Williams news., 1911-12-23

vicinity of a congressional coat tail. Staid. weaponless inhabitants of large cities have ceased wondering at well known gun toters" from the south and west; in fact, the gun l toter'' is becoming less numerous with each succeeding congress, though there be plenty now. But if the gun { toter" has ceased to be a cause for wonder the gun fighters of congress were all their records known, might excite comment.
 For congress has gun men; real live fighters, with Kit Carsons on i their gun stocks and regulations fol. speed on the draw and bird's-eye brand of accuracy. Several have rec | ords for having got their man, and { at least one has put several bad actors away. Others have come out of hos t tile powder smoke with marks of the | conflict or after having left their op- l ponents so marked.
 Representative Ben Johnson of Ken lucky, chairman of the committee on ! the District of Columbia, besides serv- ing a term as speaker of the Ken lucky house, came out triumphant
 and with whole skin after four years as collector of internal revenue for
 the Fifth Kentucky district-and life
 insurance rates are high on revenue
 collectors in the Blue Grass state.
 | It was while Mr Johnson was
 speaker of the Kentucky house in l 1887 that he made his best gun rec
 ord, though he was known as good
 man on the trigger even before then.
 Johnson as speaker was the storm cen
 ter of a bitter factional fight The ele-
 ment that Johnson fought hardest contained @ number of well known
 gun fighters; and Johnson, knowing it
 carried his own gun handy Four bad men" took it upon themselves i to get Johnson out of the way. Meet i ing him on a lonely road one after noon they invited him to start then l and there for the state line. not to re- \ turn to Kentucky upon pain of death on sight And they didn't keep their 3 guns under their coats. either. MT. . | Johnson killed two of them, wounded 9 another, and the fourth ran.
 3 In the course of his service as col t lector of internal revenue Johnson ] had occasion several times to use
 his gun in a hurry And it is gener | ally understood he used it to good ad vantage.
 Johnson is not the only member of the Kentucky delegation who has ,. carried a gun to good advantage
 Caleb Powers, the Republican mem v Der. thrice tried for the murder o r Governor Goebel of Kentucky, found n' g slight solace in the companionship o r a blued steel six-shooter during th' fierce private and political feud z through which he fought his way t U a seat in the house.
 al Judge Fucker of Colorado began hi
 gun record as soldier of the Con federate army. and continued his Ia K mfliarity with firearms while practie
 ing law in Missouri and Kansas at Id | time when lawyer carried sometnln
 besides bound volumes of Unite
 States statutes when he went to cour
 In 1879 he moved to Colorado and d st yided his time between the practc 1n | If law and the care of fiourish1n il, young ranch. near Denver. Prett n. soon. however, he was presented wit al. the alternative of giving up his la ,d- practice or abdicating in favor ( ry itinerant gangs of western renegade , who were in the habit of paying tn l ranch unwelcome attention.
 Being by that time more or le:
 -sot in his ways" Judge Fucker d
 cided to dispute possession with II
 next gang of invaders When u
 smoke had cleared away. one of Il
 gang was good and dead, several ot CTS wished they were, and the re N had beat it." Fucker handled
 shotgun and a six-shooter far t | "keerless" for their health He hasr
 been bothered much since.
 Representative John E. Raker
 California is known as the Eighth U Judge of Modoc." First, when the is
 and order committee had done a go
 nights work by hanging number
 bad men" and cattle rustlers, Rak
 defended them and procured their lin quittal-always with brace of pa ,n1a fiers under his coat. Later. wh ,as. county judge, he was called upon ,.d decide a case in which number rlas bad men were vitally concerned. HI
 ing been warned that the in the ev' nv of a decision adverse to the defe ion ants he would not leave the col 'ter room alive. Judge Raker, upon seat s Q himself on the bench at the open uo of court, pulled forth brace of b iu forty-fives and carefully laid tn .; where all might see Then he deci'