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Show v7hen some Texas cowboys, re-I re-I ported to be Texas rangers, crossed over the Rio Grande Into Mexico a few weeks ago and recovered the body of Clcmenta Vcrgara, an American murdered by Mexicans, i the question was asked from one end of the continent to the other. ;J who are the Texas rangers? Although It has been denied that the men who brought back the re-" re-" mains of Vergara were rangers the ' question Is still being asked. Gover- nor Colquitt of Texas In his mesaago to the President asking for permls- I'l slon to send his rangers over the j Rio Grande, again raised the ques- tlon. 'jf A few years ago the fame of the rangers tor keeping the peace on the a j border and for running down crlm-I crlm-I ; Inals In the Lone Star State was I n heard all over the land, but the Hv world forgets. Other things crowd- i In to occupy the mind. It is necqs-I necqs-I ary to answer tho question for the Bv rlslnir generation. H 'jr The answer of a Texan In Chicago M i' the other day Is sufficient. The Chl-Mi Chl-Mi cagoan said. "The Tcxns ranger Is flv the flghtfngest man on earth. He H n has the reputation of never falling H(: to get the man he goes after and he has gone after a plenty, The i: Texas ranger never surrenders. His pet ambition is to live to a ripe old age fighting all the time, and It la . hi? fondest hope to die with his boots on like Crockett, Bowlo and Travis." That -brings us to the question, who wero Travis, Bowie and Crock-L Crock-L ett? f They were the Inspiration that I created tho Texas rangers. Some of them feared God and some of them V didn't, but whether they feared God or not, none of them were ever ac-cused ac-cused of fearing anything else. Bowlo was the inventor of a cruel I hunting knife. Travis was a colo-f colo-f nel under Sam Houston, President i of the Republic of Texas before ts ;'i annexation to tho United States. Davy Crockett was a Southerner j: who migrated to Texas when he : heard there was trouble on there. ' With I30w?e anc Trav;s ne v.-as j-. assigned to the defense of tho Ala-J Ala-J mo o:i the site of the present city 'i of San Anton,' Tno Alamo wiu ;i captured In December, 1S35. by the 1T '! Texas troops who were lighting Mexico. The Texas army consisted I j of 216 men. Santa Anna, President ; of Mexico, rode tp retake the town.. I twp months later. The Texans II had sent away part of their force I I and when Santa Anna came to the H i attack there were only 3 50 Texnns flfl i in the Alamo. The Mexican army KM numbered 1,000, Commanding the Mexicans was President Santa Anna, Generals Almonte, Cos. Ses-ma Ses-ma and Castrlllon. The Texans were commanded by Colonels Crockett, Bowie and Travis, There may have been other coloneld in the enclosure. On Washington's birthday, 1S3. the Mexicans commanded the Texans Tex-ans to surrender. They replied with a cannon shot, Tho men in the Alamo were men who cared little for life. Some of them had been convicts. One had been a pirate. Colonel Travis called for volunteers to go to Colonel Fanning at Golaid for reinforcements. All volunteered, volun-teered, The pirate was accepted. Ke dashed through the Mexican lines and rode for aid. That the besieged cared nothing for death Is emphasized by Thlm-blerlg, Thlm-blerlg, one of the besieged, who was wounded by a three-ounce ball, Tho wound . was not serious. Colonel Crockett extracted the bullet and suggested that Thlmblerlg bore a hole through tho lead and use it for a charm. He refused to wasto the precious metal but remoulded It and used It In his own weapon to kill Mexicans. DEFENDERS DIE FIGHTING FOR TI2XA' LIBERTY. About thirty reinforcements came tp the aid of the Texans during dur-ing the month the battle was golpg -on. At the same limo thousands came to tho aid of Santa Anna, During the lighting Colonel Bowie became ill. Ho was forced to lake to his bed when he could no-longer stand. As he went to his bed he had several weapons brought to him. When ho was well enough to crawl he would hand these loaded to Texans who would discharge dis-charge them and In turn hand him their empty guns. Wounded men followed the example of Bowie and lay beside the fighters and loading empty guns whllo the Texans made good account of themselves. The Texas soldiers fought until theso were only six men left alive and unwounded. In the fort was one woman, a Mrs. Dickinson. Just before the finish the Mexicans carried car-ried the fort with a charge. Colonel Colo-nel Travis fell mortally wounded in the trenches. As the Moxlcana crowded over the barricades Travis raised himself to his knees and ran his aword to the hilt into tho body of a Mexican officer. Colonel Bowie was lying on his bed as the Mexicans Mexi-cans crowded to him. He shoe his weapons twenty times. The space around his bed was so covered w!UV dead and dying that the Mexicans fled from the face of the sick man and from a window shot him as ho lay on hi? bed. Tho six men and Mrs. Dickinson - - . ' s C9 driven to one corner of the fort agreed to surrender as protection to the woman on the condition that all be returned unharmed to Texas. As soon as Santa Anna got them outside the fort he ordered all but Mrs. Dickinson slain. So angered was Davy Crockett at the treachery that ho drew his sword, which had been left him and dashed toward Santa Anna to kill him. He fought his way toward the President but was killed by Mexican soldiers who stepped between him and the