Show GERONIMOS CASE Our dispatches indicate a great diversity diver-sity of opinion as to which is the legal courseNto pursue in the trial and punishment punish-ment of the Apaches and their leader Geronimo At this distance and in view of the ascertained facts in the case itdoes n Cl look clear why this should be so and again there are precedents for a military trial as in the case of the Mo docs and Sioux Geronimo and his bucks were on the reservation under r military surveilance and they treacherously treacher-ously escaped under cover of the kindness r kind-ness extended to them after the first outbreak j p < toO out-break and they are now just as much I r under military control jurisdiction as I i before they broke loose having done nothing to release themselves from it but by their trip having added doubly to the causes for which they were originally held The Indian policy of the Government Govern-ment has always been problematical k and never guided by fixed rules in any I two cases alike and only as occasion arises can justice be administered soley as the merits of each particular case shall I PJ i 7 demand This murderous and ungrateful ungrate-ful rascal has placed himself and accomplices accom-plices outside of tho pale of pity and cSmpaSsion by reason of the brutality Und inliulnTuriVbf liis crimes imd t the havoc he has wrought among settlers in the wildernessa class that calls for the closest care and guardianship of the Governmentcalls for his speedy punishment not alone as a proof of the power of the Government his case but as an example to the hordes of miscreants miscre-ants of his blood who are even now threatening this Territory with similar crimes That there should be a desire to give him the full benefit of a just trial is natural enough but that a thousand harpies should spring up and beat the air with ridiculous arguments u as to how he i shall be tried is ludicrous ann altogetller out of order As the DEMOCRAT has said it is the time for the wellmeaning but always inopportune humanitarian to mount his hobby and try to impress the Government with the exalted idea of Christianizing this cruel man and such appeals were expected but the plea of lawyers that if legal rules are allowed to govern the case he cannot be tried at all is humbug and should be so treated Geronimo has committed many cruel murders and stolen thousands of dollars worth of settlers stock and materials and for these crimes he is amenable to the law The law placed him under military jurisdiction when he was cornered the last time and he is under that care now The next step and the one for which the country is waiting is his speedy trial and punishment and that is the only interpretation inter-pretation of the law in his case which will satisfy the people of the western half of the Continent |