Part 21

The agreement was kept two hours, after which the Blues took possession of the court-house; entered the door, and held the same, backed by armed men on foot and on horseback, terrorizing and keeping out most of the opposition voters. When the polls closed at 6:30 p.m., about one hundred and twenty-five electors had not cast their votes.[19] There had been plenty of intimidation and some personal violence, but no loss of life. The elements for riot and bloodshed, however, were all there, and it needed only a little brisk stirring to precipitate a general killing.

Meantime, news of the murder of Judge Welch, with a report of the general situation at Rio Grande City, and a request for Rangers, had traveled overland to Sam Fordyce and by telegraph to Austin, not arriving in time for action that day. Captain McDonald's territory included Starr County--his headquarters having been removed to Alice in 1903,[20] and on Wednesday morning of November 7th, 1906, he was called by telephone from the governor's office at Austin. Governor Lanham himself was at the Austin end and conveyed the news of the assassination, which McDonald had just learned from another source.

"How many men have you at Alice?" inquired the governor.

"Two, including myself. My sergeant, W.J. McCauley, is here. One of my men is on a scout below Corpus Christi, and the other (his force had by this time been reduced to three) is guarding two murderers at Edna."

"Captain," was the governor's next question, "would the fact that you have not been favorably disposed toward Judge Welch since the Brownsville affair make any difference in your undertaking this matter, now?"

"If you think so, Governor, you ought to get another Ranger Captain for this company; a Ranger that would let a thing like that make any difference in a case of this kind would be no good for any purpose that I know of."

"Well, then, Captain, take whatever force you have, and proceed as soon as possible to Rio Grande City, and I will send additional men there, as quickly as possible. I will wire the authorities that you are on the way with one Ranger and that more will follow at once."

"All right, Governor, I'll start first train, and do the best I can."

"And Captain" (The governor had suddenly remembered Brownsville).

"Yes, sir."

"Be conservative, Captain. Investigate, and try to quiet matters, but be conservative, quite conservative, Captain."

"Yes, sir, Governor, all right. I'll be conservative--as conservative as the circumstances will permit."

"Now, do that, Captain. Just quiet matters, and I'll send you reinforcements at once. Only be as conservative as possible till they come."

Captain Bill wasted no time in his preparation. The train would leave in half and hour, and he didn't stop to pack a dress suit. He notified McCauley, and gathered up a young fellow named Marsden, who had Ranger ambitions, and started with such clothes and guns as he had on.

It is a slow, roundabout way from Alice to Rio Grande City. You have to go from Alice over to Corpus Christi and there wait for a train that takes you down to Harlingen. Then at Harlingen you must wait for another train to take you to Sam Fordyce, and at Sam Fordyce you can hire a hack that will carry you to Rio Grande City, unless you are waylaid and murdered along that lonely road which follows the river and winds between a thick growth of cactus, mesquite and all the thorny rank vegetation of that sandy semi-tropical land. Starting from Alice in the forenoon, one with good luck may reach Rio Grande City by ten o'clock at night, though it will be safer to wait at Sam Fordyce until next morning. Those who travel from Sam Fordyce to Rio Grande City after nightfall, go armed, and need to.

Captain Bill had good luck on the way down. While waiting for the Harlingen train at Corpus Christi he fell in with Sam McKenzie, his ranger, who had been on a scout in that section, and at Harlingen he found Blaze Delling, who had resigned from Company B to become U.S. River Guard. He brought both men along, and with a force like that he felt able to cope with a mob of whatever size or nationality. Of course, nothing was known at Rio Grande City of the increase in the Ranger army. It had been given out there that Captain McDonald and one man had been ordered down, and that reinforcements would follow, accordingly as Governor Lanham had wired.

The day was well along when the little army finally reached Sam Fordyce and secured a conveyance for the final stage of their journey. An old frontiersman by the name of Inman, who owned a hack and pair of small mules, agreed to undertake the journey. It was late in the afternoon when they started.

