Showing posts with label bad outlaws. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bad outlaws. Show all posts

Saturday, December 23, 2023

Almost Christmas

 



The great Feast of the Nativity is almost upon us and lights went on at the Compound after a traditional trip to Walmart for last minute Christmas essentials. 

Now look here, punters, some traditions are good and we love them, they add depth, meaning and continuity to our fleeting lives. But other traditions are bad, like going to Walmart right before Christmas.

I tell you, and I'm no snob, don't laugh, it's true, that it was rough in there tonight and this is a country Walmart. Parse that as you will, while recalling that the rule of law is comparatively new here.

Speaking of which, could someone please make a law banning people from wearing pajamas in public, at the supermarket? But I won't neck-tattoo-bang-on, you get the picture. That in mind, let's recall the opening words of the governing Prayer (Collect) for what's left of this season.

Cast away the works of darkness and put upon us the armour of light. Needed, eh?

Stand Fast Against Leviathan,

LSP

Sunday, September 27, 2015

Hill County Outlaws


Pedro Vial, a Frenchmen hired by the Spanish to find a route between San Antonio and Santa Fe, was possibly the first European to enter the territory that became known as Hill County, Texas. That was in 1789.

In 1870, a 16 year old John Wesley Hardin was busy in the county, drinking, gambling and killing. By January of that year, Hardin had shot and killed 8 men, the first in a long list of 42 slayings that Hardin claimed before he was shot and killed in an El Paso saloon, in 1895 by Constable John Selman. Hardin wasn't alone.



In the years following the Civil War, Hill County was reportedly "infested with outlaws and desperadoes" who actively resisted Governor Edmund Davis' State Police. Davis had fought with the Union and was oddly unpopular in Hill County, along with the Reconstruction Government and its law. 

When the latter moved against the Kinch West -- who may or may not have ridden with Quantrill's Raiders -- and Cox Brothers gang, locals didn't give their support and martial law was declared in 1871. 



The outlaws have gone now and Hill County is comparatively law abiding. But reflect on this. 1871 isn't that long ago.

LSP