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Show WHERE SHALL WE SETTLE? 617 latter maintain their organization, sometimes elect their candidate, and always give him a hearty support, though the State has been Demo-cratic since 1872. Texas may fairly claim to be one of the best gov-erned States in the Union. Except on the south- western border the ratio of crimes is very small. In 1873 the law against carrying con-cealed weapons was strictly enforced in the railroad towns a good deal more than can be said of any town on the Union or Kansas Pa-cific Railroads. It is in the " cow counties/' in the extreme west and south- west, that some lawlessness still prevails. The law as to con-cealed weapons excepts those counties, it being considered a necessity that the vacqueros should go prepared for " enterprising Mexicans" and other cattle thieves. If you like a wild country, that's the place for you, and if that is not wild enough try the Comanche border. There the mountainous spurs put out towards the lower country and cut it up into numerous little valleys. Down these spurs come the savages, often lying in ambush for days together in the scrubby tim-ber, watching the ranches below. And all this time the settlers go about their usual work in assured safety, for there is not the slightest danger till after the " strike." One might walk within a rod of the hidden enemy and never be molested. The settlers see signs of Indians about, but feel no uneasiness ; but once t) ie raid is made, and the robbers on the run for cover, they kill all they encounter, and even slaughter stock they can not take away. They can get five or ten miles more running out of a horse than can a white man ; and five minutes after they leave him he is so near dead that he can not be forced to walk. When hard pressed they draw a knife, hastily make a few incisions in the animal's hide and rub in salt and powder. As the cow- boys express it, " it puts new life in a hoss." But when long immunity has made the settlers careless, there some-times occur tragedies which thrill the country with horror, and are told for years by the pioneers' hearth- stone, or around the camp- fire, where rude borderers teach their younger companions eternal hatred of all the Indian race. In the year 1850, a Mississippian, named Lockhardt, settled a little farther up the Colorado than was then usual with families, but still in a region thought to be safe from Comanche raids; and, in a few years, was surrounded with most of the comforts of his more eastern home. Wealth and good taste united to improve the wild beauty of nature; his house, elegant in-deed for the border, was a temple of hospitality ; his flocks and herds ranged over the area of a dukedom ; his colored servants scarce knew had a master, so light was his patriarchal sway ; and far and |