Morris tribune., 1894-12-12
c!MARRoN,s HISTORIC sARRooM.
The Landlord Proud OF the Fact Thae
TWENTY-FIVE Men Were Slain There.


the seventies, said land surveyor
from New Mexico. ST have seen
Clay Allison ride into the place with
following of cowboys and start in
to make a night of it. He would
buy out Lambert's barroom to begin
with, turn everybody out of the
room except his own crowd, and
then their fun would be fast and
furious. On such an occasion !
glanced through the window and
saw cowboy dancing naked on the
counter to the accompaniment of
yells and pistol shots from his COM
rades.
Through this little adobe town
among the foothills, three-quarters
Mexican in it's population, came and
went the various bad men of the re-
gion. Many of them went no far
ther, dying there with their boots
on in quarrels over land and stock
transactions, politics, women, cards
or in the ambitious attempt to as
sert their supremacy as desperadoes.
"When last visited Cimarron, in
1873, the town was quiet, the cow
BOYS being all out on the ranges
gathering beef cattle in the fall
I roundup. 1t was the same old place,
with its fat rooted adobe buildings
struggling along the banks of the
deep ravine through which the Cim-
AKRON river flows, its few pitched
rooted, whitewashed residences of
the Weather people and Lam
bert's. At that excellent hostelry
of sanguinary record I was welcom-
ed by the host, the most genial and
pacific of Frenchmen, who, as we
chatted together over glass of ma
tive wine, spoke with evident pride
of the tragic events connected with
his historic barroom.
twenty-five men have been
killed in this room, he said; seven
in one year. Look at this. And he
led me to one corner and pointed to
two great splashes, dull red in color,
upon the wall, one above the other.
These are the blood stains made
when Pancho was killed.
"Pancho was a Mexican desperate,
and between him and Clay Allison
enmity had long existed. Allison
rode into town one day and fell to
drinking quietly enough, as he usu-
ally did at the beginning. AS soon
as Pancho heard that Allison was in
town he likewise began to drink,
and then the townspeople looked for
difficulty between the two. They
did not meet until late in the even
ing, when, as Allison stood in Lam
bert's barroom, his elbow resting
on the counter, Pancho came in and
walked over to the farther corner of
the room. Two other Mexicans en-
tered with him, one Of whom took
a position little in the rear of ALI
son, while the other threw himself
in a 1ounging attitude upon a corner
of the billiard table in the center of
the room, and taking a revolver
from his pocket laid it on the CLOTH
"To these maneHvers to distract
his attention Allison gave no heed,
but kept his eye on Pancho, who be-
gan to talk to him, proposing that
they adjust their differences in a
friendly way. AS he talked thus
plausibly the Mexican held his SOM
brero before him in his left hand,
concealing weapon, with his right |
hand all the time slipping down to-
ward the hat. AS Pancho passed his
hand beneath the brim Allison's pis-
toll came out like flash, and its two
quick reports sounded like one. |
Pancho, shot through the forehead |
and the heart, staggered against the |
wall and sank in sitting posture
into a chair that stood in the corner
The other two Mexicans made them
selves scarce at Allison's first mo-
ton, and Lambert, running in from
the kitchen, blew out the lights and
closed up the barroom without per-
the slain man in the corner.
ALLISON at once took horse for his
ranch, saying nothing to any one of
the shooting, and that night the
friends of Pancho hunted far and
wide for him, not knowing where or
in what condition he was. The next
when Lambert opened up /
his barroom he saw Pancho sitting
asleep, as he thought. in the corner,
and, going to wake him, discovered
that the man was dead. - New
York Sun.