Morris tribune., 1886-11-10


fingered gentry. and a superabundance
OF cheap whisky to the wild youne
bIoods OF the community. 1t was nc
uncommon thing to see party O
i these racing their horses through the
streets, shooting off pistols and yell
ing, Close up" while the terrified in
habitans rain to do their bidding. Con
spicuous among these were the Bur
Lesson boys. Their father was the
wealthiest stockman in the county,
and they could have had every advan:
tage OF education and society had
they SO chosen. but they preferred the
wild, Tree life of the rancho and the
! prairie, and grew up neither better
nor worse than other cowboys; crack
shots, desperate riders and by no
means as temperate as Father
Matthew.
| Such was the state OF things in Gas
I talla when Joe Thomas WAS elected
sheriff OF the county. A small, spare
man. taciturn and quiet to fault.
with pale gray eyes that rarely looked
you in the face, but modestIY sought
/ the ground whenever their owner was
| interviewed, either by strangers or
! friends. Yet small and quiet as he
was, and though he looked as meek
as Moses, many were the tales OF des-
perate daring current about him, and
numerous the desperadoes who recelv-
ed their quietus from his unerring
eye and hand. A notable contrast he
was to his wife, a tall, big boned virago.
who, if she had been put IN breeches,
would have looked twice the man her
husband did. But, though celebrated
through the village for her tongue and
temper, when ever Joe looked at her in
his placid way, or spoke in his languid
monotone, she weakened Immediate
ly. She was asked once how many
men her husband had killed, and her
answer was, ''Thar's six Wonder in the
burying-ground. an Lord only knows
how many in the brush" In
truth, the life of Texas sheriff, in
that particular locality and at that
particular time, was far from beng a
will show:
At one time ice had made large col
lections, and while waiting the oppors
tunity to transmit the amount to the
state treasury was forced to keep it in
his house. CastaIia not being blessed
with q bank note nor even an iron
safe, he tried to keep the money secret
even from the wife of his BOSOM, but
having no safer place to deposit it
shan under the head of the bed, and
Mrs. Thomas being a notable house
wife, especially addicted to turning up
and beating mattresses, of course it
was soon discovered. And equally, of
course, she blubbed it in full con-
clave of all the old women in the viii
Iage. Needless to say it spread like
wild fire, and a night or two afterward
Joe reaped the consequences.
The sheriff. mansion was ofthe usu-
al style of architecture in that coun-
try i. e., a Mexican hacal, built Of up
right sticks, chinked between with
mud, and with a blanket for door
shutter. You see O. thief would not
find much difficulty in effecting an en-
trance; but, in the case Of a man like
Joe Thomas, his difficulties would be
apt to begin as soon as he had enter
ID.
1t was the dead of night, and Joe
and his family were sleeping the sleep
of the Just, when the blanket WAS
raised and three Mexicans softly Gid
ed in, intent on appropriatingt their
own use the funds destined for the
state and county treasury. Luck
lily for Joe, he slept like cat, and
however stealthily the midnight
marauders moved, he heard, or
fancied he heard. O. sound that
reused him. Broad awake on the in
! slant, he reached up his hand and
noiselessly took down a revolver that
hung, ready loaded, over his head.
Casting his keen eyes round the room.
he noticed one spot where the general
/ darkness seemed intensified into q
blacker shadow-a shadow that seem.
! ed creeping very slowly towards his
! bed. Crack! went the unerring pistol,
and with fierce yell one of the Next
cans sprang into the air. and fell prone
on the dirt floor with bullet through
his brain. Both the others rushed
| forward but Joe had sprung out at
the foot of the bed before they reach
ed and stabbed with their long knives
the place where he lay but an instant
! before.
| Then commenced hand-to-hand
struggle, all the more terrible that it
was carried on in the dark. By the
time Mrs. Thomas, who, bold woman
rs she was, was shaking from head to
loot i'm the sudden terror of this night
attack, had kindled light the three
Mexicans were stretched dead upon
the floor, while Joe had escaped
With a knltethrust through his arm
and deep cash in his right hand.
| Next day three new graves were added
| to the six already mentioned, and the
fame of Joe Thomas, the fighting sher-
Ii Ct county, spread far and wide.
He had held the office for several
years, having been twice re elected,
and had made q notable change in
| the moral status of the community.
Horse thieves and cattle thieves were
RAPIDLY thinned out, and desperadoes
| no longer painted the town red at their
own sweet will.
It was in the fifth year of Sheriff
Thomas incumbency that an af-
fair occurred long remembered in the
county. There were many Mexicans
scattered about among the different
ranches, and among them was one
Manuel Garcia, who was well liked by
los gringos as polite, quiet fellow,
more industrious and reliable than his
countrymen generally temperate in
his habits. and never IN fuss. One
| night, early ip the spring Of 1870, this