Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1921-05-05
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 500 miles; the. other
the MISUNDERSTANDING from some
point on the Rio Grande to the mouth
of that stream, an approximate dis
lance Of 300 miles. The actual south
ern boundary Of the settlements at
the time Of the republic really CORE
sponded with the Nueces.
1t 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 combined length
Of more than 1000 miles Surely no
state was ever more desperately stu
ated than the young republic. Some
times she was at peace with one en-
envy and sometimes with the other;
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 negligible guam
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. 1t 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-
ton and organization. ununiformed
and undrilled, and irregular in opera
lions. 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
ha ob,
the Rangers becomes clear only in the
| light Of that knowledge which comes
from an mountaineering 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
leans 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 In
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
suddenly, mounted on the fleet prairie
mustangs, which they managed with
consummate skill. and which bore
them away with the speed of the wind
Faced Torture and Death.
Again, the Comanches never per-
nIitted themselves to be made captive
and to become their prisoner meant
torture and death. Here were the
ready-made rules by which the
Rangers 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
siX-shooter. They We're 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 n
Ranger, soldier anu newspaper man.
summed up their qualities in these
words:
'The Texas Ranger can ride like a
Mexican, trail like an Indian, shoot
like Tennesseean and fight like a
very devil" Above all, these frontiers
men were the embodiment of individ-
unlism. 1t was their outstanding trait,
their chief characteristic. They we're