his home 
 And native State, and left because they didn t 
 Run Frankie James for Governor of State. 
 I have a hard, particularly hard, 
 Unsated crowd around me here, indeed. 
 But you, my boys, have none the best of me, 
 For I came here intending to get killed ; 
 But let me tell you I will make it warm 
 Almighty warm, for those who do that deed. 
 I have within my burning breast a whole 
 Vesuvius of hot, scorching lava, there 
 Pent-up; and when I find the man I seek, 
 I ll make him think that his mortality 
 Has been o ertaken by a cyclone from 
 Dacota, or a San Juan avalanche. 
 
 N. Y. Well, you can soon be kill d, if you will fight 
 The Indians. And if you fall within 
 The clutches of the law, you may be hanged, 
 Because you know the world has got a bad 
 Opinion of our trade. 
 
 Nor. I hold the world s 
 
 Opinion to be of no account. Where do 
 They get their wise opinions from ? One man 
 Forms his, and his old honest neighbor makes 
 Another of his own. The strongest man 
 Makes his opinion law. The man who first 
 Made laws, constructed them so as to fleece 
 His neighbors. 
 
Pen. Well, to disregard the world s 
 
 Opinion, is to suicide in itself. 
 
 Nor. I care not, I will be like other men, 
 
 And make laws of my own. We now have laws 
 
 That we will freely deal in beeves, which we, 
 
 In order to possess in honest-wise, 
 
 Would have pasture out, and run the risk 
 
 Of some marauder fritting- them away; 
 
 While now we let the Mex an rancher have 
 
 The care of raising them, while we dispose 
 
 Of them. In this we act the part of a)l 
 
 Fine gentlemen of property and wealth. 
 
 [ Their Camp is disturbed by the. distant discharge of fiieai wsJ] 
 What is that shooting? 
 
 Pen. Tis a band 
 
 Of greaser vacqueros, who have attack d 
 Our camp. 
 
 Nor. Then get your arms and drive them off. 
 
 N. Y. I thought the ranchers would attack us to 
 Revenge themselves for grievances and try 
 Recapture their good iong-horned beeves^ 
 
 [They all seize their rifles and go after the Mexicans. The 
 Mexicans rush in on them shooting. J [Exunt fighting] 
 
 SCENE II. 
 
 [Geronimors Camp on the border. Enter Mrs. Parolenus, led in 
 as a prisoner by Tarantulahaivk] 
 
 Ta. Whoo! Sit you down fair doe-faced squaw and rest, 
 
 You have much worried me, and broke my sleep, 
 
 With ravin , tearin , moanin , cry in , phoo! 
 
 I d rather have a panthers she to guard; 
 
 One that had left her sucking cubs at home, 
 
 And now did howl with pain in her old dugs. 
 
 Mrs. P. ( using.} 
 
 I dream d last night I was a child again 
 
 At home, and play d upon the hillside with 
 
 My little brother. We did wander down 
 
The slope in search of honey-iaden flowers; 
 
 And when I lean d out o er a dizzy cliff 
 
 To pluck a snowy -petal d rose, I lost 
 
 My balance and did seem to fall down thro 
 
 The void zenith, and would have been soon dash d 
 
 To fragments in the rocky vale below, 
 
 But that my brother pluck d me from the air. 
 
 I often read in works of fiction, how 
 
 When people are in peril, just when they are 
 
 About to be engulfed, a rescue comes; 
 
 But that such things don t happen in real life, 
 
 Experience long hath taught. I am convinced 
 
 A succor hardly ever comes when needed. 
 
 And yet the soldiers now should be upon 
 
 The trail, perhaps on arbitration bent, 
 
 As are their want. How did my husband in 
 
 The last, last talk we ever had together, 
 
 Speak of Carl Manden? Well, I know that man, 
 
 I know that he would risk his life his all 
 
 For me if he could save. The eyes have long 
 
 Bespoke the heart, though silence held the lips. 
 
 I ve lately had a great experience in 
 
 That school, and find too many lovers wor^e 
 
 Than none. This musing brings my thoughts back to 
 
 Another man that Norrian Ah, me! 
 
 Has not his words fulfilled their prophesy? 
 
 And "I can see a tragedy draw nigh," 
 
 Has not more tragedies than one transpired? 
 
 Is not now "moldering some human clay?" 
 
 Hast thou connived at this calamitous 
 
 Revenge ? Wilt thou now smile to see me fall ? 
 
 Because I didst thee wrong? I tampered with 
 
 A fatal spark of human fire when I 
 
 Play d carelessly with love s impress on thee ; 
 
 Some pay too dear for such a bit of fun. 
 
 Ta. Now my calamor doe-faced squaw take rest. 
 
 I want to keep you fat for our big chief ; 
 
 He likes fat squaws to love with all. He will 
 
 Mrs. P. If thou wast furnished with the grossest speck 
 Of human reason Inj., I would kneel down 
 Low as thy feet and beg of thee to end 
 
9 f) 
 
 My mortal life; but being as reason or 
 My tears have no effect on thee, henceforth 
 I hold thee with defiance, and would not 
 E en ask escape of thee, degraded beast. 
 Enter Chipmonk. 
 
 Chip. Whoo-hoo-joo ! Tarantulahawk, sabe Fbring 
 The pale-face squaw poco pronto Geronimo, 
 To stand her trial, sabe V phoo-hoo-hoo. 
 
 Tar. 
 
 Whoo, come sweet doe-faced squaw, lead on (I do (aside] 
 
 Begrudge him this fair boon with all my heart, 
 
 And fain would pack his liver to a bear; 
 
 But that he would out-do me then. If I 
 
 Should pack her off for my own use he d kill 
 
 Me sure). Come on old squaw, haste you to grace 
 
 Our chieftain s sight. 
 
 Mrs. P. I had resolved to stand 
 
 Upon my strength ; whatever future woes 
 
 Might come, to fight them like a man but I 
 
 Cannot, O pity me! O save me from 
 
 That other wretch! Save me, dence-color d hawk, 
 
 And I shall be thy slave. I ll crawl within 
 
 The very dust to smoothe thy path from care. 
 
 Nay, if thou hast a load to pack, I ll ease 
 
 Thee of the weight and bear it all myself. 
 
 Just take me to my ravish d home, and I 
 
 Shall make thee rich. Thou shalt have all the herds 
 
 That graze upon the luscious meadows of 
 
 Our mountain ranch. O, teach thy heart to know 
 
 The pathos of blest mercy, or it will 
 
 Be thou who kneelst for pity next. I tell 
 
 Thee Inj., I see thee mold the bullet that 
 
 Will pierce thy tainted heart. 
 
 Tar. Whoo, whoo ! Come on, 
 
 Go packing to the chief, Geronimo. 
 
 Mrs. P. Forsake that chief and guide me to my home, 
 And I shall give the bounteous food to eat. 
 
 Ta. You cook me lots of sweet things? 
 Mrs. P. That I will. 
 
Ta. Suppose you sabe reservation at 
 
 San Carlos, Senorat Well, I go there 
 
 At any time I please. Go to the post 
 
 And get a whole squaw-load of rations ; whoop 1 
 
 Squaw pack it off and find a shady tree, 
 
 First day I eat all of the sugar up ; 
 
 Next day I eat the rations of dried fruit, 
 
 Then drink much water, squaw go hunt mescal, 
 
 Fat bugs and snails, I lay down in the shade 
 
 Until another ration day. Come go 
 
 You to Geronimo, your late is sealed. 
 
 Mrs. P. I am a woman, I; O, save me wretch! 
 
 Ta. Phoo, whoo, wild doe! I like a woman much; 
 
 So does our mighty chief Geronimo. 
 
 That s why he sends for you. He likes you more 
 
 Than any squaw he ever met before; 
 
 And he will use you in so fine a way. 
 
 That every buck would long to have the play. 
 
 ( Catching hold of her. ) 
 
 If I was not in subject to his will, 
 
 My amored notions now should have their fill. 
 
 Chipmonk, go tell Geronimo, tragoon. 
 
 That me and doe-faced squaw are coming soon. 
 
 Just settle down upon this grassy place 
 
 And yield to me the splendor of your grace. 
 
 (As he attempts to drag her along she pulls a knife out of 
 his belt and stabs at him ; but he perceives her motive 
 and wrenches the knife from her grasp; at the same 
 time raises it and plunges it into her breast, ^.he 
 throws up her hands and staggers back, exclaiming:} 
 
 To death, and my lost husband now I go 
 
 And leave defeat with him who struck this blow. 
 
 That s all they ve won from this outrageous fray, 
 
 Is dark defeat, and moldering human clay. 
 
 (Falls:} 
 
 (Just then a bullet whizzes apast Tarantulahawk s ear. 
 A. company of miners, prospectors, etc., headed by 
 Carl Manden, rushes dow>i, fir ing at the Indians, 
 who, being surprised, all take fo flight, and run for 
 the hills in wild confusion.} 
 
:U 
 
 Carl Man den comes in and picks Mrs. Paralenus up in 
 his arms and carries her away, while his companions 
 shout. ) 
 
 (Exunt.\ 
 
 ACT III. 
 
 SCENE I- 
 
 [ General Crook s Camp on the frontier, near the line of Mexico. } 
 Enter General Crook and Hon. Dubrans from the city of Wash. 
 
 Cr. So, Hon. Dubrans, I understand 
 That you have formed a new society 
 In Washington, for the protection and 
 Prevention of more cruelty towards 
 The Chiricahua tribe of Apaches. 
 
 Dub. Well, not exactly, General, we don t want 
 
 To protect the cruelty, but prevent it. 
 
 A number of philanthropists from the 
 
 New England States, New Jersey and New York, 
 
 (All good religious souls) assembled in 
 
 The town of Washington, and form d a grand 
 
 Society that will henceforth protect 
 
 The noble redman from being pilfer d by 
 
 The wicked element who settles here. 
 
 These documents contain our by-laws and 
 
 A summary of what I shall enforce. 
 
 [Hands him the documents. } 
 
 \_Enter, at the other side of the stage, Carl Manden on horseback 
 and McSweedon, astride of Simon, his ass.~\ 
 
 McS. I tell you the eternal truthness. Carl, 
 
 If it was not for Simon s company 
 
 I would be scar d to death ere this with fright; 
 
 I do remind me how one moonlight night, 
 
 I pluck d the old decaying sticks from oft 
 
 An ancient Indian s grave, to light my camp; 
 
 And on the crumbling top of ruins, which 
 
 The Toltecs built, when this old land was young, 
 
 Did build a fire that blaz d up thro 3 the haze 
 
 Of night to lend enchantment to the scene; 
 
And on the crackling embers there did roast 
 
 A tender rib of venison, for my appetite 
 
 Was keen. Well, when the firelight glisten d on 
 
 The relics old, that burro drew a breath; 
 
 Yea, equal to the breath a whale doth draw 
 
 Before it sinks beneath the waves to sound. 
 
