The Religious Life of the Zu?i Child

re two types of man-killers; and these

om blood-letting had become a mania; B, Outlaws who killed in defence of their spoils or liberty; C, Otherwise good men who h

guards, called "messengers"; D, Private citizens organized as Vigilance Committees-these often none too discriminating, and not infrequently the blind or willing instruments of individ

mouth. The then state of local society was so rudimentary that it had not acquired the habit of appeal to the law for settlement of its differences. And while it may sound an anachronism, it is ne

actual pioneers who took their lives in their hands and recklessly staked them in their everyday goings and comings (as, for instance, did all who ventured into the Sioux

infested by hostile Sioux. This meant heavy risks and high pay. The brothers prospered so handsomely that, toward the end of the year, Boone withdrew from freighting, bought a few cattle and horses, and built and occupied a ranch at the stage-road crossing of Lance Creek, midway between

h the "sign" showed there were fifteen or twenty in the party, at daylight Boone took their trail, alone. The third day thereafter he returned to the ranch wi

the stage line, took the next coach to Lance Creek and brought Boone back to D

and once a week a treasure coach armored with boiler plate, carrying no passengers, and guarded by six or eight "messeng

s the exception for a coach to get through from the Chugwater to

were likely to fall prey to Dune Blackburn in the nort

one bitter evening we pulled into Lance Creek, eight passengers inside, Boone May and myself on the box with 'Gene Bar

and Stocking shifted from the coach to the saddle, and, as 'Gene popped his whip and th

that lined the north bank of Old Woman's Fork, out into the middle of the roa

ad a foot on the nigh front wheel to descend, when a shot out of the brush

ts for perhaps a minute, certainly no mo

on, '

me in a hoarse bandit's voic

and away we flew at a pace materially improved by three or four shots the bandits sent singing past our ears and over the team! The next

mself for days from his routine duties along the stage road. He slipped off entirely alone after this new quarry precisely as he had followed the Sioux horse-raiders and, while he never admitted it, the belief was general that he had

Fork, Boone and one companion fought eight bandits led by a man named Tolle, on whose head was

three otherwise engaged one furnished a head which Boone toted in a gunny sack

on the Cheyenne road. A few pikers followed and "stood up" a

ne's activities wer

here for several months

y had held sway. Lam

nd hanged on the lone

ame. A few months late

ut was never jailed

d to escape from

ng was then no better within than without the Sioux reservation, the Winter of 1879-80 found Boone and four mates camped on the Cheyenne River below the mouth of Elk Creek, well within the reserve, trapping the main stream and its tributaries. For

els kicking and quirts pounding their split-eared ponies, until, having come within a hundred yards, the mass broke into single file and raced past the camp, each warrior lying a

m, pouring into them a steady, deadly fire out of his Winchester and two pistols. And when, after the third charge, the war party drew off for good, forty-odd ponies and twenty-odd warriors lay upon the plain, stark evide

cept that he had served with great credit as a captain of artillery in the Union Army. He first appeared on the U. P. during construction days in the late sixties. Serving in various capacities a

from cavernous sockets of extraordinary depth, were set in a colossal grim face; his straight, thin-lipped mouth never showed teeth; his heavy, tight-curling black moustache and stiff black imperial always had the appearance of holding the under lip closely glued to the upper. In years of intimacy, I never once saw on his li

"45" that nestled in its breast scabbard next his heart, and the short "45," sawed off two inches in front of the cylinder, that he always carried in a deep side-pocket of his long sack coat. This was often a m

lack Hills. Of these toughs McCarthy, proprietor of the biggest saloon and gambling-house in town, was the leading spirit and boss.

g. Then the U. P. got busy. Pete Shelby summoned Captain Jim to Omaha and committed the Sidney situation to his charge. Frequenting haunts where he knew the news would be wired to Sidney, Jim casually m

n the railway House, fifty yards north of the depot. He doffed his coat, shoulder scabbard, and boots, and lay down, shortly falling into a doze that nearly cost him his life. Most inconsiderately the train

is coat, and his right lay in reach of the other g

he town, but you're under a copper and my ope

was nothin' in. What's the matter with you and your gang? I'm after that bullion, and I've got a straight tip: Lame Johnny's