Night fell, clear and starlight, but there was no moon, and the narrow winding southern road hedged thickly with mesquite and yucca and cactus growth was dark enough, except here and there where it opened to the river or to a hacienda (Mexican ranch), with its half dozen thatched huts, or hackles, surrounded by brush fences.

The Rangers drove along quietly, speaking in low voices when they spoke at all, peering into the darkness ahead, for they had no knowledge of what conditions were awaiting them, or what they were likely to meet along the way. Besides, it is the Ranger practice to go warily on dark nights and not traverse an unknown road with festivity and boisterous mirth.

It was about 8:30 o'clock and they had covered a little more than half the distance to Rio Grande City, when they heard the noise of approaching wheels and vaguely distinguished the outlines of some vehicle in the darkness ahead. They were at the time about opposite Casita Ranch--a poor place with the usual brush fences. Mr. Inman slackened down his mules and pulled the Ranger hack a little to one side of the road, supposing it to be only one of the traveling coaches that make daily trips between Rio Grande City and the railway terminus. But when the approaching vehicle was about thirty paces away, there was a sudden flash in the dark, a report, and a bullet went singing over the heads of the Rangers.

The Rangers were instantly in battle front, guns up and ready. They did not fire at once, however, for there might be some mistake.

"Hold up there!" called McDonald. "We are Texas Rangers! Stop that shooting!" and this admonition Private McKenzie quickly repeated in the Mexican tongue.

There was no chance for mistake, after that. The hacks had been moving right along and were now not more than twelve feet apart. Then the approaching hack stopped and three figures with guns were seen to leap to the ground. Captain Bill, who was standing up in the hack with his Winchester leveled on them, thought at first that they were getting out to surrender their arms, and three of his Rangers, McCauley, McKenzie and Delling quickly jumped down, facing them. But at that instant the epithets "Cavarones!" and "Gringoes!" came from the Mexicans, and then "Tetterly! Tetterly!" (Shoot! Shoot!) with which signal the Mexicans, both on the ground and in the hack, let go at the Rangers, point blank, while from behind the brush fence two guns in ambush opened an enfilading fire.

Then for the thirty seconds or so that it lasted, there was as pretty a fight as ever took place on the banks of the Rio Grande. With seven Mexican and five Ranger rapid-fire guns going--a round dozen in all--there was one continuous explosion, and an unceasing glare.

"From where I stood in the hack, I could see the whites of their eyes," Captain Bill said afterward, "and I felt as if I could pick the buttons off their coats. I let go as fast as I knew how, and at a different Mexican every time."

But though rapid, the Ranger fire was cool and accurate, while the Mexican marksmanship was inexcusably bad.

In less than half a minute it was all over. The seven Mexican guns were silenced, the Mexican force demolished. In the road, a man lay across his gun, dead. Two were limping and staggering away--one with a broken leg, the other to die; two more--the ambushers--were hiding in the weeds (where they were presently captured), while in the Mexican hack, which was now once more moving slowly along, was a freight of yet two more, both dead.

Sergeant McCauley, from his position on the ground, looked up to where Captain McDonald, still standing in the hack, was already reloading.

"Pretty little fight, Uncle Bill," he said, casual like.

"Yes," said Captain Bill, thoughtfully filling the magazine of his Winchester, "but do you reckon the governor will think we've been conservative enough?"

When the dead and wounded and prisoners were gathered and a general observation of the field was taken, it was found, from the empty shells, that each side had fired about an equal number of shots--some sixty, in all.

Marvelous as it may seem, not a Ranger was touched by any of the thirty or more shots fired at them, though Mr. Inman, the driver, got a pretty hot bullet through the very narrow space just under his arm a bullet that cut his undershirt and scorched his skin, and made him think for the moment that he was wounded. Old veteran that he was, he sat quietly holding his team--a silent observer of the spectacle--only regretting that, being unarmed, he could not have a more active part.