 He then turn d loose, and fetch d a hideous roar 
 
 That woke the slumbering echos from their dark 
 
 Abodes among the timber-belted hills; 
 
 As if he would the Toltecs spirits forth 
 
 Invoke to tell who built those powerful walls, 
 
 Who painted hieroglyphics on those grey 
 
 Old granite slabs so quaint and fantastically. 
 
 Who shap d those tools of flint and syenite rude, 
 
 And molded this outlandish pottery? 
 
 Had they their sons of toil, who labor thro 
 
 The weary day, and others who lay by 
 
 Beneath the cedar s cooling shade until 
 
 The crop was glean d, so they could eat of it? 
 
 Had they monarchical powers to rule the State? 
 
 Ambitious men who tried to sway the world, 
 
 And build their fancies on the waving clouds. 
 
 And where now sleep those antique sons of old? 
 
 How came they to forsake this sunny clime, 
 
 And leave no offspring for to speak them fair? 
 
 All this he seem d to ask in his request, 
 
 While shaking of his shaggy ears to give 
 
 A strong expression to the solemn theme. 
 
 But to his call no answer came, save that 
 
 A coyote bark d his sorry answer up 
 
 From our a yawning canon s gloomy depth; 
 
 A thousand feet below the river roar d 
 
 The cataracts along, while tearing at 
 
 Its granite walls as though it would be free, 
 
 And crouch d like monarch of the Orient 
 
 Upon a steep and perpendicular cliff, 
 
 Thit overlook d the canon s depth, lay a 
 
 Great lioness fondling with her whelps; 
 
 Her fertile udders spread a porphyry shelf 
 
 Along, for to refresh her young (whose eyes 
 
 Glared thro the moonlight scene) did savagely 
 
 Stand up, and stretch her ivory claws, till they 
 
33 
 
 Did pierce the rock; then lick d her savory chops, 
 
 And lash d her tail around her heaving ribs, 
 
 As though she did intend to leap across 
 
 The canon s roaring width. And then old Sime 
 
 Did bray her out of countenance, until 
 
 The streak of dawn did kiss away the gloom. 
 
 Carl There s Gen. Crook. Good morning to you, Gen. 
 McS. How is your moody Generalship by this ? 
 
 ( rook Well, thank you, gentlemen, dismount and stay 
 Awhile in camp. This is Professor Dubrans. 
 
 Carl I m pleased to meet you, Dubrans. 
 
 McS. So am I 
 
 Sir Duddlebrains. You look though like a Yank. 
 
 Du. Well, really sir, your greeting is too warm 
 (Or too much like a bear. Tis what one should [aside] 
 Expect from these border ruffians, though.) Where may 
 You frontiersmen be bound ? 
 
 McS. Sometimes we re bound 
 
 For gold, sometimes we re bound for Indians, 
 And then sometimes their bound for us. Just now 
 We re bound to Mexico in search of gold, 
 Lead, cinnabar and precious stones. Where is 
 Your honor bound ? 
 
 Die. I have just loiter d here 
 
 To see that you adventurers do not 
 
 Corrupt the morals of the Indian. 
 
 Those ruffians on the bordering lands have been 
 
 Encroaching on this guileless brave s reserve, 
 
 And teaching him to sin, and will degrade 
 
 His women folks. 
 
 McS. Not I, I would not smile 
 
 Upon their broad-faced squaws for anything. 
 I want no half-breeds in my family. 
 
 Du. When he, imposed upon, goes out and fights, 
 For the protection of his natural rights, 
 I don t think he is to be blamed. I no\v 
 Intend to use kind words and moral suasion 
 To civilize this innocent Apache. 
 
34 
 
 McS. There s only one persuaison that will have 
 Effect on this corrupted innocence. 
 
 Du. And what is that? 
 
 McS. A chunk oflead about 
 
 An ounce in weight run thro his filthy brain. 
 
 Du. O, horrid man ! Tis time I came out here. 
 
 Are you aware that I am now sent west 
 
 As agent of a great society, 
 
 And henceforth do intend to see that this 
 
 Poor Indian gets his rights, and will report 
 
 All the proceedings and occurrences 
 
 To that society in Washington. 
 
 Carl I wish you luck in this great enterprise, 
 
 Indeed I do. You ve loiter cl timely here, 
 
 Upon a noble philanthropic cause 
 
 And may be entertained by this Apache; 
 
 Or he may entertain himself with you. 
 
 I ask you Dubrans if you are aware 
 
 The government protects these red-skins now, 
 
 While they carouse in vice unnamable? 
 
 Dub. It tallies with the nature of you rude 
 Prospector s calling to belittle the 
 Aborigines. 
 
 McS. It Carl says so, Dudebrains, 
 
 Don t you dispute it, and remember I 
 Am from Kentucky, sah. You used to howl 
 The same way for the many colored nig. 
 
 Crook. Why. gentlemen, don t wax so very warm. 
 You know Professor Dubrans has the best 
 Intentions in the world. 
 
 McS. Why don t he then 
 
 Protect the poor prospector who gets robbed 
 Of mines, and killed by these Abundernees ? 
 But no, when we get scalp d by Indians, 
 You say we get our just reward. I see, 
 You piousmongers from the Eastern slope 
 Think you ve just struck a theme original 
 In landing these red spider s virtues, which 
 They never did possess. You think, perhaps, 
 
Some windy talker will write up a book 
 On worthy merits of this Inj., and put 
 Your name in it, and in that way you would 
 Get boosted up to fame. 
 
 Dub. I came not here 
 
 To seek for fame. I came to ofiVr peace. 
 I will establish here a Sunday school, 
 And teach the redmen mild philanthrophy. 
 We canvassed well this question ere I came. 
 
 McS. I canvassed this ere Injun question too, 
 And know the nature of your pet Apache. 
 
 Dub. You are, sir, a misanthropist. You know 
 
 Those braves were born with free immortal souls. 
 
 McS. I don t know any mummery of the kind. 
 
 The world is all conglomerated on 
 
 This very subject of equality. 
 
 Man may be equal born financially, 
 
 Because there s none of us possessed a shirt 
 
 When we came on this sphere; but in 
 
 The universal scope of Intellects, 
 
 The races don t in any sense compare. 
 
 This aboriginal Inj. is of the earth, 
 
 And earthy are his acts and feelings. All 
 
 His faculties are selfish, low and base. 
 
 Did you e er notice that the further down 
 
 You go among the human races, and 
 
 The brute creation, the more selfishness 
 
 You find ? Tis even so. You give this Inj. 
 
 A loaf of bread, and he will want the flour 
 
 Mills of St. Paul and Minneapolis. 
 
 And will not be contented then until 
 
 He gets your scalp to make the contract good ; 
 
 Just note the brainless chicken how, if it 
 
 Should light upon a weaker sister of 
 
 Its race, how it will torture the poor elf, 
 
 Tis thus in nature, with all baser minds, 
 
 They show more selfishness as they recede 
 
 From higher natures. 
 
 Du. O, you heathen, base! 
 
 This redman is an illused creature of 
 Romance, with many noble upright traits. 
 
Carl Why man! Dear sir! We know this Indian 
 Far better than you are aware. I could 
 Enlighten you with one of these wild tales, 
 Which doth outstrip romance. In Mexico, 
 Where we are bound for now, there rests a sweet 
 
 [Enter Captain Crawford, with Gcronimo and renegades, as pris 
 oners. ] 
 
 Crook Here comes my troop, with Caesar of the plains, 
 Meek as a lamb, to soon be bound in chains. 
 
 C. Craw. Here stands Geronimo subdued at last, 
 
 The most successful Indian in the vast 
 
 Unmeasur d regions of the Golden West 
 
 Sues at your feet for mercy, peace and rest; 
 
 The great Sierra Madra raiding chief, 
 
 By us has been ensnar d and come to grief. 
 
 Crook Geronimo, now do I see the last 
 Of all your wicked Arizona raids. 
 
 Ger. Whoop to you, mighty pale-faced chieftain, whoop! 
 We want to know what kind of peace or what 
 Conditions we are to surrender on ? 
 
 Crook Is it for stipulations that you come? 
 I ve no conditions for to offer you. 
 
 Ger. We want a big supply of rations, we 
 Want ammunitions, and we want heap rest- 
 
 Crook You shall have all the rest you want upon 
 A modern gallows tree. I do intend 
 To turn you o er to civil laws, where you 
 Shall have an opportunity to give 
 An explanation of your past parade. 
 
 Ger. (aside] Po whoo, old hunter Crook, when you get me 
 In reach of civil law, just let me know. 
 
 Crook You shall be tried in the civilian courts 
 Of Arizona, and get justice, too. 
 
 Ger. There is no justice in Arizona, chief. 
 
 McS. You d better turn the cut-throat o er to flux 
 A copper furnace. Yet I do believe 
 He d make the basest kind of slag. In him 
 You could not find a trace 
 
Crook McSweedon, you 
 
 Are not a party to this council, sir. 
 
 Ger. (aside.) If I had known I wasn t to get a new 
 
 Supply of ammunition, I had seen 
 
 You char d before I would surrendered. 
 
 Well, well, you army chiefs do lie as bad 
 
 As Injin agent at San Carlos, and 
 
 He d lie a dark eclipse from off the moon; 
 
 I do believe the mighty chieftain in 
 
 The East, sends all his crooked talkers here, 
 
 To treat with us. Well, I ll o erbalance all 
 
 Their lies with my sly traits of craftiness. 
 
 (Aloud.) Say, mighty chief, I feel a sickness round 
 
 My heart. I would retire, and slumber in 
 
 My blankets, if it is your mighty will? 
 
 Send me my good peon, Chipmonk. The great 
 
 War Spirit moves me now to talk alone 
 
 To Chipmonk, by your very strong warm tent. 
 
 Crook I m very glad to see you Apache braves 
 So penitent. 
 
 [Exit soldier to find Chipmonk.] 
 
 Du. Indeed, tis as I said, 
 
 They are unique and model Indians these: 
 True to the native wildness of the west. 
 
 [ Tarantulahawk approaches his chief, Geronimo.] 
 
 Ger. Tarantulahawk, keep from thy chieftain s sight, 
 
 I have no further use for thee since thou 
 
 Hath lost me the big brave stock-rancher s wife; 
 
 I had once feasted on her looks before, 
 
 And did make it a special point when first 
 
 I started on this raid, to kill that brave 
 
 And carry off his spouse for my own use. 
 
 But thou sly, evil-minded chief did try 
 
 To spill her blood, e en when I cautioned thee 
 
 To watch her close and keep her from all harm ; 
 
 Thou hast thus robbed thy chieftain of his joys. 
 
 And then to make a worse botch of thy job, 
 
 Without knowing whether she was dead or no, 
 
 Thou hast permitted some mysterious brave 
 
To pack the much-fought-over prize away; 
 For this mishap, cave-darting- trap -door chief, 
 I now shall make thee peon of the tribe. 
 
