Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1882-06-09


The reputation for lawlessness that
Texas has among the people of some of
the Northern and Eastern States is not
the result of the Sam Bass and Wesley
Hardin sort of outlaw and their lawless
'deeds, but rather the result of the visits
that Texas enjoys from the peaceful but
imaginative young man who comes from
some virtuous Eastern city to spend the
winter, for the benefit Of his health, in
Western Texas. Before coming to Tex
as, he has read good deal of the "One-
Eyed-Zeke-the-Scout," and ''Dick, the
Desperate sort of literature. Previous
to the packing of his trunk, he provides
himself with some guns, a few revolvers,
and double-edged weapon with a
spring back, and blade like hay
knife. The latter he proposes using
whenever it may be necessary to cut his
way through the Jungle, or when fate
may put it in his power to rescue some
beautiful pale-face maiden from her red
skin oaptors. He has rehearsed the
thing so often in his mind that he knows
exactly how the incidents will follow
each other in rapid succession; how he
will steal up on the unsuspecting sons Of
the forest as they are preparing to tor
ture their victim; how he will rush in
on the foe, and, first cutting the rawhide
thongs that bind the captive, turn, and,
with his trusty knita, pile up cord or
two of dead 1ndia.s how he will seize
the captive maiden, the beautiful Inez
de Gonzales, daughter of Spanish hid
algo, and, vaulting on the back of coal
black mustang, ETC., etc., etc.
l., l.. L. -
going TO do, and he promises that he
will bring back scalps, wampum, wig
vans, Indian mounds and other bric-a-
brac, and present them to his friends as
mementoes of his sojourn in Texas.
When he arrives in Texas he is disguised
to find schools, faro banks, newspapers,
and other evidences of civilization. Te
the first man who will buy, he sells some
of his revolvers, and secretly drops his
hay knife into well. He lives quiet
and uneventful life at a boarding house,
where he eats the best canned goods that
the market and his landlady can afford
for six dollars a week, and never meets
with any more exciting adventure than
being arrested and fined for carrying a
pistol. s....
When his father sends him money
enough to buy railroad ticket, he goes
back home in the spring, wearing q
broad-brimmed hat-which he ostenta-
tiously calls sombrero-and jangling q
huge pair of Mexican spurs at his heels.
This is the time when he develops into
the noted Texas desperate, about the
only desperate Texas can now lay claim
to. Before retiring on the first night OF
his return home, he asks his mother to
Just lay blanket beside tree box on
the sidewalk, and he will try and Dor.
row an old saddle or brick for pillow.
He is so accustomed to sleeping in the
open air, he says, that he cannot bear the
close confinement Of house. When the
boys call around for the scalps, Indian
mounds, and things that he promised to
bring them from Texas, he tells them
how he lost, in border foray, large
Saratoga trunk filed with scalps, and q
gripsack packed full of wampum and
wigwams. Then he gives them thrill.
ing account of prairie fire, and how he
saved his life by crawling into the inside
of buffalo he had slain, until the fire
passed over and exhausted itself. After
this, he recounts desperate encounter
he had with stage robber, and gives 9
detailed and hair-curdling description ol
a scene at lynching, where he got tht
drop on the crowd and rescued the
doomed man. His conversation bristles
with profanity and is saturated with
gore. The writer OF this has been ter
years in Texas, has been among the
chivalrous Mexicans ON the Rio Grande
the aesthetic cowboys on the plains and
the wild and hilarious church members
in the cities, and has not yet seen a sin
gle pistol fired with intent to injure {
human being, nor has he ever seen buf
falo goring Sunday-school children OF
the streets of any city of Texas, and tn,
only genuine blood-thirsty desperate h,
has seen was the young man above de
scribed. OF course there are some law
less and desperate men in Texas, bu
none of them equal the tenderfoot from
the East for cold-blooded ferocity-afte
he gets back home.-Ieras Sytings.