Captain Bill now took Delling and started for Rio Grande City, leaving the remainder of his force in charge of the dead, wounded and prisoners. They kept a sharp lookout for new attacking parties as they drove along, and discussed the recent battle in voices that were jubilant, but modulated.

"Of course, from the governor's telegram, they only expected to meet two men," Captain Bill reflected. "It must have been a sunrise when they suddenly found five guns going." And a little later, speaking out of what seemed a troubled conscience, "But I'm afraid the Governor won't think I was conservative."

Then presently they met two more vehicles coming, this time in a hurry. Ready for action, the Rangers waited until they were up close, then stopped them. They, also, had come to meet the Rangers, but this time with a note from the county judge, telling them to hurry, as the town was up in arms, and an outbreak was momentarily expected.

Captain McDonald sent one of the hacks after his men and their prisoners, with orders to get Mexicans from the Casita Ranch to watch the dead men until the inquest, next day. Then with the other hack he pushed on to Rio Grande City. From the tone of the judge's note he expected to find matters in a desperate condition. When he arrived, however, there seemed to be no special excitement. Everybody was armed and there were groups on the street, but there was little noise or open disturbance. The Ranger Captain looked up the judge and sheriff and made a report of his battle and its results, the news of which was soon both general and effective. When he went out among the crowds and told them to disarm--to go home and put their guns away and quit their foolishness--it was like the dismissal of a State encampment. By the time his men arrived everything was peaceable. It was too late that night to make a report to the governor, but Captain Bill summed up the situation in a telegram next morning. Governor Lanham had protested at the length and cost of a telegraphic report from Brownsville; this time there was no waste of words.

"Rio Grande City, Nov. 8, 1906.

"Gov. S.W.T. Lanham, "Austin, Texas.

"We were ambushed; four Mexicans dead, one wounded, two captured; preparing to hold inquest. Everybody disarmed; everything quiet.

"W.J. MCDONALD, "Capt. Co. B, "Ranger Force."

That told the story, adequately, cheaply and modestly. The papers over the State made a good deal to-do over it, and reviewed Captain Bill's other exploits--real and imaginary--but to him it was only in the day's work, the work he had been carrying on for a long time, now, nearly a quarter of a century.[21]

The inquest was held that morning according to program, and the verdict justified the Rangers. After which, the four unlucky Ranger-hunters were buried in a lonely old graveyard near the place where they fell. The names of the four were, Farias, Osuna, Vincia and Perez--all known in Rio Grande City. Their comrade who was wounded, another Osuna, confirmed the Rangers' account of the battle. The original plan had been for all to lie in ambush behind the fence and fire on the Rangers deliberately, at close range. Losing patience, however, in an attempt to clamber over the thick barrier, all but two decided to remain in the hack.

The better element of Rio Grande City, though rejoicing over the results of the ambush, were naturally apprehensive as to what might happen next. Friends of the dead men were numerous, and it was believed that a bloody outbreak with reprisals would follow. Captain McDonald assured the citizens that he had no such fears, and the arrival of State troops and Ranger Company D, Captain Hughes, helped to restore confidence.

Captain Bill did not remain long in Rio Grande City. He was still engaged in solving the Conditt problem at Edna and could not undertake to unravel the mystery of Judge Welch's assassination. It remains unraveled to this day. Perhaps time will furnish a clue. Perhaps the secret lies buried in the old graveyard back of the Casita Ranch.

Nothing was ever done with the prisoners taken by the Rangers. That is, nothing was done with the two men caught in ambush. The wounded man was afterward made deputy sheriff, probably as a reward of merit for having engaged in a shooting match with the Rangers and escaped alive.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 19: For further details of the condition at Rio Grande City at this time, see Appendix E.]

[Footnote 20: Company B had been transferred from Amarillo to Fort Hancock in 1902 for a comparatively brief period.]

