The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-11-21
SOLDIERS AND BAD MEN.
SOME TwO-HANDED ENCOUNTERS
IN FRONTIER TOWNS.

Bad Man Who Doomed n Uniform.
|. A Duel With Knives Between n
Gambler and "A SOIdier-End of
| Dangerous CavaIrymnn.
Washington letter i'm New York Sun.
The United States army soldier and the
bad man of the west have never got on
well together. Ever since the beginning of
| frontier soldering the man in blue and the
man with guns in plain view have been
! engaging in sporadic two-handed fights,
| and in most Of these the soldier has more
than held his own Nick McCool, a bad
man of Albuquerque of the early eighties,
lost his life because of his deficient COM
prehension of the fighting ability of the
soldier.
McCool belonged to the type of bad man
with no apparent occupation save drink
ing whisky and bullyragging men. One af-
ternoon in the summer of 1884 he was
leaning on the bar of Fred Wrigleys AL
| burquerque saloon telling Wrigley just
how much worse he intended to be when
| occasion served. Wrlgley was a small and
! somewhat timid man, and he therefore lis
| tened to McCool's talk with show of re-
| spectful attention. Then tall, well-knit
man in the unifrom of a corporal of caval-
ry walked in and called for drink. The
soldier was at the other end of the bar
from McCool. Wrigley started toward the
soldiers end of the bar to serve him. Nc
Cool objected to the move.
Look a-here, We runt," he yelled at
| Wrigley. Il don't stand for your movin'
away from me when I'm a-talkin' TO We,
an don't stand for your servin' rum,
while I'm in here to no cheap, thirteen-a-
month cayuse-breaker. Come back here"
Wrigley, undecided, stopped midway on
| his trip to the soldiers end of the bar.
The corporal who had previously taken
no notice of McCool now turned and sur
| Veyed him from head to foot with a calm
| and critical eye. He paid no more atten-
| ton to the two big guns strapped in Nc
! Cools belt than he did to McCoors boots.
| He simply took the whole man in at once,
/ and that in the glance of a second. Then,
without a word, he approached McCool
| with three or four long strides and gave
! the bad man two hard slaps on both sides
! of his face, one with each hand Without
| waiting for any move on McCools part,
he then gripped the bad mans two arms
! just above the elbows and held them as in
! wise.
"Barkeep," said the corporal quietly to
| Wrigley, holding McCools arms in his
| steel-like grasp all the time, Il don't know
/ whether this FOOLS a friend of yours or
| not, but 1 don't suppose he is, or else
| you'd have taken his part by this time.
| Anyhow, I'm entitled to a show in this [
| don't happen to have any guns on me. If
! you're man and a square man, you'll
! just put a couple on the bar there within
| my reach"
Wngley, without word, reached under
| the bar, hauled out pair of mated forty
| Fights, placed them, butts outward, within
! the soldiers easy reach, and then very dis
cretely ducked behind the shelter OF the
! bar. -4
! The soldiers face was not three inches
| from McCoors while this was being done,
/ and suddenly the bad man shot his head
| forward with the apparent purpose of Bit
ing off the cavalry corporals nose He had
| a very alert man to deal with, however.
The soldier jerked his head back, and, still
grasping the bad mans arms, planted his
| knee in McCool's abdomen.
"McCool, you damned thief" said he
| maintaining this position while he spoke,
IF you had been able to bale some of the
rum out of your eyes, you'd have known
me, even in this makeup, when / came
here, and you'd have put a copper on your
tongue. When 1 was Jack Thurman,
down in Tucson eight years ago, you knew
that l never killed no one not even a
| greaser, except when 1 had to- and then
only in a square fight. I always knew
you as bully, and trouble hunter, and
you were on hunt for trouble when L
came in here. Now, you're going to have
| it"
Quick as a flash the corporal of cavalry
| released McCool and gave him a shove that
! sent him staggering against the bar Just
| as quickly he grabbed with both hands
| the two guns on the bar. The four shots
from the mems guns were as one. The
! corporal OF cavalry with the pistols in
rest, stood in the smoke unscathed The
| corporal calmly replaced the guns on the
| bar and asked Wrigley, who came to his
| feet from behind the bar, where he could
| find the marshal Marshal Kingsley hap
pened to be near the saloon at the time
! of the shooting, and he was in the door
while the soldier was finishing his question.
Here he is now" said Wrigley
We'll, l belong to you" said the cav
! airy corporal, quietly, addressing the mar
! shall That's my job" noddng in the
direction of the dead bad man
| And good one. too" said Kingsley
at once.
For the sake of form a jury of six men
was impanelled in the saloon within an
hour, and the corporal was acquitted in
ten minutes.
Jack Thurman had quit his wild career
together with his name in Tucson eight
| years before and had become a govern
ment scout. He liked the service so well
that he Joined the regular army when
there was no more scouting duty, and at
the time of the shooting he was on leave
of absence from Fort Wingate.
There was a savage fight in 1881, at II
| Waco, Wash, between a Portuguese gam
bier named Potozzo and an artillery SOL
der stationed at Fort Candy. There is
| hardly a more desolate little town in the
! whole northwest than Ii Waco. 1t is on
! Bakers bay, a sort of inlet of the mouth
| of the Columbia river, and about ten
miles across from Astoria the salmon
! dishing town of Oregon, and an evil
enough town, too. Fort Candy is at the
| base of Cape Disappointment. and a cou-
| pie of batteries of artillery have been sta
| toned there for a number of years. Ever
| Since the establishment of the post II Wa
co, three miles away, through dense,
! bear-infested forest, has been the payday
| resort of the soldiers. For twenty years
| a man named "Jawbones" Hayden has
| served to the soldiers visiting II Waco
! whisky so phenomenally villainous as to
oil l,na u