Arizona silver belt., 1895-03-23
TWO BAD MEN.
A Brace of Wild Westerners Who
 Were Both Able Killers.
They schemed for Whole Afternoon to Get the Drop on Each other With out success-Pleasane Diver
 sioas of Gun Fighters.

"0ne of the things that strikes a tcnderfoot with surprise" said a west crn land surveyor to the New York Sun man, lis the way the tough men in the far west, when they happen to run counter to men of their own kind, will refrain from shooting until one gets the drop on the other So quick and ready are the shooting men of the real sort that when facing each other on guard neither one can fire 50 quickly that the other will not return the shot before falling. Thus it may happen that two bad men who have sworn death to each other may meet often without ex- changing shots because neither one can catch the other unprepared. Take the ease of Wild Bill and Jim Currie, for example Both men of undoubted nerve and skill, they were enemies for years - by some accounts they eX- changed shots once at long range--but they never pulled triggers on each other at close quarters, and when Bill was assassinated by wretch years after ward ut Dcadwood it closed the feud
 Clay Allison, the New Mexican dead shot and mankillcr, found one man who wash t afraid to stand up to him and was just as quick with his gun as himself That man was Mace Bow man, some time a deputy sheriff of Cols fax county. They spent whole after noon together, each trying to get the drop on the other, but neither one could accomplish it. 1t was a perform auce, though, of kind to make an inexperienced man Shiyer. There was bad blood between them, and this afternoon when they met in Lambcrt's barroom and got to drinking the enmity began to ranllle. It was perfectly un- derstood between them that if either one got the drop on the other, the slower man would die, and this being agreed on both men mancuvCrCd for an opening. Facing each other with such pleasant intentions they laughed and iJlicd and drank together. all the time watching each other like cats. As n diversion in the proceeding they would lay their pistols, the barrels crossing, on the bar counter, step back to the other side of the room, and then, at an agreed signal, make rush for the pis- tals. But neither could seize his weapon quickly enough to get the ad- vantage of the other
 Once as they were taking drink to- Rethcr Bowman, with his whisky half way Co his lips, suddenly sraashcd the glass to the counter and drew his Dis. tol But as it came up Allison's re. volver met it half way. The men were looking into each others eyes. and a sign in cithcr's that a trigger was to be pulled would have meant the death of both men, which was more killing than either one wanted
 This daliance with death went on through the afternoon, until at last. at the coming of evening, the two men, becoming savage declared that they would bring the duel to an end. They cleared the room of spectators, and had already taken their places in corners diagoually opposite to begin shooting, when ". R. Morley, of Cnuarron, a strong friend of both men, rushed in between them at the risk of his lifel md by congratulations and Cntrcuties managed to get them off the idea of the ducl and mutually to agree to separate without further trouble. So the two contestants baclscd out of the room at opposite doors and rode out of town different ways, saving an encounter which would almost certainly have re- suited in ( he death of bOth.n