The Opelousas courier., 1891-04-25
RARE PRESENCE OF MIND.
INSTANCES OF NERVE UNDER
TRYING CIRCUMSTANCES.

TRYING CIRCUMSTANCES.
A Brave sergeant-A Young Mexi
cams Prompt Shot-KiliiDg
Three Men in Two Seconds
The nerve which shines forth in a dead
ly crisis of cracking r~evolvers or flashing
knives is neither the only nor the highest,
but it is a noble and an admirable quail
ity even when misapplied, and when we
shall cease to admire and respect it the
human race will have very little left
whereof to be proud.
We shall have come to q sorry pass
when our blood shall fail to tingle to such
q deed as that of Mrs. Clusters brave SER
geant. He had arrested a deserter OF
desperate character and took him in to a
little town in Nebraska. While they
were eating dinner the desperate picked
up a can of pepper, dashed the contents
in the Sergeant's face and started for the
door. The blinded officer, even in the
uncomfortable anguish of the moment,
thought only of his orders to bring in the
prisoner alive or dead, and, listening for
Che footsteps of the fugitive, fred to the
sound and dropped his mani !,
As striking an example Of ''pure nerve
came under my own observation two
years ago. Valencia County, New Mexico,
had been disgraced by a long series OF
cowardly and awful assassinations done
by one young Mexican desperate and his
poems, a series which eliminated on the
18th Of February in my own receipt Of a
leaden valentine in the shape of two loads
of midnight buckshot. The question
whether these influential murderera
should be punished had entered into local
politics and the campaign was a very x
citing n g At some of the precincts the
Judges of election and the voters were
alike armed with Winehesters and siz
shooters.
Among those that were active in the
movement to overthrow the evil men
who had for years exercised a reign of
terror over "Bloody Valencia was gen.
tie, generous Dumas Provencher, n OF
the pioneers Of the Territory, and he was
OI1C VI tAS ODACA VI ID WAOA1 " dSotkSo4LAH
had marked for death.
Shortly after midnight Of election day
the ballots of that precinct were still
being counted by a Pickering lamp in a
long. low room in the plaza of San
Rafael, and poor Provencher was there.
He had just received news of Q plot to-
kill the judges and seize the ballots at
three precincts and leaned over to the
United States Deputy Marshal, Martin
Gallegos, to whisper a warning. Galle-
Cos was hardly more tlan g boy-a com
mon, illiterate Mexica youth, at whose
awkwardness and ignc lance most of us
would turn up our noses. But that he
had in him the stuff Of men he showed
by the most gallant act ] ever saw.
At that very instant there were six
hired murderers orouching at the open
window, and while Provencher was yet
speaking one of them thrust in his old.
Springfield and fred. The great half
inch ball struck Provencher in the arota,
and from that chief life fountain the
blood leaped out in a tall, broad arch.
The stricken man gave n low cry and
fell dead against Gallegos, whose face
and body were drowned in the squirting
deiage. The click of another rife came
from the window. There were still six
living targets in that lighted room for.
the marksnaen secure in the darkness
without.
To shoot at the assassins was vain
they were invisible, and could kill every
man in the room before could lift a
finger against them. There was but one
thing to be done-to put 5d5 the betraya
ing lamp. But that was thirty feet away,
and before the nearest man could reach
three steps toward it all would be corpses.,
How long it seems, now that I come to-
tell about it-how long it seemed thenl
But from the sound Of the shot that slew
to the ring Of another that
left the room in darkness and the occu-ii
pants in safety was really less than two
seconds. One could scarce discharge;
two chambers of q double action revolver
more closely together than those two re.
ports came-the crash of the assassin'si
rife and the lighter crsGk of heroic Gal
six shooter.
The young Mexican absolutely taken
by surprise as he YVES, had not even,
from the poor clay that was squirt;
its CHASTITY flood in his face and
binding and choking him, but snatching
the heavy revolver from his belthad shot
Che lamp out-all in one swift, indistin.
guishable motion and without apparent
aiml Pure nerve that in onesecondsavedl
six lives. The bafied assasins fed, and
the storm Of public wrath aroused by
their deed put q temporary cheek upon
their murderous employers.
An equally remarkable display of pure
nerve was the exploit of General Edward
Bouton in . lonely pass in Southern Cali
fornia in 1879. A quiet, gentle voiced,
mild hammered man, one would hardly
suspect iu him fhe reckless daring which
won him distinction in some OF the most
desperate engagements Of the Civil War;
It was he of whom General Sheridan said
in my hearing: 1
HE wa the most daring Brigadier we
mad in the Vest
In July, 1879, he had occasion to viaft
MS great sheep ranch in the wild San
.orgonio Pass, California. The coun-!
was then infested with notorious
Mexican and American bandits, and,
travellers went always armed. General
Bouton and his partner were driving
along the moonlit forest road when three
masked men sprang suddenly from the
hru5,o an1 4bw,~s% ~ Los. foaan l.