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 Rh whose ideas of morality were peculiar even for a sensationalist, "that his mates learned to love him for his daring and prowess, and delighted to refer to him as Billy the Kid."

This promising life was cut off at the early age of twenty-two. "Curly Bill," also died young, and so did "Man-killer Johnson." I remarked upon this peculiarity, of their youth, to a philosopher of the region itself.

"Yes," he said, "they don't seem to live to be very old; that's so."

The recipe for a long life in this country was described as being very quick and getting "the drop" on an antagonist; that is to say, being ready to shoot first. Unless this can be done, it is the custom even to put up with some ignominious abuse at the time, and await a more favorable opportunity.

The cow-boys frequenting Tombstone were generally from the ranches in the San Pedro and San Simon valleys. There were said to be strongholds in the San Simon Valley where they concealed stolen cattle until re-branded and sent to market, and where no officer of the law ever dared to venture. They looked upon the running off of stock from Mexico, as far as that was concerned, only as a more dashing form of smuggling, though it was marked by frequent bloody tragedies on both sides.

Not to fix upon all the misdeeds of but a few, no doubt there were on the streets of Tombstone plenty of cow-boys of a legitimate sort, whose only faults were occasional boisterousness and too free lavishing of their money. There appeared to be something of a standing feud between the miners and the cow-boys, and there was besides a faction of "town cow-boys" organized against the "country cow-boys."