 Tar. Phoo, whoo, my mighty vain, big puffed-up chief, 
 
 That fearful kniie did pierce the very region of 
 
 My breast, and nearly cleft my heart in two; 
 
 Then would have died a worthier chieftain than 
 
 Yourself. One who did hold the welfare of 
 
 His tribe to be of more importance than 
 
 His own ambitious greed for gold and gore. 
 
 Carl Bad luck attend that worthless knile lor not 
 Going deeper in your breast, you savage hound ; 
 
 You don t know me, you red contagion, ha! 
 I sent a bullet whizzing- by your ear. 
 
 Tar.-You white-faced buck would make a heap -good corpse. 
 Carl I d make a corpse? Right here your journey ends. 
 
 [Drawing a Colts 45 Cal. revolver from his pocket, he sticks the 
 muzzle of it in Tarantulahaw&s month. } 
 
 Now, by the all-eternal powers above, 
 You ll chaw upon the muzzle of this Colt s, 
 And swallow bullets by the score, you whelp! 
 
 All Knock that revolver from his hands! 
 Pluck pull it from the red tarantula s mouth! 
 
 [They pull the weapon from the Indian s mouth. ] 
 
 Du For shame, Carl Manden, do forbear your wrath, 
 You would not kill an unoffensive wretch 
 Who can t discern his right hand from his left, 
 I ll lay my word that poor original 
 Has never kill d a flea in all his life. 
 
 McS. I ll bet he s eat a peck of grey backs though. 
 
 Crook Carl Manden leave this fort immediately, 
 On pain of death, if not before; and you 
 McSweedon, take your walking papers, too. 
 
 cS, Would you object, yar Generalship, if I 
 (A banish d outcast from this martial fry) 
 When toss d like wreckage on a rocky surge, 
 
Should linger for a moment on the verge 
 
 Of this old universal planet, where 
 
 I breathe a foreign and more healthy air? 
 
 Carl Come on, McSweedon, we will take to horse. 
 And o er the nation s boundary quickly cross; 
 Ere night has lower d her gloomy mantel down, 
 We ll camp beneath yon rugged mountain crown; 
 Upon Sonora s interesting soil, 
 To taste her hospitality awhile; 
 And lay our cares upon her burning sod, 
 Where one I love has ere this moment trod. 
 
 [Exit Cail HIanden.~\ 
 
 McS. Now for Sonora, Sime, and I will steer, 
 And leave you and the other Injins here. 
 
 [Exit McSweedon ] 
 
 Tar. Ph-o! Ph-o! Poo! Whoo! When that old gun- 
 barrel was 
 
 Between my teeth I thought my hunting days 
 Were o er. You mighty paleface chief ought to 
 Protect us braves. We never did no harm. 
 
 Ger. Phoo! Whoo! Tarantulahawk, you re whiter than 
 The paleface chieftain s army here. You must 
 Have been among the belching sulphur pits. 
 
 [Enter Chipmonk. Retire all but Ger, Tar. and ChipJ\ 
 
 Ger. Chipmonk, that white-haired, old stout buck you saw 
 
 Was General Crook. Go slippery-snouted Chip, 
 
 And noise around that all our tribe are drunk; 
 
 And tell each of our braves for me, Chipmonk, 
 
 That we intend to make a gallant move, 
 
 That will the quickness of my actions prove 
 
 This night, while all upon the border lay, 
 
 Like worms in acorns neatly stow d away; 
 
 To wait the dawning of another day. 
 
 We ll gather up the remnant of our band 
 
 The greatest warriors in this spacious land, 
 
 Steal slyly from the paleface guarded lair 
 
 To breathe the freedom of the balmy air, 
 
 Which no authority can harness down. 
 
 Nor claim as his domain, nor waste, nor wound, 
 
40 
 
 And rounding up with dextrous caution then, 
 The fleetest of our steeds, and truest men; 
 We ll travel proudly to the South once more, 
 A greater terror than we were before. 
 
 Tar. (aside] There may you break your centipedian neck, 
 
 So I can be the Chieftain of our sect, 
 
 And rule the scattered, warlike Chiricahuas, 
 
 Who now are forging o r the plains to browse. 
 
 (Exunt.) 
 
 SCENE II. 
 The same. Enter all the Indians singing a drunken spi ing song. 
 
 Gather round and let us sing 
 
 To the merry months of spring. 
 
 Spring is coming forthwith now, 
 
 See it bud on every bough; 
 
 Soon their blossoms shall peep forth 
 
 For to beautify the earth. 
 
 Spring, thou art the time we love, 
 
 For thou wakens every grove 
 
 To the joyful song of birds; 
 
 To the lowing of the herds; 
 
 Spreads a freshness o er the glade; 
 
 Makes the trees throw deeper shade; 
 
 Fills the air with fragrant smells; 
 
 Createth honey in the cells 
 
 Of the little modest flowers, 
 
 To supply the tiny bowers 
 
 Of the thrifting buzzing bee, 
 
 Who doth fly so merrily; 
 
 Raiseth in the tall mescal, 
 
 That sweet juice we love so well. 
 
 Now let s jump, and dance and sing, 
 
 To our ancient tune of spring; 
 
 So the pale-face chieftain shall 
 
 Think we re filled with strong mescal. 
 
 (Exunt.) 
 
SCENE III. 
 
 The same at midnight. Geronimo and his braves are seen crawl 
 ing off from Crook s Camp on their hands and knees. 
 
 Ger. (rising} Mexico is a lovely flower. 
 
 And I m the hero of the hour ; 
 
 I ve fool d the troops of lenient whites, 
 
 And now I ll forage for my rights, 
 
 Like terror s messenger I ll go 
 
 To scalp the braves of Mexico. 
 
 So fly ye gallant bloods away, 
 
 And cross the line before tis day. 
 
 Tar. (rising} Old bruin now forsakes his home; 
 And thro the darkest caiions roam. 
 The lion from the mountain creep 
 To gorge upon the rancher s sheep; 
 The owlet from her warm nest flies 
 And to the Skunk s rank chamber hies ; 
 Like skunk, like owl we ll speed away 
 And cross the line before tis day. 
 
 All. Now while the moon pales in the blue, 
 And damps the nether vales with dew 
 Our father s spirits roam abroad 
 To lead us o er the broken sod ; 
 Let s follow where the spirits guide, 
 And thro the fewest thorns we ride. 
 
 {Exunt. ) 
 
 SCENE IV, 
 
 [Norriari s Camp on the top of a high mountain in Sonora.~\ 
 \_Norrian atone, looking out from a crag over the valley below. .] 
 
 Nor. I wonder from whence comes that curling smoke, 
 
 Which rises from so many coverts on 
 
 The plain below ? Tis like those greasers must 
 
 Be cold. They found it hot enough when last 
 
 They closed with us ; we drove them from our camp 
 
 With frightful slaughter, and then to evade 
 
 A fresh attack (for we above all times 
 
Should now endeavor to prevent a war 
 
 With these ill-sorted knaves) have moved our camp 
 
 As though we did retreat, till we command 
 
 The top-most fastness of this batter d crag-, 
 
 And now those rash Sonorans are elate ; 
 
 They think they have us routed in defeat. 
 
 And gather all their swarthy sons around 
 
 The rugged mountain s base to shoot us down, 
 
 Or lead us captive to a dungeon cell; 
 
 Well, they may yet mistake the nature of 
 
 Our movements, and their own. A man can t well 
 
 Be executed till he s caught, and we 
 
 May hold the fort till this old mountain melts. 
 
 Of course they can soon starve us out, for food 
 
 And water is not to be had for love 
 
 Nor gold, (commodities, which happily we 
 
 Do not possess,) but we have arms to rake 
 
 This mountain till it quakes, and drive this swarm 
 
 Back to their loathsome hives. 
 
 This war has kill d 
 
 My purpose for a different raid, which I 
 Had doted on. How strange fate works with me! 
 I thought ere this to battle with Apache; 
 But here I have war unsolicited, 
 A little larger than I care to cope 
 With, for I see they muster all the power 
 The settlements can bring to their relief. 
 See how those fires do blaze upon the plains! 
 They spread and sweep around the mountain base, 
 And lick the verdure irom among the rocks 
 And now it strikes the timber, which, when once 
 Ignited, burns like saturated wick. 
 How quick it climbs toward us, crackling up 
 The mountain side like roaring up a flue, 
 And leaves the land behind it desolate. 
 I see, the ranchers have just spread these fires 
 To roast us into cinders on the mount; 
 They know that fire will quickly climb a hill, 
 Such being in unison with its natural laws. 
 This is a danger I had not perceived 
 We may fight man, but not the elements; 
 
This conflagration in its course will leave 
 This peak a barren waste of ashes and 
 Sterility. 
 
 [Enter some of his men.~\ 
 
 Boys, ere we are consumed, 
 
 We have to charge us down the crags, break thro 
 The flames, and scatter these fierce wolves, or they 
 Will cook us ere we find an outlet of 
 Escape. We have two fires in front of us, 
 The one dangerous, the other terrible! 
 So bid the men prepare them for the charge. 
 Now blood and fire will stain our path to-day, 
 For liberty, which time won t wash away; 
 And wise posterity will long deplore 
 When all the perpetraters are no more. 
 
 [**/.] 
 
 ACT IV. 
 
 SCENE I . 
 [Son or a, Me.vico.~\ 
 [Enter McSiveedon, driving Simon, his burro.~\ 
 
 McS, Wogh, Simon, wogh ! you lop-eared brazen rogue, 
 
 Till I examine this formation here. 
 
 There s granite, slate, hornblend and syenite, 
 
 And porphyry, limestone, shale and quartzite. 
 
 If that formation is not mix d and crash d, 
 
 May I upon Oblivion s shore be dashed. 
 
 Now by the geological signs that 
 
 Upon this part of old creation bound, 
 
 I am now troding on Sonora s sod. 
 
 Here will I sit me down and meditate 
 
 Upon the various mishaps of our trip, 
 
 While Simon deigns to browse upon the green. 
 
 My partner, Carl, he is most thoroughly stuck 
 
 Upon that woman we saved from Apache, 
 
 And heaven knows how many other men 
 
 And wild rape -roving Indians have not 
 
 Been stuck on her. She s caused more trouble on 
 
44 
 
 This frontier waste than armies, border thieves 
 And prowling- redskins, all combined. 
 Though innocent of it herself. The cause 
 Is scarcity among the sect down here. 
 It makes me smile to see the way we fooled 
 The redskins, Dogbrains and old General Crook. 
 They all suppose that girl is dead, the rogues. 
 Whereas a fact, Carl Manden pack d her oft 
 The field as tenderly as it she was 
 A purse of chloride gold. And on our way 
 Towards Tucson ( where we were bound) we met 
 A famous doctor traveling south in state; 
 He had a train of prairie schooners, which 
 He journey d in toward Ponchico springs, 
 In Mex.co, accompanied by his wife 
 And several of his friends. So Carl and I 
 Consider d that a lucky turn, and placed 
 Her with those notables on pleasure bent; 
 Resolved to shortly join them at the springs, 
 From whence we would go prospect after gold ; 
 Though Carl may prospect after, Jericho 
 Knows what, since he is female strickenso. 
 
