Lucky Billy (6 page)

We reached the house of our friends Livingstone and Winters, but 40 long miles had to be travelled first. The next clay we reached Lincoln at about 5 pm where I received a number of your letters. You will be able to judge from my previous anxiety how much these letters relieved my mind. My friend Widenmann has come clown to this country. I was very pleased to see him as he is a man I can depend upon & whom I like
very
much. I introduced him to Mr. & Mrs. McSween & he left for his room about 9 pm.

Oh, did I mention Molly recovered and a Mex brought her to us.

We have traveled over 700 miles, looking for the best ranch land. I don't like this Rio Grande country atall, it is a complete waste land & in my opinion one long den of thieves & cut throats, at the present time they are getting somewhat scourged with smallpox & by that means a number of the young male fry are being prevented from developing into horse thieves & the female fry from developing into fit mates for the same. The situation in this interminable wilderness is the same everywhere: a few lone white men in control of trade, legitimate and otherwise (mostly the latter)—an immensity of desert & canyons & mountains—and fitful little pockets of brown-skinned natives, both Mexican and Indian, whose intentions are inscrutable.

Placita (or Lincoln) seemed
welcoming
this time even if it is in miner's parlance about the "toughest" little spot in America, which means about the lawless. You'd never know this from its peaceful demeanor, a small collection of adobe (or mud) homes scattered up a pretty creek called the Rio Bonito (which means Pretty River). The single dirt street is either dust or mud, depending on the weather, and a haze of wood and charcoal smoke hangs above the town. I must be growing fond at the advanced age of 23 because the clang of the blacksmith shop, the sound of children at play & the barking of dogs & grunting of pigs not to mention a fellow playing piano in a saloon (if that's what you can call it, it sounded more like banging the keys with his elbows) made me feel as though I'd arrived home again. I have to remind myself (as I remind you) that a man can commit murder here with impunity. All countries more or less thickly populated with a
needy, ignorant
population are unsafe in a measure. A look may, if it have sufficient malice in it, justify resort to firearms in the minds of people here.

Of course, you aren't to worry. As regards my getting shot, well this is a fine country & people sometimes use others as targets, but I am not going to get shot so don't be uneasy about that. If formerly I had not the knack of making friends, I seem to possess it now to a sufficiently useful extent; & then again I have a presentiment that I shall
not
get killed but that
I shall live
to accomplish my schemes & will give those three Pets my sisters (whom you must read this to) such a time as will make their heads swim (as we say on the frontier).

Of my friends, lawyer McSween is in particular a blessing. A lifelong teetotaler, a Presbyterian, he never carries weapons and has both the outward appearance and the inward temperament of an honest man & has succeeded in persuading me to go into stock. His wife Susan I find a very pleasant woman in every way, she told me as much about this place as any man could have done, she is the only white woman here & has a good many enemies in consequence of her husband's profession. Everyone in my circle is fond of her to distraction, she keeps us well entertained. Her husband with his long stringy moustache down to his knees (all American males have prodigious facial hair), who seems often to be frowning by the angle of his lip-whiskers, absolutely dotes on her with an aspect of rapture in his eyes and a foreboding air of longing as though they'd just made acquaintance (they have been married 4 years).

Robert Widenmann is common looking but a man ! place great confidence in. I have executed a small deed, constituting him my legal representative in case of my death, until you write, come over, or instruct some other person, to attend to my affairs and your interest. Both as regards to his ability & integrity, I feel sure that in case you ever need his assistance, that he can save every cent that I "have out" for you. The history of his interest & mine would be somewhat lengthy, but I consider them parallel & not at all liable to clash. Two of Widenmann's leading traits are obstinacy & combativeness, he will hold a point longer & fight harder to keep it, than any man of his age I ever met (He is 25). And he has consequently a great deal of what I call "force" in his character; if he decides that a horse wants throwing down, he throws him; & if a mule gets its own way with someone & he concludes that she has to learn that she can't do it with others, he teaches her. I consider myself very lucky in meeting him, he so exactly suits me we stick to each other like brick & he takes care of me, we sleep in the same room. His parents are German & live in Georgia, he was educated in Germany, he weighs about 175 lbs & he stands six feet & is very broad. We are sufficiently good friends to be able to get as mad as we like with each other, without its affecting our friendship in the slightest. People say we are like man & wife.

