The Lafayette advertiser. [volume] (Vermilionville [i.e. Lafayette], La.) 1865-19??, 1873-03-29
SOME FRONTIER PECULIARITIES.

1t was Wild Bill who said there was
no Sunday west Of Junction City, no
law west Of Hays City, and no God west
OF Carson Cily!" and his remark bids
fair TO 60 into history as thoroughly re-
preventative Of an epoch which is Just
past. The total disregard Of all the social
forms. and Of human life and property,
which. up to recent date, distinguished
the far West. and many portions Of tho
Southwest. were only expressed in such
exaggerated phrases as the famous Will
liam employed. 1t is only two or three
Years s'nce that certain parts Of the South
west, which are now as quiet and order
y =, any Now England sections, were
as difficult to traverse with safety as Ger
;ral Asia. Whisky aud the cowardly re-
voISe' slew hundreds Of victims whose
! melancholy fates We're never chronicled:
grave yards wero not even made for the
wretches who died with their boots on.
and men went about with their lives in
their hands daily Offering them to the diety
Of iiso'der. Items in Eastern papers from
time to time reflected family the spirit
of the frontier, but gave no really ade-
qnste idea Of the Iawlessness and brutal
violence which overtuIed decency aud de-
corum. But the late vast strides have
been made in the direction Of law and Or
der. Any appeal to the passions of mobs,
or any attempt TO take the law in ones
own hands, is generally followed by .
universal cry Of seprehensiou. It is evi-
dent that the reign Of the revolver and
bowie knife is nearly at an end, and that
law is 10 be respected henceforth even in
the widest portion Of the Uuitsd States
aud her dependent territories.
Still thete are great many instances of
wanton killing throughout the West aud
Southwest, and there is a singular laxity
in pursuing criminals to conviction when
they are once caught. In the Territories,
where United States Marshas operate.
there are many csses OF uupunished crime,
because the people Of the Territories are
in measure hostile to anything which IL
done BY the Msrsaa!s, xnd refuse to give
the proper evidence to secure conviction
under them, even whom the punishment
Of the criminal is necessary for the good
Of the section. 1t is also worthy Of note
that whisky ia At the bottom Of the great
majority Of the crimes committed, espe.
cia!ly in the Southwest. In some sections
Of Kansas, the Indian Territory aud Texas.
it is Qnite common 10 hear it remarked
that some person has been on the ''war.
path"-tha. is, that while drunk b has
payfully murdered some one. IN the II.
dian Nation, the Chsrokses. and Creeks,
who, when sober, are the most iuodeusive
and industrious Of people. are marderers
when drunk, and ;nasmuch ~ they uspal-
ly go very well armed, al encounter from
them i. 'sr from piex.snt, il they have had
any whisky. lsis cal aNv %
The railroad is rapidly annihilatiug all
our frontiers. 1t drivee out the roughs,
and established respect for law aud order.
Around its temporary tesminous always
hovers an unseesu'y crowd Of gamblers,
prccuress, sud professional cut throAts;
bu. these are speedily hurried away, and
go 10 fod fresh fields and pastures anew."
The railroad also does away with vast
number Of prejudiccs, by facilitating com.
muDicAtion between sections Of the com.
rnoa country which have heretofore been
hostile Que to another. The Southwest u
ius: now undergoing . curious process Of
fusion, out Of which will presently como
new types, new manners, new apprehen-
eions of nationality. The native restless
ness drives the speculative Texan into
Kansas, The kausan into the crude, yet
rich fie!1s Of Northern aad Southern Tex
s., and both into the H;ssorri border
towns. in search Of the land bargsins
which the tanners are compelled 70 make
At = sacrifice. The fusion Of types u %.
cnlisr, .tsrtling. and exceedingly interest.
ing to study. .Just At the points whore
CREST railway routes are ia process Of uom.
pIetien, it is donbly entertaining, for there
one sees arrested development in its most
picturesque p'sces.-Bosson Journal.
GE We are told that stcDe va late
y made the subject Of much stady By
some wise Esglshmen. 1t Iwss ssid 70
have been taken out Of an old building.
and the words engraved upon it were sup.
posed to be very important. The great
question vas what the words really were,
Taey appeared as follows:
FORC u ATT
LErOR Uprrna
1KrA ;0sy 81, llsAp
A In St =
Much timc and patience we're spen: in
decipheriug them, and it was discovered
at last that il tho l.,'en were rightly divi.
I'D SnNA a. Il