 \_Enter Carl Manden on horseback singing.] 
 
 Carl. I ve wander d south of wealth and toil, 
 The symbol of our broad domain, 
 Unto a freer, balmier soil, 
 Where many desperate factions reign. 
 
 Where greaser bold and gringo fine 
 Have long assum d the perilous right 
 To traffic on the border line, 
 With Custom-house collectors fight. 
 
 Where servile peons pass the clay 
 In simple toil and rustic peace, 
 And proud Castilian offsprings lay 
 In feudal hermitage at ease. 
 
 Where love and passion ever swells, 
 
 In fiery, vaunting Mexico; 
 
 The land of fragrant, flowery dells, 
 
 And rugged mountains capp cl with snow, 
 
Where Montezuma s daughters young 
 Bask neath the vine-leaves of their birth, 
 And sing in that melodious tongue 
 That wins the weary heart from earth. 
 
 I ve seen their lustrous, black eyes shine 
 With passion s fire and reckless loves; 
 Their dark breasts heave hke waves of wine, 
 So strong their deep affection moves. 
 
 Sweet maidens of the western groves, 
 Their smile doth sooth a life of care; 
 It softens down our toils and woes, 
 When lonely from the desert air. 
 
 To breathe the incense of their charms, 
 Whose very looks speak of desire, 
 One longs to rest within their arms, 
 And cool the heart s inburning fire. 
 
 And in the chancels of this clime, 
 A fairer mortal now does rest; 
 One fated in the lapse of time 
 To ring the pathos from my breast. 
 
 Twas but a short decade ago 
 
 My mind was free from such a love; 
 
 Now when I ieel a pang of woe, 
 
 My thoughts, my soul to her do move. 
 
 Like a duck that s wounded on a lake, 
 Whose waters chafe its bleeding breast; 
 Doth soon the troubled deep fcrsake 
 To reach the mossy banks to rest. 
 
 Thus, dearest, when the throbbing spring 
 Of my dejected heart is sore, 
 I flee from further wounds and cling 
 To thee, my ocean s Iruitful shore. 
 
 McS -See Carl ! Who seeks the noiseless solitude 
 Of this lone mountain elen? 
 [Enter Wacliff, a rustler. ~\ 
 
 Tis one I knew 
 
 Before. Tis Waclififsure, Heavens bless you, boy ! 
 In what direction move you now? 
 
41) 
 
 Wa. McSweedon, 
 
 Old friend, extend to me your honest hand! 
 And Manden, too! I m glad to meet you here. 
 
 Carl. Well, Wacliff, dear old fellow, how are you! 
 I am so pleased to meet a former friend 
 Among the verdure of a foreign clime. 
 
 Wa. Your pleasure is no greater, sir, than mine. 
 How goes the world ? How fares it in the north ? 
 
 McS. Tis bad, my friend, tis passing solemn. How moves 
 The mescal regions of old Mexico ? 
 
 Wa. Well Me., the social part that I m destined 
 To play, is interesting to my mind. 
 I joined with a progressive wayward band, 
 Who deal in livestock of a doubtful brand; 
 And now are driving Arizonaward, 
 Some beeves we captured from a greaser herd; 
 Or, sooth, we were at least some days ago, 
 Since then I ve skirmish d mount and valley low, 
 For Norrian was attack d by ranchers, who 
 Lost at his hands the stock they now pursue. 
 I had departed ere that fight began 
 To find the trails the customhouses span ; 
 To spy which mountain route the marshals guard; 
 You know, to beat those officers, is hard, 
 When last we crossed the garners of the duty, 
 Risk d life and limb to seize our plunder d booty. 
 Those men are venturesome they ll brave and dare 
 A seige that would a goodly army scare. 
 No knights of old ere guarded castle gate 
 More courageously than than those collectors wait 
 Upon the passes of the rough frontier, 
 To seize the counterband of mountaineer. 
 So I have skirmished for to find their lair, 
 That we might pass their quarters unaware. 
 
 McS. O, dangerous, dangerous is thy calling boy, 
 Thy life to such bold ventures gi en employ, 
 W T ill all thy better, nobler parts destroy. 
 Break off, break off, and follow thy old ways, 
 As thou and I have done in former days. 
 Come with us now, we re on the road to wealth. 
 
Wa. No, Me, I can t, I m duty bound to stealth, 
 I would not leave companions in distress, 
 For all the favors that the world could press 
 Upon my head. If Congress passed a bill 
 To lay that Union subject to my will, 
 I d not, when in distress, forsake a man 
 So now I seek the stronghold of my clan. 
 But what said st thou of matters in the North? 
 
 McS. O, murder was the news when we set forth, 
 Some of our friends by redskins have been slain. 
 
 Wa. What, are the scalpers on their raids again? 
 
 McS. Yea! And towards these very parts they come, 
 
 With power enough to strike the native dumb; 
 
 Geronimo, since last you knew that chief, 
 
 Had like to been ensnar d and come to grief; 
 
 And would have had his lasting genius hid 
 
 If twere not for his enemies, who did 
 
 Their diplomatic tactics overrate. 
 
 The savage has performed such deeds of late, 
 
 Such cruel, brutal, filthy depredations, 
 
 That he has spread disgust thro all the nations. 
 
 Since that he left his camp on Gila slope, 
 
 He s felt the threat ning shadow of a rope ; 
 
 And might have had it neath his desp rat chin, 
 
 But that he fool d the powers who run him in; 
 
 A party sent by Ajax (General Crook) 
 
 Surrounded him upon a craggy nook, 
 
 And held him fast within their iron claws, 
 
 From whence they d turn him o er to civil laws. 
 
 But in the dreary watches of the night 
 
 Geronimo and band did take to flight; 
 
 And wonder d proudly to the South once more, 
 
 A greater cut-throat than he was before. 
 
 And now he doth direct his warlike forqe 
 
 Toward us, on his Sierra Madra course; 
 
 And o er these mountains will he speed along, 
 
 Destroying all the mortals of the wrong 
 
 Complexion, whom he chance upon for might 
 
 With Ind s, as well as other folks, is right. 
 
48 
 
 Wa. Well, let him come! And should he meet with us 
 He may get salivated thro with lead; 
 I now go hunt my camp. My friends, farewell. 
 
 McS. Well, lets depart like Brutus and Cassius 
 On that awful morn at Philippi. But 
 To hope that history won t be repeated in 
 This instance, and that we will meet 
 Again and smile. So now, my friend, I 
 Bid you a farewell. 
 l\/a. My best wishes go with you both, Adios. 
 
 Carl Adieu. 
 
 \_Exunt severally.^ 
 
 SCENE II. 
 
 {The Mountains in Sonora. Enter Hon. Dubrans and four 
 soldiers.~\ 
 
 ist Sol. We ve been dispatch d by the commander of 
 
 Our company to ride to yonder peak, 
 
 And take our station on the topmost crag; 
 
 And signal back what indications we 
 
 Have seen, and how the country lays to south. 
 
 2d Sol. Our captain, though, had no idea how deep 
 And perilous lay this rocky gorge, or he 
 Would have considered well the dangers run 
 Ere he had ordered out so small a troop. 
 We ve traveled miles into this box d ravine, 
 Which closes round us like an Indian s trap 
 To cut off every outlet of escape, 
 Should we be set upon by savages. 
 
 ist Sol. I fancy we will find a trail ere long, 
 By which we can ascend the rocky cliff. 
 
 D U Why, soldiers have no fear of Indians, 
 I know they would not injure one of us. 
 
 2d J ol You know a little less than nothing of 
 These Indians, Dubrans, and if you had 
 Been wise you never would have ventured with 
 This troop; it is not bravery, but sheer 
 
49 
 
 Stupidity that makes you run such risks. 
 A man to cope with these Apache curs 
 Must be as wily as themselves. It was 
 A cunning-, unexpected dash like this 
 Enabled brave Carl Manden to perform 
 That noble deed of rescue which surpris d 
 The natives so. He had the caution of 
 A presidential candidate, and all 
 The daring of a lion after prey. 
 
 jd Sol. Here are fresh Indian Signs. 
 
 2d Sol. That s what they are. 
 
 See this imprint among this loco weed, 
 
 It has been made by Indian pony s hoof 
 
 Not more n an hour ago. That moccosin track 
 
 Is fresh as Dudebrains after Indians. 
 
 Du. I have no fear of these poor Indians. 
 
 2d Sol. You are a fool. I have spent many years 
 Upon the trail, and know what I m about. 
 We must retreat from here immediately, 
 Or we are doom d. You see each of the rocks 
 And shrubs may now conceal an Indian. 
 When nature in her wild convulsions tore 
 Away this canyons sides, depositing 
 These mighty boulders on its silver d sands, 
 She seemed to have contrived it purposely 
 To make a stronghold for the warlike tribes 
 Who have for centuries combin d their strength 
 And fury to impede progressive life. 
 
 [A shot is fired from behind a rock which kills one of the sol 
 diers. Simultaneously an Indian s head pops up from behind 
 every rock and bush, shooting at the soldiers. After the first 
 volley, the Indians, led on by Geronimo, rush in and surround 
 the soldiers, shouting their war-whoop as they come. Three 
 cfthe soldiers had been killed in the first volley, whom the In 
 dians commence to scalb. Dubi ans had escaped scot-free oj 
 the bullets so they take him a prisoner. To.rantulahawk hold 
 ing him by the back of the neck.~\ 
 
 Du. O, soldiers, save me! Save me! What s :;. 
 Of military escort, if they can t 
 Protect one from being killed. 
 
[The Indians press on, 2d soldier (who has been fighting all the 
 while] to take him a prisoner, but he beats the brains out of 
 two of them with his 45 revolver. ] 
 
 2d. Sol Come on, you red-faced devils, come! I ll smash 
 Enough of you beneath my feet to build 
 A barracks to repel the rest. Take that! 
 
 [He downs another of the Indjnns, while another of them comes 
 up behind him and gives him a mortal blow on the back of ihe 
 neck zvith the blade of a hatchet, and another of th"m runs a 
 stelleto through his body. Tarant i/ahnwk gives Dubrans a 
 shaking up, holding him by the collar. } 
 
 Ta. Whoo, choo! You slim-faced white, we got you now. 
 
 Z)u. Be easy, my good Indian, and I ll pray 
 For you. 
 
 Ger. Whoop buck! We ll prey upon your meat. 
 
 Tarantulahawk, you pack him off to yon 
 
 Tall oak, and dig a hole and stick him in 
 
 The ground up to his chin. 
 
 [ They dig a hole beneath an oak, and place Dubrans in ? /.] 
 
