Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1899-04-27
GUN PLAYS IN THE WEST
SOME WONDERFUL SHOOTING DONE
BY FRONTlERSMEN.


They Mct-Chunk's Roast Beef TraI
For an Enemy-A Slip Cost His Life.
"I read in a newspaper the other
day." said an old frontiersman, "of
two men who met up in Montana, in
dulged in little rapid gun play and
both fell MORALLY wounded at the first
shot. Incidents of this sort are not
so uncommon as one might think.
Men on the frontier who use gun at
all learn to be quick with the trigger,
as the fraction of second may mean
life or death. recall one such Incl
dent in particular.
SIN the early '70s Charley Collins
was one OF the most famous and per-
haps the most desperate of the Grim
inals on the Texas border. He held
up trains, robbed stages, stole horses,
| murdered traders and committed other
crimes until the rewards offered for
his capture dead or alive exceeded
$4,000. At that time Will Anderson
was Deputy United States Marshall at
| Dallas, Texas. He was the nerviest
| man ever know. He was a dead shot,
absolutely without fear, and the terror
of evildoers He had somewhat re-
markable career. A native of Illinois,
| he went to Texas before the war. He
was drafted into the Confederate Army,
but his sympathies were with the North
and at the first opportunity he deserted
and made his way to his old home,
where he entered an Illinois regiment.
He was captured by the Confederates,
but escaped. At the battle of Shiloh
he received a bullet in the head which
laid him up for many months. When
the war closed he went back to Texas,
and his courage and quick handling
of gun brought about his appoint
ment as Deputy United States Mar
shall Before long he was the terror
of border bandits. No man got the
drop on him, and more than one man
who tried it had his career suddenly
brought to close.
SIN 1876 Anderson started out to
run Collins down. He soon made
Texas too hot for him, and Collins fed
to Colorado, and thence to Wyoming,
and to the Black Hills country, then
filled with about the toughest aggrega-
| ton Of men ever brought together.
Anderson kept close after him and
Collins started north for the British
possessions. Anderson OWNED his
plan and made for Pembina, then the
gateway to Manitoba. He had to
wait only few hours, when Collins
came into town. Both men were on
the alert. They met in the street,
caught sight of each other at the same
time, pulled their revolvers, fred on
the instant and both fell dead. Neither
spoke word after being shot. An
derson was taken back to Dallas, where
he had the biggest funeral ever seen
in that city, His family got the re-
ward. Taking =evarythinS into con-
ION, it was about the most per-
lent pursuit and the most tragic
climax / ever knew of.
''About the same time there took
place down in New Mexico an ARRAY
which was for many years the talk of
that region. Between ROTOR and
Maxwell stands an old two-story
house. 1t is hardly stones throw
from the Santa Fe Railroad track and
stands directly on the old Santa Fe
trail. The high gabled roof, the
shattered doors and windows, and the
general tumbleddown appearance of
the house give it an uncanny look. If
walls had tongues these walls could
tell many tale of robbery and MUIR
der. Old-timers of New Mexico and
Southern Colorado will remember
what the Red River crossing was be-
fore the days of railroads. They will
also recall the old two-story house
beside the road, which was the head
quarters of the toughest men of that
wild section. In the palmy days of
the Santa Fe trail Red River crossing
was an important point, and travellers
going into or coming out of the great
undeveloped territory to the south
used it as relay station. AS far as
the eye can reach on all sides of that
old adobe house is great desert, COW
cred with the curly tops of sage brush
and the long, slender tops of the soap
weed. Immediately back of the house
is bluff, and on its top is level
stretch dotted here and there with
white spots which IDENTIFY it as GEM
etery. On one of the old pine boards
in letters now almost obliterated is
painted in crude letters Chunk, and
: thereby hangs tale.
'In the early '70s, when justice in
this wild Western country was done
by vigilance committees, many bad
men infested that region. And the
most desperate of them all was
Chunk. Who he was OF where he
came from no one knew, but all rec
ognized him as thorough going des-
perado, and respected him according
ly. The most cold-blooded and out
rageous crimes were attributed to
him. and he boosted of having COM
mitted them. With ugly scars on his
face and brace of six-shooters and a
, bowie-knife in his belt, he presented a
figure which made men uncomfortable
when he met them in lonely places.
In direct contrast to Chunk was Clay
I Allison. also a desperate man, but
! possessed of many good qualities. He
lived on the Pecos, in New Mexico,