Omaha daily bee., 1883-08-01

building was burning the chatter of
horses hoofs was heard, and Bill and his
companions came riding up the street at
a rafting pace, and the landlord with
them. They stopped at another %favorito
bar room, and the landlord who had been
burned out said: "That cussed Curly
Bill got to shooting at the lamp and hit
her a little too low and it exploded. He
will pay the damages, though
/ Drinks were ordered for all the motley
crowd in the bar-room, and then they
went to PLAYING Spanish monte, the ia
vorite gambling game in the rude west.
A few days after this Curly Bill barely
escaped hanging for horse stealing, and
left for parts unknown. To-day there is
q price upon his head in almost every
territory. lie has been reported dead a
half dozen times, but he turns up in un-
expected places to veX every community
he strikes. Where he come from and
who ho was before he became a desperate
no one knows. But he seemed to have
had n fair early training, and to have
drifted into this wild life from u taste of
adventure.
80 hush!' shouted a long lank fellow,
as he jumped upon a table filled with
rough men. The cause of his JOY was the
words of the dealer of the keno bank,
calling the number that made him winner
of the pot.
IL am a hard man from Bitter creek; |
eats bar meat, weigh 1000 pounds, smell
like a wolf, and the whiz of bullets is
music in my ear" yelled the fellow, as ho
threw his soinbrero of from his yillianous-
looking countenance.
One of the men who had been less for
tunate at the game hit him u blow under
the ear just as he finished speaking, and
he fell like an OK. He picked himself up,
looked quietly around the place, aad then
said: "Well this is the most sociable
community l have struck: Come on boys,
lets, liquor"
1t cost him 80 to treat, but the expert
ence he got was worth it.
These two characters present the two
different classes of men you find on the
border. The man who shouted when he
won the pot at tho keno bank was a brag-
CART. He wonld boast of his great ex.
PLOTS, of the horses he had stolen and
of the men he had killed, and would
swagger around with nm air that would
scare any one but brave men. But when
he met a fighter, he always wilted. He
and Curley Bill are fairrepresentatives of
the two classes of hard characters you
find on the border. They all wear the
broad brimmed hats, dress alike, and
have similar ambitions. Their open,
reckless life gives them good health, de-
spite dissipation and their animal spirits
| .c1o,~ ,,,~ a,,,s.,, 1911, %l,.,- ,,,,, N-.5r
Among these characters whom you dis,
cover under the broad sombrero the
Spaniardfirst introduced into the south
western territory you find many peculiar
characters-men who have been raised
well end have had great opportunities as
we'll as the cowboys, who grew up to a
wild life and took his lessons of equity,
justice and humanity from association
with the Texas steer. Russian Bill was
a type of the better class, but in heart
and impulses he was like the last mar l
introduced. He was highly educated
and spoke and wrote six different Ian
guages. He was a blower who had COM
mitted many crimes in his mind. But
Curly Bill and the brave men along the
frontier never gave him credit for any
exploits except with his tongue. He
Dragged so much, however, about his des-
perate deeds that me night, while he was
under arrest for some petty ~oifense, IA Wig
lance committee took him at his estimate
of himself and sent HIM to his final ac.
count by what the frontiersmen call the
grapevine route" He died like q
coward, and the people believe that he
was not "a very bad man. F.
Sandy King was another desperate
character. He was raised in western New
York and had II good family. He came
west to make his fortune, and, being al
adventurous spirit, drifted in with the
boys and became a leader in their crimes.
Like all the rest of these characters, he
was an open-hearted, ee-handed boy,
and has many a kind act set down to his
credit among the people of Grant county,
New Mexico. He was II companion OF
Curly Bill and had shared with him the
bounty and the hazards of many desper-
ate game. He was very well educated,
and was capable of much better things.
The night the vigilants hung Russian Bill
they performed the same office for Sandy
King. He died game. When he found
that death was inevitable, he called to
the lynchers: Boys, give me a drink; it
will help me on the road to hell.
reckon this game you're playin' is all
right. | have got even with many OF
your kind while I've lived, and ! don't
know why | ought to squeal when you've
nipped me-"
The nonchalance with which he looked
upon death nearly captured the crowd.
But they finally concluded to send him
aloft. They gave him another drink, and
when he had finished it he Strengthened
himself up and said: "Now, boys, Tn
ready for the devil to get his own"