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Show Texas Rangers I Real Fighters H Most Picturesque Body of Fight- ing Men the World Has Ever Known. fought two wars at once B Organization Dates 'Back to Time When the Lone Star State Was a Separate Republic Self-Rell- ant, Resourceful and Brave. Dallas,- Texas Is the only state uliicli lins the distinction, not to sny privilege, of working out Its own In- stltutlons before becoming a lueuibur of the Union, writes W. I. Urhb of the history department of the Univer-B!ty Univer-B!ty of Texas In the Dallas News. This fact has Riven Texniis u singular feeling of Independence and has en fbrlncd the state's Institutions with la peculiar Interest for Mioso within I mil many without her bonders. Her BfliS, her presidents, her 'orolgn urn-flbusadurs, urn-flbusadurs, her army and navy, all hnve-Hjwmc hnve-Hjwmc In for a share of hc song and Bitory, the history una tradition of the Lone Star republic. S Of all her Institutions, however, fans has none which has attracted bore attention at homo and nbrond Blun that organization of lighting hen known as Texas Hungers. BJ lust what Is tho Texas Hunger? jw question enn be answered best Hfy finding out what he has been, discovering dis-covering his origin, tracing his development devel-opment and examining his duties. The wet date of tho origin of the Hangers lost In tho obscurity of early Texas utory. Stephen F. Austin mentioned hem In his letters of 1813, nearly n cntury ago; Huncroft ascribed their Beginning to 18.18, but In this he wns learly wrong, for tho Hangers hail ot onlv come Into existence but had cqatretl n legnl status beforo that laie. Rangers Date Back to 1835. When Texus revolted, In 18ar, n enernl council met, and, as a part of ms work, authorized tho llrst Hanger force. This organization wns to con-'t con-'t of tlirec companies of 23 men ich, one to range east of tho Trlulty, no between thu Trinity and Hrnzos nil tho third between tho Hrnr.os and he Colorado. The men wero to servo lcly as protection against the In-Hans, In-Hans, the remuneration being $1.25 a lay. .i iu - ewi.w Thus was tho Texas Hanger force fented In tho midst of revolution, and fom that tluy to this It has existed most constantly In some form, hough under varying titles. The llrst settlers from tho United tntes wero Introduced Into Texas by ephen F. Austin during tho latter rt of lail, now Just ono century Ko. Why did tho Mexican govern-'t govern-'t permit nn alien raco to como In? here are several reasons well known n the historian, nnd It Is said that e of them was tho desire to place '"no strong arm between thu timorous Icxlpnns, like thoso of Snn Antonio, nil the wild Indlnns. Tho Comanche's 'rse might become too hard to hold, lulen sabo? Howcer this may bo, a ixanilntttlon of the land grants tu t Americans will show that h,'lr holdings tend to form u tier ly "K roughly between the timber bolt n, the prnlrlo reglom In short, the iiniTleuns from tho United States hT ' M"'rvu ns n ,)U""er hetween thq " tribes nnd tho interior settle-"'"ts. settle-"'"ts. and on thorn was to devolve "Musk of conquest at which both win and Mexico had failed. Mexico Unable to Close the Door. "He the door of Tuxas was open "e Americans pushed In with that UHy Mirgo which carried the Anglo- "iMirnn civilization from the Atlwi- to the Pacific during tho first half 'the lust century. Mexico, hecom- ! " nl'irined, undertook to close the "r, bUt t Wns too lntc TJie Tex. '-ri)r sueh the Immigrants had be- "w- not only stood oft tho Indluns, "i "iriipd on tho Mexicans and wrest-rrom wrest-rrom the,,, Texan Indopondenco In .. '. J,,st 15 years after they had en-'fwl en-'fwl the tlllt, hpr ,,""C' howover, they found iti t'V'"1 '" n ni08t Iiri'parlotis sit- t im'y wcro cnught, ns It wore. ln ilie Jows of a great vise. One frontler-the Indian extended nlong the edge of the great prnlrlo from the Hlo Urande to the Hod river a distance of COO miles; the other the -Mexican stretched from some point on the Hlo Urande to the mouth of that stream, an approximate distance dis-tance of 300 miles. The uclunl south-ern south-ern boundary of the settlements nt the time of the republic really corresponded corre-sponded with the Nueces. It should also be observed that for every mile that the Indian frontier was pushed back, the .Mexlcnn lino wns lengthened by Just so much until the two attained n combined length of more than 1,000 miles I Surely no state was ever more desperately situated situ-ated than tho young republic. Sometimes Some-times she wns at peace with ono enemy en-emy and sometimes with tho other; but again she folight them both. Wnr was tho nfie, the commonplace of dally life, nnd death wns tho price of defeat, for the enemies of Texas knew no mercy. Devising a Fighting Force. What ort of fighting force .would Texas devise to meet this unhnppy situation? Had the state been populous popu-lous and wealthy, as she Is today, the answer would have been simple. In those days her population wns less thnn that of Dallas, ami her promise to pny was worth about 10-centson the dollar. Hard money was n negligible quantity. quan-tity. These tilings mnde a standing army Impossible. Whntever lighting force was provided must bo small and Inexpensive In order to be mnlntnlncd nt nil. It must rise In time of need nnd