El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1899-03-02
is demanded of them by the citizens of

the border.
Out of hundreds of extraordinary
deeds of bravery two will give some
ideas of what the Texas rangers have
been doing in the southwest for adj
vsncing civilization. In July, 1870,
the rangers were making the last of
many campaigns against rhe Conan
ches. Quanah was the new chief then.
He was living few years ago. when
he described the last battle in 1870
with the rangers as follows:
Heap bunch of rangers rode out on
the prairie, tied their horses to the
saddle horns by their br dies, aud open
ed fire on US. My men fell fast. We
fired and tried to kill horses. Then
the rangers lay behind the dead horses
and killed us like grass; we tried to
rush them; twice we tried and failed.
After much time they did not fire SO
fast. We thought powder and bullets
all gone. Then, as we were going to
charge again, they all stood up. They
were very much locoed (deceived). At
last we charged, but you rangers don't
fight like pale faces, but you killed us
like grass. COmanches had heap more
men in that battle than rangers had.
Several years ago the rangers &C
complished the capture of the famous
band of outlaws and cutthroats known
oo GL0 Dill SOOh SouS' EOi OiCNSh
years that gang had murdered, robbed
pillaged and had wrecked railroad
trains and burned the homes of set
tiers. Detectives, sheriffs' posses and
bands of outraged ssrmers and cow
boys had pursued the bandits again
and again. The Cook gang had al
ways fought shy If Texas, especially
localities where remnants of rangers
were yet in force. Capt. Watson form
IL n Nf he ta1 lie,
of the final capture of the terrifying
gang in the following words:
Zone evening we received q tele-
gram worded: Bring boys and sad
dies: hot work. This came from
Bellvue, Tex. on the Fort Worth and
Denver road, 290 miles southeast of
Amarillo. We packed up our saddles,
put our guns in good order and took
the train. We left the train just be-
fore reaching our destination, so as to
prevent suspicion of our movements.
1.-THE man that sent the call for
help met us and said that he had locat-
ed out in the country a bunch OF men
that had been acting strangely. We
waited until dark and sent to the live
ry stable for horses. Then we rode OFF
toward the place where the strangers
we're.
"We lay near the house until day
light and captured one OF the despera-
does who was acting as sentinel. He
did not wish to go with US to the house,
as he said there was to be tremendous
fight; so we tied him to a tree and ad
vanced. The outlaws did not know we
were near until we raped on the door
and asked them to come out and see
how pretty the weather was. Their
reply to this polite Invitation was sew
eral shots through the door. We then
opened fire and those within replied.
Finally ball from one of our guns
struck the magazines Of a winchester
in the hands of one of the outlaws and
q piece of the broken magazine cut q
deep cash in the outlaws chin. They
all then retreated upstairs and kept
up the firing. We broke in the door
and fired into the room above through
the ceiling, when the OUTLAWS decided
it was time to ring sdOwn the curtain
and surrender. They came down stairs
with their empty hands in front of
them, and we gave each of them pair
of bracelets. 1t was four out of Bill
Cooks gang of six, and We had six men
on our side. Among the captured was
'Skeeter,' Cooks right bower. keep
as q memento of the affair Skeeter's
leather coat. a pair of huge spurs taken
from the dead body of one of the out
laws, and Cooks belt of cartridges
found in the house, though Cook him
self was absent and thus escaped capt.
ure,b