The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-06-24
STIRRING TIMES IN DAYS OF GUN PLAYS Two Men Who Were Quick on
 the Trigger AN INCIDENT AT DODGE Bill Cummings Used His Skill In Tme to Save the Life of a Friend.
 Was Always a Quiet
 Man.
AN INCIDENT AT DODGE
From the Milwaukee Sentinel.

| When 1t comes to rapid gun plays. I makes just two exceptions, to my old friend Bill Cummings remarked the major he put a pinch of tobacco in a slip of brown paper and deftly rolled a cigarette. And the two that I have in mind are Wild Bill Hcok and the Apache | Kid.
 "It was down in Tombstone. The day had been blstering hot and we were sit- ting in front of the hotel enjoying the l night air
 "of course" went on the major, there may have been others, but if so l never met up with them. Gun plays ain't fash | ionable nowadays, so I reckon you all don't know much about them. But 1t don't take no mental effort on my part to recall the time when a man had to be mighty careful what pocket he carried his tobacco | in. To reach for tobacco In hip pocket always looked suspicious. and l recalls more than one man who had to quit the trail from an overdose of cold lead be- cause of just such carelessness. "In the old days of Abilene and Dodge | man wasn't expected to do much with his 1 hands in d barroom outside of reachin' in his front pocket for the price of his ob- l ligation. Beyond that he was looked on with suspicion, unless, of course, he was | known as a peaceful character, as was my friend Bill Cummings, drunk or sober. l Sober, Bill would sit in the corner of | dance hall and take in the proceedings l with all the enjoyment of 10-year-old | kid Somehow the music, scratchy as 1t was. always had peculiar influence on l Bill He didn't want to dance, didn't want to drink and didn't care for no ! rough house. He just wanted to sit In | an out-of-the-way corner and soak his soul In 1t. And as for talllin', Bill was a 1 second cousin to clam. l used to think | sometimes that he was tongue-tied. But | he wasn't. It was just his way.
 'He was the same old Bill when he was 1 in his cups as he was sober, except for | one thing. He always imagined somebody was insulting his friends. Bill would take all sorts of insults about himself and smile 'em off in d weak fashioned way; but the minute he imagined any of his friends | were getting the worst of 1t, Bills eyes | would begin to glisten. Likewise you could notice that his trigger finger would get itchy. Trigger finger ain't quite ap- | propriate in this case, maybe, because l Bill didn't have any trigger on his gun It was too slow work to have to pull | trigger so he had that obstacle removed, 1 leavin' nothing but the hammar. You recollects that the Apache Kid got wise to that time-saving scheme some time before the sheriff caught him with his 1 guard down. You know how 1t works, don't you? You merely pulls the hammer back the same time you pulls the gun' then when you get your bead you lets her flicker. And Bills long suit was in having the hammer back before the mug | gle of the gun was out of the holster
 'Blll was what you'll from the east would call q bad man, but he never pick | ed a fight Tn his life And as l remark 1 ed heretofore. he would go to the limit before making any resentment-espeeial- | ly sober And then if he made gun | play, nine times out or ten IL was Tn De- l half of his friends.
 "Bill and me drifted into Dodge one | night lust about the time when the even | Ing was getting ripe. The roundup was | over and we had two months pay in our | pockets Incidentally, we both had wild yearning to put our lips over glass or 1 the yillainous stuff that was supposed to cheer man and make him forget nls troubles We ties our cayuses in front Of l the Green Light dance hall and straight way proceeds to let the barkeeper know that we've got coin in our jeans ana | wants the best liquor In the house Ana as you know barkeeps are mighty active | after they sizes up a mans roll. In apout | fifteen minutes Bill and me had six or 1 seven adult potions slowed away under our cartridge belts. and, personally wasn't avoiding no excitfnent. AS usual. | Bill was quiet. I leaves him standfn at | the bar while 1 goes over and proceeds to | advance some superior and unasked-for | knowledge about a faro game running di- | rectly opposite the bar on the other side l of the room. I stands there fifteen or twenty minutes, making casual remarks and I am informed quietly and earnestly by the dealer that my opinions and pres ence are not exactly essential 10 the suc- cess and pleasure of the game. At which I foolishly laughs sneeringly and allows that he ain't dealing a square game. All this time Bill Is standing at the bar with his back to us talking with a friend, ap- parently with no interest In the doing. It was right here that he shows his dex- terity with a shooting Iron. No self-re- specting faro dealer In those days would ever take remark like mine without re- sentiment, and the words were no sooner out of my mouth than I hears click and sees a gleam of blued steel pointed m my direction But quick as he was. Bill was quicker He had been watching pro-
 ceedings from the glass behind the bar.
 Before Mir Dealers finger could press the trigger there was a report and pun of smoke from where Bill was standing. Then pistol fell to the noor ana a right wrist was shattered.
 Before I could realize what had hap
 pened Bill was tugging at my left arm and whispering vamos in my ears. We
 sneaks out 'muy pronto' and mounts our
 cayuses. But no trail back to the outht for us that night. We takes round
 about way over the range
 He was sure quick with the gun, wasn't he? Whatever became of Bill?'
 He's quiet. white-haired old man
 now Remember the bartender in the
 hotel there who waited on us just before
 supper?'
 Yes"
 '"That's him"