Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1895-03-31
A QUICK SHOOTER.


Was the City Marshal of the Toughest
Town in Texas.
New York Sun.
| "Of the famous quick shooting city
marshals who have held down the hard
Western towns, Dallas studemeyer
ranked among the foremost" said a
] Southwestern railroad man. "He was
tail, thin and wiry, dead shot, and
a man of great courage and resolution.
1t was in 1882, when, in the sudden
/ boom following the completion of the
! Southern Pacific railroad, FL Paso was
1 the toughest town in Texas that he
| held the marshalship of the place and
kept the lawless element in check. Pro-
fessional bad men who came there to
run the town didn't get along very far
In their undertaking while he was mar
shall. He came to IIl Paso with the
I reputation of man not to be trified
with. but after he took charge of the
policing of the town he none the less
! found plenty of men eager to try 1t
on with the new marshal and see for
themselvov what stun he was made of.
Few Of them survived the experiment.
His first serious encounter after
taking office came close ON the heels
OF his appointment. A Southern Pa
cific employe, a personal friend of the
marshal told me that Studemeyer.
meeting him in the street one day,
asked for the loan OF his pistol for a
short time.
why, you big. overgrown Dutch
man. said the friend. you've got two
siN-shooters strapped to YOU now.
What do you want of more pistolsT
-" That's all right returned the mar
shall. The boys are in town today to
do me up, and IL we get to shooting.
and happen to want another pistol
wouldn't be handy to have to go all
over town to find a man to lend me
one
80 the pistol was borrowed, and
Studemeyer walked down the street
He'd barely turned the corner out of
sight, when shooting began, and there
was lively cracking away for min
ute or two. When things seemed to
have Quilted down the friend went to
the place 10 see what had been going
on The marshal was standing on the
sidewalk with one or two OF his depu-
ties about him, and three dead men
were lying in the street.
Round the corner Studemeyer had
found the boys waiting for him, head
ed by particular enemy of his, a for
mer city marshal. The buildings bor-
derlng the street were fronted, after
the Mexican fashion. by portales, a sort
OF piazza roof extending across the
sidewalks and supported by large
wooden pillars at the outer edge. This
leaueTi stepping from behind a pillar,
pulled n double-barreled shotgun down
ON Studemeyer and fired. The marshal
lodged the flash-it sounds strange to
say man could be so quick as that,
but I'm using the Southwestern term
for WANT he did; he wasn't hit, any
how-and the next instant his pistol
got in its deadly work on the man with
the shotgun. The gang, at the example
of their leader, had set to shoot at
Studemeyer, who. with his back
against the building. faced them and
Kept his pistol going until the house
was pierced with bullets all about the
place where he stood, but he received
only one wound, a shot in the heel.
But though order reigned in FL Paso
while Dallas Studemeyer was city mar
shall, his position was n dangerous and
thankless one, and the attempts to as
sassinate him were too numerous for
safe and comfortable living"