The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-12-14
A TRANSFERS TALp

On a ranch near San Antonio lives
Thomas Cullen, a veteran Of the Texan
revolution. He is indeed the veteran OF
three wars, having fought under Hous,
ton at San Jacirto, Taylor at Buens
Vista and Albert Sidney Johnston al
Shiloh.
1t is the old mans greatest delight to
recall the memories Of his adventurous
past, and he will spin yarns of the olden
time by the hour to any one who will do
him the grace to listen. Among the
rest he tells a tale of the early days of
Corpus Christi.
II was teamster in them days." he
says, land hauled goods for Col. H. L.
Kinney. There warn't no blamed rail
roads runnin' all over the country then,
and a man that owned good wagon
and team was sure Of Twin. Lord! /
mind well how Texas looked them days!
The peraries stretchin' out on every side
as far as the eye could reach, just COW
cred with wild flowers of all kinds and
color, and dotted all over with cattle;
and maybe long train Of white topped
wagons movin' along the road. Some
folks thinks it looks sight prettier now
all fenced in and planted, but amt one
Of 'em.
"There warn't no way of carTyin'
goods then, except haulin', and every
settlement OF the coast had to depend on
teams for everything in the way of dry
goods and groceries. And, can tell
YOU, when the teamsters held the road
everybody, stage drivers and all, had to
turn out and give EN- room.
"Well, as L was sayin', teamed for
Col Kinney, who was the first man that
settled Corpus Christi, and held the place
in spite of Injuns and Mexicans till a
sort of town grew up round him. He
had a lot of wagons haulin' goods all
through the country, and | tell you for
a fact most all the goods we hauled was
smuggled across the Rio Grande. Lordl
how them greasers did cheat their gov
eminent, to be sure! Fine lace mantil-
Tvs, Mexican blankets, saddles and bri-
dies, all shiny with silver work, besides
great droves of cattle and mustangs, all
slipped over the river right under the
noses of the comisiones, who for the
most part was paid not to keep their
ayes skinned too clean. Then they'd
take back goods from our side, and not
? cent of duty paid either way.
''Kinney's Ranch, as Corpus was call
cd in them days, was the headquarters
of this trade; and what with teams haul
in goods from the river and teams start
in OFF with goods through the country,
crowds of greasers and gringoes laugh
m, talkn', singin', dancin', gamblin',
drinkin' and shootin', them was lively
times, l tell you, at Kinney's Ranch.
Especially when the teams got back
from trip with the goods all safely de-
livered and the transfers got paid off.
Dollars was plentiful then, and the way
we made 'em spin was caution. Gam
bin was the favorite way of chuckin'
'em about. The greasers played monte,
of course, but the games with the grin
goes was draw poker and seven up.
al wasn't 90 year old then, a slim
young slip of Teller with nary sign of
this here h'arth brush of a beard, and
skin as fair and smooth as girls. But
] soon got tanned inside and out. I'd
have been done brown enough to eat,
and been eat up alive if it hadn't been
Cor some fellers from the states that took
a fancy TO me, and sorter stood 'twixt
me and harm. They was older'n me
and knew the ropes a sight better'n
did.
well, as l was sayin', when we
warn't teamin' we were gamblin' most
Of the time, and rough as the crowd
was, will say for 'em that in general
they played on the squar. Fact is, I've
noticed when guns are pulled on such
short notice folks generally mind tbejr
eve and are mighty cautious how they
step. Anyhow, them that lost, lost by
want of luck or skill, not by cheatin';
and we'd rather, any of us. been stood
mp agin tree and riddled with bullets
than caught in any tricks.
lone night / was havin' tremendous
run of luck and the other fellows was
lookin' sorter blue, but they took it
quietly, bein' used TO ups and downs of
that sort Just as was dom my level
best there walked up to our camp fire a
big six foot teller from ArkinSaw. He
warn't a teamster, but belonged to a
company that Col. Kinney kept on guard
at the ranch. He was a quarrelsome,
bullyin' sorter teller, and none of us
liked him very much. Tonight he was
Chock full Of whisky and just Spilin' for
sfight.
He set down close by and begun to
Srag. He could do this and he could do
that. He could back the buckin'e est
broncho on the ranch: he could hit the
eagles head on dollar with bullet at
twenty PAGES; he could carve live meat
bettern any butcher in Texas; he could
bluff any man alive at draw poker: he
could plank down two dollars to any
other mans one.
Nobody paid any 'tention to him,
and seeing he couldn't stir up the crowd,
he jumped on me; partly, suppose. be-
cause l was young and green. and he
thought was safe game; partly because
1t riled him to see me rabin' in the dol
lars so fast.
He staggered up. put down his dol
lars and began bettin' high He lost
agin and agin, which didn't sweeten his
temper bit. All of sudden he brought
his big foot down on the ground with
thump that made me Jump.
al won't stand this any longer. That
young buck amt won his money fair.
and Iaint goin' to pay nary mother con-
tinental red Lookve h,ra Young fellnr