The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-09-18


for, nor is he ever told. He rides along,
saying nothing, and at the proper time
is ordered to take a position in front of
some hut and shoot anybody who comes
out. Then the corporal and the other
private go to the other door, knock fof
permission to enter and wait a little
while. If the doors is opened, well and
good. They go inside and make the
arrest. If the door is not opened, they
break it down and go in anyhow Some
| times they are killed in an affair of this
kind. Then the private who has been
standing guard, as it were PUSHES up
and kills somebody or is himself killed
in turn. If he lives, he will go back to
| the home camp and report that he was
on such and such a scout and Corporal
Smith was killed Also that he killed
! the party who killed the corporal. But
/ he does not know the name of the party
and most and most of the time does
not want to. The theory that governs
| the officers of the Rangers is that the
men are expected to shoot when shooting
is necessary, and that is all they are
expected to do.
They are fed on flour, bacon canned
goods, mutton, beef, potatoes and coffea.
| They do their own cooking. A negro acts
| as cook and rough handed valet for the
! Captains. He Is also driver and handles
| the four-mule team when it is neces-
| sary to take a wagon of provisions on
/ an extended scout Scouts of this kind
occur on an average twice a year. The
companys district is gone over tho
roughly, mainly with the object of i'm
pressing the rustlers with the fact that
the Rangers are still on earth. A
march of this kind will sometimes cover
as much as 1900 miles.
Partly because of settlement of the
frontier but mainly because of legis-
lative parsimony, the Ranger force has
steadily decreased in size for some years
past. Formerly it consisted of six COM
panies, numbering approximately 100
men each and lettered A. 3, G, ID, e,
and F. Company A had charge of the
Panhandle country in the northwestern
part of the State and company f was
stationed ON the lower Rio Grande. The
Others were strung along between. To-
day there are not more than fifty men
in the service all told nor are they
generally of so high class as those
who risked their lives when the force
was at it's best In the early eighties
the composition of the companies was
unique No native Texans We're in the
ranks. They were not enlisted because
it was feared that their home affiliations
would interfere with their work If 1t
became necessary to remove a noted
desperate the officers did not wish that
brother or a cousin of the desperate
should be a member of the butchering
party, Such natives as had been en-
listed had developed too wide an ac-
quaintance with the criminal element
and too much desire to assist its men,
bers in escape. The men came from all
parts of the Union and were led into
the service by a wish for adventure.
They were young and hardy, and in the
veins of most of them flowed the best
blood of America. With such men
great things were accomplished. They
We're filled with the personal pride that
is a large part of the makeup of the
gentleman, were preuX chevaliers of the
Mexican dance halls, admirers of soft
eyed senoritas and terrors of all that
tortous sandy border. Many of them
We're collegians. In Company F fifteen
years ago, We're two graduates of Yale,
one of Harvard two of Princeton, three
of the University of Virginia, and a
dozen from the smaller southern and
western schools. Some of them now
are high in political place in the state
of their adoption. Others sleep under
sandy stretches that sweep down to the
tawny river, and even their graves have
been leveled by the constant winds.
A camp of these men at an early
nightfall was a sight to be remembered
for the very incongruity of it. Around
them were the gnarled forms Of the
mosquito, black in the flickerng fire
light. Nearby the tethered horses paw
ed restlessly. OF the campers one lying
upon his belly with a stub of pencil in
his mouth and a bit of brown paper
within three inches of his nose, would
be working a sned and co-sned prob
lem for his own amusement. Another
perched upon full sack of corn, would
be studying the stars through a field
glass Another, with an eight-stringed
Mexican guitar across his knees, would
strum the accompaniment to a ditty
heard once in the cafes chantants of
Paris. Still another would discourse of |
the delights of Newport in season,
VI VI New 1bIh dllel HllulllSlll J. HeSe |
were the men who rode hard and long
in the bitter norther, or under the broil-
ing sun, whose blood hound pursuit
ended only when the hunted desperate |
turned at bay in the tearing chaparral |
and the blue smoke drifted on the morn |
ing air. From far above Ell Paso to |
on the Gulf, they pacified |
and held still through fear a frontier of |
more than thousand miles in length, |
along which lived two populations most |
turbulent. 1t was wonderful but it
cost blood.
When Coke was Governor Sergt,
Parrot, of Company r. then stationed at
drove up the river on a
lonely errand. He had with him a light
road-wagon, two fair harness-ponies, a
small tent some provisions and photo
grapher's outfit He intended to make
tintypes. The people of that region had |,
never seen an artist and thsy focked to
Parrot wherever he pitched his tent
To them his name was Wilson, and he
came from eastern Texas He nattered
the women and talked horse and cow to
the men, and when he struck his tent
and moved on, still going northward, |
they We're always sorry to see him go.
It was PARROTS practice, when his sit