 Now bend you down 
 A supple limb, and tie his hair unto the branch. 
 
 Ta. Big chief, the pale-face has no hair, 
 The top part of his head is bald. 
 
 Ger. Well, well, 
 
 These ball-headed agents from the East all lie 
 
 And steal. Tarantulahawk, you cut a strip 
 
 Of buck-skin from your long gee-string, and make 
 
 A slit thro both his ears, and fasten them 
 
 Unto the bended branch with that good thong. 
 
 Ta. I hate to shorten up my gee-string chief, 
 You know I had to rustle hard to get 
 The buckdeer s hide to make it from. I scalped 
 The Mexican while he was tanning it. 
 
 Ger. You don t need much gee-string upon your front, 
 
 As pale-face says "three-inch" is long enough 
 
 For you. Now there is our old neighbor chief, 
 
 Eskiminzen, he s had so many wives, 
 
 It makes him need a gee-string to his knees. 
 
 [ They tie Dubrari 1 s ears to a limb with the thong. } 
 
ol 
 
 Do you know Nachez, that it is a fact 
 
 That all the no-hair d men who come from the 
 
 Big Father in the East to deal with us 
 
 Are rogues. When we were in the pale-lace camp, 
 
 I heard one of their chieftains say that the 
 
 Huachuca mountains head was bald as one 
 
 Bill Nye s. I s pose by that, this Nye must be 
 
 The smartest of his tribe to tell a lie. 
 
 Tarantula, have you got his head made fast? 
 
 Ta. As solid as a jack-ass rabbit in a snare. 
 
 Ger. Well, now, ye chieftains all take heed, 
 I ll bet my finest blanket on the buck 
 Who puts the most cold bullets thro his neck 
 At fifty paces from the slender mark, 
 Without a miss, or shooting thro the head; 
 For I would not disfigure his long face. 
 I ll bet this blanket that I stele from out 
 The tent of General Crook, upon the chief 
 Who does the shooting as I have laid down. 
 
 [ They all stand off and shoot at Dubrans neck. Curtain. } 
 
 SCENE III. 
 
 [Midnight at Norrian s Camp in Sonora. Enter Norrian.~\ 
 
 Nor. How beautiful and calm the scene to-night, 
 How soft and tender are the stars pale light, 
 How sweetly to wild notes the rivulet rhymes, 
 The freshest hour in all these southern climes, 
 Is this the midnight hour, when all that grows 
 Doth glide into a mild and cool repose, 
 To rest them from the labor of the day 
 Till morn return each to his work or play. 
 The slumber rests on everything complete, 
 Inanimate as well as animate; 
 Save where the little crystal streamlet creep 
 Adown its bed to make the verdure weep; 
 Save where a coyote barks his grief afar, 
 And eyes askance our implements of war; 
 Save where a rabbit sits beside his cave, 
 
And smiles to hear that subtle coyote rave, 
 
 And I must watch with these, the midnight hour, 
 
 Since we have broke the gathering ranchers power, 
 
 And she who was the cause of all my woes, 
 
 Has fallen captive to our dreaded foes; 
 
 I have not slept, nor breath d, nor lived 
 
 O, heaven, with what fierce pangs my heart is rived! 
 
 These Mexicans will rally for attack 
 
 With all their armies force, a swarthy pack, 
 
 And iocs from every side will on our back; 
 
 I have the world for enemy right now. 
 
 [Shots are fired.} 
 I have no friend. A pistol shot! Where? How? 
 
 [Pulling his revolver.} 
 
 A friend! You are my friend, my forty- five, 
 I hold you up to heaven and bless you now. 
 
 [Enter Phil, Pennsylvanian, New Yorker and others of their 
 Company firing at a coyote. \ 
 
 A. y. Now, Penn, that was a truly horrid gash 
 Your bullet made between his carrion ribs. 
 
 Pen. I ve seen you make worse shots than that ere now. 
 
 Phil. I think that Wacliff s coming up the gorge, 
 He has been hailed by our outpost on guard. 
 
 [Enter Uacliff.~\ 
 
 Nor. Hello! Here is the wanderer returned, 
 Where have you been so long ? 
 
 Wa. Well happy met! 
 
 I thought I d never find your camp again, 
 You ve made some lively moves since I ve been gone. 
 
 Nor. You know we ve had a desperate battle with 
 
 The Mexican vaqueros, who attack d 
 
 Us to recover some fat beeves they lost; 
 
 We beat them once and then they penn d us on 
 
 A mountain top, and started fires that roar d 
 
 Up thro the seasoned groves like fiery hell. 
 
 We stood there hounded like rank vermin, on 
 
 A little isle surrounded by the flames, 
 
 Until we were about to be immerged; 
 
And then we rushed into the glowing heat 
 
 That singed the hair from off our heads, and scorch d 
 
 And parched our flesh until we writh d with pain, 
 
 But sttll we waded thro the tongues of flame, 
 
 And splash d them from our limbs like waves of sea; 
 
 Some fell o erpowered, and some were crushed beneath 
 
 The trunks of falling trees; but still the brave 
 
 Plunged on, and clear d the flames, to fall upon 
 
 The rifles of our human foes; and such 
 
 A battle then ensued as mortal man 
 
 Had never seen before. We fought for life, 
 
 And they did fight for mere existence, too; 
 
 It was a siege where man cast off the robes 
 
 Which years of civilization had put on 
 
 And fought w r ith mere instinct. They, caught in their 
 
 Own trap, were weeded off no matter how 
 
 A man don t loose much when he parts with life, 
 
 As he can t live forever anyway ; 
 
 And while he lives he has a month of grief 
 
 To every hour of joy. Life, life! Where is 
 
 The boon thou gives! 
 
 Wa. You kill d them all then? 
 
 Nor. I 
 
 Believe there were but few escaped, and they 
 
 Have gone to rouse their countrymen to venge 
 
 Their wrongs; and soon we may expect the whole 
 
 Triangular Republic hounding us 
 
 With lead. 
 
 Wa How many of our men were killed? 
 
 Nor. We lost a few they must have suffer d to 
 
 A great extent I won t begin to say. 
 
 What news have you from regions of the north? 
 
 Wa. I met prospectors on the Madra slope, 
 Who did report Geronimo comes down 
 This way, and Parolenus wife was killed. 
 
 Nor.Q, murder! Dead? 
 
 Wa. Quite true. Well pards, I am 
 
 As hungry as a coyote. How are you 
 Supplied for grub? 
 
Phil You ll find some venison in 
 
 The crotch of yon tall oak, and plenty bread 
 There in the dutchoven by the fire. 
 
 Nor. Wacliff, come over here and eat your lunch, 
 Sit down beside me on this mesquite stump, 
 And tell me all you know of that affair. 
 
 \_Nortian and Wachff sit down and talk apart.~\ 
 
 N. _ Y. Well, boys, suppose we take a respite from 
 This occupation, which is souring- with 
 My constitution, and discourse awhile 
 On something more congenial to our taste. 
 
 Phil. Let me relate my last experience in 
 
 A lion hunting trip I made upon 
 
 The Rio Verde in the Mogallons. 
 
 I owned a mountain -climbing mule, on which, 
 
 Accompanied with a pack of scenter hounds, 
 
 I tracked the nightly -prowler to his lair; 
 
 We soon compell d the beast to climb a tree, 
 
 Where he ran out upon a lofty branch 
 
 More than a hundred feet from ground. I pull d 
 
 My gun; but boys, before that powder burned 
 
 Halfway within the cartridge shell, that old 
 
 Cat-fashioned lion sprung, and lit upon 
 
 The nape part of my neck. The rock of ages 
 
 Cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee 
 
 We rolled and claw d the ground; the hounds lay to 
 
 His flanks, and o er the precipice we plunged. 
 
 Down, down, towards the tearing Verde sea ! 
 
 Just as we neared the water s edge, (which was 
 
 Ten fathoms deep) the lion sunk his claws 
 
 Into the perpendicular rock ; I grabb d 
 
 His tail just as he leaped into a cave, 
 
 Which entered from the cliff, just o er the stream; 
 
 And of whose whereabouts he seemed to be 
 
 Familiar. He soon dragg d me far beneath 
 
 The mountain side, where all was dark as pitch; 
 
 I loosed my hold and fell exhausted on 
 
 The rocky floor, and worn out, swoon d away. 
 
 When consciousness returned I gain d my ieet, 
 
 And groped around to find the cavern s mouth; 
 
I wander d through the darkness for perhaps 
 
 A mile before I got a glimpse of light; 
 
 I hurried where the glorious rays let fall 
 
 A somber, pinkish clearness down a hall, 
 
 The most magnificent was ever seen. 
 
 The light came from above ; not open to 
 
 The day; but through red-tinted crystallized 
 
 Transparent lime, or silica, about 
 
 A thousand feet above. And from the walls 
 
 Depended grand stalactites all the way 
 
 From where the daylight entered to the floor. 
 
 These huge stalactites were entwined with wires 
 
 Of precious gold, and diamonds sparkled from 
 
 Among the many-colored gem? which form d 
 
 A boundary to this cone-shaped chamber where 
 
 I stood. The rays of light pierced through the pure 
 
 Transparent gems and broad stalactites in 
 
 Bright shades diversified enough to make 
 
 One s eyesight reel. The cavern floor was strewn 
 
 With precious stones and gold and silver ore. 
 
 And scattered with this pile of natural wealth 
 
 Were tools and implements belonging to 
 
 A vanish d race. No words of mine could half 
 
 Describe the grandeur of this wonderous cave; 
 
 And I might have been standing gazing still, 
 
 Were not my eyes attracted to two balls 
 
 Of burning fire, which from the darkness came; 
 
 They came towards me, and I knew to stand 
 
 Within the light meant death, so for the shade, 
 
 (As unborn jerms shrink from the glare of day,) 
 
 I bounded for my life; but those two balls 
 
 Were bounding at my heels A lion now ! 
 
 I felt his warm breath on my cheek, and raised 
 
 My hand to pair a blow. When lo, the beast 
 
 Jump d in my face and bore me to the floor. 
 
 N. K O Philip! Did you die right there? 
 
 Pen. Come off, 
 
 New Yorker, don t you interrupt him while 
 He tells his tale. Go on friend Phil, before 
 I faint. I m dying now to know if you 
 Were eaten there alive or not. 
 
Phil. Look here, 
 
 The next time I recount historic facts 
 To you, I ll die within the cave beiore 
 I ll let you know whether I came out or not. 
 Well, that old lion was my choicest hound, 
 Who snift d his way within the winding- cave, 
 And led me out along a passage known 
 To none but him and I. 
 
 Nor. (Coming forward} O, say no more about it, pray! 
 
 I do beseech you, Wacliff, say no more, 
 
 The time has passed when grief is news to me. 
 
 N. } . I camp d upon the Sierra Anchas once, 
 
 That was some years ago, when I came west; 
 
 It was an arborous looking spot u/hereon 
 
 I pitched my camp I named it "Reptile Ranch." 
 
