Year: 1875

W. ss>O " Ut utus


SAN ANTONIO, October 9, 1875.
EDITOR REPUBLICANS:


In my recent specials" to your journal,
l mentioned the deplorable condition of
affairs in Mason, one of the frontier coun-
ties. A more horrible condition of society
than exists there can hardly be imagined.
Hardly mail is received here from that
country but brings the news of the assassi.
nation of one or more citizens of the little
town. The sheriff of the county has long
since ceased to attempt to execute legal pro-
cess. For months he has changed his sleep
ing place every night to escape the weapon
OF the assassin, and the last mail brought
news Of the killing of two men. Not less
than dozen have been killed and wound
ed, and there is lively prospect of an
actual, bona Jide battle. In the case of John
Whorly, he was shot down while drawing q
man up out of a we'll in process of excava-
ton. After shooting and slashing the body
ad Rbitum the murderer deliberately took
his victims scalp aud rode off unmolested,
and no attempt has been made to arrest
him.


1t is very difficult to explain fully the
origin and progress Of this cendetta, and as
that is Of minor importance, shall not at
tempt it. The trouble started in quarrels
about the ownership of stock, and as one
murder generally begets another, matters
have gone from bad to worse until almost
the entire population is actively engaged in
prosecuting the bloody feud.


The Governor of the State has been ap-
pealed to, and unless State troops are
stationed there at once, a worse state of af-
fairs than existed in De Witt county before
that acton was taken, may be expected.


The only successful remedy for the con-
stant recurrence Of these disgraceful scenes,
is to be found in the organization of an eff.
cient body of mounted State police. Our
extreme Western frontier is the happy hunt
ing ground of the worse characters from
Kansas, the Indian Nation, Arkansas and
Louisiana. When by reason of the rewards
offered for their capture it becomes impos-
sible for them to remain in safety in the To-
calities mentioned, they flee to our frontier,
as kind of jumping off place" and live
by murder and plunder. An influx of
these vagabonds has much to do with the
condition of things in Mason county. A
stats police force, unhampered by county
lines, would make our frontier as unsafe
for them as their former haunts, and they
would remain where they belonged as they
did under the Republican administration of
Governor Davis. The preservation Of life
and property should rise above all party
considerations, and had Governor Coke the
authority am inclined t) believe he would
restore law and order where chaos now
prevails. Except in the locality l have
mentioned, our State will compare favora-
bly, with any other in the South.


The San Antonio fair is the great coming
event that absorbs the attention of our
people. 1t commences on the fourteenth
instant and will last four days. Hon. John
Hancock, Democratic member of Congress,
whose home is at Austin, is to be the orator
of the occasion. The convention of the
Methodist Episcopal Church also meets
here during that period, and Bishop Pierce
will tell all he knows about farming. The
meeting of these dignitaries is already
foreshadowed by tightne in the poultry
market. The fair will afford the outside
world an unrivaled opportunity to form
a proper estimate of tho incalculable
advantages Western Texas possesses to the
man who is seeking home. Such of your
citizens who may entertain the idea of visit
ing our ancient city, around which cluster
SO many hallowed and classic memories.
should choose the time of the fair for their
trip. We have about fifteen churches, half
Q dozen first class, gorgeous saloons and two
picayune ones, besides various other attrac-
tions, including the consoling circumstance
that the Constitutional Convention is not
in session here, but at Austin. iSaas Dec,


General Ed Hatch is again in trouble
with the civil authorities. This is the same
officer who had SO much trouble with the
civil authorities when he was in command
at Ringgold Barracks, on the lower Rio
Grande, owing to the killing of some of his
soldiers by Mexicans, and which caused the
thre at from the Secretary of War that he
would remove all the troops from the Rio
Grande if any further interference was at.
tempted by the State. That affair seems to
have blown over, but this last one may re-
suit more seriously.


will simply give you the facts, with the
however, that they may be i'm
plicitly relied on as correct. At the last
term of the district court of Kinney
county, at Observation-Disclosures Clarke) a
man by the name of Barney Gallagher was
tried for the murder of United States
soldier. Contrary to general expectation,
he was acquitted by the jury. There was
a great deal of feeling about it, and dis.
position was manifested to celebrate his
release by hanging him. Immediately after
his acquittal two prisoners in the military
of them soldier who
had killed a ciyilian--made their escape.
The grand jury, inferring perhaps that the
escape of the prisoners was not so difficult
Is it should have been, instituted an inves-
tigation and summoned General Edward
Hatch, the post commander, to appear as
q witness before them. This he refused to
do, and on the issuance of an attachment
he indorsed on the writ, substantially, that
he did not recognize the authority of the
court, or of the State, informing the sheriff |
that he should resist any attempt at cosr-
,ion, all of which the sheriff cheerfully in
aorsed on the writ. and Judge James A. |
tha ;rI- Ia A..