The age-herald., 1898-01-30
prom the St. Louis Globe-pemocrat.

 bushes mark innumerable scenes of blood shed and tragedy. civilization has claimed it's own Texas is indeed no longer the refuge of the bad man" Her citizens have become impatient of desperadoism and the laws majesty has exercised all semblanee of the border terrors sway. This is not news But comparatively recent in- stances of this truth have escaped general publication, and some of them are here printed for the first time.
 To all acquainted with the annals of Tex as desperadoes the name of Ben -Thomp- son looms up in the foreground. So many erroneous stories have been printed about him that even men who numbered Thomp- son among their personal acauaintanees have come to regard various periods or his life as matters of doubt and conjecture But certain it is that no other man in Texas ever did more to gain the signiiicant title of desperado. Luke Short, Jim Court wright, John Wesley Harden and such stel- lar characters in the company of Texas bad men" rank as pygmies beside giant when compared with Thompson. His death marked an epoch in the Lone Star states history Even though it was tainted with suspicious of assassination, law-abding citizens declared the ends justified the means, and no one has ever been punished for the killing.
 Ben Thompson and King Fisher were killed in Jack Harris vaudeville theater at San Antonia, Tex. That is, the place was still known as Jack Harris Theater" though Jack Harris himself had been killed by Thompson in the same establishment several months previous. On the same spot has been erected modern building, ha fatt hIf,aIr Dnr rf nf iC by lawyers offices, and the remainder is given over to the Crystal saloon of Slmms, Berlfner & Tommins. One of these propri- etors, William H. Simms, generally known as Billy" is accredited with being Thomp- sons slayer
 There had been bad blood between Har- ris and Thompson. The latter was then City Marshal of Austin, eighty-one miles north of San Antonio. One day he went to the Alamo City and served notice that Harris would have to crawl" Thompson was drunk It is recorded that he never sought trouble save when driven to desper- ation by liquors fumes The vaudeville show proprietor had already lost leg in one of his several desperate encounters with bad men, He learned of Thompson's threat from the scores of busybodes who, in those days, found no gerater pleasure than the task of bringing about bloodshed by bearing tales of defiance and scandal. Harris stationed himself with doube-bar-
 
 front screen doors. He sat in such a po- sition that, while he had full view of the sidewalk in front. he himself was not vs- ble from the outside Harris saw Thomp- son approaching and raised his gun. A cartridgG load of buckshot whisted past the desperate. Accounts differ as to how Thompson managed to kill Harris. The saloon proprietor was so shielded by the doors that Thompson could not get bead on him. Moreover, those doors were in- 10 nd thnxy foil fr show any bullet holes. The popular the ory is that Thompson located Harris posi- tion by the flash of the shot gun, and as quick as thought made a carom shot on the Iron post against which of the doors was hinged. In order to do this he was forced to shoot through a slit not more than three-quarters of an inch wide. But at all events, Harris fell dead and justice of the Peace Anton Adam decided that the killing was done in self-defense. It was this tragedy that led up to the most i'm portant episode in the history of Texas des- peradoism.
 Billy Simms, a beardless English lad helped Jos Foster assume charge of the vaudeville theater. Simms had already become so thoroughly "Texanized" that his English ancestry was lost sight of. Some time before, in a monte game with three Mexicans, he had proved himself quicker with his gun than the trio were with their knives.
 Foster and Simms employed Jacobo Coy now on the San Antonio police force, to aid in .'preserving the peace" at the thea ter. Coy is a Mexican-one of those stolid sons of Montezuma whose strength lies largely in their silence There is no better revolver shot in Texas than Coy. But none have known this save those acquainted with his record as an officer of the law.
 Word was taken to Thompson that Joe Foster and others had said he assassinated | Harris. Thompson continued to discharge I his duties city marshal of Austin until l he again lapsed from sobriety. To friend he once confessed that when liquor re- moved the trammels of caution, "every would-be bad man seemed to be clutching at his throat"
 Possibly his liquor-infuenced brain saw visions of Foster and Smms trying to strangle him. Anyhow, he started for San Antonio. accompanied by King Fisher, the l Chesterfieldian desperado, ,dapper littl9 i fellow, who dressed with careful nicety anG i invariably spoke in the softest tones., i, !. Bill Thompson. Ben's brother tried to l dissuade the twain from calling on Poster | and Simms. But his efforts were frutiess. | Years were in his eyes when he left them, | several blocks from the vaudeville theater. And tears were in his eyes half hour later, when news-bearers told him of the tragedy that had occurred in the interim. He said simply, "I Knew it was coming; I told Ben so when he left me" s There was af ominous hush in the yaude- l vflle theater as Thompson and King Fisher | clambered up the stairs There was silence more ominous when Thompson called for the proprietors Foster and | Simms responded. Jacobo Coy was close at | hand, his keen eye noting closely every | move made. Some outsiders observed just | before Thompson and King Fisher entered | that there was a queer commotion in the | boxes, from which the painted women filed | and slunk into dark corners
 Thompson said he had "come to settle | old scores in kindly way and renew friendship" Foster and Simms, the latter | silently and the former sullenly, agreed to | drink with the visitors. The glasses were | raised to the lips of those in front of the | bar. Thompson was suddenly seized with 1 an inspiration. Let us shake hands first" he said.
 Foster replied that while he would drink | with him he was forced to decline the | handclasp of the man who had killed his | friend. In flash all the fire in Thomp- | sons strong nature gleamed from his eyes. |
 Vot ho ta rta hon flci1-