 I was considerably fatigued, and spread 
 
 My blankets on the ground to have a snooze; 
 
 But ere I closed my eyes in peaceful sleep, 
 
 The crawling beasts around destroyed my quiet, 
 
 I rose and looked around, and there behold, 
 
 I lay upon a vermLsh reptile farm. 
 
 At least a fete champetre of Hortidums; 
 
 For such a hideous place for rattlesnakes 
 
 And venomous spiders, and death-hissing vipers, 
 
 That beat the furies; for they danced, made love, 
 
 Ran, fought and played in wild hilarity. 
 
 I gathered up my blankets then and made 
 
 Them in a sack, which I suspended to 
 
 A branch of a huge oak, and then crawl d in 
 
 As a tarantula slides into his trap, 
 
 When closely set upon by deadly hawk; 
 
 Thus did I climb, and from the turret of 
 
 My now suspended castle, did review 
 
 My neighbors of the reptile world. In close 
 
 Embrace, two spoony centipedes made love 
 
 Beneath a trembling canopy of wild, 
 
 Ripe Arizona grapes, whose vine did cling 
 
 Jn amorous fondness to a walnut sprig. 
 
 A Gila- monster, (Heloderma) sit 
 
 Majestically on a tinsel d porphyry throne, 
 
 And seem d to be the judging umpire for 
 
-57 _ 
 
 Two lusty-claw d tarantulas, who engaged 
 
 Each other in a siege of war, and fought 
 
 It to a finish; that is, till only part 
 
 Of one tarantula \vas left. Then rose 
 
 The Heloderma for to act his part, 
 
 As really should become a king for know 
 
 That reigning monarchs always have done so 
 
 Came down from off his regal throne, and eat 
 
 The remnants that were left from that unwise, 
 
 (And rather to the brutes engaged therein, 
 
 Like other duels are) unprofitable duel. 
 
 A little further off a rattlesnake 
 
 Had rounded up a family of horntoads 
 
 Which he did then digest with all the ease 
 
 A Vanderbuilt or Gould would gobble up 
 
 The profits of a railway line, to swell 
 
 Their avaricious purse. 
 
 A scorpion with 
 
 His venom d tail did saturate the blood 
 Of a poor cricket, whom, I have no doubt 
 Made quite a dainty meal. Besides these were 
 A score of reptiles in a whirling dance; 
 So I coiled softly down within my sack, 
 And there, rocked by the gentle breeze, and charm d 
 By ribald vermin music, closed my lids 
 Until my thoughts stole off, and scatter d down 
 The mountain side to other climes and scenes, 
 To pleasant dreams and slumbers soft and sweet. 
 Pen. Now, Wacliff, your turn next, come sing a song. 
 About that young Castillian damsel that 
 You stole from the old Ranchero. The one 
 Who fled with you along the mountain trail. 
 While her ag : d padre canter d hard behind, 
 With his old Revolutionary gun; 
 A musket that d been lost in Mexico 
 By General Winfield Scott. Delightful nymph, 
 To be thy lone companion in the woods. 
 
 Wa. Well you can never have the joy to share 
 That lone companionship; despair o er that; 
 When I go girling boy, I go not like 
 The candidate for office, lauding his 
 
 Rich talents for the same, but go to win. 
 
Pen. Well, louse thee, Cliff, and string thy tuneful lyre, 
 
 As some old ancient poetizer said: 
 
 "Come ho! and wake Diana with a song"," 
 
 And blast the coyote s ears with sounds of music. 4 
 
 Phil. I m d d if here is not a man reads poetry! 
 
 No wonder we are victims of ill-luck. 
 
 Pen. Well, this is from no modern poet. I tell 
 You this was written many years ago. 
 
 Phil. As long as its not from the poets oi 
 The present day, you may go free; but if 
 It had been written by the modern school 
 We d hang you on a cypress tree to cool. 
 
 All Waclift, give us the song! 
 All Song! 
 All Song! 
 
 \fya. As I was adding by Castelo s ranch, 
 
 I espied wading out in a cool-flowing branch 
 
 A young Senorita of angelic charm, 
 
 A plucking pond-lilies to bring to the farm. 
 
 The Castelo s daughter in her I espy, 
 
 I knew by the glances of love in her eye; 
 
 I saw from the fire those lashes let fall 
 
 She was the young dame I had met at a ball. 
 
 How charming she look d as she breasted the flood, 
 
 To pluck from its stamen the pale dripping bud; 
 
 Her eyes were so bright, and her form was so neat 
 
 That she won my whole heart with a rapture complete, 
 
 There never was nymph from the deep billows sprung 
 
 Could charm the wan heart like this Castillian young, 
 
 As sjie rais d and revealed just the daintiest glance 
 
 Of a round, dimpled ankle would passion enhance, 
 
 Neath a skirt that conceal d all in mist like a cloud, 
 
 And raised to her lips, red with blood and as proud 
 
 A blushing white lily just panting with bloom; 
 
 And kissed and caress d it and drank its perfume, 
 
 Then I drew up beside her and bowed to the fair 
 
 And gathered some lilies to twine in her hair; 
 
 Then led her to land on the banks of the stream, 
 
 And filled her young heart with a love-laded theme. 
 
I avow it was rash the song that I used, 
 But the time and the place will permit its excuse. 
 "O, sweet Stnorita, my love won t you come 
 With me to the north, to my far-away home, 
 That was built by my sires in a nook by the sea, 
 To the halls of my ancestors now let us flee; 
 They still have such tender attractions for me 
 That I know they ll be delicate, loving to thee. 
 
 leave this hot clime and its license behind, 
 
 And ascend the steep trail, o er the lava range wind; 
 
 You will never know sorrow, nor grief, but be free 
 
 In an ead in the north, with true love and with me. 
 
 Don t wait to consider what chance may befall 
 
 Such a rash unpremeditated action at all; 
 
 But know I have crossed o er the desert for you 
 
 Whose charms do revive me as floweret by dew. 
 
 O, dissolve in my heart, like the dew on the rose 
 
 And I d fly to a nook of perpetual repose." 
 
 The words from my heart were thus utter d so mild 
 
 That her tender young soul from its home was beguil d, 
 
 And was fated to follow the bleak trail along, 
 
 The fairest of mortals in fiction or song. 
 
 Then she moved to a grove where a fleet pony stood, 
 
 Neath a vine-woven shade in the fringe of the wood; 
 
 1 raised her lithe form and I swung her the rein, 
 And without more ado we jog d off to the plain; 
 While the peons did rally our flight to prevent, 
 But on their thick pates my good lorty-nve went 
 With a dextrous crash, till a passage was made, 
 Then I carried my love to a far mountain glade; 
 While the vassals did mount on the rancho below, 
 And her Castillian padre in hysterics did go. 
 
 We flew for protection to far-away hills 
 
 Where no human before us had drank from its rills, 
 
 Nor gazed on the wildness that dawned on our sight 
 
 To shield us rash lovers from harm on our flight ; 
 
 And our warm bridal couching was tenderly spread 
 
 On a tuft of dried leaves from a brown bears bed. 
 
 Last year it gave ease to old bruin, his wife 
 
 And his cubs for to wrangle in pleasure and strife ; 
 
 But now twas resign d to a nestling of doves, 
 
 It sheltered the sweetest of all human loves. 
 
(JO 
 
 Her journey since then would be grievous to tell 
 But I now have her safely protected and well. 
 
 SCENE IV. 
 
 Another pari of the mountains in Sonora. Enter McSweedon rwi- 
 ning, the Indians shooting after him; he gets behind a dump 
 of bushes and hides himself, while the Indians go on after 
 other game. 
 
 McS. (Advancing and feeling his head.} 
 
 I do believe now that my scalp is on! 
 
 But why it was not clip d from off my crown 
 
 Is to be wandered at. For whilst I lay 
 
 At rest upon the turret of a fort 
 
 Of Aztec antiquity, to while away the hours, 
 
 For not till Sol hides in the western bovvers, 
 
 And wraps the plains in mantles of the night, 
 
 Should I from off the battlements alight. 
 
 Well, whilst I lay, my mind alert attentive, 
 
 In musings, watchful, wild and plaintive; 
 
 And Simon brows d upon the moisten d green 
 
 Fresh verdure of a little placid stream, 
 
 Like gophers driven by the flaunting snow 
 
 To leave their excavated palaces below, 
 
 And mount the flaky summits of the storm, 
 
 And on the whited crystals crouch their form; 
 
 Thus restless pass the dreary winter s clay, 
 
 In fear lest some sly foe upon them prey. 
 
 Thus did old Sime and I the time beguile; 
 
 When lo! The Inj! The villainous savage Inj! 
 
 Came tearing on me from the mountain fringe, 
 
 The red Geronimo and all his file ; 
 
 Toward my fortress swung themselves along 
 
 In awful war-paint o er a hundred strong; 
 
 Straight bent on slaughter came the savage whelps, 
 
 With brandish d rifles and hyena yelps, 
 
 Which made me quickly from the fortress climb, 
 
 Take to the hills in powder-bursting time. 
 
 I once did count my movements quick as light, 
 
 When from exploding blast I took to flight, 
 
And saved me from the dynamite s quick shock 
 That would have smash d my head with tons of rock; 
 But now I ve beat that recoid leaving lead, 
 For I have faster than the bullets sped. 
 
 [Enter Carl J\Janden\ 
 
 Gzr/ Hello, old pard, what s up? I thought you had 
 Camp d for the day upon that ancient fort, 
 Have you lost Simon too ? 
 
 McS. O, Simon, ho! 
 
 [Indians shouting in the distance.] 
 
 If them bug-eaters of San Carlos dare 
 To kill my precious Simon, Carl, I hope 
 That cramps and hydrophobia now may 
 On their unfumigated entrails prey. 
 
 \_More Shooting. ~\ 
 
 Shoot, shoot! you bug-devouring reptiles, shoot! 
 
 Go bang, you red-concocted scalpers, bang! 
 
 Sometimes, though, Carl, I sympathize with these 
 
 Here *e&-ckmgcows. There seems to be a vein 
 
 Of pure original wit beneath their pelt; 
 
 For they have gone and raised the scalp of that 
 
 Short-sighted Dudlebrains from Washington, 
 
 Yea, and they cut his head off with the scalp, 
 
 And hanged it from the dangling branches of 
 
 A greenwood tree. I touch d it with the end 
 
 Oi this carrajo pole, as I astride 
 
 Of Simon, road beneath. Well, well, he was 
 
 About to start a Sunday-school among 
 
 The harmless redmen, and would teach the chief 
 
 Geronimo to say his prayers, learn 
 
 His concubines to cook and other things. 
 
 The Honorable was a philanthropist, 
 
 And here, my greatness, a misanthropist; 
 
 I ll bet if all the facts were known, that same 
 
 Psalm-sounding pious teacher, Dudlebrains 
 
 Was nothing more nor less, nor up nor down 
 
 Than simply an every day horse-thief. 
 
