The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-07-23
A BAD MAN FROM TEXAS.


 Among the types of bad men in the old days don't s'pose there was worse one than the fellow who delib- erately picked his quarrel" said "Gill'' Mecune, formerly deputy sheriff in the district including Austin, Texas. There was some excuse for the man who'd come galloping into town and shoot his man while half crazy with bad whisky. And there always was something honest about the fellow who'd ride away and grumble warn ing to square accounts on next meeting, for it'd be matter of which got the drop first. But the man who'd pick a quarrel and nurse it along, all the time waiting for cause to empty his six shooter into the other fellow that was the moS< dangerous of them all. And that's the sort Ben Thompson was. !
 Even to this day, when Austin has grown into full-fiedged, dignifed, quiet town worth marking on the map, there're old citizens who can tell you by the hour about orgies and the shoot ing scrapes of Thompson. Like many other of the hardest desperadoes. he was the last man you'd pick out of a crowd as killer. He was little, neat, dA1icate-looking man, tipping the scales at 135 pounds. He was always scrupulously dressed, rarely went for a stroll without cane to twirl in his soft. pink hands, and with his general makeup, his blonde hair and red cheeks, looked for all the world like a man you could we blown down with a feather. But Thompson's boast was that he hadn't missed his mark in fff- teen years; that he had never been con- victed by jury; that he had killed dozen men, and that not once had he been the first to draw his gun.
 Whats the use of drawing first?' he asked me one day. The other fel- low couldn't hit you in his first shot that's a certainly, ten to one. He's too blooming rattled and excited, and he couldn't hit barn. So, give him the chance to draw and then drop him, and there isn't jury on earth that can bring in better than self-defense' against you, That's the gospel the lit tie fellow lived up to, and it seems either he was right or he bore 8 charmed life.
 Down in San Antonio Thompson vis-s ited a gambling hell one night and took his wad with him. He played all night in hard luck and until late in the morning, losing and losing to Mexican until he got so worked up and clear mad at himself and the Mexican, that he decided to do kill. He played till his very last dollar was gone and then got up addressed an insulting remark to the Mexican and the same time slapped him in the face. Like a flash the dark mans hand was on his pistol. but 1t stayed there, for the game Thompson was trying to work was to apparent. Pull your gun and shoot, Ben taunted, but the other was not to be tricked.
 $ No; guess you're too quick and too good for me, he said, grinning and arising. I wouldn't stand chance enough.
 "Thompson drew his own six-shooter, laid it on the table and stood back a pace.
 :. Now shoot, he taunted as before. You see, you've got your hand on your gun and I've got to walk a step and reach out all this distance. Shoot away If you're man
 < < Tell you what I'll do,' said the other. I'll lay my gun down at the far end of the bar and walk six steps away from it if you'll only shoot first and he applied an epithet which. throughout Mexico and the Texas re- gions meant fight high or low; but still the Mexican refused and he departed in safety with his winnings.
 Thompson used to get his streaks of killing in spells For months and months he'd be the most agreeable, docile, quiet sort of a man, and then he'd begin to break out He usually began by grumbling Nothing seemed to suit him. He would feel the need of an orgy coming on him, and nothing would help him over 1t save to indulge the feeling. Then he'd go out and begin to drink whisky and get worse and worse, until he'd return to town on galled pony, yelling like Comanche and shooting out the street lamps. Everybody knew better than to try to interfere when he got on one of these sprees. Besides. they didn't amount to much in the end, for when he felt better he'd go to his honor, the mayor, and pay for the damage he'd done and for whatever amount he'd been fined