n times the space we may afford, and would
lead us far into matters of history other than those intended. We can
only point out that the men of the Lone Star state left their stamp as
horsemen and weapon-bearers clear on to the north, and as far as the
foot of the Arctic circle. Their language and their methods mark the
entire cattle business of the plains from the Rio Grande to the
Selkirks. Theirs was a great school for frontiersmen, and its graduates
gave full account of themselves wherever they went. Among them were bad
men, as bad as the worst of any land, and in numbers not capable of
compass even in a broad estimate.

Some citizens of Montgomery county, Texas, were not long ago sitting in
a store of an evening, and they fell to counting up the homicides which
had fallen under their notice in that county within recent memory. They
counted up seventy-five authenticated cases, and could not claim
comprehensiveness for their tally. Many a county of Texas could do as
well or better, and there are many counties. It takes you two days to
ride across Texas by railway. A review of the bad man field of Texas
pauses for obvious reasons!

So many bad men of Texas have attained reputation far wider than their
state that it became a proverb upon the frontier that any man born on
Texas soil would shoot, just as any horse born there would "buck." There
is truth back of most proverbs, although to-day both horses and men of
Texas are losing something of their erstwhile bronco character. That
out of such conditions, out of this hardy and indomitable population,
the great state could bring order and quiet so soon and so permanently
over vast unsettled regions, is proof alike of the fundamental sternness
and justness of the American character and the value of the American
fighting man.

Yet, though peace hath her victories not less than war, it is to be
doubted whether in her own heart Texas is more proud of her statesmen
and commercial kings than of her stalwart fighting men, bred to the use
of arms. The beautiful city of San Antonio is to-day busy and
prosperous; yet to-day you tread there ground which has been stained red
over and over again. The names of Crockett, Milam, Travis, Bowie, endure
where those of captains of industry are forgotten. Out of history such
as this, covering a half century of border fighting, of frontier travel
and merchandising, of cattle trade and railroad building, it is
impossible--in view of the many