The Holbrook news., 1921-05-13
Texas Rangers
 Real Fighters

One frontier-the Indian-eXtended along the edge of the great prairie
 from the Rio Grande to the Red river,
 distance of 800 miles; the other
 the Mexican-stretched from some
 point on the Rio Grande to the mouth
 of that stream, an approximate dis
 tance of 300 miles. The actual south
 ern boundary of the settlements at
 the time of the republic really core
 sponded with the Nueces.
 It should also be observed that for
 every mile that the Indian frontier
 was pushed back, the Mexican line was heightened by just so much until the two attained a combined length of more than 1000 miles Surely no state was ever more desperately situ- ated than the young republic. Some times she was at peace with one en- emy and sometimes with the other 1; but again she fought them both. War was the rule, the commonplace of daily life, and death was the price of defeat, for the enemies of Texas knew no mercy.
 DeVising Fighting Force.
 What sort of fighting force would Texas devise to meet this unhappy situation? Had the state been popu- lous and wealthy, as she is today, the answer would have been simple. In those days her population was less than that of Dallas, and her promise to pay was worth about 16 cents on the dollar. Hard money was a negligible quan- tity. These things made a standing army impossible. Whatever fighting force was provided must be small and inexpensive in order to be maintained at all. It must rise in time of need and disperse when the danger had passed. Such are the circumstances of our early history out of which evolved this peculiar fighting force.
 These early Rangers were semi military in character, varied in forma- tion and organization, ununiformed and undrilled, and irregular in opera tiOns. They were, in a sense, indig- enous to Texas, having sprung from the soil made fertile by the blood of their kinsmen, and they soon became the frontier fighting force par excel lence of the world. They were the fOrerunners of such organizations as the Northwest Mounted Police of Can ada, the Cape of South Africa and the Pennsylvania State, though unlike any of them. They were the Anglo American solution of the problem of the frontier. The true character of the Rangers becomes clear only in the light of that knowledge which comes from an acquaintanceship with the nature and disposition of their foes, the Mexicans on the one hand and the Indians on the other.
 From long experience with the Mex jeans the Texans had come to distruSt every word and deed of the race They doubted their honor. feared their mercy and despised their valor-les- sons dearly learned at the Alamo, Goliad and San Jacinto. From the h. dians, whose position on the West has already been indicated, they also took hard lessons. The Comanche warrior was terrible foe, courageous, cunning and cruel an adept in all the practices and subterfuges of partisan warfare, and in order to meet him the Ranger had to adopt his tactics. For example, the COmanches always came mounted on the fleet prairie mustangs, which they managed with skill, and which bore them away with the speed of the wind
 Faced Torture and Death.
 Again, the Comanches never per mitted themselves to be made captive and to become their prisoner meant torture and death. Here were the ready-made rules by which the had to fight. They were of necessity superb hOrsemen, using their legs mostly for mounting and sticking on. They were sure marksmen, show ing great preference for the revolving They were versed in wood craft and possessed an uncanny sense of direction, and they knew the lore of the forest as well as that of the plain. Col. John s. Ford, himself a Ranger, soldier and newspaper man, up their qualities in these words:
 'The Texas Ranger can ride like a Mexican, trail like an Indian, shoot like a Tennesseean and fight like a very devil" Above all, these frontiers men were the embodiment of individ- ualism. It was their outstanding trait, their chief characteristic. They were