Lucky Billy (7 page)

My health is splendid; nothing seems to hurt me. Smallpox, I guess, hates the sight of me; I sleep every night like a sack & snore & snort like a "grampus" from 9 pm until 5 am. Widenmann does not sleep very well & is I think a musician (although I am not much of a judge of that class of stock) & lies in bed & listens to my solos on the "base vile" until he can't stand it any longer, he then punches me in the ribs or anywhere else that comes handy & tells me he wants to go to sleep, "All right, old fellow, it's a free country, go ahead" I tell him & turn over & pitch it a key lower down, in the morning he blows up about it the way I treat him, but I tell him "I have only got his word for it, as I did not remember waking up after I said goodnight." "Well then, Harry, you're a confounded Galloot" he says & we change the subject. He calls me Harry under the misapprehension that you also know me by my middle name, how he came by this chimerical fancy I haven't the least notion. This is Sunday, Dick Brewer and Widenmann are off on a bear hunt & Widenmann has taken my rifle. God bless you all, my darling darling Pets! Good night!

John

Lincoln, New Mexico
14th May, 1877

7 Belsize Terrace
Hampstead,
London, England

 

My Most Beloved Father,

I can't
begin
to express my appreciation of your generosity. My present exchequer at last is adequate to the task of
all
my schemes of which you shall have the latest and most surprising news. If things turn out exactly as I expect at the end of the first year, & you could spare more capital, £2500 more capital would nearly double the amount of the profit, but I consider the amount that I have received is as much as one ought to put into stock to
start
with, an addition the next year would be all right though.

I am now going to introduce you to my
latest
scheme for making money, it is a little new to you so open all your ears; & before I start let me tell you that it has been long studied & has my full endorsement. First of all, let me tell you that groceries in this country realise a profit of 50 percent on the
return
& they are a cash article; in the second place there are two cash customers for four staple items in this country, viz., the Indian department, & the Army, & the articles they buy are corn, hay, flour, & beef. In the third place, the Mexican is essentially a "borrowing" animal, if anyone will lend he can't help borrowing, any more than the needle can help turning to the pole; but unlike most borrowers, he pays willingly as soon as it is in his power. Fourthly this country is so far away from any other (I mean this
district)
that produce raised here is protected from foreign produce by a tariff of
1½
cents per pound (for it costs
1½
cents per pound for wagon freight from any other produce market). Fifth this district is not large & one can arrive at within a few lbs. of the amount of grain that will be required
by the whole community or any member of it.
Now the question arises, out of the existing circumstances & with these ascertained points, what scheme, if practicable, would catch the ready money of the Indian department, & the Army, & avoid the dangers of too many debtors among a needy & improvident class?

The first part of the question is simple to answer; by having hay, beef, corn, or flour raised within the district, Uncle Sam is compelled to patrónise you & pour his almighty dollars into your cap. The answer to the second is simple likewise. Don't credit the poor shiftless wretches with what they can't pay. Now, you see we know what we want to do; we are like the wise men whom Columbus told to balance the egg. The solution I think you will agree is found in the following problem. Tunstall opens a grocery store, Mexican applies for groceries; T. supplies him with groceries in return for promisory notes to deliver x lbs. of grain to his store of fair merchantable quality, upon the 20th day of August, T. having ascertained beyond doubt that the crop planted by M. will (when gathered) equal x. The same problem can be solved in the same way on the flour question. By this means T. can acquire a
controlling
interest in both these articles. The question then arises, is T. sure to get the contracts? perhaps he may not, but whoever does,
must
come to T. to buy, or get "bust," including Murphy and Dolan and their "I louse."

"But (I hear you say) this is not going into a ranch business at
all.
We don't see what all this means." Just you hold on for a spell till I "shpit on me hands" as Pat said. You see the Mexicans would bring their steers, cows, calves, yearlings, & year-olds, ranches &c &c to trade for groceries just as sure as anyone would sell to them that way. Now you see I would sell for any good property they brought. This is how the "House" does it. If their title was good, I would take their ranch as payment & let it; it would be
splendid
property to hold.

