Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-10-28

ried blankets with us, and wherever
darkness overlook us on the plains or I'm
the chaparral there we lay down and slept.
For two years l never once had so much
as the shelter of a tent over me at night.
If ii rained We pulled our hats over our
faCes-fOr ram drops are cold when they
strike the bare skin at highland slept the
sleep of tired children after a hard days
play; if it showed we let the snow add a
white covering to our beds and slept the
sounder for Ii. But frequently we rode all
night long, to he where we could sur
round some desperate stronghold at dawn
and arrest-or kill, II they showed fight
those whom we sought
Well armed with six-shooters and car
bines, ure!ess riders, ready at all times to
seek danger, quick to shoot and well able
to shoot straight. McNelly's Rangers were
a formidable body Of men, and II did not
take long for their fame as fighters to
spread from one end OF the state to the
other.
on one occasion thirty Of US pursued a
body OF Mexican raiders five miles into
Mexico and fought them there They out
numbered us more than ten to one and
they fought their best, but we killed twen-
ty-seyen Of them and finally brought the
others to terms and made them return the
cattle they had stolen. At another time
seventeen of the rangers met fourteen OF
the Mexican raiders on an open prairie
and attacked them under a hot fire They
killed one of our number but we killed the
whole fourteen of them.
Twenty-Five Against Hundreds.
With twenty-five men we went to the
stronghold of King Fishers great band OF
desperadoes, numbering hundreds of the
most desperate outlaws in Texas, and
fought them to a standstI. scattering the
band and killing a number of the worst
men in Ii when they resisted arrest With
seventeen men. under Lieutenant Jesse Lee
Hall, we succeeded in putting an end to
feud OF forty years standing in De Witt
county, although both sides, numbering
hundreds of men, were arrayed against us
We made 40 arrests in that county in one
month-most of them for murder. We
pursued and captured stage robbers, train
robbers, bank robbers and any number OF
lesser criminals who had successfully de-
fled the efforts of the sheriffs and other
peace officers, and once we put down a
serious railroad riot by simply riding on
the scene, giving few yells and firing our
siX-Shooters in the air. The rioters disap-
peared quickly that we laughed.
Never We're men more obedient to their
superior officers in times of action than
the rangers and probably in ne like or
ganlzauon was there ever such a lack Of
military discipline" when there was no
work to do. The officers treated the men
as their social equals, they were. We
were not soldiers and hardly of the ma
terial of which soldiers are made
But very few Of McNelly's Texas Rangers
are alive now. Many of them went over
the range" in the service OF the state. and
others have scattered far and wide.
few of the survivors will be at San An
tCnio at the rangers reunion, but their
hair will be streaked with gray and the
weight of years will be on their broad
shoulders-for the times of which L write
are those of nearly quarter of a century
ago.
There are very few rangers still in the
service of the state, but their work IS light
now compared to what their predecessors
mad cut out for them. Still. they are eff
caclous, brave officers Of the law and al
ways acquit themselves well when called
upon to assist a sheriff in rounding up
some particularly dangerous criminals