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Authors: Ralph Compton

Ralph Compton Death Rides a Chestnut Mare (38 page)

BOOK: Ralph Compton Death Rides a Chestnut Mare
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1
A binder was a band of cloth women used to flatten their breasts.
2
In traditional hoedowns, sometimes the only instrument would be a fiddle. The “straws” were often porcupine quills. A man “beating the straws” stood beside the fiddler, tapping the “straws” against the body of the instrument. It created a drumlike effect, providing the fiddler some rhythm.
3
Near present-day town of Lawton, Oklahoma.
4
The first Pretty Girl Saloon was in New Orleans. They caught on rapidly in the west.
5
Clay Allison was a dangerous man with a gun. Discharged from the Confederacy for insanity, he moved to New Mexico. There, he killed a sheriff who came to arrest him for another killing. He then left New Mexico, starting a horse ranch in southern Colorado.
6
“Rim-rocking” consisted of driving a herd of sheep off a cliff.
7
“Lucifers” were the first matches, invented by an Englishman in 1827. In blocks, they could be separated, one or more, as needed.
8
Called the most dangerous gunman of his time, Hardin killed thirty-one men.
9
King Fisher and Ben Thompson (born in Knottingley, England, November 11, 1842) were dangerous men. Both were confirmed killers noted for their swiftness with a gun. They were notorious gamblers, and they each walked on both sides of the law, wearing the star until some drunken brawl or random killing got them dismissed. Both men were ambushed in a theater in San Antonio, in 1884. The killers were never caught.
10
Every Texas Ranger carried a personal Bible. In addition, he kept a record of outlaws wanted by the rangers, and this notebook was referred to as “Bible Two.”
11
The Kansas-Pacific rails didn't reach Dodge until 1872.
12
Hardtack was an early version of today's soda crackers.
13
King Fisher's ranch was the Pendencia. He was a cowboy, a rustler, and a killer—he was fifteen when he killed his first man.
14
Despite his assurances to the contrary, King Fisher had been known to rustle. He was only fifteen when he stole his first horse.
BOOK: Ralph Compton Death Rides a Chestnut Mare
11.54Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
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