The Warner weekly sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1885, 1884-02-22
CAPTURING A DESPERATE.
ATLANTA, 1888.

southwest, the newly arrived settler Of
ten finds that he has strange Aeighbors-
not only Indians, but white despera-
does, who are more to be feared than
even Utes and Apaches.
Two young friends Of mine-good,
steady, New England-born young men
were so unfortunate as to buy land in
the vicinity Of an especially ugly mem
Der of this outlaw fraternity.
These young men had been brought
up to obey the law, and TO respect the
property and rights of their neighbors.
They could be brave enough in the de-
Tense of any just cause, yet they dread
ed and shrank from the use of deadly
weapons against a fellow-being, from a
keen sense of the sacredness of human
life, and the criminality involved in such
acts.
Such were Gilbert and Charles Small.
Plain. farm-bred boys, they had, by
steady labor and economy, saved up a
capital of seventeen hundred dollars.
With this they had emigrated to Colora-
do and started a small stock-farm, if
teen miles from Alamosa.
BY avaiing themselves of the Home
stead Act and the Presumption Law,
they secured q tract of three hundred
and twenty acres Of land, lying upon a
creek, with a range extending back over
the hills, which was not likely to be ia
ken by other settlers.
- Ar q mint a chart HiGtp mo- haInw
where a mining trail passed them, and
where they judged there would be in
time a railroad, they built q frame
house which they opened as a hotel,
aES in which they also kept a stock of
groceries. For, like many other enter
prising young emigrants, they had an
ambition to found a town and grow up
with it.
Some eight OF ten miles from them
lived man named Peter Hergit, who
professedly worked a mine, but whose
place really was a kind Of a rendezvous
for renegade cowboys" and other
desperate characters of the Jesse James
type. 1t vas minated that several
daring train r5555Fi5s hal here been
planned, and also that 'Clate Walker
made it one OF his stopping places.
This Walker was a notorious gambler
and dead Sn0t. He was supposed to be
the leader ofa band of ~train-robbers,
and was said TO have killed not less
than ten men IN various affrays. And It
was said, too, that occasionally, when
times became Too monotonous because
Of the Lack of excitement, he would kill
a man ''for fun, " just to keep his hand
in. de had a habit, also, of riding
through small towns and cImps, shoot
ing pr-omiscuously at everybody he saw;
to keep up the terror of his name, a
matter he Pp6aTS 30 have been vain Of.
It will seem Well-nigh incredible TO
people ir the East, that such a man
should be allowed to escape Justice and
70 run at large. Such is the ugly fact,
however, in scores OF cases, owing prob.
ably to the arrest of these ~desperadoes.
who g~enerally carry two and sometimes
three heavy fev0lters, and are marvel
lousy quick and sure Of aim,
AS an example Of the wonderfully
rapid and accurate shooting of some of
these fr0ntiersmen, the writer re-
members seeing q cowboy at Ration,
New Mexico, ride his horse at full GAL
Top past q telegraph-pole, Ito which was
pinned the round white cover ola paper
collar box, and lodge four balls from his
Colt pistol in This small mark while
passing. 60
Afterwards he entertained as by
throwing into the air, one after another,
. handful Of pig-nuts. and cracking each
as 1t fell with a angle bullet. Then he
did the same thing again, tossing the
nut up rapidly an twirling the revolver
round his fore-inger after every shot.
Finally, throwing the nuts up more