San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1882-12-21
The Texas Ranger.
Texas siftings.

The Texas Ranger is not so hand
.ms as an eight-dollar-a-week dry
sud- sands clerk, but he is more courag-
sO "s tban Numidian lion and tough,
eot .ban A Mexican burro. HIS Ian
q rsge might sound little barbaric
ga' London drawing-room, but he
~ nan successfully ride broncho pony
oa aJ kill a mexican horse-thief at five
hundred yards with his eyes shut.
us manners are not exactly Chester
snld;an. but this deficiency in etiquette
= more than offset by the estheticism
ns displays in scalping an Indian.
Te NAV not be up on the tariff ques-
i;on but he can follow a blind trail
at a gallop and never miss the way.
T. is possible that he cannot tell the
difference between the hypothesis of
atomic evolution and a lunar eclipse,
Irt he knows a "rustler" at sight, and
can name half the fugitives in
Texas. Taken altogether, the Ranger
is a tough case; and most of them
have been born on the head-waters of
Bitter Creek, where the natives are
wild and woody and hard to curry"
The further up you go on this classic
stream, the tougher the citizen.
Underneath this rough exterior the
Ranger hides q heart as simple and
guileless as little child's, and soul
whose tenderest chords are touched
bv human misery and woe. He cleans
his gun, washes his shirt and repairs
his saddle on Sunday, but he will
share his only, dollar with a man in
want, and throw his last biscuit to a
hungry dog. His salary is meagre,
and he does not profess to love his
country as dearly as does candidate
for the Legislature, but he will tackle
a bunch of rustlers single handed,
and round 'em up, too. He never
saw inside of college, but he has
been the adcant courier of civilization,
and has made life and property safe
in Texas. Half the time he receives
no credit forhis good work. He does
his duty all the same. Shortsighted
Legislators grumble and growl when
they are called on to pay him a pit
lance, and every year cut down the
appropriation. He goes right ahead
killing Indians and rounding up des-
peradoes. Penurious taxpayers in
sist that he is useless burden upon
the state. He returns their stolen
horses and cattle, brings to justice the
man who robs them on the highway,
and guards their homes night and
day. Eastern Texans allege that the
frontier is too far away from them to
need protection at their expense. The
Ranger knows that he fixed the pres
ent boundaries of the frontier, and is
every day:pushing it further toward the
setting sun; and he can remember
when the blood thirsty Indian and
daring highwayman lurked in every
shadow of the state capitol.
The Ranger is hardly ever out OF
the saddle. He is the original and
only solitary horseman," who has
been securing the plains in search
of redskins" ever since the dawn of
the dime novel. He is Young Ameri-
cas- beau ideal of border chivalry.
The Ranger can ride harder, fight
longer, live rougher, and make less
talk about it than anything that walks
on two feet. He wears sombrero
and spurs. Thus accoutered, and
with two dollar government blanket
he will defy alike the rains of summer
and the SHOWS of winter. He general
ly dies with his boots on, and, as the
state does not furnish rosewood cas-
kets and cemetery lots for her fallen
soldiers, his comrades wrap him up IN
an old blanket, and
In an unmarked, shallow grave,
They lay him down to rest;
His saddle for pillow,