The Meeker herald., 1893-03-04
LIFE ON THE BORDER.
COLONEL PAT DOMAIN TELLS
HIS ExPERlENC
Stirring Times In New Mexico After tho
Apache Outbreak-General Lew
Wallace as Governor of
the Territory.

p prospecting IN new MEXICO, ana De-
tween fights with the Indians, occa-
sional massacres OF settlers families,
scouting and diminishing, reports of
rich strikes of gold and silver ore,
horse and cattle stealing, gin-mill
and gambling ARRAYS, cowboy
and outlaw raids and vendettas, and
miscellaneous scrimmages of shooting
scrapes in the plazas, on the ranches,
in the camps, on the trails, at the
mines and everywhere, we had decid-
edly lively times.
! 1t was in those stirring times that
festive cowboy one day bet his gun
and spurs that he would jump his
pony through the window of rail-
road hotel dining room. clear the
table full of guests and go out of 4
window on the opposite side of the
room; but he lost the bet, for just as
his horse was in midair over table
in the room, the landlord, with .
double barrelled gun, put fourteen
buckshot through the dashing rider
and he fell dead on the table, while
the broncho plunged through a win
dow and escaped with an empty sad
die. So bold and high-handed did
ruttianism and crime, ruffians and
criminals become that wherever the
better elements of population had
sufficient strength such notices began
TO appear as this, which was pub
jshed in the Las Vegas Daily Gazette
Of July q, 1881.
80 notice.
To Thugs, Thieves, Cut-throats and Murder
re No Ert.t an tNrpL will
not be tolerated In the vicinity Of Las Vegas
sitter 10 O'Clock p. IN, Wednesday, 18th inst.
fhis notice Is intended 10 include the Kids and
all other persons not engaged in earning n
livelihood in q legitimate way by order of he
July 81 1851 COMMITTEE OF SAFETY.
On the handbills, which were stuck
up all over the town, the hand at the
side of the notice was printed in
blood-rod ink, and the whole thing
was characteristic of the region and
the time. Tho date of the procla-
nation was just ten days after the
/ winding up OF one of the widest ro-
mances Of crime in all the blood
stained annals Of our American bor-
der by the killing of BILLY the Kid"
He had for years been the red-handed
terror of the Southwest, the prince of
frontier outlaws. His exploits were
the theme of every tonguc and pen in
New Mexico.
Previous to this killing AxteA was
removed from the goveruorship Of
the territory by President Hayes, aud
General Lew Wallace, since famous
as the author of The Fair God and
ben Hur,n was appointed to the
place. Chisholm, the cattle man,
went up to Santa Fe and by some
means won the new governor over to
the side of the Kid.
Governor Wallace issued general
proclamation of pardon and amnesty
to all parties. ''including army Of
ficcrs," who had been engaged in the
Lincoln county outbreak, command
ing them to lay down their arms and
90 home and keep the peace, says n
writer in the New York Advertiser.
Shortly after this the widow Of Me
Swain. one of the victims OF
the Lincoln county war, resolved
to prosecute the slaycrs of her
husband and dcstroyers of her
home. She employed lawyer n3med
Chapman of Las Vegas. who went
down into Lincoln county and prompt
~ began to stir up all the old strife,
but was soon murdered by II man
named Campbell and others Of the
opposite faction.
Whom Governor Wallace heard OF
the death of Chapman he went down
into Lincoln county. outlawed Turner
and his party. and all other officers
of the law who had been fighting
Chrisholm and McSwain and the Kid
and his gang, had Turner and ten or
twelve of his men put in irons, and
had Colonel Dudley, a regular army
officer. arrested and relieved OF his
command.
Twenty-one indictments We're found
against Turner for murder, arson and
cattle stealing. He and his associ-
atcs lay in irons forty days and
nights, and were then brought before
the court for trial. the Kid appearing
as the principal witness against them.
They were all acquitted. but Turner
had been harassed from that day until
! saw him for the last time, some
two years afterward.
Judge Ira Leonard, Il former Mis-
sourian, like Eliins and Catron, had
been employed by Mrs. McSwain to
prosecute the charges against Colonel
Dudley OF being accessory to the
murder of her husband and the burn
ing of her house.
Judge Leonard at the time was
resident OF Las Vegas. He was ac-
companied to FIT Stanton by John
Mcpherson, chief of police at Las
Vegas, who had been warned by the
thieves and thugs OF that place to
leave on pain of death. MCPHERSON
had been with Quantrell during the
war, and was himself desperate of
no small renown. Returning to Las
Vegas some time after this the
roughs kept their promise and killed
him.
As he and Leonard were sitting in
their room at Ft. Stanton one night
after their arrival they heard tap
ping at their window. Upon open
ing the heavy wooden shutter the
Kid stepped into the room and an
nounced that he had come to end the
trial of Dudley by killing him right
in the fort surrounded by his troops.
With much difficulty Leonard and
Mcpherson dissuaded him from his
bloody purpose. He then noiselessly
slipped out in the darkness, as he had
come, mounted his horse and struck