The record-union., 1899-09-04
GENUINE BAD MAN.
He Played Hoss With the Tender
feet.

He Played Hoss With the Tender
feet.
'tYou often hear and read yarns to
the general effect that bad men are
almost invariably cool, silent chaps.
and that there is no such a thing as
a bad man who busters, the blusterers,
according to these stories, being all
towards" said Jared McAlbert, a we'll
known Montana mining man who yls-
tied Washington recently.
These yarns make me smile. The
regular he devil Of bad man is almost
extinct now but I've met several hun
dred of 'em in my day, and every man
of them was not only wickedly bad in
fact, but also on his own confession
The worst men of the lot were the fell
lows who publicly gloated over their
deviltry, the braggarts who not only
announced with whoops that they ate
wolves. but who were always ready to
stand for anything they said, drunk OF
sober. 1t was a part of a professional
bad mans badness to let everybody
know that he was bad, to yelp it out
between the cracking Of his guns; to
roar it out in the middle of the road
whenever the fancy struck him. More
over, these self-announced bad men
were never called with the frequency
that some of these yarns would have
you believe. I've generally discovered,
on investigation, that the quiet, cooP
bad men were fellows who shot or
stabbed their victims in the back.
"I am always entertained when L
read fairy tales of the way the bad
men used to get themselves done up
occasionally by hat-chested, one
lunged tenderfeet from the East. A
few years ago I read a story in a St.
Louis paper about the way pretty,
blue-eyed tenderfoot lad had made the
famous (or, rather, infamous) Thurston
Lillibridge dance, and it like to have
tickled me to- death. AS a matter OF
fact, the man never lived that got the
drop on Lillibridge. He committed
suicide by jumping from second
story window in Denver while in
spasm of the d. t.'s. Lillibridge was
about as bad a man as ever struck
Leadville when Leadville was bad,
which is saying enough. He was the
worst braggart, the most tremendous
blowhard, that ever loved the sound OF
his own voice and yet he was bad and
dangerous way down to the ground
and underneath it. When he was
drunk he would relate the history OF
his life in nine languages, and then
whistle it, as the saying goes, solely
for the purpose of enticing some new
arrival to cali him, and he always
looked grieved and disappointed when
there was no one around to make such
a bad break. He loved tenderfeet for
the fun he had with them, and this is
the reason the fairy tale about his
having been corralled by one Of them
was such good reading for me.
1.-TWO young fellows from Camden
n. J., struck Leadville in the fall OF
1878. Each of them carried two big
silver mounted pistols in his belt, ana
their knives were new and shiny.
They We're pretty strapping young men,
as a matter of fact but they talked too
nuch-and a new man in Leadville had
to cheep pretty low in those days until
the LAYOUT had time to size him up and
properly label him, so to speak. These
two young men, who seemed to have
plenty of money in addition to their
fine outfits, didn't appear to understand
ethics, however, and they toured around
among the ginmills, talking a heap.
They were both pretty well loaded up
by the time they got around to Nat
Brinkehoff's Red Light saloon, and
this made them more generous than
ever. Lillibridge, quiet for once, stood
at the bar as they walked in. He look
ed at their toggery and shiny weapons
with astonishment on his face, but
without saying a word. One of the
Young men. the more boisterous of the
two. finally noticed Lillibridge.
"'You're pretty husky looking, pard.'
said he, with a dismal attempt at the
manner of the frontier swashbuckler-
Name your poison
'"Thurston didn't bat an eye or say q
word for full minute. Then he SEEM
ed to emerge from his trance, shook
himself together and strolled up to the
two young men from Camden.
"'Can you two kids run at a lopez he
inquired, with mock Difference.
".Run?' said the one who had ad-
dressed him, Certainly we can run, but
we don't make a business of it Why?'
Because said Lillibridge, hitching
up his trousers, us three are a-goin' to
play hoss.
"'Huh?' said the talkative youth,
inquirngly.
'Hoss, I said!' shouted Lillibridge.
'We'er a-goin' to play boss. I want to
find out if you can lope in harness as
fast as you can talk.
'As he spoke he suddenly threw
rope over the two young mems should
ers, hanging on to the two loose ends
himself, holding them in his left hand.
With his right he reached for one of his
guns. and planted a ball about an incn
from each of the young mems heels.