The age-herald., 1898-01-30

more than average adeptness at the shot gun, clever fancier of dogs, and m ann fable fellow.
 But it is in events several years after the death of Thompson and King Fisher that the evidence of Texas advancing civiliza- tion comes forward. Billy" Simms be- came figure Of such prominence that men traveledfor miles to see him. "The fellow who killed Ben Thompson was sufficiently good as drawing cafd'' to double his es- tablishments trade.
 One would naturally presume that Simms would in the course of time conceive the idea of "squelching another bad man. when business siackened up a tr1e. But ne Ias never since sought such an encoun- ter Men who know well whereof they speak, and who declare that Smms perhaps never seen gamer man than him- self, assert he would flee nowadays from the possibility of u shooting scrape. The reason is clear. and four years ago circum- stances afforded proof.
 For more than thirty years There was no better known citizen of San Antonio than Col. John R. Shook. His stalwart golden-haired son, Give, now a practicing lawyer, was known from his -boyhood as a. gritty, all-round scrapper." No braver man lives than Give II. Shook. But he has never killed a man. romantic episode in his life terminated temporarily in his installation as manager of his fathers Idle wild ranch, about twenty miles from San Antonio. One day about four years ago. Give Shook went to San Antonio for sup plies He visited some of the Alamo City's thirst parors.'' and as evening ap- preached, strolled into the Crystal. Billy Simms was leaning against the bar cir cumstance nonsensically trivial precipitated an argument between him and Shook, and, l before the bystanders could realize what was happening, a rough and tumble fight had commenced Shook 1.-the, powerful and quick as q cat, administered a sharp drubbing to the man who is credited with
 having killed Ben Thompson. Simms has gained considerable flesh in the last de- cade, and, when. Shook permitted him to re- gain his feet, he was picture of humilia- tion and fatigue. Some declare a revolver was peeping from his trousers waistband. At all events a miniature arsenal was close at hand behind the bar.
 Get your gun. now Shook challenged. But there was no shooting Simms knew full well that the law had permanently supplanted the revolver code Everybody in Texas knows how everybody else feels on such matters and he knew that to kill anybody would mean to slip the moose around his own neck. So Simms swallowed his humiliation and made up" with Shook Men who feel his hearty handclasp nowa- days scarcely believe that he was ever ranked among Texas ''bad men" He is even more unassuming now than he is popularly reputed to have been in the days when his chief fame was for the speed with which he could draw and fire
 Men who attempt to philosophize on the record of deSperadoism in Texas assert that the bad men" who would hesitate to shoot because stricken by fear of the law are towards. But others who understand how thoroughly Texas has become civilized in the last decade, assume a contrary posi- tion, and their views are shared by one of the few remaining Texans about whom there still hovers the reputation of a shooter" Most of these so-called bad men," he said to the writer not long since
 were simply unfortunates whose courage ' avaA 1A6 tl.s. Once one of them was noised about as a shooter the real bullies sought to get the drop on him in order to make capital out of the reputation they might earn by as- sassinating him. It in encountering such fellows and in fear of them that the average Texas shooter did most of his kill ing. I knew Ben Thompson. and I know that he scarcely had waking moment 1ree rom unrest. Sometimes he would seek forgetfulness in drink but the liqlor only served to madden him.
 These things are told primarily to prove that the real bad man the desperado is touay as foreign to Texas a he is to St Louis Of course, the tropic suns stil quicken the throb of southern blood as they ever will do; and coward is more contemptible in Texas than a thief But the slayer of men, the wanton destroyer of human life, has less chance for existence in the Lone Star state than he has any, where else in the country. It is extreme ly doubtful that white man would be ueSDeradOiSm. But as in at least a quartet of cases that came up in the early 90s determined body or citizens would sit through his trial and see that neither trickery nor chicanery cir cumvented the ends of justice
 Alfred Y. Alice, a well-to-do stockman of Pearsall, learned how unrelenting is Tex as latter-day pursuit of killers He had killed negro for insulting him. Records also showed that he had used his gun on other occasions. w. J. Bowen newspa- per man, printed assaults on his honestly ES%en and Alice knew that their first meeting would be tragic. Both were pre- pared for trouble. One morning Alec stepped into passenger coach of an h. ternational and Great Northern train at Pearsall. On one side of the aisle was seated Bowen, and opposite sat his lawyer brother, No one spoke. Alice gripped his heavX Colts revolver in both hands to steady his aim. When the firing ceased w. J. Bowen lay dead, and the pistol arm of hisslawyer brother was shattered It ccostAttee many broad acres and more sleek horses and cattle to save his neck from the halter But the. relentlessness with which the authorities prosecuted the case | practically ruined Allee. Yet no one who | knew the circumstances doubted that he had acted in self defense But Texas was and is tired of killings,
 John Wesley Harden's death at Fl Paso eighteen months ago is another instance of how the would-be bad man fares in Texas nowadays. Harden had been in the penitentiary during the years in which | civilization asserted it's sway over Texas. | When he emerged the new order of things | was incomprehensible to him. He was in | cautious; and an officer of the law killed | him.
 As long as anger enters the human breast | and firearms are manufactured there will | be shooting affrays in Texas just as there are in other parts of the United States But it is safe to consider the average police | character of the metropolitan cities more | dangerous than the unfortunate men who | may hereafter become embroiled in shoot l ing affrays in Texas.
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