The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-08-27
DIED LIKE HIS BROTHERS
HANDSOME VIRGIL, ANOTHER OF
THE carp FAMILY, GOES TO
HIS ACCOUNT
PISTOL SHOT FROM COWBOY
Had Several NOtches on His Gun
Most of His killing Done
While ~ Peace
0Mcer.

A fourth book In the wild, red history
of the carp family was closed In Wilcox,
Arizona, last Sunday. Cowboy Boyett
wrote "fnis" with a pistol shot on the
last page of handsome Virgil's record.
just as it had been written by Ike Clan.
ton for Julian and by some unknown for
Morgan down in Tombstone twenty years
ago.
In the early and tumultuous days of
Tombstone the Earp boys were more ia
nous than the mines that made the town,
says correspondent of the Philadelphia
North American. Their record was writ
ten in red with free hand and they
were admired, hated and feared as heart
lily and by as many men in the territor-
les as ever were the James boys in old
Missouri. Strong, daring, expert with
lethal weapons and quick to use them.
governing their relations with their fell
low men by the simple, primitive code
that Kentucky gave to the Southwest,
the Earps were an epitome Of the life
Of the frontier a quarter of a century
ago, before the railroad carried the East
and the ten commandments to the West,
blotted out the frontier and brought its
romance so near that 1t lost It's lure and
revealed It's ugly blots and blemishes to
the coldiy critical eye Of the lawabiding
states
The Earps were the natural product Of
their time and the raw-edged social COR
ditions of a pioneer community, and they
were no worse than most of their fellows
better than many, because in them the
qualities of sturdy, vigorous, impulsive
manhood were more highly developed.
THEY WE'RE BAD MEN
Judged by the code of civilized. sober
minded society, they would not stack
up" very well. They were gamblers, IA
70 dealers and fighters. They might not
have been conscious of the impulses
which made them seek those places where
life was widest and toughest. but they
were in full natural sympathy with him
who wrote;
Oh, for lodge in the red, red West.
On the crest of a crimson hill,
Where / can paint without restraint
Creation redder still.
The Earps were man killers. Now, that
does not mean that they were assassins,
murderers in the sense that Holmes was a
murderer. But with them, as with most
men of the border. there were other
things more sacred than human life
According to their code-the same code
that all Of us accept without SILVER as
perfectly natural when we read The
Three Guardsmen." "a Gentleman OF
France the Arthurian tales or any me-
dieval or ancient romance or history-ae-
cording to that code they were not male
factors when they shot man in sudden
quarrel or in enforcement Of law.
AS Wyatt carp, the oldest and now the
only living member of the quintette, said
to me. complaining somewhat resentfUily
| of the tendency Of newspaper writer's to
| speak disapprovirgly of his feats of
slaughter. 81 can't blame myself for any
| of the trouble I've had"
Killing q man, in frontier parlance. is
trouble"
"I never killed man unless had to
| do it,
WE'RE AGENTS OF THE LAW.
In fact, the Earps did most of their
| killing as peace officers, as did most OF
| the noted bad men, of the West. In
rough frontier towns men of their sort
| were In demand ma 1aT11tU