 Carl I wonder what part of the State this is? 
 McS. I think we must be near Ponchico springs. 
 
Carl It would be a queer coincidence if those 
 Blood-thirsty redskins would attack that ranch, 
 Lets make all speed and find that place before 
 We be the witness of more tragedies. 
 
 McS. You re shouting, Carl. Lets head the Injins off, 
 For we can out-tragedy tragedies. 
 
 \_Exunt ,] 
 
 SCENE v. 
 
 \_Enter Geronimo and braves. ] 
 
 Ger. Haste on my lusty braves, there s joy in store 
 
 For thou and thy big chief iorever more ; 
 
 Hearst thou the news which gaunt Wormsucker brings ? 
 
 The pale-face squaw is at Ponchico springs; 
 
 The one we fought and risked so much to own, 
 
 Is growing lusty on that ternper d cone; 
 
 Tis but a horse run from this spot to where 
 
 She rests, with few to guard the shelter d lair. 
 
 I ll have her and I d like to see the foe 
 
 Who dares regain my prize in Mexico! 
 
 Now, chieftains, all do thy best work to gain 
 
 This fairy goddess of the Gila plain; 
 
 And when I have her fast as my own spouse, 
 
 My tribe shall fatten on her breeding cows. 
 
 Whoop up! Away towards Ponchico springs, 
 
 Surround the Rancheria to which she clings, 
 
 Shoot down the sentinels, fire what all will burn, 
 
 And with the captive to the north return. 
 
 I ve pray d to Chigo-na-ay, Topida 
 
 And Yandestan to bring me where she lay. 
 
 Now, by those powers (the sun, the dawn, the sky) 
 
 She will ere darkness to my wish comply; 
 
 AIL Now we dash, without bein seen, 
 Down Ponchico broad ravine ; 
 Where upon the Gringos light, 
 Like the shadows of the night, 
 Darkness will be spread afar 
 When we close in deadly war. 
 Pale-face, pale-lace, now beware, 
 Ere we raise your tender hair! 
 
Whoop, whoo, haw! Away with speed, 
 Make our fading- victims bleed. 
 Chigo-na-ay, Yandestan, 
 Down the Yaga-laga-yan! 
 
 Beating the ground zuith their weapons, dancing, and their gee- 
 strings (breech-clothes] flying around their legs, they start to 
 sack-the camp and carry off the prize. 
 
 \Exunt.] 
 
 ACT V. 
 
 SCENE I. 
 [Norrian s Camp overlooking Ponchico Springs Enter Norrian.~] 
 
 Nor. In this rare revolutionary land: 
 
 A person ne er can estimate what fate 
 
 May roll across his plunging- pathway next; 
 
 There, in that arbor-shaded nook, 
 
 Where peace and recreation proudly sway, 
 
 Rests that great love-creating woman, whom 
 
 I threw away my peace on earth to gain; 
 
 I ve changed since then. My hard knocks with the world, 
 
 Will make me deal more summarily than 
 
 When last I pleaded at her visored heart. 
 
 I love her passionatelv, fondly still, 
 
 But far more brutishly, I vow, than then; 
 
 So henceforth, all polite and sensitive 
 
 Emotions shall be notably abridged. 
 
 In place of hesitating with the fear 
 
 That she might think my wooing too abrupt, 
 
 As was my custom in such nice affairs, 
 
 I ll just swoop smoothly down and sack that camp, 
 
 Convey her to Sierra Madra brow; 
 
 And there set up an empire of my own, 
 
 And win subsistance from the ranchers on 
 
 The plains below. Then the authorities 
 
 Of both Republics can come on with all 
 
 The force known to a flow of glaciers bound 
 
 Toward the end of gravity. And they 
 
 Shall find a man will do some coming on 
 
 Himself. I never have retreated yet. 
 
64 
 
 Though see with what great odds I had to cope, 
 I know that nature gave to me some power, 
 Which I have only used to wreck the hopes 
 Of others; not to elevate myself; 
 If wrecking hopes was destined for my doom. 
 Then some now smile whose destiny is gloom. 
 
 [Enter Wacliff hastily.} 
 
 Wa. Rise Norrian! Prepare thee for a fray ! 
 Red savages are riding down this way, 
 Apache marauders through the cactus creep, 
 And down the broad ravine they howl and leap. 
 The rocks and shrubs conceal the renegade, 
 Who by the hundred dashes down the glade 
 To pluck that jewel we had counted on; 
 Who now with us, will both be overrun, 
 Ponchico springs are now being set on fire, 
 And that fair prize is doomed to their desire, 
 And we, outnumbered, will be crush cl to dust. 
 
 Nor. Whate re their numbers are, resist we must, 
 Let them come on with all the force they wreak 
 Since such the prize, they are the foes 1 seek; 
 If they expect to reap a harvest rich 
 From yonder camp, and our war traps for which 
 Far greater force than they have tried in vain 
 To seize, and carry captive from the plain; 
 Remember, ere they pluck them hence, I swear! 
 That they shall pay a price, fates judge how clear. 
 
 [Exit.-] 
 
 Wa. How quickly to his arms and steed he flew, 
 This action fans his smoldering fire anew; 
 And now he does the nerviest troop array, 
 That rests upon Sonera s soil to-day. 
 
 [Re-enter Norrian and his lollowers preparing for war} 
 
 Nor, My worthy friends and followers, 
 Yon is Geronimo and curs, 
 There at his beck and call you see 
 A hundred well equipped and free 
 Stout lusty renegades, who dare 
 The troops of two Republics scare, 
 Whose vilest deeds, if rightly told, 
 
65 
 
 Would even terrorize the bold. 
 
 Sly, cruel, pitiless and vain; 
 
 They will depopulate the plain, 
 
 Unless we teach a lesson here, 
 
 Will strike their offsprings down with fear 
 
 When they recite it centuries hence, 
 
 As pleaders in their sires defense; 
 
 They give no quarters to the wretch, 
 
 Whom they as prisoners may catch; 
 
 But those they iail to seize upon, 
 
 (Though sands of life may be outrun, 
 
 And death along their pathway lurk 
 
 To fetch his last triumphant work 
 
 Into the silent caves of rest,) 
 
 May well consider themselves blest; 
 
 Therefore the quickest way s the best 
 
 For us to greet this raiding pest, 
 
 With flying embassy of lead, 
 
 And make them good Apaches dead. 
 
 So man your arms! Your lives are dear! 
 
 Lets teach them redskins how to iear 
 
 The bullets that those guns can throw 
 
 Into this centipedian foe. 
 
 [ The Indians open fire on them from all directions, they being con- 
 cealei behind the rocks and bushes. Where Notrian and band 
 are located they have, no shelter from the Indian s bullets, so 
 they make a raid on the 1 ed-skms.~\ Eximt shooting. 
 
 Another part of the same. Enter Phil wounded. 
 
 Phil. And now the belching rifles blaze 
 O er wildest fury and amaze 
 The Indians around us close 
 With onslaught of avenging foes; 
 By tree and shrub they gallop o er, 
 From every rock their bullets pour; 
 We fought them down Ponchico wall, 
 Whose people were the first to fall; 
 We push d their slayers in the fire 
 And watched them with the dead expire, 
 Though all our comrades now do bleed, 
 There s no retreating, no recede. 
 Though ten to one the Indians rank, 
 They cannot turn our outmost flank, 
 
For not a rustler in the strife 
 
 Would quit the field to save his life. 
 
 Our frontier riflemen are those 
 
 Who never run from any foes ; 
 
 And where the fiercest war doth rage, 
 
 There Norrian the foeman wage, 
 
 Compels them either to retreat 
 
 Or leave their carcass at his feet. 
 
 Such is the power our leader shows, 
 
 When fairly pitched against his foes, 
 
 That Indians tremble at his sight, 
 
 And spread like blood-hounds put to flight, 
 
 He rides them down as grim as death, 
 
 And seems to breathe enchanted breath ; 
 
 Alas, his ranks are fading thin, 
 
 As one by one they now give in. 
 
 [Shooting continued,] 
 So while I feel some strength remain 
 I ll to this doubtful fight again. 
 
 [Another patt of the field. Enter Chipmonk running, and takes 
 shelter behind a cactus. .] 
 
 Chip. Boo, whoo, while walking through an open place, 
 
 Tarantulahawk s thick brains flew in my face 
 
 As they sped with the bullets on the breeze 
 
 To spatter o er more than a dozen trees. 
 
 There lay his skull top thoroughly riddled through, 
 
 Near by the bulk of Mescal-eater Juh; 
 
 And many more of our disheartened band 
 
 Have bit, and claw d, in death, the arid sand. 
 
 Geronimo finds this sharp fire too hot ; 
 
 Tis not the field his chieftainship had sought ; 
 
 He calls the remnant of his tribe away, 
 
 And leaves the whites the victors of the day. 
 
 [Exit.] 
 
 SCENE II. 
 
 [Enter Geronimo and band, retreating from the field of battle and 
 bound for their reservation in Arizona. } 
 
 Ger. Come on, my tribe, I m through with Mexico. 
 (They ve raised a foreign band to overthrow 
 
67 
 
 Thy valerous chieftain in his very prime. ) 
 
 I leave her now for all eternal time. 
 
 And her the rancher s wife I hoped to gain, 
 
 I leave her free to scamper o er the plain. 
 
 She caused this wreck. As prophet Chato said 
 
 "You ll suffer if you chase that pale-face maid." 
 
 They don t produce material on the soil 
 
 To make the great Dominga s son recoil; 
 
 But they have raised that which by far is worse, 
 
 Some Arizona thieves to be my curse; 
 
 Henceforth, I shall from Mexico avaunt, 
 
 As long as thieving time allows me pant; 
 
 My champing charger never shall withstand 
 
 Another raid within this Aztec land, 
 
 The home of refugees and centipedes, 
 
 Horntoads, tarantulas and poison-weeds; 
 
 Poor liquor, famine, revolution, 
 
 And all that wrecks the constitution. 
 
 SCENE III. 
 
 [Another part of the same Enter Wacliff. ~\ 
 
 Wa. The Indians now retreat from cliff to peak, 
 Geronimo and braves do howl and shriek, 
 And flv towards the north for life and death, 
 They ll never stop to pant or draw a breath 
 Until their bulging eyes in safety shine, 
 Upon familiar scenes beyond the line. 
 
 [Enter Norrian on horseback. ] 
 
 Nor. Where art thou, Wacliff, doth thou still survive? 
 The sight has faded from my drooping eyes, 
 And death has wrapped his arms about my heart, 
 Where all lies chill d and froze. 
 
 [He Jails from his horse ( Wacliff catching him in his arms] and 
 dies, Wacliff walks around looking for his friends and then 
 speaks. } 
 
 Wa. O, such a fight did mortal ever see! 
 I fear my brave companions all are dead, 
 And I am near eternity myself. 
 
