Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1899-09-14

rzNDERrE1x.
1hurston LiIlibriage was . True
Type Of the western Man-Killer-
He was . nlusterer and . Brasgart.
hat Had sand. Nevertheless.
"You often hear and read yarns to
the general effect that bad men are al
most invariably cool, silent chaps, and
that there Is no such thing as bad
man who busters, the blusterers, ac-
cording to these stories, being all cow
ards" said Jared McAlbert, a we'll
known Montana mining man who Wis
tied Washington recently.
''These yarns make me smile. The
regular bad. man is almost extinct
now, but I've met several hundred OF
'em In my day, and every man Of them
was not only wickedly bad In fact, but
also on his own confession. The worst
men of the lot were the fellows who
publicly gloated over their Infamous
deeds, the braggarts who not only an
nounced with whoops that they ate
wolves, but who were always ready to
stand for anything they said, drunk or
sober. 1t was part Of professional
bad mans badness to let everybody
know that he was bad, to yelp it out
between the cracking of his guns; to
roar 1t out in the middle of the road
whenever the fancy struck him. More
over, these self-anhounced bad men
were never called with the frequency
that some of these yarns would have
you believe. I've generally discovered,
on investigation, that the quiet, cool
bad men were fellows who shot or
stabbed their victims in the back.
II am always entertained when
read fairy tales of the way the bad
men used to get themselve done up oc-
casionally by 1at-chested, one-lunged
tenderfeet from the East. A few years
ago l read story in st. Louis paper
about the way pretty, blue-eyed ten
derfoot lad had made the famous Tor
rather infamous) Thurston Lillibridge
dance, and 1t like to have tickled me to
death. As matter Of fact, the man
never lived that got the drop on Lilli-
bridge. He committed suicide by
jumping from a second story window
in Denver while in spasm Of the d.
It's. Lillibridge was about as bad
man as ever struck Leadville when
Leadville was bad, which is saying
enough. He was the worst braggart,
the most tremendous blowhard, that
ever loved the sound of his own voice,
and yet he was bad and dangerous
way down to the ground and under
meath it. When he was drunk he
would relate the history Of his life in
nine languages, and then whistle it, as
the saying goes, solely for the purpose
of enticing some new arrival to cali
him, and he always looked grieved and
disappointed when there was no one
around to make such bad break. He
loved tenderfeet for the fun he had
with them, and this is the reason the
fairy tale about his having been cor
rallied by one of them was such good
reading for me.
1.-TWO young fellows from Camden,
n. j., struck Leadville in the fall of
1878. Each of them carried two big
silver mounted pistols in his new belt,
and their knives were new and shiny.
They were pretty strapping young
men, as a matter of fact, but they
talked too auckland a new man in
Leadville had to cheep pretty low in
those days until the layout had time to
size him up and properly label him, so
to speak. These two young men, who
seemed to have plenty of money in adj
dition to their fine outfits, didn't APP
pear to understand Leadville ethics,
however, and they toured around
among the gin mills, talking heap.
They were both fairly well loaded up
by the time they got around to Nat
Brinkerhoff's Red Light saloonS and
this made them more garrulous than
ever. Lillibridge, quiet for once, stood
at the bar when they walked in. He
looked at their fine toggery and shiny
weapons with establishment on his
face, but without saying n word. One
of the young men, the more boisterous
of the two, finally noticed Lillibridge.
YOU'RE pretty husky looking, pard,'
said he, with a dismal attempt at the
manner of the frontier swashbuckler.
Name your poison
''Thurston didn't bat an eye or say
word for a full minute. Then he
seemed to emerge from his trance,
shook himself together and strolled up
to the two young men from Camden.
Can you two kids run at IA lopez
he inquired with mock Difference.
RUM said the one who had adj
dressed him. Certainly we can run,
but we don't make a business of it.
Why?
Because said Lillibridge, hitching
up his trousers, us three are a-going to
play boss
"'HuhT said tn. talkative youth, in
quiringly.
".Hoss, l said" shouted Lillibridge.
Were a-goin' to play boss. l want to
find out If you can lope in harness as
fast as you can talk.
"As he spoke he suddenly threw a
rope over the two young mems shout
ders, hanging on to the two loose ends
himself, holding them in his left hand.
With his right he reached for one of
his guns, and planted ball about an
inch from each of the young mems
heels.
"'Git apr he howled, and the two