The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-10-29
THE RANGERS GREAT RECORD.
FAMOUS TEXANS WILL REUNITE,
IN SAN ANTONIO NOV. =.


Thieves and All Manner of Desper-
ndOes-IiVcd in the saddle and
Were Always Fighting. Sometimes
at odds of Ten to one-IC They
Met Resistance Their Opponents
Were Either Killed or Captured.
The story Told by n. A. Jennings,
Who Served Three Years in Their
Famous Ranks.
san Antonio Tex, Oct. 27.-The Texas
Rangers. an organization made up of for
mer members of various companies Of the
Lone Star states famous frontier fight
ers. VIII meet in san Antonio Tex, Nov. ..
IL is likely that many hundreds of ex-
Rangers will be at the meeting, for about
5000 of these men are stin alive, and they
all take a great pride in the organiza ion.
Some of the eX-Rangers are old, white
haired men who fought the murderous
Apaches. Comanches and Kiowas I'M the
40s and SOS. but the greater number are
those who saw equally dangerous service
on the Texas frontier in the fifteen years
Immediately following the civil War and
whose principal duty it was 10 drive out
the Mexican raiders from across the RIO
Grande and to overcome the white despe-
radoes who banded together and terror
lied the settlers of the border counties.
In all truth it may be said that no body
of frontier constabulary in the history of
the world ever held such a record of
bravery and effective work as the Texas
Rangers. They have been magnificent
aoh
of them fought their way through Santa
Annals army 10 the Alamo to join it's lit
tie band of desperate defenders. and there
gave up their lives with Davy Crockett,
Sam Bowie and Travis.
Those men were the original Texas Ran
gers, and their example has ever been in
the minds of their successors, apparently,
for it Is a matter of common knowledge
in Texas that no Ranger ever shlrked his
duty or turned his back 20 the enemy, no
matter what were the odds against him.
In the war for the independence of Tex
as, in the Mexican War and in the Civn
War the Texas Rangers did notable SER
vice. Many of them Joined the Rough
Riders when the Spanlsh-American war
was declared and of them Col. Roosevelt
has written:
I'VE drew a great many recruits from
Texas; and from nowhere did we get n
served in that famous body of frontier
fighters, the Texas Rangers These need
ed no teaching. They were already train
ed to obey and to take responsibility. They
were splendid shots, horsemen and trail
ers. They were accustomed TO living IN
the open. to enduring great fatigue ana
hardship, and to encountering all kinds
of danger"
But wars have been but incidents In the
career of the Rangers, for they have been
fighting a war of their own on the Texas
frontier for over sixty years! During all
That time they have fought against the en-
emies of law and order in their state and
have had hundreds upon hundreds of bat
ties and skirmishes with the enemy The
work of wrestling Texas from the control
OF the lawless element which formerly
reigned supreme along her borders has
been slow, but il has finally been accom-
plshed by the Rangers, fighting for every
foot of ground throughout the long years.
The Writer n Ranger Himself.
1t was my high privilege to be a Texas
Ranger for nearly three years-from 1876
to 1S7S-and therefore feel qualified in a
measure TO act as their historian, although
the limits of this article are far TOO circum-
scribed to admit of any but the briefest
reference to the work of the Rangers, az
a whole. l shall rather confine myself 10
telling of some of the exploits of my inn
mediate comrades in the service of tho
state and endeavor to give in sketchy out
line an idea of our life from day to day
in camp and in the saddle.
Capt. L. II. McNelfy, who had achieved
fame throughout the Southwest as a lead
er of irregular cavalry in the Confederate
service during the war, was in command
Of the Ranger company which | Joined at
the age of nineteen on the Rio Grande
border. There were but little more than
forty men in our company, but The first
work we were set to do was to put an end
to the cattle stealing by thousands of
Mexican raiders along The Rio Grande
a task which had proven too great for the
many United States troops stationed along
the river. The raiders were well organized
and had carried on their depredauons for
years. They were fine horsemen, expert
plainsmen and courageous fighters when
cornered. Their leaders were notorious
bandits who had fought their way to their
places of command.
But although the Rangers in our troop
were little more than boys-they ranged
from eighteen to twenty-three years of Jge
and McNelly himself was under 30--thcy
did not shrink from the work ahead OF
them. The captain had picked his men
from thousands of applicants and The re-
suit proved how splendidly he could Judge
men. doubt If such a fearless body of
young dare-devils ever took the saddle IN
the service of any stale as were McNelly's
Texas Rangers. But there was nothing of
the border ruffiian, cowboy" element in
the makeup of the troop. They were all
well educated young fellows, many Of
them college graduates, in whose veins
flowed the best blood of the South and
Southwest. They were real gentlemen adj
venturers'-not of a kind, however, with
those who sailed the Spanish main
They had sought excitement out on the
open prairies whore wild cattle and Wild
horses sill roamed at win and whe.e tho
last herds of the buffaloes yet grahed, but
the Ranger company offered superior in
ducements for such as they anI II was
with zeal and enthusiasm they entered the
SERVICES of the estate.