m up facing the muzzle of a pistol in
the hands of a man much more ready to pull the trigger off-hand than to
waste time in preliminary talk. He soon learns the lesson of
circumspection and, if he survives the process, his behavior is usually
modified to fit his new surroundings. A tragic illustration of the
results that may come from a tenderfoot's attempt to masquerade as a bad
man west of the Mississippi River, took place in the winter of 1881-82
in New Mexico, on a southward-bound Atchison train. One of the strangers
was terrorizing the others. He was a tough-looking fellow from some
Eastern city; he had been drinking, and he paraded the cars talking
loudly and profanely, trying to pick quarrels with passengers and
frequently flourishing a revolver. The train hands did not seem inclined
to interfere with him, and among the people aboard whom he directly
insulted, he did not happen to hit upon any one who had the sand or the
disposition to call him down.

Toward the members of a theatrical company, traveling in one of the
coaches, he particularly directed his violence and insults. His conduct
with them at last became unbearable, and when, after threatening two
actors with his revolver and frightening the women to the verge of
hysterics, he passed onward into another car, a hurried council of war
was held in the coach be had just vacated, and every man who had a
pistol got it in readiness, with the understanding that if he returned,
he was to be shot down at the first aggressive movement. But that phase
of trouble was averted, for, as it happened, he remained in the car
ahead until, at dusk, the train rolled into Albuquerque.

Here the proprietor of the Armijo House was at the station with his
hackman awaiting the train's arrival. He called out the name of his
house at the door of one car, and then turning to the hackman said: "You
take care of the passengers in this car, and I will go to the next."

These inoffensive words caught the ear of the tough man from the East,
who was pushing his way to the car platform. He drew his pistol and
started for the nearest man on the station platform, shouting:

"You'll take care of us, will you? I'll show you smart fellows out here
that you are not able to take care of me."

He flourished his revolver as he spoke and, just as his feet struck the
second step of the car, he fired, the ball passing over the head of the
man on the station platform. The sound of his pistol was qui