The blood from several wounds do clog my breath. 
 
 Art they all slain? What? Nothing here but death! 
 
 My God, art all my valiant comrades slain! 
 
 And I alone upon this ghastly plain? 
 
 See what a havoc partial death has wrought 
 
 In one short day upon this gory spot. 
 
 Sleep Norrian! Far from thy fathers, sleep! 
 
 Around thy tomb wolves nightly vigils keep; 
 
 Now all thy actions in this land must rest, 
 
 And moulder on the stranger s mountain breast. 
 
 O, thou wert brave! I knew thy valor long. 
 
 A mind that could control the vulgar throng; 
 
 Undaunted power was mark d upon thy brow, 
 
 Which shows superiority e en now; 
 
 I ve known thy troubles, thy ambitions too, 
 
 There s many honored who were worse than you ; 
 
 But now, alas, thy stormy course is run, 
 
 Untimely ended, worse than it begun. 
 
 What ere thou wast, or might have been, must lay 
 
 And turn to undistinguishable clay. 
 
 [Enter McSiveedon at a distance, talking to Simon, his ass.~\ 
 
 McS. Well, Simon, it was a miracle how you escaped the 
 redskins, when they used you for a target up at that anti 
 quated fort, where I made my absence so conspicuous by 
 leaving the bullets. If it wasn t for the fact that I had the 
 pack on you at the time, and the skillet was laying along 
 your broadside, like the turret on a Monitor, they would 
 have turned your conglomorated carcass into a sieve. They 
 would have had a midsummer feast on your bowels. The 
 squaws would have converted your long contemplative ears 
 into sacks to sling their papooses in. But bad luck attend 
 their dark-complexioned gizzards, they have ruined my 
 skillet. They have perforated it with holes, so in the future 
 I will have to cook my bacon on a stick. [Seeing Wacliff. } 
 Well, Waclift, by the holy power of Jupiter, is that you ? 
 Have we met again, and history didn t repeat? Well, by 
 the holy Galvanic telescope, Put it there! Old comrade, 
 put it there! 
 
 Wa. Glad to see you, McSweedon. 
 \_Rnter Carl Manden.~\ 
 
Carl Hello, friend Wacliff, so we meet once more! 
 Extend your hand. Your usual warmth is gone. 
 
 Wa. O, Carl, I m sick! I m sick in mind and body, 
 Here is a sight that 11 make you mourn with me. 
 
 McS. What raised such wild disturbance here? 
 [Seeing Norman laying dead.~\ 
 
 Is that there Norrian? He looks as though 
 
 The world for him had suddenly collapsed; 
 
 Destruction sweep the earth, tis he! quite shrunk, 
 
 And fallen out with nature too, he is. 
 
 I knew him years ago, a generous soul 
 
 He was How died the worthy Trojan here ? 
 
 Wa. He lately on that bleeding steed did ride, 
 Like Boreas, the northern clouds astride, 
 And brav d a hundred Indians in the field 
 Whose warlike force he did compel to yield ; 
 And sent them howling to the north again, 
 In desperate fury, with their sick and slain, 
 He led us bravely till the field was won, 
 And seemed the awful hand of fate to shun 
 And then he rein d up here to find a shade, 
 Just as the light from out his eyes did fade; 
 His blood had trickled down his saddle-bow, 
 Until it stain d the weeping earth below. 
 It hung in wiery crystals, ruby red, 
 And mingled with the blood his charger shed. 
 Then to the earth he totter d from his horse ; 
 A melancholy blood bespatter d corse. 
 I clasp d him in my arms, the fall to shun, 
 \Vith caution vain, for Norrian s work was done. 
 
 McS. Sad and solemn, Wacliff, sad and solemn, 
 He was truly a great man, this Norrian, 
 Well, the great men of my day are all dying off : 
 They are about all dead but myself. 
 
 Carl Where do I come in, and valiant Wacliff here ? 
 
 McS. As for us three unconquered meteors, 
 Since history did not repeat with us, 
 And we have been allowed to meet again 
 Here, after marvelous vicissitudes, 
 
70 
 
 I do believe if ever our exploits 
 Were put upon the stage, we would be the 
 Triumvirs, or, undaunted Wacliff, thou 
 Would sway the whole majestic world alone. 
 Were this a kingdom thine would be a throne. 
 Thou being the only victor in the field, 
 Perchance would soon the weighty sceptre wield. 
 
 Wa. Well friends, here s grief to claim my thoughts to-day. 
 I must inter my comrades neath the clay; 
 This is the last sad right that I can pay, 
 And then if heaven will grant to me the power 
 To quit this deadly field within the hour, 
 I ll gather up these useful traps and gear, 
 And drive those sound steeds far away from here. 
 
 McS. Ho, Carl ! what solemn meditation now ? 
 
 Carl There s many, many things to make me think 
 Yon bleeding rustler was my friend. We both 
 Were mad, and one is yet in love with one. 
 
 \_To 
 
 Say, can you tell me where Ponchico springs 
 Is situated ? I almost forgot 
 In this confusion of a serious matter. 
 
 Wa. Why yes, Ponchico springs are really here, 
 Or were, for henceforth they may disappear ; 
 Their buildings have been swept out in this fray, 
 And their inhabitants had fell a prey 
 To red Geronimo and tribe before 
 We helped to draw the crimson curtain o er 
 This region, where sweet peace and plenty stood. 
 The buildings nestled in that silven wood. 
 Near where you see that lonely rider beat 
 The trembling plains beneath his charger s ieet. 
 
 McS. He comes this way a riding with all speed, 
 A very mercury on a whirlwind steed. 
 
 Carl I ve seen that figure on the plains before; 
 If I mistake not twas a skirt it wore. 
 \_Enter Mrs. Parolcnus in mail 1 s attire. } 
 
 Mrs. P. I was just riding up the close ravine, 
 When I espied more Indians on the scene; 
 
71 
 
 I knew it meant another deadly fray 
 And quick made haste to ride the other way, 
 Where from a clustering thicket s friendly shade 
 I watched to-day s tremendous fusilade. 
 
 [Recognizing Carl Manden. ] 
 Is this my own protector I find here ? 
 
 Carl Tis I, Lauruna, loved one gently dear. 
 \_He assists her from her horse. ] 
 
 So much has happened, I can scarce believe 
 My eyes, which certainly do not deceive 
 These rosy lips, and heaven-speaking eyes 
 Cannot be blemish d by a rough disguise. 
 
 Mrs. P. I am the same who pledged her troth to you 
 In spite of what in future might ensue. 
 See where we ve met upon a field of slain. 
 
 Carl O, love, ne er look on those dread scenes again. 
 Turn from this spot too sad for you to see 
 And face the future happier with me. 
 
 [Enter General Juarez, of the Mexican Army, with a company of 
 soldiei s, with their rifles aimed to fire. ] 
 
 Jua. Gringos* throw up your hands! 
 By sangre de Christo we have you now. 
 
 McS. What do you ragg d, infernal greasers want? 
 Ju. We want the thieves who kill d our rancheros. 
 
 McS. I do assure you, you sangre de (what 
 Is this you call it) Mexicano, that 
 Every last mother s son of these horse thieves 
 Have been kerflumixed by the Indians . 
 
 Ju. Kerflumixedf No sabe I Americano. 
 
 McS. You ll sabe if you want to understand. 
 You won t get me to "talk your lingo, Mex. 
 
 Ju. Well, soldiers, we must be more careful in 
 The future, that we may not harm those who 
 Are innocent. You know we caught two bold 
 Prospectors, whom we did suspect to be 
 A part of Norrian s robber band; they were 
 
A riding thro our land, their traps packed on 
 The backs of mules; one was an Irishman. 
 Well, we supposed them to be thieves, and hanged 
 Them to a tree. When we went thro 1 their packs 
 And pockets, we could find naught but two jugs 
 Of mescal whisky. We don t want to make 
 Another such mistake as that. Say, you 
 Americano, who are you? My name 
 Is General Juarez, from Mexico. 
 
 McS I m very proud to meet you, General Juarez, 
 
 I have been nam d McSweedon, and this is 
 
 My friend, Wacliff, a man who never robbed 
 
 A mortal in his life, unless he had 
 
 Good cause for doing so. This is my pard, 
 
 Carl Manden, sir, and this female he hugs 
 
 We rescued from the reds some time ago. 
 
 Believe me, sir, she is a woman, and a 
 
 A lady, only she has laid aside 
 
 Her female garb until the country gets 
 
 A little better civilized. 
 
 Ju. And is 
 
 This, sir, a fact that he s Carl Manden, and 
 This that much-talked of beauty of Cochise? 
 
 McS. That is the name he has been using for 
 The past odd thirty years, your armyship. 
 Whoever chooses to discredit my 
 True statement of the facts has liberty 
 To do so, sir. 
 
 Ju. Carl Manden, we have heard 
 Of you before; your acts astonish us; 
 They seem increditable, believe me, sir 
 We heard of you as being the only man 
 Whoever, in the history of the West, 
 Rescued a woman from the Chiricahuas 
 Unmatr d. So I now take it on myself 
 To speak my country s sentiments; to let 
 You know the gratitude they owe to you, 
 To be convinced that their esteem is real, 
 Just come and see yourself. We now will be 
 Your escort to the city of Mexico. 
 
73 
 
 We give to you, your lovely lady and 
 
 Your friends, a free transport, and guarantee 
 
 You have the freedom of the city when 
 
 You get there, sir. That grand old city where 
 
 The Aztecs rested from their wanderings. 
 
 And founded on the sun-kiss d shore of that 
 
 Perpetual balmy lake, among rich groves 
 
 Of spreading palms and fruits, that city to 
 
 Become the seat of greatest empire on 
 
 This continent; that saw with warm applause. 
 
 The Montezumas in their pomp and pride, 
 
 That saw the sieges and the treachery 
 
 Of that wild rover Conquest-borne Cortes 
 
 And witness d Maximilian dare to found 
 
 A foreign dynasty within her halls, 
 
 Te finally tumble on his own fool head. 
 
 That city of rich balm and sunshine will 
 
 Bow at your ieet, and decorate her halls 
 
 And public buildings in your honor, sir; 
 
 The whole oi Mexico will greet you as 
 
 A hero. Even that old hory mount 
 
 Chapultepec, the ancient cradle of 
 
 So many Aztec kings will dip its top 
 
 To welcome you to Mexico. Soldiers! 
 
 Three cheers for brave Carl Manden! 
 
 -So/. Hurrah ! ! ! 
 
 Cral M Dear sir, your hand. My lips cannot find words 
 To give you and your generous people thanks. 
 This lady has been much abused, and will, 
 With me, accept your kind proposal. She 
 Is badly now in need of quietness. 
 
 (Exunt. } 
 
 END OF GERONIMO S SUMMER CAMPAIGN FOR 1885 
 
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