The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-10-29

three, and as he was proud and jeal- l; ous of his man killing record it is prob- able that he killed no more of the Sut- tons.
 On February 15, 1874 Hardin reap
 peared suddenly in Comanche with a
 crowd of his followers, who immediate
 ly captured the principal saloon of the
 town, barred the front door and pro-
 ceeded to carouse after the manner ot
 their class. Some time that afternoon
 Deputy Sheriff Charles Webb of Brown
 county arrived in Comanche with a
 warrant for one of Hardin's gang who
 was accused of cattle stealing. He sooA
 learned that the desperado and his fel- lows were embattled in the saloon, but,
 nothing daunted, tied his horse and en-
 tered the back door, which was open.
 Hardin knew him and the moment he
 put his face In the doorway shouted:
 Hello, Webb! What do you want
 here?"
 i've warrant for Cal Shelby" the
 deputy was saying as he pulled the doe
 ument half out of his pocket. But Ear
 din shot him through the heart, adding,
 T guess you won't serve it!' In the
 party with Yves Hardin when Webb was
 shot was Joe Hardin, younger broth
 CT of Wes, then posing as lawyer, but
 following closely in the footsteps of his
 lawless brother, and with a growing
 reputation in Comanche as a desperado
 and a crook. News of the shooting of Webb spread quickly over the town and | before dark the saloon was surrounded
 by a posse of volunteers. The enraged
 citizens stormed the locked barroom
 about dusk and captured four of the | inmates, including Joe Hardin. Yves
 escaped in the confusion, and rode to
 temporary liberty on the horse of the
 man he had killed. The posse deter
 mined to make an example of somebody, | hanged Joe to the nearest tree and gave
 his companions hours to leave the coun-
 ty. When the coroner examined the ef-
 fleets of the dead young desperado he
 found the seals of thirteen counties which had been profitably used for
 months by the quondam lawyer in the process of making out bogus bills of sale
 for cattle stolen by members of his
 brothers gang.
 Wes Hardin then fled toward Florida. In the suburbs of Gainesville he was overtaken by two negroes, Jake" Men Htl anu ILOUGlE DOluD, DOLll Ol NIplll had worked for Hardn's father. Inn pelled by desire to obtain the $500 re- ward offered for Hardin's capture, they attempted to arrest him as he was leav- ing his lodging place early in the morn- ing. They approached him with leyeled pistols. He had his thumbs in the waistband of his trousers and assured them he was unarmed. As they at tempted to seize him he whipped two pistols from under his vest and killed | one of them. The other was blinded | and fled for his life. Hardin was caught | at Sherevesport a few days later, re- turned to Comanche and sentenced to | twenty-five years imprisonment for the | killing of Charley Webb. He was set | at liberty under the exemplary conduct | rule in 1892 and left the penitentiary | with the reputation of having perfected | himself in the study of law during the seventeen years of his incarceration. Immediately after regaining his liberty | he clinched his reputation for being the "meanest bad man on the border" by betting $5 that he could at the first shot knock an innocent Mexican off a soap box where he sat summing himself. He won the bet and left the dead Mexican in the gutter where he fell. That he was proud of his meanness is proved by a story which he boastfully told of sn adventure in Nogales He said that in a hotel there he was annoyed by heavy snorer In the next room. Without mak- ing an effort to caution the sleeper, he put his ear to the thin board partition till he get the exact position of his snor- ;rl, h.af fra1 45-calibre bullet through the wall. The snoring stopped. The corpse was found the next morning shot through the brain, but the bad man was permitted to ride away.
 Whatever he may have known of the theory of law, his grotesque idea of It's practice was manifest when he set out for Fl Paso wearing four six-shooters and carrying a Winchester rifle. It was during the trial of the MillerFrazier cattle conspiracy cases that he arrived Accoutred as he was he went to the office of the Fl Paso Times, and, In a badly written, badly spelled "eard." an nounoed that he had come to Ell Paso 1 Ito practice law on a high plain" He ' meant plane" of course, but his spell $ Ing was as bad as his later legal per i formanceS I
 From the newspaper office he called 1t the White Elephant saloon, and at l the point of gun borrowed $100 from | he proprietor. With this ready money ne engaged in an open 'crap" game In he Gem saloon on Texas avenue, lost III his capital and then, with pistol , Il each hand, compelled the players and he croupiers to pay him back what he i. lad lost. He collected about $200 and vent back to the saloonkeeper whom he . lad first robbed, offering to buy half :. in the place for $500, and en- orcing his proposal with his ever ready He got the half interest, and before daylight all Fl Paso knew that V Yes Hardin, guns and all had come to U own to practice law on a high plane" :. For more than six months he terror zed Fl Paso. There was only one man q here who dared cross his path at all ines and under all conditions. That '. nan was John Sellman, bad man, too, I ut of different mould from Wes liar V in. After bloody career as soldier, owboy and border deputy, and with a n ecord of what he called twenty three ustihable killings" Sellman had settled own into the almost placid occupation Il f DatroliDg the streets of Fl PaSO. It II