The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-08-18
SHOOT TO KILL
 NEW MOTTO OF
 SOUTH COUNTRY
Hard-Riding, Tireless Rangers Stay 2S6 Bandits In
 Ten Months.

Brownsville. Tex, Aug. 1S.-Not even the widest dime novel thrillers of Washington square artists of inag- ination, not even Zane Grey at his best, could reproduce in black and white the actual conditions on the Texas border today and expect to be believed. Facts and figures them selves are incredible.
 Right here in the Brownsville dis trict, for example, which today has civilian population several times smaller than its military, no less than 2S6 Mexicans, most of them proved bandits, have been slain in the past ten months. In that time, too, more than fifty American soldiers have been killed by bandits, seven American wo- men have been attacked, and many more widowed, and the Texas ranger rides, lone figure in short khaki jacket, boots,' spurs and widebrimmed Stetson, grim menace personified, on his tireless patrol of the Rio Grande. Only Fifty Rangers in the District There are now, including the New York division, upward of 40, brown faced, khaki-clad soldiers in the low CT Rio Grande valley. And there are about fifty rangers.
 Tell a Mexican bad man that com pany of soldiers are on his trail and he will laugh and mysteriously disap- pear in the ever-convenient and dense brush. Tell him a ranger is after him and he will blanch, cross himself with a muttered "Dios mio," and, spurring his caballo, put as many leagues as possible between himself and his re- lentless pursuer.
 The Texas ranger is the worst-fear- ed man in northern Mexico today. His law is that of the pearl-handled from tier .45 that hangs lop-sided from his four-inchwide, cartridge-studded belt.
 He shoots first and asks questions af- terward. His Jurisdiction extends un- hampered from one end of Texas to | in the Brownsville section than in any other part of the state.
 | Many and fearsome are the tales told of the rangers. They are whis- pered about camp fires at night as the mesquite burns dimly; they are moot l ed softly about in the back rooms of cantinas and monte houses; they are spoken of but seldom in public when
 there is a chance for a ranger to be near enough to hear.
 l When Mercedes Was Rafded | Last fall there was bandit raid in
 the vicinity of Mercedes, about forty miles up the river from Brownsville. Mercedes is nice little town with an
 honest government and some beauti- ful parks. It is peopled by irriga- | ton farmers from Nebraska and Iowa.
 The bandits raided a ranch three miles from the town, killed rancher, 1 carried away his wife and made their escape-all but one. That one, hotly pursued, galloped into the Mexican
 quarter of Mercedes and hid in pool room.
 Hiding under a pool table the pal
 sled man heard three rangers enter
 the place. He heard them order the poolroom keeper to deliver him. And | he heard the poolroom keeper, his
 his friend-for the bandit had been l born and raised in Mercedes-commit I the fatal error of denying Knowledge
 of his whereahout.
 Ten minutes later tiny but grim
 procession started up the road toward
 Donner, eight miles away. The three
 rangers were there, one leading, the
 other two bringing up the rear. Be- tween them stumbled the terror ! stricken bandit, the poo1room keeper,
 the poolroom keepers son, Mexican i who swept out the place for daily
 wage and another Mexican who had
 been playing on the table under which
 the bandit had hidden.
 Ranger Justice Swift
 The rangers said nothing. Nobody
 asked them where they were bound. 1 Citizens vanished from the streets and
 road as if by magic. And the next
 ADD SHOOT
 morning five bodies were found, each of them with bullet neatly drilled
 through his scalp, two miles beyond
 the city limits.
 Implacable ranger justice had done
 it's work. There have been no raids
 since near the beautiful little settle
 ment of Mercedes. Bandits shua the place as though it were the rabitat of
 yellow fever.
 The difference between the Texas
 ranger and the soldier is simple r. q | l cinctly to me by tall. sombreroed stockman.
 I 'It ain't that the soldiers aren't any less brave.' he said; tits just this:
 The soldiers only know how to shoot
 when they're told, but the ranger
 never knows when to stop shooting.
 There's just one way you can scare a
 Mexican-kill him. And there've been
 a powerful lot of 'em scared in these | parts of late.,
 | Governor Ferguson, of Texas recent ly increased by more than treble the force of rangers in recognition of the
 work they did in the Brownsville re- zion last fall and early this year. They
 have been given a distinctive uniform.
 consisting of short jacket, tall stock tboots, huge spurs, wide-brimmed hat and black trousers that are tucked
 in the boots. Their guns are uniform l-long barreled .45 Colts, most of them with the sight filed off, for a l Ranger never aims from the shoulder
 when he shoots. He fires from tho
 hip, and most of them are past mas l ters of the art of "fanning,'' or rap- idly thumbing the hammer of a gun | instead of using the trigger. For this