People's Pilot, Volume 4, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 October 1894 — A REIGN OF TERROR. [ARTICLE]

A REIGN OF TERROR.

Cook and His Outlaws Pillage Indian Territory Towns. Poet Offices and Towns at Watova an d Tala Plundered—Citizens Menaced— Uncle Sam Asked to Aid in Suppressing the Gang. Little Rock, Ark., Oct. 24.—Monday night’s programme in the great carnival of crime which is now holding the boards in the Indian territory consisted of the wholesale robbery of several small towns in genuine desperado style by Bill Cook, supported by a strong and desperate company of eight or ten followers. Four men rode into the town of M atova early in the evening, marking their approach by a promiscuous discharge of firearms. The bandits terrorized the inhabitants, most of whom sought safety in their homes behind barricaded doors. The outlaws visited every Store in the village and drove the merchants away. They took from the stores all the money they could find and everything else they wanted. The Watova post office was robbed of about 860 in cash and 855 in stamps. From Watova the gang roue on to Tala, 10 miles away, where they repeated their depredations. They rode into town and proceeded to rob stores right and left. Every store in the place was visited and the proprietors compelled at the point of revolvers and Winchesters to turn over their cash. The post office was robbed last, and while the scoundrels were plundering it the east-bound passenger train pulled in, but did not stop long when the trainmen were told that the Cook gang was holding up the town and would probably’ attempt to rob the train. Talala is near Claremore and about 40 miles west of Correta. The bandits did not tarry long after the train pulled out. They galloped out of town, discharging their Winchesters. Washington, Oct. 24.—Secretary Hoke Smith has requested the secretarg of war to send troops to the Indian territory to suppress the lawless band, which have been operating there and in the adjacent country. Accompanying the request was the communication Secretary Smith received from the Indian territory, detailing the deplorable condition of affairs there. Commissioner Browning, in a letter accompanying the secretary’s, suggests that a troop of cavalry be sent into the Indian territory to assist Agent Wisdom in preserving the peace. It is expected that the troops would then be used to hunt down and drive out the marauders who are harrassing the people. These communications reached Acting Secretary Doe at the war department Tuesday afternoon and after reading them carefully he referred them to Gen. Schofield, commanding the army. Gen. Schofield looked into the matter and then returned the papers to the acting secretary with a suggestion that the request for the aid of troops be maturely considered with a view to ascertaining the legality of the proposed action. This indorsemeut from so high an authority upon the complex relations between the military and the civil branches of the government undoubtedly will cause the war department to move with great caution in acting on this request for troops, and in the end may result in a refusal. St. Louis, Oct. 24. —Bankers and business-men living in the towns in the Indian territory, as well as those living outside the territory but doing business with territory firms, are greatly worked up over the condition of affairs which has made it necessary for the Pacific Express company to refuse money shipments either into or out of the territory. In the opinion of Superintendent Chase, of the Pacific Express company, there is but one way to stop this lawlessness, that is to make a state out of the Indian territory. A war of extermination such as Gov. Crittenden waged against the James gang in Missouri is what is needed. This can only properly be done by ad- ; mitting the territory to statehood.