[Footnote 21: "The Fort Worth Record," commenting on this report, compared it to Perry's famous "We have met the enemy and they are ours." The Record adds: "Perry and McDonald are made of the same stuff. If McDonald had been in Perry's place he would have been equal to the emergency. If Perry had been in McDonald's place he couldn't have done better."]

XLII

The End of Rangering and a New Appointment

STATE REVENUE AGENT OF TEXAS. THE "FULL RENDITION" BILL ENFORCED. A GREAT BATTLE AND A BLOODLESS TRIUMPH

The Rio Grande affair was Captain Bill's last Ranger service of dramatic importance. He was continuously busy during the two months that elapsed between that episode and his official retirement, but it was only in the usual line of duty, chasing murderers, putting down riot and disarming unruly men--the things he had done so often that to look back on his career now was to gaze down a kaleidoscopic vista of death and disorder--a whirling maze of bad men and guns.

It was in January, 1907, that he went to Bellville as a witness in a murder case, and it was while he was there, January 16th, that Governor T.M. Campbell, who had just succeeded Governor Lanham, appointed him State Revenue Agent of Texas. Captain Bill's first knowledge of the matter came to him through the morning paper at Bellville. When his duties were over there, he set out for Austin to inquire into it. He knew that a State Revenue Agent was appointed to keep a general supervision over the collection of the State revenues--taxes, license money and the like--but he had only a dim idea as to the specific duties of the office. He was by no means certain that he wanted to exchange the wide free life of Rangering, whatever might be its drawbacks, for the routine duties of an office in the Capitol, with a desk, a revolving chair and a stenographer, whatever might be the comforts and perquisites of these things. He was no longer a young man, and he had been shot through from different directions. Desperate wounds, long hard vigils, cold and exposure, had left him weather-beaten and with shoulders and chest no longer as full and erect as in the old days. Yet his eye was just as clear, his ear as alert and his nerve as steady as in the beginning, and if this appointment was merely a sinecure; a reward for deeds performed--a sort of official manifest that he was down and out--he would have none of it. He could _wear_ out, and he might some day stop a conclusive bullet, but he declined to _rust_ out.

Perhaps there was a pretty general belief in Texas that Captain McDonald's appointment was, in fact, a sinecure, but if so the idea was transient. Arriving at the State Capitol, he called on Governor Campbell, without delay.

"How about this appointment, Governor?" he said. "What kind of a job is it?"

"Well, it's a better job than you've got, Captain. The pay is better and it's safer, too. You're going to die, or be killed, someday, going about in all kinds of weather and getting shot at, from ambush. We can't afford to lose you, just yet."

"Thank you, Governor, I don't want to be lost, either," Captain Bill said in his gentle drawl, "but I don't know as I can fill the bill. What do I have to do as State Revenue Agent, anyway. No chance to handle a gun, is there? I can do that about as well as anything."

Governor Campbell laughed and handed Captain Bill a copy of the statutes.

"There's the law, on the subject," he said. "You'll find all the information you need, right there."

Captain Bill took the book and spent several days reading and re-reading whatever he could find bearing on the matter of tax-paying; also on the duties of tax-assessors and tax-gatherers in general, and on those of the State Revenue Agent in particular. He found that he knew a good deal on the subject, after all; not in technical detail, perhaps, but fundamentally and vitally. In his wide general knowledge of the conditions prevailing in every portion of the State he knew that the poorest counties--those least able to bear the burden--carried a disproportionate load of the State expenses. He had never given the matter much consideration before, taking it for granted that in a new county, and a poor county, taxes could not help being high. This was true, no doubt, but he saw clearly enough, now, that in such counties, taxes had been by far too high, all along, and that the "Full Rendition" law provided a remedy for just that thing. Captain Bill had but one idea about law, which was that it must be enforced. To enforce that law would be interesting, and righteous. He went back to Governor Campbell.

"Governor," he said, "I think this job will suit me pretty well, if I can run it my way."

"Well, Captain, that was what you were appointed for."

