Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1899-02-27
A NEN MEXICAN EP|SDI
The Gun Play of a Bad Mar
From Nowhere, and
Its Sequel.
A BARROOM TRAGEDY.
The Strangers Method of Dealing
With a Refusal to Imbibe
With Him.

P""Oh' TyeS anu eun-Ihe
Bartender Knew His Business and End
ed the Difficulty With Great Prompti-
tude.
Where he came from or who he
was nobody knew. He was not com
municative, and nobody was tempted
to ask him. That he was bad all
hands who saw him agreed when he
rode in through the new town and
began drinking in the saloons about
old Las Vegas Plaza. You could read
II in his burnt red skin and wide, low
cheekbones. and thin, straight lips
and square jaw. 1t was just as plain
that he was mean of disposition and
bound to get meaner with every drink
he took. He was tall and wiry of
build and carried himself like n man
who knew what it was to take care
of himself III rough places, and ii
was an ominouS sign that while drink
brought an ugly gleam into his eyes,
1t did not feaZe him a bit or make
him talkative. 1t was the winter of
80 the year after the Atchison road
came to Las Vegas. and toughs and
desperadoes and gamblers from every
where had tiocked 20 the town, which
was the biggest and hottest on the
line of the New Mexico division.
He had been drinking pretty stead
lily since 10 O'Clock in the morning.
and it was about in the afternoon
when | stepped into the Escudero sa-
loon, where he was standing at the
bar" said Ellis Lyford, sometime of
New Mexico, continuing his account
of an episode which he prefaced with
the foregoing personal description.
81 was new in the country or | might
have remarked the circumstance that
the saloon was pretty empty for that
hour in the day. The bartender, in
white jacket and apron, two cattle
men talking business at table in one
corner, and the stranger. with his ell
bow on the counter, We're the only
people there when | entered. / asked
the bartender if friend of mine had
been in, and then, before going out,
called for drink. | swallowed the
whiskey and had turned toward the
door when the stranger spoke to me.
Have a drink he said. | caught
the eye of the bartender. and he gave
me look which said Go away as
plainly as words could have done.
Please excuse me- said. Il have
just had one
You're making too much talk the
stranger said and turned t, the bar
tender. Set out the stuff and cou-
pie of glasses. The gentleman with
a drawing, sarcastic emphasis on the
word, is going to do me the high honor
to take drink with me-
e" The gentleman says he does not
want to drink said tn, bartender
setting before him whiskey bottle
and a glass.
THE stranger filed the glass to the
brim and, not taking his eyes from
mine, pushed it along the counter to-
wards me. | saw that he meant to go
through with what he had started to
do. it, was his first outbreak since
he had begun drinking in the morn
ing, and all the homicidal devil within
him, which had been coming to the
surface as he turned in the liquor, now
had full control.
Watching him, was aware that the
cattlemen had stopped in their CON
versation to look, and that the bar
tender, "A fresh-faced, boyish-looking
young fellow, was pulling the bottle
toward him as he wiped the counter
with Il cloth.
" SO you'll not drink your whiskey
said the stranger, with an ugly set
ting of his jaw and a drawing Mt the
corners of his thin lips, as shook my
head. You'll take it this way. them
and with a motion as sudden as cats
he threw the whiskey into my eyes
AS, blinded, smarting and half knock
ed off my feet by the shock, | clung
helpless to the counter crashing
sound was in my ears and noise of
the falling of flying glass, then the
slam of chair overturned in the
corner where the cattlemen were, and
the footsteps of men gathering about
me. Somebody wiped my eyes with a
wet towel and the bartender's voice
said:
Come with me. Here, step around
little, this way. Now straight
ahead
Holding my hand and with one arm
around me, the bartender was guiding
my steps to the back of the saloon
He turned me aside once as we went
but not so quickly but that my foot
tripped against something on the floor
which | knew to be the body of
man. Then / heard him pouring water
into a basin, and he said: Now, dip
your eyes in this and keep them there
till the doctor comes
'By the Time the doctor came. which
was in few minutes, the smarting
of my eyes was nearly gone, and |
could see as well as ever. With nv
face in the water had not paid much
attention to the comings and goings
in the room, but when | lifted my head
and looked around saw crowd of
men standing about a man stretched
out on a plank laid across some whis-
key barrels. 1t was the stranger who
had thrown the liquor in my eyes
and he was as dead as Julius Caesar.
A smash in the head with whiskey
bottle had settled him short, and it
was the boyish looking bartender who
had done the trick
L landed the bottle none too soop.'
the bartender said to me afterward.
He had his pistol half way out when
he went Gown. Why should he wish
to kill you? Ask me something easier
All l know is, some men get that way
when liquor is in them
] IN In