The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1891-01-07
A TRANSFERS TALE.


On ranch near San Antonio lives
Thomas CEllen, veteran Of the Texan
revolution. He is indeed the veteran of
three wars, having fought under Hous-
ton at San Jacinto, Taylor at Buena
Vista and Albert Sidney Johnston at
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 tale of the early days of
Corpus Christi.
Il 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 man that owned good wagon
and team was sure of livin'. 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 towers of all kinds and
and maybe a 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 carryin'
goods then, except haulin', and every
settlement off 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 'em room.
''Well, as | 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
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. Lord!
how them greasers did cheat their gov
ernment, to be sure! Fine lace mantil-
lys, 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
eyes skinned too clean. Then they'd
take back goods from our side and not
a cent of duty paid either way.
"Kinney's Ranch as Corpus was call
ed 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
in talkin', singin', dancin'. gamblin,
drinkin' and shootin, them was lively
times, | tell you, at Kinney's Ranch.
Especially when the teams got back
from trip with the goods all safely de-
livered and the teamsters got paid off
Dollars was plentiful then. and the way
we made 'em spin was caution. Gam
blin' 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.
81 wasn't 90 year old then, slim
young slip of feller with nary sign of
this here h'arth brush of 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
for 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 | was sayin, when we
warnt teamin' we were gamblin' most
of the time, and rough as the crowd
was, will say for EN- that in general
they played on the squar. Fact is, I've
noticed when guns are pulled on such
short notice folks generally mind their
eye 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
up agin tree and riddled with bullets
than caught in any tricks.
Zone 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 doin' my level
best there walked up to our camp fire
big six foot feller from Arkinsaw He
warn't teamster, but belonged to a
company that Col. Kinney kept on guard
at the ranch. He was a quarrelsome,
bullyin' sorter feller. and none of us
liked him very much. Tonight he was
chock full of whisky and just spilin' for
fight.
He set down close by and begun to
brag. He could do this and ho could do
that He could back the buckin'est
broncho on the ranch: he could hit the
eagles head on dollar with bullet at
twenty PAGES; he could carve live meat
better'n 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 | was young and green, and he
thought was safe game; partly because
it riled him to see me rakin' in the dol
lars so fast.
HE staggered up, put down his dol
lars and began bettin' high He lost
apin and apin which didn't sweeten his