President. Presi-dent. Mrs. Dickinson was returned unharmed to President Houston. From the fall of the Alamo the Texas rangers arose. The men who died there were the Inspiration for brave and daring men to organize a band to protect the border. Tho rangers are not the militia of Texas. They are not the same as sheriffs. Thev are under orders only of the Governor. They do not drill as soldiers. They must know how to ride, how to sleep In the open with one eye open, and above a, they must know how to shoot. The Texas Ranger qualifies for entrance Into the organization by his ability with, arms and by signing a plodgo of sobriety. The ring of tho bit of a bridle is sot up on .t post and the applicant for tho ran?ura mupt put a certain number of (hot3 in the ring with a pistol at a distance of a hundred paces. The number of shots varies and tho distance varies, with different commanders, but it requires a high-class ot marksman-nhip. marksman-nhip. They must bo able to hit birds on the wing- The ranger has to bo absolutely careless of self. Tho men who r.iUke up the rangers rang-ers aro for the most part cowboys. Many of them havo beon reformed criminals. who wish to servo society so-ciety which they once opposed. When a ranger dies he wants to leave a record like the defenders of the Alamo. Eight hundred Mex- i General Film Company Photo, icans were killed at the Alamo. COL. JOHN C. HAYES ORGANIZED RANGERS. CqJ. John Coffee Hayes organized the Texas Rangers during tho Mexican War to aid Gen. Zachory ' Taylor. They rendered great service serv-ice at tho Battle of Monterey. Colonel Hayes was one of the most daredevil fighters. Thero is a story of his. battle with tho Comanche Com-anche Indians. He and his men fought until their ammunition wa8 exhausted all but one shot. Hayes quickly called out to ask if any man had a shot left In his rifle. A ranger named GUlespio replied re-plied that ho had roservod his rifle. "Dismount." thon said Hayes, "and make ure work of that chief." Although speared through tho hip wth aji arrow and with a bad fiesh wound in the arm, the gallant Gillespie dismounted, worked his way slowly around the circle until ho could got the chief in range, arid at the crack of his rifle, tho Comanche Com-anche loader fell headlong from his horse. Hayes wheolod suddenly, as Gillespie Gil-lespie limped to his horse again, assisted as-sisted him into the saddle and gavo the order to charge. Tho strategom which he had worked before and did afterwards with success turned a desperate situation Into a thrilling victory, for the Indlanp, when they saw tholr chief fall, and those death-defying whites beaUntr down on them with drawn bowlo knives, broke for cover. On this battlefield of Plerdenales lay qver fifty dead Coma.n.ch.0 warriors, war-riors, a bloody tribute to the deadly aim and tho daredevil spirit of these Texas Rangers. A man without high character has no chance to get in the Texas Rangers. "I can look In a man's eyos and tell whether he has tho richt stuff John R. Hughes, another ranger captain, has been an ardent Sunday Sun-day school worker for thirty years, but it didn't interfere In the least with his fighting prowess. Hughes was pursuing a band of Mexican cattle thieves ono day a number of years ago In a part of the country known as the Big Bend, a loop of the Rio Grande fl ninety miles from a railroad. He had pitched camp In a thicket of ! scrubby trees when a lone horseman horse-man appeared bringing word that a Southern Pacific train had been . robbed near Dryden. In ten rriln- . utes the rangor party had saddled i its horses and headed toward Dry-i Dry-i denf 150 miles away. They made sixty miles of the journey by daylight day-light next morning, changed horses and pressed on. Tvcnty miles out of Dryden they picked up the trail of the. outlaws, headed north. A pOie of deputy United States marshals mar-shals was on the trail, but the rangers rang-ers made a detour an-I hit the trail ahead of them. On the fourth day, after a 300-mile chaa?, they came within sight of the two outlaws. isms in him to make a good ranger," declared de-clared W. J. MacDcnald, captain of ranger?, a few yoara ago. One of them was slain in tho ox-change ox-change of shota which at once began, be-gan, and the other desperado, perching on a rock, bu his brains Jm out in sight of his pursuers. Three 'H days later Hughes and his band Mt were back in. the big country, pick- Ins up the cold trail of the cattlo 'H thieves. JH A general cleanup of the border jH . was achievd by L. H. McNalJy. cap- jH tain of rangers, In 1S75. Mexican 'H cattle thloves and desperadoes had MMt been making use of tho internation- al boundary lino to help them In - their dopredatlons. They made MM forays into Texas to burn, steal and jH kijj,and. thenT dodged, back:'acros3 ""the line Into Mexico. MoNally did not bother himself about interna- tlonal law. He fought the bandits Kn&th.-with Kn&th.-with equal onsc Jn Texas and Mex-ico, Mex-ico, and adopted a policy of no quarter. A band of fifty thieves iffa was chased Into Mexico, where Mc- aJffl Nally's men killed - twenty-nine of -SBS them without losing a man or tholr command. His reports, sent to tho lae? Governor of Texas at that time. mod wore brief and to the p.oinL Thus JiM In November, 1S75, wt find him PJ sending word: mSt "Just spent three. days on Mexican y d k soil after cattlo thieves and a Herd of 250 stolon cattle. Killed Ave MM Mexicans, wounded one." Jm |