disperse when the danger had passed. Such aro the circumstances of our early history out of which evolved this peculiar lighting force. ' These early Hangers were semi- ' military In character, varied In forma- ' tlon and organization, ununlformed ' nnd uudrllled, and Irregular In opera- tlons. They were, In a sense, Indlg- ' enous to Texas, having sprung from 1 the soil made fertile by the blood of ' their kinsmen, and they soon became ' tho frontier lighting force par excellence excel-lence of the world. They were the forerunners of such organizations ns ' the Northwest Mounted Police of Can- udn, the Cape of South Africa and ' tho Pennsylvania Stnte, though unlike f any of them. They were tho Anglo- ' American solution of tho problem of i tho frontier. Tho true character of the Hangers becomes clear only In the I light of that knowledge which romes I from nn ncqunlntniiccshlp with the t nature nnd disposition of their foes, J the Mexicans on the one hand and tho r Indlnns on the other. i- TiVllftl lmi(- nTluirlnnrn it'tftli .tin fn. f Irnns the Texans had come to djstrust every word and deed of tho race. They doubted their honor, feared their mercy and despised their valor lessons les-sons denrly learned nt tho Alamo, Goliad nnd Snn .Incluto. From the Indians, In-dians, whose position on the West linn already been Indicated, they also took hard lehsons, Tho Comnncho warrior was n terrible foe. courageous, cunning nnd cruel, an adept in nil tho prnetlces nnd subterfuges of partisan ' wnrfare, and In order to meet him tho i Hanger had to adopt his tactics, For i example, the Comnnches nlways enmo i suddenly, mounted on the fleet prnlrlo i mustangs, which they managed with ', consummate skill, nnd which bore I Ihcin uwny with tho spied of the wind 1 Faced Torture and Death. I Again, tho Conmnclios never pur- mltted themselves to bo made captive I and to become their prisoner meant I torture nnd death. Here wero tho l teady-mnde nVes by whlcli the i Hangers had to fight. They w-ire of i necessity superb horsemen, using their ' legs mostly for mounting nnd sticking 1 on. They wero sure ninrksjveii, show- i Ing great preference for the revolving ' six-shooter. They were verred in wood-craft wood-craft and possessed nn t'xranny seno 1 of direction, nnd thny know the loro 1 of (ho forest ns well ns thnt of tho : plain. Col. John S. Ford, himself n ' Hanger, soldier una newspaper man, summed up their qualities In these words : "The Texns Hanger can ride like n Mexican, trail llko nn Indian, shoot like a Tennesseenn nnd light like u very devil." Abovo nil, these frontiersmen frontiers-men wore tho embodiment of Individualism, Individ-ualism, it wns their outstanding trait, their chief characteristic. They -vert- ; self-reliant nnd resourceful, frequently extricntlng tliemsclves from dlfllcul-tics, dlfllcul-tics, not by lighting but by quick thinking. Only one thing In wnrfuro they had forgotten In their long struggle strug-gle with n dual foe, and that was to surrender. They gave quarter sometimes some-times but never asked and never expected ex-pected It. Their lenders wero natural lenders, men who possessed In n high degree tho qunlltles they Jinlred In others nnd found essential to themselves. A few of these men were John C. Hays, Him McCulloch, John S. Ford nnd tho two Hosses. The rnnus wero filled with those courageous ones who loved action nnd adventure bettor than enso mil gnln. Did Valiant Service. In 1845 Texas Joined the Union. The Mexlcnn war followed Immediately, during which tho Hangers performed such valiant service ns scouts and guerilla lighters with the armies of Taylor nnd Scott that they wore heralded her-alded us heroes tlronghout tho nntlon. In 187-1 tho Hangers wero reorganized, reorgan-ized, six companies of 75 men ench. Hut an important change was mado In their status and duties. They were to piotcct tho frontier and fight Indlnns ns before, but, In nddltlon, they were given the power of peuco ofllcers. On the northern border they fought Lono Wolfe, Little null nnd other Comancho warriors; on the southwest they guarded the Texas. sldo of tho Hlo Grande ngalnst Cortlnn and his band of cattle thieves; In the Interior they pursued nnd killed Snin Hass, broke up the Sutton-Taylor feud and drove the road agents under cover. When not moro uctlvely engnged, they guarded prisoners, protected courts nnd dispersed lynching parlies. The Hangers wero busy men In those days I In their doublo capacity of sol-dlers sol-dlers nnd pence olllcers they presented n novel experiment In government, and one which did not escnpo criticism. In fact, all tho criticism thnt has ever been brought ngalnst tho Texas Hangers has been brought ngnlnst them In their capacity as peace ofllcers. ofll-cers. He that ns It may, during tho ten years following this reorganization reorganiza-tion tho Hangers pushed tho Indlnns to the very limits of Texas, and nt the same time rendered tho Interior ii safe nnd decont plnce to live In. The success of their work was duo largely to tho high personal courage nnd indomitable spirit of tho ofllcers and men. With tho passing of tho Indian raids, tho Hnngors wero relieved of further purely military responsibility, and from 1885 to the present thoy hnv dovoted themselves largely to tho maintenance of law and order within the state. |