' none?" queried McCarthy, relieved of

he's rig

id you was comin' to do

wn grave, by sendin' love messages like that to

owered his gun, and while backing out of the room, remarked

t, he crept down the creaking stairs, tread for tread, a scant arm's length behind his prey-why, God alone knows, unless for a savage joy in longer holding another thug's life in

r. McC

just in time to receive a bull

McCarthy gang got the impression that it was up to the

the Bonito, a feud in which nearly three hundred New Mexicans lost their lives. Depredat

l with a distinguished record. The then Chief of the Bureau offered the Major two troops of cavalry to preserve order among the Mescaleros and keep marauders off

h was he when told of the turbulence of the coun

had descended upon Lincoln County, and the Mescaleros were glad enough quietly to draw their rations of flour and coffee, and rang

ences of daring deeds to be done, that never materialized. One day Major Llewellyn imprudently countermanded an order Jim had given his Chief of Police,

the guarantee of the best show of fightin' I've heard of since the war-here where there ain't a man in the Territory with nerv

New Mexican bar, but I know he will agree that the most eloquent plea he has t

was President of the West Texas Cattle Growers' Associa

a plenty up in the Indian Territory and the Pan Handle, and she's a cinch they'll be down on you thick in a few months. And, say, Ed, don't forget old Jim; w

meet again; for if Jim still lives and there is aught in this story he sees occasion

d, cherubic, pink and white face, in which a pair of steel-blue glittering eyes looked strangely out of place. A second glance, however, showed behind the smiling m

good-tempered range-mate as any in the Territory. Sober and industrious, he never drank or gambled. But he had his bit of temper, had Doc, and his chunk of good old Llano nerve. Thus, when a group of carousing soldiers, in a Si

ein lay

emptied. Flight having made him an outlaw, the Government offered a heavy reward for him, dead or alive. For a time he was harbored among his friends on the different ranche

vital-he wanted cartridges. At this time the Sand Hills were full of deer and antelope; and therefore to him cartridges meant more even than defence of his f

et and pure, and pollution cometh not. But there it may not stay; on and yet on it rushes, as helpless as heedless, till one day it finds itself plunged into some foul

fe of each. Their first encounter was single-handed. With the better horse, Lykins was pressing Doc so close that Doc raced to the crest o

want to kill you"; for they knew each

ed, pistol in hand. At thirty yards Doc pulled the trigger, when-wonder of wonders-the faithful old Springfield

ibutary of the lower Niobrara. There he was far east of Lykins's bailiwick, but a good many degrees within Lykins's disposition to quit his trail. Accompanied by Majo

end of the path the two ran plunk into Doc and five of his men. Both being unknown to Doc's gang, and the position and odds forbidding hostilities, they r

the band were come within twenty yards of him, he drew a careful bead on Doc's head and pulled the trigg

ing him into a trap, and shot him twice before himself pitching to the ground. Hassard stood idly, stunned apparently by a sort of white-hot work he was not used to, and received his death wound without any effort even to draw. Meantime, the firm of

turned out to be one of the rare exceptions proving the rule; for the last I heard of him, he

a few hundred to nearly three thousand. Speculators, prospectors for business opportunities, mechanics, miners, and tourists poured in-a chance-taking, high-living, free-spending lot that offered

w of variety theatres, dance halls, saloons, and gambling-houses, never closed by day or by night. They were packed with a roistering mob that drif

ept occasionally when the "house" felt it a good bit of advertising to graduate a handsome winner

ler would catch and slip through on the shuffle and place where they would do (the house) the most good. The "tin horns" gave out few but false notes; the roulette balls were kicked silly out of the boxes representing heavily played numbers. Not content with the "Kitty's" rake-off, every stud poker table had one or more "cappers" sitting in, to whom the dealers cou

literally gun in hand, when forced to be out of nights. The Mayor and City Council were powerless. City marshals and deputies they hired in bunches, but all to no purpose. Each fresh lot of appointees were short-lived, literally or of

the thirty-odd of the committee and dared them to open the ball; and it was a miracle the little Plaza was not then and there turned into

r learned of him was that he hailed from Fort Davis. His type was that of a course, brutal, Germanic gladiator, devoid of strategy; a bluff, stubborn, give-and-take fighter,

