The Shasta courier., 1866-07-14
SHASTA COURIER.
The Ghost at San Luis.
BY BucKsKIN-


Bravo del Norte, 1.-THE brave or fierce river OF
the North. ! or, as it is more Familiarity called.
the Riokrande, which separates the United
States of North America from the Republic
of Mexico, was, owing to there being no
treaty of extradition between the two coun-
tries, infested with class of desperadoes,
whose misdeeds had forced them to leave
"the States,'' and who here found in the
hxadministration of civil justice, and the
convenient proximity of the . Mexican
side.u as we'll as in the morals, manners,
and customs of the inhabitants, place pc
culiarly adapted to their habits and class of
business.
At that time you would seldom meet a
man, either on the road or in the town, in
daytime or at night, without his revolver and
bowie knife buckled around his waist; and.
In fact, it was not safe to be caught without
them for, as they were the best ac-
knowedged authority in the settlement of
all disputes, and as, no matter how prudent
a man might be, he was liable to get into
difficulty sometimes, everybody went pre-
pared for the contingency.
1t was quite a common occurrence for a
man to be killed and if it could be proved
that he had insulted or cast any reflection on
the man who shot him, nothing further would
be thought of the transaction, and he would
be left unmolested.
There were, however, class of despera
does who were under ban even here
They would insult man without any provo
cation, and then, before the other was aware
of their intention, would pull out knife or
six-shooter, and cut or shoot him dead
Of this class was 50 Bill Hart" the three
Bill Johnsons," distinguished from each
other by the elegant titles of Greaser Bill, y
% Dirt eating Bill, and " Shirt-tail Bill
johnson y George Mhligan," or g Red
head George" and many others, who all, in
the end, met violent deaths at the hands of
the I" Vigilance Committee"
Bill Hart was cornered in n shanty at
Waco, by the citizens of that place, and be-
ing unable to make his escape, and well
provided with arms, he defended himself
nearly two hours against mob of hundreds
As fast as he fired, his mistress, a young
Mexican girl, reloaded his weapons and it
was not till he had killed eleven of his as
sailants, and wounded many more, and was
himself wounded in four places, three of his
wounds were mortal, that they forced an
entrance into the shanty and then raising
himself upon his elbow, with a last effort, he
again fired his revolver, and killed the sheriff
of the town, who was the leader. They rid
died him with shot; but he was dead before
the report of his last shot had died away.
Two of the Johnsons were hung by the
Regulators, the other was killed in
quarrel that he himself had started, and
George Milligan, after wantonly killing one
man and wounding another, in Miller's
Hotel, at Brownsville, was taken from his
prison by the friends of the murdered man,
and dragged by a rope around bis neck
-; ha Ia1 tb
tance of over quarter of a mile, to large
quisache tree on the bank of the river, and
there hung, the crowd in the meantime
making a target of his carcase.
This was the state of affairs on the river,
at the time above mentioned. | was then
living in the town of San Luis, or Edinburgh,
the county seat of Hidalgo county, situated
on the bank Of the Rio Grande directly op-
posite to the Mexican town of San Antonio
de Reynosa. The place then contained
about fifty inhabitants, and boasted of two
stores, one kept by man named Smith, and
the other by Don Juan Trevino.
| lived with DR.. Harris and his family
and three others, '' Pete Nichols" the Gus
tom House Collector " Mote Stevens" the
Sheriff, and " Old Starr the Constable
completed the list of American residents Of
the town the balance were Mexicans and
Indians.
Old Starr" the hero of this little sketch,
was married ~ to Mexican woman of the
lower class, and lived in .jacal (shanty) at
the upper end of the only street of which
San Luis can boast, and was quite g char
acter." He had no education, having been
born and raised in the backwoods of Arkan-
sas, but was considered, next to " Hoyle, u
the best authority extant, in the mysteries Of
'euchre." :" Vingtet un," old sledge,' y
"poker,'' both straight and draw, Z" faro, .
NOME, conquien," and in fact all other
games both English, French, and Spanish,
that could be played with the g keerds," a:
he used to call them. Add to this an inor
dinate affection for all kinds of g spiritual
consolation" Except that to be got a
church, and when intoxicated, considerabl,
pugnacity, the ugliest featured face ever pre-
sented to poor mortal, and when sober o.
only tight general wit and good nature
and we have Old Starr as he was at tha
time.
He had been down to Brownsville, upon
official business, and that concluded, he had
gone " OF on tear" as usual, with two OF
three boon companions; and for the balance
OF the time that he was in town. he had not
drawn one sober breath.
There were, at the time, three or fou1
cases, of yellow jack in town, and as tbs
panic consequent upon its appearance had
not yet subsided, the probabilities of its in
crease and long duration were the common
topic of conversation.
Now Old Starr was no coward; he uset
to say :" amt afeard of man or beast
God nor the devil, but I'm burned, boys, i
l amt a skeered of old yaller jack, kas,
you see thar amt no use of dodgin' or pray
in, when he gifts his claw on yer gizzard -
and, after starting back on his road home
ward, his mind kept running upon the pos
sibility of his having cotched the WON'T, y
and, as consequence, his pulls upon a
gourd full of ''rot-gut" Rio Grande whis
ky) that hung from the horn of his saddle
grew quite frequent, and when, late at night
he arrived at San Luis, he was pretty vel
tight"
His " ole woman" unsaddled his horse
and gave him cup of coffee; and he ther
went to bed, but before daylight she came tc
our house after DR.. Harris, saying that hel
husband was very sick with yellow fever
1t so happened that the doctor was absent
having left two days before for Camargo
about fifty miles above, and was not expect
ed to return for several days; so she started
over TO Reynosa, in search of another, bu
about nine o'clock returned, unsuccessful
We went down to his house to see the patient
short time after. and took along such rem