San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1892-06-06
A STORY FROM TEXAS.
THE MAN WITH THE "oLD PLUG
HAT" HAD PLENTY OF NERVE.

An Old Ranger Tells Yarn About tn.
Days When Texas Was Not So Much
Civilized as 1t Is at Present-"Old Plug
Hat" and Its PIucky Wearer.>
At one of the social meetings held at 8
| clergyman's house recently an old Texan
was guest. Although advanced in years
| his figure was tall, straight and athletic,
and evidently he had been man of action
and adventure. His hearty. natural man
ner and ready conversation soon made him
a favorite with all present. Some one in
the company suggested that he might
| describe or tell a story of frontier life.
Said he:
There are a good many stories to tell
about that kind of life, and hardly know
| what TO pick out suitable for church folks,
| but perhaps you might liket hear about
| "Old Plug Hat" young Methodist min
ister who came our way nigh on to thirty
five years ago.
Well, about that time a young. slender
F., chap came to our cattle ranch, which was
! something like forty miles west of San
| Antonio. He said he had studied for the
! ministry in some Connecticut college,
! forget which, had broken his health,
| wanted to rough it with us to see if he
could get strung again, was willing to do
anything for his keep or would pay his
/ way. His pleasant, frank way won the
, boys at once. One of his peculiarities,
which | suppose came from his prim
| Yankee training, used to amuse us.
| Every Sunday he'd carefully fix himself
up city fashion, and his shiny silk hat ap-
peared odd among "a score and more of
sombreros. Some one playfully nicknamed
him "Old Plug Hat" and he was oftener
| called that than anything else. He never
bored us with church things
About three months before he left for
his home, two noted desperadoes, part
! Mexican, part Indian, but really more
devil, made their appearance in our region.
They were known as Black Mex and Big
1 Cactus. They had been long feared and
! hated border terrors on account of their
cruel, cunning, bloodthirsty character.
! We and the ranchmen near us felt
rather gloomy when we found out that
the wretches had appeared in our neigh.
| borhood, for we realized that sooner or
J later some of our bands would muster
man or more less You see, those weren't
railroad days down there then as now, and
| there were times when one or two Of us
had to ride on errands to town. Several
-, good fellows were robbed and killed in the
| first six weeks after they began to prowl
, One was from our camp.
It got so serious that we called crowd
| together and held a sort of a council of
war; Mind you, there was plenty there
| who would have openly faced one or both
of the rascals, but nobody wanted to run
| recklessly into an ambush. Lots of plans
were suggested as to how we might
squelch or capture the miscreants, but
+. nothing seemed to fit the case without
/ foolish risks.
"Old Plug Hat, how would you like to
tackle 'em?" half playfully asked one of
| the company of the young parsor, who
modestly sat in Che meeting.
To the surprise of the boys the young
ster eagerly rose and said:
| "Pll willingly take the chances, and
was only waiting to ask the privilege
| Pll make the next trip to town alone, and
if ! meet with the scoundrels and they
don't get the pull on me, l'll guarantee to
| wipe them out; so please make motion
that Pm to CO."
| Somebody who didn't want to see the
young feller's feelings hurt by leaving him
out of the talk made the motion. at
once seconded it and urged that the boy
| be allowed to try himself as scout. While
the youngster was making his offer it was
| plain to me that he had hit upon some in
genious scheme that only needed good
/ luck and courage for a trial. My war rec
| ord. such as it was, gave me good deal
of influence with the boys, and as seemed
satisfied TO risk my chum, it was finally
agreed that Plug Hat should go. When
the meeting broke up | asked him what
his plan was, but he only laughed and
said, "If | come back you'll find out"
The second morning afterward he started.
He picked out good horse, put on his
Sunday clothes, silk hat included, filled
his belt with revolvers, fastened his saddle
pouch and babe us goodby, making most
of us feel pretty glum. Well, to shorten
the story, that night while we were at sup
per into camp rode Plug Hat. He dis
mounted coolly, sat down among US and
began to eat. He couldn't answer the
thick volley of questions given him. but
after supper, in quiet, commonplace way
be told us about his adventure
He had ridden about twenty miles from
, camp, and had turned out of Red Stone
pass to cross quarter mile lonely spot
, that led to an easy riding road Hewas hall
way across when from behind the rocks OF
foothills out sprang Black Mex from on,
side and Big Cactus from the other. OF
course they "held him up" as it's now
termed Cactus seized his bride and GOV
cred him with a revolver. Mex held an
.other at his ear and made him dismount
He then took all of the revolvers from hi
prisoners belt and sounded his bosom anC
/ 1 81, L.. 4, L..