The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1892-05-12
AN EXPERIENCE IN TEXAS.
who the Men Are in the Lone Star State
That Carry Revolvers.

Who the Men Are in the Lone Star State
That Carry Revolvers.
The ideas the stay at home eastern man
obtains of the extreme borderland of Texas
are gathered from various sources. From
others who, as will all travellers, make as
much of what they have seen as is possible,
this much being generally to show the
differences which exist between the places
they have visited and their own home. OF
the similarities they say nothing. Or he
has read of the bandits and outlaws of the
Cara revolution, and he has seen the Wild
West show of the Hon. William f. Cody.
The latter, no doubt, surprised and de-
lighted him very much. A mild west
show, which would be equally accurate,
would surprise him even more; at least, if
it was organized in the widest part of
Texas between San Antonio and Corpus
Christi
When he leaves this first city and touches
at the border of Mexico, at Laredo, and
starts forth again across the prairie of cac-
tusand chaparral toward Corpus" he feels
assured that at last he is done with parlor
cars and civilization; that he is about to
see the picturesque and lawless side of the
Texan existence, and that he has taken his
life in his hands. He will be Che more
readily convinced of this when the young
man with the broad shoulders and sun
Drowned face and wide sombrero in the
seat in front raises the car window
and begins shooting splinters out of
the passing telegraph poles with the
melancholy and listless air of one who
is performing casual advertisement.
But he will be better informed when the
Chicago drummer has risen hurriedly,
with pale face, and has reported what is
going on to the conductor and hears that
dignitary say complacently: "Sho that's
only WHIP Scheeley practisinl He's a
deputy sheriff"
He will learn in time that the only men
on the borders of Texas who are allowed to
wear revolvers are sheriffs state agents in
charge of prisoners and the Texas Rangers.
and that whenever he sees a man so armed
he may as surely depend that he is one of
these as he may know that in New York
those in gray uniforms, with leather bags
over their shoulders, are letter carriers.
The revolver is the Texan officers badge
of office; it corresponds to the New York
policeman's shield; and he toys with it just
as the Broadway policeman juggles his
club 1t is quite as harmless as toy and
almost as terrible as weapon.
This will grieve the "tenderfoot" who
goes through the west "heeled" and ready
to show that, though he is from the effete
east, he is able to take care of himself
1t was first brought home to me as was
returning from the border, where l had
been with the troops who were hunting
for Cara, and was waiting at little sta
ton ON the prairie to take the train for
Corpus Christi. was then told politely
by gentleman who seemed of authority
that if 1 did not take off that pistol |
would be fined twenty-five dollars or put
in Jail for twenty days l explained to
him where l had been, and that my bag
gage was at Corpus" and that had no
other place to carry it. At which he apol-
ogized and directed deputy sheriff, who
was also going to Corpus Christi, to see
that / was not arrested for carrying a
deadly weapon.
This, think, illustrates a condition of
things in darkest Texas which may give a
new point of view to the eastern mind. II
is possibly something of revelation to
find that instead of every man protecting
himself, and the selection of the fittest de-
pending on who is quickest on the trig-
ger" he has to have an officer of the law
to protect him if he tries to be a law unto
himself.-Richard Harding Davis in Har-
per's Weekly.