Show most popular of police forces organized over sixty years ago and there Is no other organization on earth like it there is no police forca or militia on earth quite like the texas rangers the organization has been famous for sixty years but at length with changing conditions it seems likely soon to disappear it is still enormously popular in texas and its members and vec crans enjoy peculiar privileges throughout the state gon maury of texas saye that the history of the old rangers the present rangers are in some sort legal successors has never been written and can never be as the actors and participants in their glories are scattered and dead the original were organized in 1830 by sam houston they helped to bring about texas independence and subsequently to defend the frontier against the assaults of indians and mexicans from that time to this abe texas have existed in one form or another A company of forty former rangers is now fighting for the freedom of cuba and an organized force of rangers ander the pay of the state helps to maintain order in the wilder parts of texas when the civil war broke out lion terry an old ranger organized the famous body of men known as terrea texas randers Ra composed almost entirely of former rangers and frontier men they fought from bull run to appomattox and lost 7 per cent of their original muster roll soon after abe close of the civil war the texas legislature leei slature provided for calling out 1000 rangers to protect the frontiers against hostile indians it was stipulated that the requisite men should be raised if possible in the counties of denton cook montague diee young parker palo PintO hill erath bosque co manche hamilton coryell lampasas brown San saba McCulloch Mason menard llano williamson burnet blan comal kendall gillespie kerr bandera uvalde archer medina atas cosa and such as border these it has been tub policy ever since to take the rangers from abe border counties and they are in fact what would have been called deais ago wardens of the marches it was ft formidable little army thus provided and for some years thereafter abe rangers formed a strong body of troops As late as 1873 there were organized and armed along the frontier of texas twenty eight minute companies of rangers and four more companies were mustered into service late that year or early abe next the various state troops of texas from 1865 to 1883 effectually followed parties of indian marauders had eighty four fights with indians and mexicans killed eighty two indians wounded sixty two and captured six killed twenty seven mexicans and wounded five recovered nearly stolen horses mules and cattle and three citizens carried off by indians and desperadoes during those years citizens killed and eighty one carried kofl by indians or mexicans thirteen rangers were killed and horbes and mules cattle and 2100 sheep and goat were stolen there were in addition many minor outrages which the rangers were called upon to red reee conditions had so far changed in texas by the year 1889 that the rang ere were no longer needed for defense hostile indiana as indian braidi raidi had ceased but the force now reduced in numbers was still active in the of desperadoes along the bor der some of them raiding mexicans others native products and all more troublesome from the fact that increased vigilance on the mexican side of the rio grande tended to confino the operations of euch persons to texas the rangers made in the years 1889 90 arrests mostly of desperate criminals among them 76 murderers cattle thieves and 25 robbers and burglars although mexican outrages bad decreased in numbers and abe indians had utterly disappeared from the state the rangers from december 1892 to november 30 1894 made more than arrests the texas rangers of today and of recent years have been officially designated the frontier battalion up to 1879 the battaglion bat tallion was composed of six companies companies A and were disbanded about twelve years ago there were then forty men in a company officered by a captain a lieutenant a sergeant and a corporal the present organization provides for only captains and sergeants and the force was cut down last year from fourteen men in each company to seven a mere handful old ranger but they are all aces abe whole battalion now austera only men the dwindling body of heroic and adventurous traditions is held in vast respect throughout all the border counties of texas and every border youth of mettle wishes to servo in the rangers an old ranger may have almod anything that the border counties have to bestow and it is from among the retired rangers that sheriffs and other county officers are usually chosen any unmarried man over 18 years of age is eligible as a ranger but it is an exceedingly difficult matter to get into the organization courage physical soundness first rate horsemanship precision with firearms and steady habits are the requisites for membership the term of enlistment is one year the ranger furnishes his horse accoutrements and arms while the state furnishes food for the men forage ammunition and medical attendance the pay of captains is a month of sergeants 50 a month and of privates 30 a month the force ia made up of young acen sober well ordered and as a rule fairly well educated the randers of today attend to business in the same thorough fashion as their predecessors and in small bandi of six or eight men they pursue and capture the worst desperadoes of the border counties we live in the saddle and the sky is our root say the rangers and this is almost literally true for the greater part of their time passed in the active pursuit of criminals the raiding ranger takes a horse where be will and may arrest or search in any part of texas although the organization of the rangers is military they are distinguished by no uniform most of them wear long boots flannel shirts and abe broad brimmed texan hat each man weirs a belt with a six shooter on one side and a bowie knife on the other while each carries a repeating rifle taste and vanity occasionally suggest special adornment and a rangers hat may be a coebly affair Q banah the comanche chief whose braves the rangers put to flicht in 1870 now lives in northern texas he recently described alie battle to a young ranger thy rangers said quanah rude out on the prairie tied their horses to the saddle horns by their bridles and opened fire on ue my men fell fast we fired and tried to kill horses then the rangers lay behind their dead lorees and killed us like grass we tried to rush them twice we tried and failed after much time they did not fire fast we thought powder and bullets all gone then as we were going to charge again they all byod up the took off their hats aud yelled we were much locked deceived at last we charged but you rangers dont fight like pale faces but like devils we killed thirty four but you killed us like grass there were sixty eight rangers against Co manchee in this fight one of the latest notable exploits of the rangers was the capture of the bill cook gang of cutthroats operating in texas and indian territory fullerton one of the rangers who took part in the capture describes it thus one evening we received a telegram worded bring boys and saddles hot work thie came from bellevue on the fort worth and denver road miles southeast of amarillo we packed up our saddles put our guns in good order and took alie train we left abe train just before reaching our destination ti as prevent suspicion as to our movements the man that sent the call for help met us and said he had located out in the country a bunch of men that had been acting strangely we waited till dark and cent to the livery stable after horses then we rode off toward the place where abe strangers str angera were we lay near the house until daylight and captured one of the desperadoes who was acting as sentinel lie did not wish to go with us to the house as be said there was to be a bell of a fight so we tied him to a tree and advanced the outlaws did not know we were near unil we rapped on the door and asked them to come out and see how pretty the weather was their reply to this polite invitation was several shots through the door we thea opened fire and those within replied finally a ball from one of our guns struck the magazine of a winches ter in the hands of one of the outlaws and a piece of the broken magazine cut a deep gash in the outlaws chin they all then retreated up stairs and kept up the firing we broke in the door and fired into the room abare through the ceiling when ajie outlaws decided it was time to ring down the curtain and surrender they came down stairs with their empty bands in front of them and we gave each of them a pair of bracelets it was conr out of bill cooks gang of six and we bad six men on our side among those captured was skeeter cooka right bower I 1 keep as a memento of the affair Skee tera leather coat a pair of huge spurs taken from the dead body of one of the outlaws and Cook abelt of cartridges found in the house though cook himself was absent and thus escaped capture |