The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1911-05-18
WAS LAW WEST OF THE PECOS.
Unique Character Everything from
Saloon Keeper to Judge.

If old Judge Roy Bean should
come back to Langtry in the flesh he
would not know the clean, modren
little city as the same town in which
ne gave vent to the eccentricities
that won him wide renown and
placed Langtry on the map.
Much that was pure fiction has
been written of Judge Roy Bean,
but when all this has been sifted
out enough remains to stamp the
Judge as one of the most picturesque
characters the great southwest has
ever produced.
Roy Bean was Kentuckian.
When he was about Is years of age
he embarked on Mississippi river
steamboat for New Orleans, but be-
coming involved in a fight on the
boat he decided to go to Texas, at
that time wild, free land. So he
went to San Antonio and conducted
a dairy for some time. When the
gold rush of 1849 and 1850 was at
tracing the venturesome to Califor-
MIA Bean went with a party from
Texas.
While in California Bean fell in
with a Mexican who was preparing
to elope with girl. Bean decided
that this elopement was not of the
girls wish, so he stole her himself.
After keeping her several days Bean
returned her to her family, but for
his trouble became involved in a
quarrel with Mexican army Off
Ger and finally challenged him to
fight duel. The officer accepted
the challenge, and, as the challenged
party named lances as the weapons,
Bean, who knew nothing of lances,
refused to fight, whereupon they de-
cided on pistols. This was Beans
weapon, as he showed by killing his
man.
The Mexican authorities seized
Bean for killing the man and SEN
fenced him to be hanged, and to this
day insist that they hanged him.
Friends are said to have cut him
down and revived him, hiding him
until he was able to travel, when he
returned to Texas.
The truth as to this hanging can
not be vouched for, as the judge
would never talk about it. Certain
it is that there was a livid scar
around his neck and he carried his
head in a peculiar manner as re-
suit of a permanently stiff neck.
During the civil war he was a
Confederate blockade runner. At
the close of the war he began carry
ing freight by wagon from San An
tonic to Ft Stockton. With the be-
ginning of construction Of the G. H.
and S. A. railway west from San An
tonic, Bean fitted up tent saloon
and moved with the construction
camps. When the Pecos river was
reached a permanent camp was es-
tablished at the mouth of the Pecos,
where it empties into the Rio
Grande. This town became the
Vinaegaron of border history. Vinae-
garon is the Mexican name of a
venomous insect. /
It was at Vinaegaron that Bean
acquired the title of Judge, he be-
ing appointed justice of the peace.
Here it was that he handed down his
famous decision affecting the Chin
ese. An American had shot and kill
ed Chinaman. He was hailed be-
fore the judge for trial and the
courtroom was crowded with his
friends, for he was popular. The
Judge after attending to the pre-
liminaries announced: Gents, I
have looked carefully through my
Blackstone, and through the statutes
OF the SCdL0 VI 1SAdS, duu hAO Ao
law against killing Chinaman. The
defendant is therefore acquitted
Another case that brought the
Judge a great deal of notoriety was
this: "a man with too much liquor
aboard fell from a bridge and was
killed. The judge, as coroner, view
ed and searched the body and found
a ssix-shooter' and about $40 in
money. AS coroner he found that
the man came to his death by falling
from the bridge. AS Judge he an
nounced: I find this man is carry
ing concealed weapon against the
statutes in such cases provided and
against the peace and dignity of the
State of Texas, and I therefore fine
him SIS and COSTS Needless to say
~; &lnk