The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1936-05-19


about this and that.
II ANGTRY, Tex, May 19.-In
H. southwest Texas, tradition re-
wolves around Judge Roy Bean, self
styled Law West of the PecoS" back
in frontier days when horse-steal-
ing was worse than murder.
Judge Bean held court on the
porch of his saloon. He always had
two things on the bench in front of
him-a law book, which he didn't
know how to use, and a six-shooter,
which he did.
Books have been written about
Judge Bean. He died in 1903, but
his saloon is still standing in Lang
try, empty now.
I drove past Langtry, and took a
picture of the saloon, and asked a
couple of loafers If anybody was
still around who remembered Judge
Bean.
They said just one fellow was left,
and that was Ike Billings, who lived
on ranch four miles out.
So I drove out over the desert to
Ike Billings place.
He'd just come in from pointing
up" lambs, which means cutting
their tails off and shipping their
ears.
LIE washed up and then we sat
l. l. sat down and talked. Ike Bill
ings didn't look as though he were
| old enough to remember Judge
Bean. Billings is one of these hard
working, well-preserved desert men.
He was SO last week and has a
daughter 81 years old, but he doesn't
look more than as.
He was born in nid-TeXas. near
San Antonio, and came to the Pecos-
country in '93.
Sure, I used to play poker with
Judge Bean a couple of nights a
week." Billings says. He was a
queer character, but people around
here liked him.
st remember once cowboy fell or
| jumped off the railroad bridge up
here piece and was killed. They
found $40 and siX-Shooter on him.
The Judge convened court over the
| body, and took the SiX-Shooter and
fined the fellow $40 for committing
suicide, and then had the county
bury him because he was pauper.
There was pile of rocks outside
Beans saloon, ana he kept a big.
sign out there saying Ice Cold
Beer In those days the railroad
ran right through town, and in the.
summer tourists would get off here
to get a cold drink"
"THEY'D ask for beer, and it'd be
L hot when they got it, and
they'd say How about that sign|
and old Bean would roar and yell,
Who in hell ever heard of ice IN
this country in the summertime?'
HE had another stunt. These
tourists would get some beer and
give him a ten or twenty dollar bill,
and then he'd monkey around very
busy and let on like he was having
trouble making change, and the first
thing you knew the train was pull
/ ing out and the tourists would have
to run and jump on without their
change"
Billings himself was 'the law"
here for six years. That was after
Bean died, and old man Dodd was
| justice of the peace, and Billings
was constable.
His territory covered all the coun-
| try west of the Pecos, and he had
to do a lot of horseback riding.
II never did have any trouble"
Billings says 81 never was shot at,
and never shot at anybody but once.
and then I missed him. 1t was
dark rainy night, and I was chas-
ing Mexican who had killed a fell
low on the railroad. I shot at him
when he ran around building"
billings moved out to this
- ranch in 1911. He had $500 head
of sheep and some goats and few
cattle. He has 10000 acres of des-
| ert land, and IS miles of fence
around it.
Most people wouldn't give cent
an acre for it," he says, but we
like it here. We don't have things
very fancy, but we get along"
II guess it's true I'm the only old
timer left around here Old man
Dodd died last November, and the
others have died or moved away"
Ike Billings, like every person I
have met on the desert, is friendly
and hospitable.
II sure wish you had been here
last Wednesday," Ike said. Owe
had big goat-fry down the crick
here, celebrating my birthday, and
people from all over this part of
the country were here. If you ever
come past this way again, you want
to be sure and stop to see u.s.