This country is different to any other & if a man is somewhat supple & can accommodate himself to circumstances he can make far more than if he tried to run his affairs just as he would, or could, in an old country. All the fixtures necessary to run my store will be a desk, a scale, & a safe, & I should need all of these if I had nothing but a cattle ranch. My most earnest desire is for success & more on account of my sisters my Pets than for myself; for if I can but win I would be content to cast the fruits of my success at their feet, knowing that I had won the means of smoothing away a vast proportion of the rocks in their path & given them the means of beautifying their lives & I could retire from the scene without a sigh.

You see what I drive at. The ranch scheme and the store scheme are interchangeable. Certain ranches if controlled would control the price of grain & in this country it is more easy to corner the market than in any other part of America. Now to make things stick "to do any good," it is necessary to either get into a ring or to make one out for yourself.
Everything
in New Mexico, that pays
at all
(you may say) is worked by a "ring," there is the "Indian ring," the "army ring," "the political ring," the "legal ring," the "Roman Catholic ring," the "cattle ring," the "horsethieves ring," the "land ring" and half a dozen other rings including Murphy and Dolan's "Irish ring," but theirs is on shaky legs. I have it on good authority that they are close to ruin. My ring is forming itself as fast & faster than I had ever hoped & in such a way that I now possess nearly 400 cattle and 4,000 acres, the finest plum of the lot as to ranches hereabouts. To which the addition of a store will present a formidable aspect and make every Mexican now beholden to the "House" stiffen & roach his back like a mule & buck through the ring that is using him & into mine instead. McSween and Widenmann, of course, are my principal allies but in the matter of daily operations, the machinery of the business, which necessitates taking the bit between one's teeth, Dick Brewer has agreed to be my foreman, & his talents are such that he attracts the best "hands." They work for him and thereby work for me. I propose to confine my operations to Lincoln County, but I intend to handle it in such a way as to get the half of every dollar that is made in the county
by anyone;
& with our means we could get things into that shape in three years if we only used two thirds of our capital in the undertaking.

The land scheme will take, as I have told you, £3200 from first to last. The payments have already commenced & will continue to have to be paid until about next Deer. Or Jany. After which there will be only a small payment left to be made about 12 months after that. If these kind of little outlays run me close you must strain every point to keep me supplied as I intend to work things in such a shape (unless my luck leaves me altogether) that I win the game. There is
no
speculation about it, &
nothing
that you can't wash your hands quite clean of in a moment, if you desire it.

Please hug for me my Much Beloved Trinity. Yours as ever,

Most Affectionately,
John

Lincoln, New Mexico
12/77

7 Belsize Terrace
Hampstead,
London, England

 

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Tunstall,

Your son John is away and is not able to write to you this mail, but is, as he says, "alive and well" after the "rustling" of his horses. He will doubtless send you his letter shortly.

Yours sincerely,
Robert A. Widenmann

P.S. We have been in great trouble but it is now all over.

Lincoln, New Mexico
6th December, 1877

7 Belsize Terrace
Hampstead,
London, England

My Dear Father,

I have had to expose myself a great deal in raking over the country, on expeditions arising out of all that has happened, when I was by no means in a fit state to go; I feel pretty badly used up just now. I don't know whether (like the horses) I shall be able to get on my pins as soon as the new grass comes. When a fellow has to go through what I have clone in the last 4 months, & just has sand enough left to play the last card, & wins the odd trick; I can assure you that until the excitement of the next rubber moves him, he feels more like a dead man than a live one; I hardly like to write it, but I feel awfully used up.

I am not by any means "flattened out" I feel more mad than hurt; what flattens the balance of mankind makes me angry & exasperated but it never depresses my spirits. I have been working like a lunatic the last two days from sunup to sundown, branding cattle; it is the hardest work I ever did or looked at; to lasso & throw a heavy wild steer & then hold him down while he is branded takes muscle, skill & nerve & if it is not a little, the finest sport I ever had a hand in, I am very much mistaken.

