Show THE WYOMING WAR THE conflict that has been raging for a number of weeks past between the cattlemen and the small email landowners in northern wyoming appears to be nearing a close for the present there are possibilities of its revival the question which brought it about remains unsettled in order to obtain a clear idea of the ibe status of the fight it is necessary to understand the character of the combatants ba tants those whom we may properly besig designate hate as the invaders are large cattle owners necessarily interested in id the preservation of the ranges for stock feeding purposes as well as ao in protecting their live property from the depre lations of thieves those engaged on the other side of the fight appear to be a compound the attack of the cattlemen was claimed by them to be upon stock thieves and rustlers the latter we understand to be small landholders some or of whom are asserted by the large cattle owners to be in league with stock th the ieves eleves this allegation may have had a good deal of funda tion in facto fact but bat the question is duplex and has bias consequently drawn into it in opposition to the invaders invader many respectable citizens ow owners sera of small holdings it in northern wyoming it has baa been claimed by the people of the invaded petion auction that the question is not only ane M datt cattlemen lemen against stock thieves but also against small ranch owners because the latter by taking up the land are gradually diminishing he byrge on which the stock of the cattle kings has heretofore roamed at large it will be observed therefore that while there may have been numbers of dishonest men engaged in resisting the invaders of the northern part of the new state many good people doubtless took part on that aide of the fight as well ell the cattlemen appeared to haye have reckoned without their host their avowed purpose was to clean out a class of people whom they accused of stealing their stock in this work they not only proposed to slaughter right and left by ordinary weapons of warfare but intended to blow up ranch houses with dynamite the disgraceful affair took a turn against the attacking party their stores store of arms and ammunition were captured by the enemy and but for the timely intervention of federal probably not one of them would have been beatt left to tell the tale sheriff angus appeared to do what he be could to put an end to the war but he be was help helpless hel plew lers the citizens whom he be secured as specials to assist him became a part of the force which besieged the cattlemen and were determined to annihilate them as aa they belonged to the small land holders holdem portion ot the population or w were ere at least in sympathy with that section action of the community they refused to be directed by tho sheriff and the situation seemed for a time promising for a wholesale massacre the governor of wyoming took the only step which appeared adequate to the occasion casion 0 it is improbable improbably im that a terrible calamity could have been averted by any other course than invoking the aid of federal troops before any force within the resources of the state could have reached the scene of the fight the worst would have been accomplished besides the situation was actually a state of civil war between different classes of the population and needed an extreme remedy to stop it before it could spread further however much the cattle men may have suffered from the depredations of cattle thieves they were clearly in the wrong in fitting out an armed force including according to reports a number of hired fighters from colorado and cakl taking ing tile law in their own hands in the way they did in taking his step they acted as anarchists enemies to the peace and good order of the state and we do not see how their conduct can he condoned irom any standpoint they were nothing more nor less than an invading armed mob and could not otherwise be properly treated that several prominent prom inept men were among them is all the more to be regretted it would be a good thing if cattle thieves could be cleaned out of the west went there is however a proper way of accomplishing that desired end it should be done according to and under authority of law |