Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, Volume 1, Number 3, February 1990 Page: 80
[28] p. : ill. ; 22 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal
We were loaded for bear as the cowboy says and we went
where we pleased and was never molested. We were gone
on this trip about ten days and had a big time. I shall never
forget, on our way home out near old Texana there was a
negro tournament8 in full blast so we decided to take that
in. We watched them make a few runs and finally a big black
negro rode out in front of the judges stand all dressed in blue,
yellow and green. The judge called out "Now the Knight of
the Crimson Lance will run" and when he started, we started
after him shooting our pistols and yelling. The negro looked
back and missed the first ring, dropped his lance and took for
the woods. We followed as he was going our way and we
put him in the timber. We came on home and just how the
tournament came out we never knew.
This broke up the friendship between Stafford,
Pierce, and Grimes. I am not sure, but in the spring of 77
or 78, we delivered to Elesonl* several thousand head of
beef cattle and they were drove through to Dodge City,
Kansas. Here I saw my first big stampede. No man can
describe a stampeded herd of cattle that never saw one and
and dishonest hand. It is doubtless the work of some parties who have
been prevented from following their nefarious avocation of killing and
skinning other people's cattle, and who are chagrined because they have
been prevented in their business of robbery. We have no idea it was done
by a committee, as alleged; and the manner of branding good citizens with
a presumed crime; over an anonymous signature, is prima facie evidence
of the cowardly spirit that prompted it. The threat of burning the prairies
and inflicting a hardship upon hundreds of innocent citizens of the county
shows that no gentlemen were engaged in it. If we commit any wrong, our
residence is known and we are amenable to the laws of the country; but
we do not propose to be driven from the pursuit of a legitimate business by
the threats of a set of cowardly cattle-skinners and thieves who have not
the manliness to confront us with any charge of wrong dealing face to face,
but use the weapons of the poltroon (an anonymous posting in a public
place,) to injure our good names. We ask pardon of our friends for noticing
this pusillanimous and miserable subterfuge in this public manner, and do
so only at the instance of friends who have counseled us to this course.
Very respectfully,
S. W. Allen
R. E. Stafford
Columbus, July 14, 1877
18 Recreations of medieval jousting tournaments were popular
entertainments of the time.
19 Meaning, evidently, James F. Ellison of Caldwell County.80
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Nesbitt Memorial Library. Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, Volume 1, Number 3, February 1990, periodical, February 1990; Columbus, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth151376/m1/12/: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Nesbitt Memorial Library.