ave the city more; if they would pay him five hundred dollars a month for two months, they could discharge all their deputies and he would go it alone and agree to clear the town of toughs or draw no pay. The Mayor and Council were paralyzed in a double sense: by the wild audacity of this proposal, and b

daylight the next morning, several notices, manually written in a rude hand and each bearing the signature of the rude hand that w

was brief b

find in town after three o'clock

ers" were omitted; none but the élite of the gun-twirling, black-jack swinging toughs wa

ered that he would not last till noon, with few takers. And yet throughout the morning Stoudenmayer quiet

as approaching from the other side of the street. But before either got his artillery into action, the Marshal jerked his two pistols and killed both, then quietly continued his stroll, over their prostrate bodies, and past them, up the street. It was such an obviously workmanlike job tha

t, a fusillade so heavy it would have decimated a company of infantry. At least a hundred men fired at him at the word, and it was a miracle he did not go down at the first volley. But he was not even scathed. Drawing his pistols, Stoudenmayer marched upon the enemy, slowly but steadily, advancing straight, it seemed, into the jaws of death, but firing with such wonderful rapidity and accuracy that sev

eight trains north and east, stages west and south, stealing teams and saddle stock, some even hitting the trails afoot, in stark terror of the man. The next morning El Paso found herself evacuated of more than two hundred men who, while they had been for a time her most conspicuous citizens, were suc

Southwest. Since then, an occasional sporadic case of triggerfingeritis has developed in El Paso, usually in an acute form; b

f the departed (dead or live), but as a man with a reputation so big as to hang up a rare prize in laurels for any with the strategy and hardihood to do

a big, bluff, kindly, rollicking dare-devil afraid of nothing, but a sort that would rather chaff than fight; Manning a quiet, reserved, slender, handsome little man, not so very much bigger than a full-grown "45," who actu

le of a day coach. By permission of the Marshal, the wife of one and the sister of the other sat immediately behind them-dear old Hal Gosling never could resist any appeal to his sympathies. The seat directly across the aisle from the two prisoners was occupied by Gosling and Manning. With the car well filled with passengers and their men ironed, the Marshal and his Deputy were off their guard. When out of Aust

, women screaming, men cursing, all who had not dropped in a faint ducking beneath the car seats and trying their best to burrow in the floor. When at length the two prisoners reached the platform and sprang from the movin

e of the prisoners was found dead within a few yards of the trac

he overdose of lead administered by the departed, he quietly resumed his star and b

wyer, prosecutor, Indian fighter, and desperado-hunter, his was the most picturesque personality I have ever known. Gentle and kind-hearted as a woman, a lover of his books and his ease, he nevertheless was always as quick to take up arms and undergo any hazard and hardship in pursuit of murderous rustlers as he was in 1861 to join the California Column (First California Volunteers) on its march acro

rant Counties. To the east of the Rio Grande the Lincoln County War was at its height, while to the west the Jack Kinney gang took

litary body, the militia existed only in name. And so Fountain left it. Serious and effective as was his work, no man loved a grand-stand play m

nt. A few weeks later Colonel Fountain learned that this man was in hiding at Concordia, a placita two miles below El Paso. He was one of the most desperate Mexican outlaws the border has ever known, a man who had boasted he would never be taken alive, and that he would kill Fountain before he was himself taken dead, a

s then did all the Rangers, to prevent its loss from the scabbard in a running fight; and he finished by detaching his own cord, and looping one end to Fountain's

nstantly Fountain sprang after him, before he got to the door the man had leaped from platform. Without the slightest hesitation, Fountain jumped after him, hitting the ground only a few seconds behind him but thirty or forty yards away, rolling like a tumbleweed along the ground. By the time Fountain had regained his feet, his prisoner was running at top speed for the mesquite thickets lining the river, in whose sha

on the crest of a little hillock he had to cross, and took a careful two-hand

ul shot, for in his personal relations I never knew him to court a quarrel or fail to get an adversary. Many a night we have camped, eaten, and slept together. Barring Colonel Fountain, Pat Garrett had stronger intellectuality and broader sympathies than any of his kind I ever met. He could no more do

nly contentious for his unbelief as any Sc

graves in Spring and the mesquite showers them with its golden pods in Summer; where the sweet scent of the juajilla loads the air, and the sun ever shines down out of a bright and

, and repose to hi

f the sensory nerves of the index finger of ha