Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-02-08

= Asst survivors of the pictur-
esque age of the open trail and
the 2-gun man, the Texas
Rangers are lighting to keep from
being crowded into the yesterdays.
The third attempt in ten years is
being made in the Texas Legislature
to disband this little body of hard
riding, straight shooting frontiers
men. For while their shaggy Chaps
and flapping sombreros have been
discarded for plain blue serge suits
and soft black Stctsons, in them
still lives the spirit of the frontier.
There is nothing about these soft
spoken, somberly clad men of gentle
mien to distinguish them from their
innumerable fellows of the present
day unless it is their swarthy cheeks
and steady eyes. At home they are
plain citizen of the Lone Star State.
There is no braggadocio in their
speech-no swagger in their man.
ner.
But in the saddle, their carbines
swung beneath the skirts of their
saddle, the rangers are the incarna-
tion OF the chasef Silently, untiring-
ly they follow the trail of the law
evader as relentlessly as ever did
the wolf of the old plains days fol-
low Its quarry. Their only one
thought is ito get their man." and
the ranger is proud of his organiza-
tions record of unvarying success.
Their story is woven inseparn bIy
into the history of their state. Even
before secession of Texas from Mex
leo, the rangers had been organized
as vigilance committee to protect
the whites from the depredations of
Mexicans. In the Mexican War
they made themselves so feared that
ever since 1t has been their humor-
Gus boast that the Mexicans declare
they could whip the entire United
states II 1T were not for Texas. And
after that war, the rangers were re-
tanned by the state as a frontier pa
troll. pa"
Gave No Quarter
In keeping the border cleared of
pandits they have permitted nothing
not not even international boundary
ilnes' TO interfere with their work
as in 1875. when Captain t. TT No
Nally was ordered to make n ean-
eral cleanup of the foragine hands
from across the border who were
terrorizing the frontier. He adopted
policy of no quarter and fought
lndiscriminately in both Texas and
Mexico. Chasing q band of fiftv
thieves across the border. McNaIlv
and his rangers killed twenty-nine
OF them without losing a man
HIS official reports were short and
TO the point. as when he sent word
to the Governor of Texas:
Just spent three days on Mex
lean soil after cattle thieves and n
herd of two hundred and fiftv stolen
ed one."
Thrilling in all it's details tho hi,
tory or the rangers, sometimes. he.
comes grewsome. as when McNaIIy
returning from another chase into
Mexico, brought back the bodies of
thirteen Mexicans and exhibited
them in the plaza at BrownsvilIe as
an object lesson to their compatriots
But 1t hasn't been the Mexicar
alone who has feared the RANGER
Train robbers. cattle rustlers and ali
sconding bank clerks have found life
unhealthy in the Lone Star STATE
Jonh *. HuRheS. another caDtain
was chasing band of cattle thieves
up in the Big Bend country. when
late one afternoon messenger
brought him word of a train holdun
near Dryden. one hundred and nifty
miles away.
In ten minutes Hughes and his
rangers were in the saddle, headed
for Dryden. They covered sixty
miles before daybreak. Twenty
miles out of Dryden they picked up
the trail Of the train robbers, de-
toured around body of United
States deputy marshals. and on the
fourth day. after a 300-mile chase.
caught up with the two bandits.
A Picked Body of Men
In the ensuing revolver duel one
robber was killed, and the other.
jumping on the rock behind which
he had sought shelter, shot himself.
Three days later Hughes and his
band were following the cold trail
OF the rustlers back in the Big Bend
district. e,5
The rangers. for the most part, are
recruited from former cattle men.