The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1910-09-28
WHAT FORT WORTH WAS LIKE
THIRTY-FIVE YEARS AGO.
DesperadOes From All Parts of the
Earth COngregated There. Atmos-
phere Literally Lead-Laden.

Earth Congregated There. Atmos-
phere Literally Lead-Laden.
Thtrty-five years ago, when a GER
tain smooth-faced young man, fresh
from law college, went to Fort
Worth, Texas, he found it a very
nerve-racking place, to say the least.
In fact, the man who walked the
streets of the town unarmed was re-
garded as decidedly lacking in com
mon sense. This summer that same
young fellow now JUDGE Thomas F.
West, while visiting in New York.
discussed the old days in the Texas
city with party of friends, and what
he said was decidedly worth listen
ing to.
AT that time, about 80 years ago,
said Judge West, Fort Worth was
only a frontier hamlet of about t.
100 people, but things were pretty
lively at times, with the cowboys
on one side, the Comanche In
dams on the other, and the Next
cans between them You never
knew when you went out in the
morning whether you would be back
to supper, because the most peacea-
bly-inclined citizen was likely to get
a bullet meant for somebody else.
Many a time l have walked in an
atmosphere that was literally lead
laden, when, upon my soul, there
wasn't a person in the community
that had a grudge against me.
In the way of business there
wasn't much doing except killing
buffalo for their hides. The Texans
hardly knew the difference between
civil and a Grim nal law book, for
they hadn't had much use for either.
1t was seldom they got a chance to
hang a man. If a bad man ran
amuck he was seldom captured, for
there was always a fight, and it US
ually lasted until one side or the
other was wiped out The lawyer
that talked the longest and the deep
est from his lungs generally made
the best impression in a court room.
Of course l used my voice to cope
with the other members of my pro-
/ fession | found there.
remember
was the trial of Big Tree and Sata-
no, two Indians who had undertaken
to murder Gen. William T. Sherman.
| assisted the prosecution. l will not
attribute it to my effort, but both
! Indians were sentenced at Jackson
/ boro to be hanged l shall never
| forget how Big Tree received the
| sentence. He simply sat down and
said: oh, hell!' President Grant
reprieved the men at the instigation
of lot of women. who had got up
| some sort of sympathetic plea for
poor Lo.
THE country down there was alb
solutely wild. You could get all the
| land you wanted for so cents an
acre. Desperadoes from all parts of
the earth were cOngregated at Fort
| Worth. 1t was not an uncommon
thing to find the bodies of two or
! three dead men scattered about town
in the morning, and there was no
way of telling who had done them
up. Generally there was no means
of Identification, for the country was
full of black sheep of respectable
/ families in the east and elsewhere.
and many mysterious disappearance
/ in other parts of the country un-
doubtedly had their sequel in the
streets of Fort Worth.
Naturally everybody had to go
about armed. 1t was foolish to go
without a gun. Everybody had to
be on the lookout for Indians and
Greasers and bad men. The Indians
hated the Mexicans. The Mexicans
hated the Americans, but would al
ways run to them for help if the
Indians got after them; and the In
dams would do anything to get
mules.
Outlaws Prominent Socially.
Everything was wide open in Fort
| Worth in those days. Faro and rou-
/ lette-any kind of game-6ourishe
There was Joe Horner, who thought
nothing of killing a man now and