The Texas Quote of the Day: ""Every man and boy in Texas, old and young, rich or poor, at home or abroad, in church, at court, the wedding or the funeral, from the "cradle to the grave," the double-barreled shot gun, or the old-fashioned, brass-mounted dragoon pistol, was inevitably carried by them, and it goes without saying that they all knew how to use them, and did so often without very much provocation.
And yet I cannot look back on the practice as an unmixed evil either, for barroom brawling, fist fights and minor difficulties were pretty much unknown in those days. The treatment experienced by a bully or a bravado was "short, sharp and decisive;" if he insulted a woman, "took in" a town, or stole a horse, he was shot off-hand by some one, who thereby rendered society a service, at much less expense and without the uncertainty and delay that often attend the law's slow course."
---- H.H. McConnell, "Five Years a Cavalryman," 1888. Shown here: the magazine building at Fort Belknap, where H.H. McConnell spent his time in Texas. This photo was taken about 50 years after McConnell was there, in 1934, and as you can see the structure had fallen into ruins. McConnell liked Texas so much that, after he retired from the Army, he moved to Jacksboro, Texas, where he opened a drugstore and lived out the rest of his life. He knew a good thing when he saw it, I reckon.