"Governor," Captain Bill proceeded, "there's some of our counties and people paying twice as much tax as they ought to, and some of them, the ones that ought to pay most, and the railroads and corporations, are not paying half enough."

Governor Campbell nodded.

"How would you rectify that, Captain?" he asked.

"Well, you see, the tax rate is the same for all counties, and the poor counties to provide for their own home expenses have to assess on a high valuation in order to make the amount big enough to go around, while the rich counties that are practically out of debt assess on a low valuation, sometimes not more than a fourth the value of the property. That might be all right if it was only the _home_ levy that counted, but you see the _State_ levy is assessed on the same valuation as the home levy, and the result is that a county that is in debt is paying State taxes on a valuation about twice or three times as big as those big rich counties that have had the most benefit from the State and are best able to pay for it. Why those old rich counties get an allowance of school money from the State that is actually more than all the taxes they turn in. Now the way to fix that is to make all the counties assess exactly alike--on full valuation--and get the State levy down where it belongs and the State expense fairly apportioned. The Full Rendition bill provides clearly for this case, and ought to be enforced."

Governor Campbell looked thoughtful. He foresaw the storm that a man with the convictions and determination of Bill McDonald could stir up in a State like Texas. Presently he said:

"Well, Captain, that was what the Full Rendition Bill was passed for, but it's been considered a dead letter, so far."

"It won't be a dead letter if I take the job, Governor. It will be the livest letter in the statute book, for a while."

Campbell smiled grimly. In imagination he already heard the howl that would go up, and the imprecations that would descend upon appointer as well as appointee. After all, perhaps a Ranger Captain in a job like that was not a perfect selection. Then presently he turned to Captain Bill.

"Well, Captain, you've got your appointment," he said.

The State Revenue Agent lost no time in beginning his work. Already many of the annual assessments for 1907 had been made, and if any re-assessments were to be taken there was no time to lose. In 1906 the assessed values of Texas properties had aggregated $1,210,000,000. State Agent McDonald resolved that they should properly be more than double this amount, and he undertook at once the first step in that direction. He did this knowing full well what would result. He knew that a man's purse is his tenderest point, and that to lay a finger on his taxes is to touch a spot already sore. He knew that what he was about to do meant to antagonize practically every corporation in the State, and every rich county as a whole. Also, perhaps, a majority of the press. Papers that had lauded him to the skies for his achievements would be first to belittle him, now, and to cry him down. What he was undertaking was distinctly a minority crusade; a struggle for the pioneer; a fight for the under dog.

Yet I think his chief consideration was the enforcement of the law. That would be likely to be so; the law's enforcement had been his habit so long. If the other things weighed at all, they probably only added zest to his resolve.

He began by issuing a general letter to assessors throughout the State. In part the letter ran:

"Dear Sir:

"As State Revenue Agent with well defined duties imposed upon me, I feel called upon to communicate with Tax Assessors relative to the rendition and assessment of real and personal property for Taxation....

"An inspection of the tax rolls of your county for 1906 and some years prior thereto, discloses the fact that real and personal property is assessed at only a certain percentage of its value instead of "at its value" as required by the Constitution and laws of the State. I will take occasion during the year to visit such counties as may be practicable and examine into the mode of rendition and assessment ... and I hope to have your assistance."

The letter then called attention to, and quoted from, the law, setting forth the duties which good officers and citizens would perform in full, and the penalties for being, and doing, otherwise. Near the end of this letter he said:

"This duty is imposed upon you by the law, and I suppose I am not presumptuous in asking you to follow it strictly so that there will be no embarrassment when I call for the purpose of making an investigation," etc., etc.

It was a careful dignified letter, entirely justified by the conditions. It is true the Revenue Agent did not fully explain in that last clause just what would be likely to cause the "embarrassment" when he appeared upon the scene "for the purpose of making an investigation," and the thoughtful assessor who had followed Bill McDonald's career and remembered some of his former investigations may have inferred that it would have something to do with guns.