Both Mrs. McSween and her husband have told me that the whole of this country (New Mexico) is under the control of a ring composed of two or three lawyers, & their practices & power throughout New Mexico are quite astonishing, they are more powerful than the priests & that is saying a great deal. The local store is owned by low Irish, part of this ring, & they buy local produce by extending credit on their store merchandise & thus get the Mexican farmers in their power. They advance both goods and credit against future crops and stock & when the poor fellows see they're in a trap they balk or move away, & if it's balk the House uses the law to attach their goods and property (most particularly, cattle and horses) for debts owed to them. They are known as "the House" but also called the Murphs or Dolanites or Murphyites, for the owners, Lawrence G. Murphy & his partner, James Dolan. They "carry" local settlers until they (the settlers) are so extended that their benign benefactors have no choice, their poor hands are tied, but to foreclose on their property. Their real money is made by contracts to supply the local army post, Fort Stanton, which both men served at, their ties to the command being part of this "ring," & by stealing supplies contracted to the Indian Agency & selling them in Las Cruces, Albuquerque, & other places. In placing people in their debt they force them into thievery to pay off the debt, no questions asked. So of the beef that Murphy and Dolan supply to Fort Stanton and the Agency much of it once belonged to John Chisum, the largest rancher in this area. John Chisum here is "the man behind the scenes." He knows that Dolan and Murphy, or their agents, steal his stock and he pays men to steal D & M's horses,
pari passu.
The "Dolanites" also "sell" ranches & land to incoming settlers without themselves having title, which has happened to a friend of mine here, Dick Brewer, a young rancher whom I highly esteem. He is called the handsomest man in Lincoln Country & he is as true as steel.

Before I came to this place two men highly regarded by the citizens, Robert Casey and Juan Patrón (one of the best educated Mexicans I have met, he is quite intelligent & appears to have good principles) were shot and Casey killed, after they had become outspoken in political meetings against "the House." Patrón was wounded and crippled for life, he was shot through the back about ½ an inch to the left of the spine, in about the hollow of the back the bullet was taken out from just under the skin of his stomach, & strange to say he survived it, though it seems to have touched the nerves that command his left leg, he has very little control over it, this is the only ill-effect he feels from it & at the time he was shot, he thought he was shot in the leg & not the back, is not that odd?

To the House's dismay they caught the man who shot them, William Wilson, &
By Jove!
you would like this story if I could just build a fire and dry the ground for you to sit on and tell it by starlight in the wilderness of New Mexico. William Wilson, if you please, had to be hung twice, they hung him for 9 minutes, put him in a coffin, & a Mexican woman lifted the lid & said he was alive! Lawrence Murphy of the House said he'd been legally hung, they had to let him go, but he couldn't prevent the townsfolk from dragging Wilson from the coffin & hanging him again.

Had I money enough to carry out my land and cattle scheme I could obtain a purchase to break their Irish stranglehold on commerce in this place. You haven't told me yet when your first remittance will come, but I want it
very badly &
in fact, the whole amount. It would ease my mind & facilitate the working of things enormously; I can't
explain
to you, or
express
to you the
strain all this is on me, I
feel like a man on a runaway horse, new dangers appear almost at every stride. I sit & think for an hour or two & get up weary with the tension; & my only consolation is that I am all right at present & the scheme
not spoiled yet.
If you have not sent me the money send it at once on receipt of this, send me the £3200 in drafts of £500 apiece (of course one would have to be for £700) as fast as you conveniently can, then if you think you can let me have £2000 more, write & let me know.

