mon between thieves and outlaws, and the
representatives of law and order,--themselves not always duly
authenticated officers of the law.

No one man can have lived through the entire time of the American
frontier; and any work of this kind must be in part a matter of
compilation in so far as it refers to matters of the past. In all cases
where practicable, however, the author has made up the records from
stories of actual participants, survivors and eye-witnesses; and he is
able in some measure to write of things and men personally known during
twenty-five years of Western life. Captain Patrick F. Garrett, of New
Mexico, central figure of the border fighting in that district in the
early railroad days, has been of much service in extending the author's
information on that region and time. Mr. Herbert M. Tonney, now of
Illinois, tells his own story as a survivor of the typical county-seat
war of Kansas, in which he was shot and left for dead. Many other men
have offered valuable narratives.

In dealing with any subject of early American history, there is no
authority more incontestable than Mr. Alexander Hynds, of Dandridge,
Tennessee, whose acquaintance with singular and forgotten bits of early
frontier history borders upon the unique in its way. Neither does better
authority exist than Hon. N. P. Langford, of Minnesota, upon all matters
having to do with life in the Rocky Mountain region in the decade of
1860-1870. He was an argonaut of the Rockies and a citizen of Montana
and of other Western territories before the coming of the days of law.
Free quotations are made from his graphic work, "Vigilante Days and
Ways," which is both interesting of itself and valuable as a historical
record.

The stories of modern train-robbing bandits and outlaw gangs are taken
partly from personal narratives, partly from judicial records, and
partly from works frequently more sensational than accurate, and
requiring much sifting and verifying in detail. Naturally, very many
volumes of Western history and adventure have been consulted. Much of
this labor has been one of love for the days and places concerned, which
exist no longer as they once did. The total result, it is hoped, will
aid in telling at least a portion of the story of the vivid and
significant life of the West, and of that frontier whose van, if ever
marked by human lawlessness, has, none the less, ever been led by the
banner of human liberty. May that banner still wave