On the matter of the theft of my horses & stock, I can tell you now that all has been resolved & the beasts recovered. McSween's horses also were stolen by the same men. As I later learned, Mac went to the sheriff & demanded of him that he raise a posse with our Dick Brewer as deputy sheriff, to be furnished with provisions from my store. If I tell you that Sheriff Brady complied with reluctance, you must understand that both Brady & "the Boys" who carried out the theft are in tight with "the House," which has never since I've come to this country ceased to harass me. They have threatened to kill "that Englishman" on sight, they were incited to make these threats by James Dolan and his "House" whose business I have very nearly taken away. When I set out for John Chisum's ranch on the Pecos, to learn news of Dick's posse, a party of riders up ahead came my way, it was the posse with their captives. I must say it did me good to shake Dick Brewer's great paw, I was afraid lest they might have "drilled a hole through him." "Why I thought you boys went out to round up some wild stock," I said to the posse men. Brewer laughed, the captives did too. I was somewhat nonplussed when one of them, mocking me, said "By Jove! He don't know if Dick has got us or we've got him."

The hardest nut in the gang is a character called Tom Hill. "Well," he said, "have you got any whiskey, Englishman?"

"Merely a dram," I answered, my confidence restored. "If you knew me you would know that I don't need any to keep my blood warm, but if you met me at Lincoln, I'd soak you."

"Well, we'll be in the jug (gaol) by then, you get back and you can soak us there if you like." So I knew they'd indeed been captured by Brewer. The posse rode on with their four captives, the rest of "the Boys" remaining at large, & Brewer stayed with me briefly & described the fight that resulted in their capture. "The Boys" being surrounded in a "choaser" (that is a house built over a hole in the ground in such a way that when you are inside, there is as much of the house under, as over the ground), a good many shots were fired, Jesse Evans (one of "the Boys") says he cant tell how he failed to hit Dick as he had three fair, square shots at him, & he was saving his shots for him alone. The bullets struck within 4 or 5 inches of him each time. The end of it was, that some men in Dick's posse who knew these fellows well, told them that they meant taking them dead or alive, & that if they surrendered they would not be lynched, & they surrendered.

They seemed tame enough once in captivity. I can't believe Evans "failed" to hit Dick Brewer as he is a dead shot by all accounts, it could be their ferocity was a mere show to please their sachem James Dolan when he heard the reports. I did give them a bottle of what Americans call whiskey in their cell, they make it from corn, molasses, tobacco juice, chilies, and (good heavens!) strychnine.

When I informed McSween that his horses were recovered he hardly seemed gratified, having other pressing business. A Dolanite named Charles Fritz has filed a petition in probate court demanding that McSween pay insurance money owed him from the death of his brother, a partner in "the House." They threaten to charge him with embezzlement & attach all our property, his & mine, if he doesn't. McSween and I are not formal partners; of the handshake school, rather. The "House" the Irish ring refuse to believe this. Imagine such cheek in
our
blessed plot, father.

In all this, my foreman Dick Brewer has proven his mettle and devotion, as honest and brave as they make them. My men would die for him, & so for me, too. One of these men, a young lad, the finest of the lot, has a quick mind and sunny disposition, he keeps us on the qui vive. I've given him a good horse & saddle & gun, guns being the currency of choice in these parts. He looks scarcely 16. The remarkable thing is that until last month he was on the other side, one of "the Boys." He'd stolen my dapple-gray buggy team & was thrown in gaol but his "compadres" never went his bond. So he sent for me to come to some agreement & said he was willing to rectify the wrong & said that "the Boys" had lulled him into stealing. He touched my heart & I made the proposal that he join my side if I got him out of gaol. He jumped to the occasion & has been with us since. His name is Antrim but (a nod to nis appearance) all call him "Kiel." A week ago he announced out of the blue that he fancies the name William Bonney now, and enjoined us to so call him. Here in the wilderness names are like hats, a new one is tonic.