You see I am unable to lay a scheme before you until it is perfected throughout, & in the interim I have nothing to do but bite my nails & fret at the slow flight of time, if you send me the money that I have written for, you will see that I shall invest it in a way that will secure your interest in every shape. Now I think that I have unburdened my mind, which acts as a sort of safety valve to my sanity, I need not repeat the oft told tale of the love I bear you, so I will simply say that I remain as ever, your affectionate son,

John

 

Lincoln, New Mexico
11th April, 1877

7 Belsize Terrace
Hampstead,
London, England

 

Much Beloved Parents,

The game is going marvelously well so far, I keep on making my points, but there are some that can't be made without money &
ready money.
Now as regards safety, I am going to execute a small deed & give it into the safe keeping of Dick Brewer, to be opened in case of any accident happening to me & it will be appointing R. A. Widenmann & A. A. McSween as trustees of my property until you could get over here. I shall have the finest property I have seen since I have been in the United States. To hold
unsurveyed land
is a sort of game of "bluff" (Poker) I am willing to undertake, I could run a herd of cattle upon it & call all the best locations "camps" & have men in my employ to represent that they owned them & I should then have force enough to carry out any intentions I might have in regard to them. To run a small herd of cattle will cost as much as it would to run one twice or three times as large, for one needs a cook, if one has but two herders, a stable, a mowing machine, a wagon, a work team, a couple of houses, a cattle corral, camp cooking outfits for the ranch & road, a barn &c &c which cost just as much for the running of 200 as for 1000 head of stock. So you see that the more cattle a man has, the more economically they can be worked. The property I have my closest eye upon you could recover every cent out of in the event of my death that it will cost; & more too; & in my safe I shall always keep full particulars, both of the property acquired & speculations gone into.

Dick Brewer has got over his smallpox & is well & hearty. I am as well as ever. Brewer's father & mother have gone back to Wisconsin so this is a Bachelor's hall, there is nothing very polished about it, but the welcome is as hearty as it can be. You may be interested in knowing that I go by the name of "The Englishman" as a general thing & they say to Dick from time to time, "Confound that Englishman, what is he going to do in this country anyhow?" These are the reported comments of the "House," which Murphy and Dolan are said to make. McSween calls them "Irish scum" but I say tut-tut and tighten his leash.

You are right in supposing that McSween is to be instrumental in working my points & you can take my word for it that my arrangements with him are such as will be the most likely to bring everything out as I wish it. I have all the confidence in him that is necessary, in so important an affair, but nevertheless I never give a chance away or have a corner out of which he could make a cent out of me against my will.

Dear Darling, Much Beloved Sister Lilian, when I read the Dear kind words you wrote to me, I thought I had never wished to go home as much before. I saw a grand, great, bald headed eagle, sailing & sailing &
sailing
round in the sky, above my head; I looked up with my eyes full of tears, & thought, "if only I had that eagle's great, strong wings, how swiftly I would fly across the land & the sea, & how straight I would go, to my Dear Old Sister" then I thought how I should kiss & hug you, till I thought there would be nothing left of you, for I could never make you know how much I love my Dear Little Sisters. I love you
all the time
till my left leg nearly breaks. I never think of being happy unless I think of my Pets; & whenever I
am
happy, I am sorry that you cant share whatever it is that is making me so, whether it is the "drumstick" of some old turkey "gobbler" or a ride on a fine clay under a blue sky, & a shining sun. I sometimes dream that I see you all, & I wake up so happy that I nearly cry.

And Dear Darling Mother, don't imagine that I am overcome, from morning till night, with a sense of lonely-ness & depression, or that what seem hardships to you are any inconveniences to me, for that is not the case; my heart always feels as light as a
feather;
ambition will help a man to disregard the
present entirely, &
if you could see me building a fire in a camp under the star spangled (not banner, of Uncle Sam) but vault of heaven, you would probably hear me whistling at the same time (the nearest I could get with my unmusical mouth) "I wish I had a fish with a great long tail" & if the matches would not strike & I had to do without the "lambent flame," the expression my "fiz" (physiognomy) would wear, would be far more indicative of wrath at the trouble, than sadness. If I could explain my plans for making money to you, Mother, it would sound like a sort of fairy tale; I have kept up a "
terrible thinking
" (like that speechless parrot) all the time, to puzzle, & twist, & turn & patch, & alter my scheme until I have made it fit my requirements, but I believe that if I had the money I want (I can
make do
with £3200 this year, but could do much more with £5200) you would be astonished at the result.