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Text originally published in 1961 under the same title.
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Although in most cases we have retained the Authors original spelling and grammar to authentically reproduce the work of the Author and the original intent of such material, some additional notes and clarifications have been added for the modern readers benefit.
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TRIGGERNOMETRY: A GALLERY OF GUNFIGHTERS
with Technical Notes, too, on Leather Slapping as a Fine Art, gathered from many a Loose Holstered Expert over the years
BY
EUGENE CUNNINGHAM
Foreword by EUGENE MANLOVE RHODES
Illustrations from the ROSE COLLECTION, San Antonio
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ILLUSTRATIONS
BILL LONGLEY
JOHN WESLEY HARDIN
BEN THOMPSON when Marshal of Austin
WILLIAM MILTON BREAKENRIDGE
JOHN RINGOS GRAVE
BILLY THE KID
BILLY THE KIDS MOTHER From an Old Tintype
SHERIFF PAT GARRETT
DALLAS STOUDENMIRE while El Pasos Two-Gun Marshal
JAMES B. GILLETT as a Ranger Sergeant
LONG-HAIRED JIM COURTRIGHT when Marshal of Fort Worth
COMPANY DTEXAS RANGERS. Captain John R. Hughes at Right in Front Row
BASS OUTLAW
WILD BILL HICKOK AT DEADWOOD
SAM BASS (CENTER), JIM MURPHY (RIGHT) A Disputed Picture, Presumed to Have Been Taken at San Antonio
A BRAVE MAN LIES IN DEATH HERE Sam Basss Grave at Round Rock , Texas
SHERIFF JOHN SLAUGHTER OF COCHISE
CAPTAIN BILL McDONALD, Texas Rangers
BUTCH CASSIDY AND HIS WILD BUNCH after a Train Robbery
TOM HORN
GENERAL LEE CHRISTMAS
DEDICATION
Affectionately and Appreciatively
Dedicated To
JOHN R. HUGHES JAMES B. GILLETT
Two Great Horseback Rangers
friends of mine
FOREWORD BY EUGENE MANLOVE RHODES
STORIES of old-time gunfighters are apt to be highly colored, and to vary with the square of the distance.
As you read Eugene Cunninghams tales of a few of the gunfighters of The West that Was, it is well to remember that Gene writes for the most part from firsthand knowledge and, at worst, from accounts given by participants or eyewitnesses. Moreover, these stories were gathered on the scenes of the events narrated. That meant prompt denial and confutation, if a narrator stretched his story beyond the expected and accepted variations of the partisan. No way has been invented to eliminate partisanship and the historian must allow for these variations, as the engineer allows for heat and cold in laying a pipe line.
Gunfighters....In the old days we said gunmana word exactly comparable with swordsman. Because of the modern gangster, the word gunman now carries the implication of coward, of baby-killer. It brings up the idea of seven against one; of helpless victims taken for a ride or put on the spot; of timefuse bombs and steel vests, armored cars and machine guns; the safe and shameless!
When you read these stories of the old-time gunmen, you will see that for even the worst of them, such deeds were unthinkable. If they were criminalsand some of them wereat least they were present at the scenes of their crimes, at their own proper peril...They set no dynamite to kill an enemy as he opened his garden gate. They killed armed mennot men unarmed and bound....It is impossible to imagine the worst and lowest of them, even if he were crazy-drunk, killing children or women. Some of them were pretty poor specimens. But to compare the vilest of them with such monsters as Leopold and Loeb would be infamous.
And the thought will occur to you that if some of these old-timers could come to life now, Chicago and New York could use their courage and skill, thanking God!
AUTHORS PREFACE
IFAS IS often claimedhistory is no more than biography, then the sum-total of this book must amount to history. History of the Old West. History of the New Westin those places where Old West men and Old West habits persist in this stereotyped twentieth century. But history which is a fast-moving, vividly-colored pageant, dappled now and again with the orange flashes of gunfire. History which is a record of men who were at once grimly determined, incredibly reckless and fearlessand quite unconscious of being that same. History of an era as extinct as wild buffalo. Finally, history which is as fair to all the characters concerned as I can make it.
For those who say: This is all of the long ago. What does it matter? there can be but one answer:
It doesnt matterto them. They will not be interested in this or any similar book. But there are many of usreaders and writers alikewho are interested in seeing honor given where honor is due; in pushing the braggarts from the stage they have pre-empted overlong; injust for instanceassuring a hearing to a man who was scout for Crook and Miles and Spanish War veteran of unquestioned ability, honesty and service (TOM HORN), and who was hanged in a hostile region for the alleged murder of a boy, a crime of a character fitting in with nothing in his character and for which no motive was ever shown.
The Dime Novel and the Press Agent were abroad in the land, even in the day of Wild Bill Hickok and Buffalo Bill Cody. Just for instanceduring all the years since the Civil War, Hickok has been credited by virtually every writer of western pages and by almost every writer since that marvel of the craft, Colonel George Ward Nichols ( Harpers Magazine, February, 1867), represented him as having heroically defended Stage Company property against the terrible McCanles Gang, with resultant deaths of six of the scoundrels. Hence the name Wild Bill.
As a matter of dull fact and truth, three respectable citizens were shot down, without warning, while they stood unarmed, by Stablemannot AgentDuck Bill Hickok and his boss, one Wellman.
But the original lie told by some drawer of the long bow to the incredibly guileless and imaginative and hero-worshipping Nichols still persists. It was current even in the West, during my own childhood. It was believed in fact by some of Hickoks contemporaries.
As for Buffalo Billone of the tall yarns he has been famous for telling, a tale polished for him by such as Buntline, was All About My Terrible Duel With the Great Chief Yellow Hand. Actuallyaccording to men who were on the spotCody didnt arrive on the ground until the day after Yellow Hands killing! So the press-agented figures grow taller, at the expense of the real heroes who did the work.