The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-09-02
BRIDGES, KING OF RANGE
DRANK DEEP, SHOT STRAIGHT,
 DIED YOUNG.
The Well Kept Grave in the Texas Pal handIe-The Undisputed, UnWritten VIII of Bridges.

VIII of Bridges.
 "Jfm Bridges, the cowboys friend IS the inscription on a granite monolith which marks 6 grave in the Texas Pen- handle, not far from the Oklahoma border. It is fully twenty-five miles to the nearest human habitation and even then it is isn't much of a place, yet the grave is well kept and esch year the iron picket fence which surrounds the grave is given 8 new coat of black paint. The grave is in a slight d. pression like the arena in an ann phitheater and the loving hands of trough mem have planted there a small grove of hardy trees which, de- spite all the rules of forestry, have tlourished and to-day these trees fur nish shade and shelter for the chance wayfarer in that lonely region.
 The story of Jim Bridges and his soli- tary grave is a bright spot in the his tory of locality where monotony is king. In the first place Bridges was not his name, but it was all the name the tsboys" of the "cow country knew when he came among them in the early T0s. He had money, a good physique and could both shoot and drink: these were his passports. It wasn't con sidered polite in that country and in those days to inquire for more than a mans present Wellbeing. That the man they knew as Bridges. came. of good family 'back East" and had but short 1 time before graduated from college the fellows found out, and to a close ac- quaintance Bridges one time remarked that he and his family couldn't agree.
 MODEST NOW.
 The Texas Panhandle is still con- | sidered somewhat crude, but 1t is a yertiable cradle of refinement now com- pared with what 1t was then. Men drank deep, shot straight and died young. It was into such goddess society that Bridges was cast, and, while evidently man of some culture, he became at once one of the boys" :" ]! The night was never too dark nor the way too long for Bridges to go If a I friend was in trouble or need.
 Tn short time he gathered good sized bunch of cattle, and as he paid his riders" good wages and fed them well, they sWore by him to a man, As a result, his herds prospered and he grew wealthy, until at last he became i known as Bridges, King of the Range. Riches did not change him one whit, however, and he was still the hail fellow well met he had been when "a tenderfoot. Unlike other men of his stamp, Bridges never cared to go back east and see the folks" He seldom even visited the larger towns in Texas, and when he did several of his punch l CTS" went with hin-''for his company" Whether all this was because of more sinister motive, none knew, One time, 4 it is related, he accompanied a bunch of cattle driven from one of his ranches Ito Dodge City, Kas. While there a distinguished looking old gentleman, wearing silk hat and snowwhite fsideburns, alighted from q train and with a sweet-faced old lady marched arm in arm up and down the platform. I One cowboy, a little drunker than the rest, raised his revolver to puncture ithe .'stovepipe, < when Bridges. with an l oath, ..covered' the facetious comrade, lsaying: Put that down, you d-il .l fool, and remember your mother, zIt was noticeable, however, that he kept out of sight of the couple until they Iclimbed back into the train, and he never could be persuaded to go to Dodge City again.
 l HANGING INCIDENT.
 T All the ranchers in those days expe- Irienced considerable trouble with cat ltIe thieves, known as ''rustlers,7 and lBridges was no exception. But he lwaged a relentless war against them iWith considerable success. At one time, lafter a chase of several hundred miles, a band of these dasperadoes was corn cred and forced to surrender. The lethios of the coutry demanded that they be hung at once to the nearest tree. lCaptors and captiyes had reached the favored spot which boasted a tree, when Bridges interrupted the impending cere-
 monies with remark that he wished to
 speak to the leader of the band. The moose was already around the fellows meek. but 1t was withdrawn, although This hands were still tied behind him, He and Bridges walked a short dis
 tsnee from the others and conyersed in
 low tones. At length they came back
 and to the expectant circle Bridges
 said:
 sThey were my cattle this fellow stole
 weren't they?"
 ! The crowd assented.
 Then reckon this fellow is my ! prisoner, since I'm the injured partly,
 isn't he?''
 "Yep,, remarked the crowd in unsion
 Then I decree that he goes free 2 said Bridges, and suiting the action to This word he cut the bonds about the
 cattle-thief's wrist and, while the fel- low, who was astride his horse, prepara- tory to riding beneath the fatal tree
 where severalso fhis companions already Ehung, dug his heels into his pony $ flank and raced out across the plains Bridges stepped back and faced the
 crowd with his hands resting lightly or
 his hips, near to his brace of six-shoot.
 CTS. There was no objection, however
 and after completing work" the cattle.
 men rode home, but it was quietly
 found upon cornparting notes, thai
 Bridges and that "cattle rustler" looked
 enough alike to be brothers @
 \ One spring Bridges was caught out ir
 a blizzard, and hardened as he was, he
 contracted cold which settled on his \ lungs, and from which he never re-