The Arkansaw traveler., 1883-08-25
LIFE ON THE FRONTIER
Ga.

ia.la.s.r.5.a .zess-
 s funny how whisky serapes !
 ..s :hroa; when he $ TO; used ;0 l.. f.e man who use! this expression $ ! .saeter On the southwestern frontier T. aame IS as familiar Is a household 4ard He was the terror of the border ta. many years, and has escaped lynch IF several times. The lines which here a:ioduce him give his pc, phrase when recovering from spree. His throat w. s .olb,less 100 familiar w.;h bad rum to te disturbed with anything less than lrrycomb. lie was standing leaning 4.ainst the counter of a bar-room in silver City. x. M.. as he made the above 4ao,ed remark. IL was q typical frontier .!n-miil. and it was filied with strange eharac,ers. Here were TWO Indians s:.ing on q bench. q couple of drunken 'relghters leaning against the wall, two resalar soldiers half drunk, two or three han.ing dogs. several Winchester rifleS. pile of Indian trinkets and half-wagon- load of specimens of silver ore. \ board covered with a little red calico and a half dozen bottles stood for the bar.
 Curly Bill was hard man. and as he s;ood taking his whisky in this rude bar nom he was a perfect specimen of I tas,ler. His rude makeup of rough pants stuck in his boots, blue shirt. fam ing red neck,ie and sombrero added 10 oac countenance much that was pic .ureseue He had a knife in his boot. TWO s.x-shoo,ers about his wais, and was ,eady for frolc of any kind even at ;he L .- (A Is<v 1x z me dangerous sort and had killed many man. The boys gave him credit for .aging stocked prlvate graveyard, and ae was consequently hero.
 The drink was hardly down when Ca'ly Bill whipped out his revolver, and. Tor amusement. shot hole through the ,op of one of the freigh,ers' hal. They iheE got 10 banterlns each other about .aelr skill IS mafksmefi. and, walking out a:o the yard. they went ;o shoo,lu !. ..ver half dollars ou, of each others ansers a' twenty paces. Curly !i'l soon red of this man0IoGoaS e lie4ient si.g. .ssed one of the soldiers - R9.. .p !. s.,ger piece. The soldier agreed. las. ,eice he sent his oul,e; as .sn9i inc coin. eat the third tune, for pure dev.lmen;, he ,-o; the fellows front finger oti. When ne seldieI sroNled abog; the mss C..riy n.Ts response was o 9imn lt, l :.ough, you hai been so.dier iags enough.
 Thus ended ;h.s met DOT; io; tae Jay. Tie men walked back .u,o the saloon. sae walked up 70 the further end of own. \ few moments afterwards | cry ! ire was raised and the sin mill where Curly Bill and his companions were, soon burned 10 the ground. While the baild- as was burning the csa,ter of horse : fee, w,s heard, and Bill and lis com panions came riding up the stree, al a Ea:.llng pace. and the landlord with them. They stopped at another favori;e bar toonl. and the landlord who had been tuned out said: ''Tha, cussed Curly a.,l go, 10 shooting q, the lamp and hi, Ger little too low and 1t exploded. He sill pay the damage though
 Drinks were ordered for all the mot .ey crowd in the bar-room and then they sent to playing Spanish monte, the iayorite game in the rude west. \ few days after this Curly Bill barely escaped hanging for horse-stealing, and Jeff for parts unknown. To-day there is price lpon his head in almost every territory. He has been reported as dead half dozen times, but he turns up in unexpected places to vex every community he strikes. Where he came from and who he was before he became a desperado no one snows- But he seemed to have had far early training, and to have drifted ir,o this wild lite fron a taste for ad- venture.
 "Oh hush-' shouted long, lank fel- low, as he jumped upon table nlled si,h rough men. The cause of his JOY was the words of the dealer of the seno bank, calling the number that made him winner of the pot.
 T am hard man from Bitter creek, leats bar meat, weigh 1000 pounds, smell like a wolf. and the whiz of bullets E music in my ear,r yelled the fellow, as ne threw his sombrero oil from his villain oas-looking coun,enance-
 One of the men ~ho had been less for 'ana,e a, the game hii him blow under he ear just as he finished speaking, and Ae feI like an OK. He picked himself up. looked quietly around the place, and then said ..Well, this is the most sociabie community ever struck. Come on. boys,
 aqaOf.
 II cos, him five dollars D treat, but the experience he got was worth ii.
 These two characters represent the i.o different classes of men you find on the border. The man who shouted when he son the pot a, the keno bank vas a Raggart- He would boast of his great exploits, of the horses he had stolen and of the men he had killed, and would ssagger around with an ar that would