St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-04-29

Will "get even with the men who were active
in his capture and trial.
new mining camp seems to have pecu-
liar attraction for men of this class. AS soon
as the discoveries at Creole, Colorado were
made known, the gamblers and desperadoes
were in evidence quite as soon as the honest
and industrious miners. 1t should be known
that these gentry delight in the name Of
"sports" and have an antipathy to being
called gamblers, while to intimate to one of
them that he was a murderer would be sure
to result in his killing the insulter to prove
that he was not. Prominent among the des-
peradoes who focked to Creole in it's early
days was a Kentuckian, who in his own
state bore the name of Charles L. Creek, but
who owing to his having had his features
badly carved up by bowie knife and his nose
slashed out Of shape, came to be known as
"Broken Nose Creek. Curionsly enough,
Kentucky has furnished more of these out
laws, than all Of the other states put to-
gether. Creek served in the Union army
during the war, and unlike most of the men
in his native state, was rampant Repub-
ican. It seems to have been the rule in these
new towns and mining camps to select for
their marshal OR chief of police, a man who
had already made a reputation as killer.
Before Creede was dreampt of Creek had
qualified himself for the position of mar
shall by killing four men, in self-defence, he
explained. The beginning made in civil life
he kept bravely up as an official, and to him
belongs the distinguished honor of having
supplied the corpse to start the graveyard in
the new city. After Creole became more law
oh dod of o;4r
ficials; "Brokeh Nose'' Greek was elected out
of office, and is reported to have been subse-
quentfy shot in a mining town on the Gunni-
son.
have said that the native born English
man took more naturally to the calling of
chad man. than did the genuine Yankee.
One of the most striking examples of this
was Ben Thompson, an Englishman, who
was brought out to Texas by his parents
while he was yet child. Thompson began
his vicious career while still in his teens and
before he was thirty he had killed eighteen
men, a record that warranted his being
elected marshal of the capital city of Austin.
Had Thompson been a native born Texan,
with ilenage OF frontier ancestors running
back for many generations, he could not have
shown more skill as rider and a shot. He
was one of the few men of this class who
came nearer being devoid of physical fear
than any know of. On one occasion, learn
ing that two barkeepers in a certain estab-
hshment had sworn they would kill him if
he ever came into their place he boldly
walked in alone. AS soon as he reached the
middle of the room the two men, one on
each side and not more than twenty feet
,l~o
same instant, but they were so frightened
that they missed their mark, whereupon
Thompson, who had been grimly smiling at
them, drew his revolver and killed the two.
1t was the same desperate recklessness that
led him into quarrel with the proprietor of
a theatre in San Antonio. Thompson would
have killed the theatrical manager had not
a boy named Sims, who was his assistant,
drawn his pistol, stepped between the two,
and sent three bullets through the despera-
dos brain.
The James, Fords, and road agents of that
class, while red-handed murderers, do not
deserve to be classed with the western bad
man who rather prides himself on his hon.
esty, that is, he will not hold up stage or a
railroad train for the purpose of looting it,
cheating tenderfeet and manipulating cards
so as to win. A few years ago Harley Nc
Coy, also a Kentuckian, having killed two
men in his native state, and mastered the art
of poker, felt himself qualified for the ranks
of the western bad man and so went out to
Colorado. Here Mccoy at once became a
protege of the famous, or Infamous "Bat"
Masterson, the prince of skillers'' and the
Napoleon Of western sports. Harley Mccoy
is now about thirty-six years of age, tall,
1.-THE and active. He has dark, curling hair,
black eyes, and wholesome olive complex
ion, and as he dresses well and in excellent
taste. his handsome person is sure to attract
attention wherever he goes. Under the guild
ance of Masterson, Mccoy has learned pru-
dence, and while he still keeps up his skill
with the revolver, he takes care to avoid
quarrel and devotes himself to money max
ing through his gambling establishment in
Denver
The most noted of all the western bad men,
perhaps because he has most murders to his
credit, is Bat Masterson himself. Masterson
was born in Middleton, ILL.,, about thirty-six
years ago. His father was a well-to-do far
mer but the boy did not avail himself of his
educational opportunities. While his COM
panions were studying at school young Mas
terson could be found in the woods practis-
ing with revolver, and to this early training
is no doubt due the phenomenal skill with
that weapon which he has displayed. The
number of deaths credited to Bat Masterson
range all the way from five to twenty eight.
Perhaps a fair average would be sixteen.
Masterson had established reputation as a
shooter when he was made marshal of Dodge
City, Kansas. Here, in the early seventies,
his brother, who was the sheriff, was killed
by five Texas cowboys. AS soon as Bat
learned of this he sought out the men and at
once shot the whole five down. He disting-
uished himself in those days as an Indian
fighter and buffalo hunter, but while he was
practising with his rifle and revolver he did
not cease to perfect himself in his skill with
the cards. When the railroads opened up
Colorado to the world he went thither, es-
tablishing innumerable gambling places, and
because of his fearlessness and his skill with
the pistol was elected marshal at different
times of a half dozen infant cities, in each of
which there is at least one grave in the GEM
etery filed by the victim of his revolver.
Masterson is man of medium height with
an intellectual face, strange as it may seem,
and is not addicted to profanity or liquor
His friends claim, and with show of justice,
that he never drew his revolver except in the
interest OF law. NELSON ASHLEY.
"a leaning, dilapidated stone tells that
Captain Lake was perfdiously slain by
the Indians at Kennebeck, in 167S-the Oldest