NORTH SHORE BREEZE 
15 
rather will—go, and also the kind 
of stuff that is in their backbones. 
This is a true instance, but one I do 
not remember reading of at the time. 
Do you? If not, | wonder why? 
You remember the Brownsville af- 
fair of four or five years ago, when 
the colored regiment shot up the 
town, and you also remember that 
President Roosevelt discharged the 
whole company. Well, these negroes 
were pretty well scared after the af- 
fair, and the officers proposed to take 
them out of the town. A company of 
Rangers were there (four is a com- 
pany) and they forbade the officers 
to move the soldiers from Browns- 
ville. (Now you may judge of how 
much authority they have—or how 
much they assume.) 
The officers of the colored troops 
told the Rangers they were going to 
move the men, and it only meant the 
' Rangers’ deaths, as there were but 
four against many soldiers, but the 
Ranger captain as firmly told the 
officer that he must not move the sol- 
diers. Then the Ranger told his 
men to never mind the privates, but 
- to kill the officers, to shoot them first 
and then kill privates as long as they 
could. 
Did they move? 
Bet they didn’t. 
It was a fine bit of strategy, yet it 
~ was no bluff. 
- The Rangers had this advantage, 
the soldiers could not fire on them 
until they had made some move to 
stop marching, and by the time that 
move would have been made, every 
officer well knew he would be dead. 
-- This shows what kind of clay 
- Rangers are moulded out of and also 
that brains count as much as ’44’s. 
When not at work they go in com- 
- panies of four, and camp in the dif- 
ferent towns—having a fixed (and 
rather limited) allowance for sup- 
phes. 
When some complaint comes in a 
Ranger is given the assignment, and 
they usually do their work singly. 
Ile may be gone for weeks, hunting 
his man in the hills; he must go light, 
he may have to ride for his life, 
therefore he has to pack out*on his 
saddle what he shall use for eating, 
and hedding for many days, yet have 
his load so compact he can jump off 
a twenty-mile race as quick as he 
could bat his eye. 
And all he will take in the way of 
cooking utensils will be a small cof- 
fee pot. Is provisions: will be a 
sack in which is flour and a piece of 
bacon. His bed is a pair of blankets. 
At night he will hobble his horse, 
build a fire and bake bread. He will 
open his flour bag, dig a tunnel in 
A CLUBHOUSE FOR FISHERMEN AND OTHERS. 
Pees 
By FReEpDERIcK J. ‘Lipsy. 
Suppose Gloucester were to build 
a worthy clubhouse for fishermen 
and others. It should stand _ be- 
tween Main street and Rogers 
street, opening on both, should it 
not? 
There should be six or eight good 
bowling alleys in the basement and 
as many pool tables and as many 
baths. The basement would open 
on Rogers street.. 
would open on Main street. with a 
door that swings in as smoothly as 
that of any saloon. 
Here would be a big lobby with 
the manager’s office at the rear or 
side, where would be a fisherman’s 
post-office, and a safe where checks 
could be cashed after banking hours 
and money deposited. A reading and 
writing-room would open off lobby 
and a dining-room with a lunch 
counter and bar for the sale of soft 
drinks; card-rooms, too, where. men 
could smoke and have a quiet game. 
A big assembly hall would occupy 
the second story, except for a row 
of smaller rooms across the Main 
street front. Here all sorts of en- 
tertainments could be held and re- 
ligious services on Sunday if deem- 
ed desirable. Above this should 
he two stories of neat, single bed- 
rooms to let to men, as a source of 
income. The roof might be utilized 
in summer as a kind of roof garden, 
whence the harbor could be scanned 
for arrivals and departures. 
I had thought the building should 
be for fishermen only. It has been 
suggested that it might serve a 
The main_ floor. 
larger usefulness, being open to any 
man on payment of $1 a year mem- | 
bership fee. The usual charge made 
for bowling and pool would bring 
in Jarge receipts. The room rent 
would be still more remunerative. 
The baths and .the restaurant and 
the soft drinks would be further 
sources of income. 
In fact, the building would be 
safely self-supporting if built with- 
out: debt. Let anyone who doubts 
the desirability of such a clubhouse 
visit those in Magnolia and he will 
be convinced.as I am, that a good 
clubhouse is as important to the wel- 
fare of a community as a good li- 
brary and almost as useful asa good 
church, 
In such a building as the one de- 
scribed, provision could be made for 
the care of aged fishermen and an 
endowment could be gathered in 
the -eourse of years for this and 
other. beneficent activity. 
Reprinted from Gloucester Times, 
March 9, 1910. 
Odd-Fellow’s Anniversary. 
Magiiolia lodge, 149, I. 0. O. F., 
will 6bserve the 91st anniversary of 
Odd-féllowship on Thursday even- 
ing; April 28, in the Town hall, Man- 
chester. The celebration will con- 
sist of an old-time Odd Fellows’ ball. 
The grand march will start at 8 
o clock. A light collation will be 
served at intermission. Members of 
the lodge and visiting brothers are 
invited to join and each may invite 
one lady. 
the top, pour in water and mix 
dough. ‘Then he will cut a green 
stick and roll the dough around it, 
plaster it on until he has the re- 
quired thickness, then stick it in the 
ground slanting over the fire, keep 
turning it, until soon he has some 
very fine Ranger bread. <A piece of 
bacon broiled and a cup of coffee 
finish the menu. 
And these men will live for weeks 
in this way; live alone up in the 
barren, sun-baked hills; every min- 
ute in. danger of a bullet from the 
hunted; living in silence, solitude, 
and heat; living among all kinds of * 
wild animals and having rattle- 
snakes for bed fellows. 
And it is this Ranger who has 
changed Texas from a country that 
was once wild, almost beyond the 
telling, to what it is today. This 
man of nerve, endurance and sand 
has done more to divest this once 
wild state from its bad men than has 
all the standing armies Uncle Sam 
ever spread over the. state. 
But they have worked themselves 
out of jobs. As they have driven out 
lawlessness, they have reduced de- 
mand for themselves and today there 
are but few left of these men who 
can look a *44 in the face, know it is 
loaded, knew the holder will shoot, 
and yet look at it without the change 
of a muscle. 
Out west of Del Rio, the other 
day, I visited the grave of a Ranger, 
who was shot while doing his duty, 
and as a leaned over the picket fenee 
enclosure I recalled how true to him 
was the little song I heard in the 
depot at Comstock— 
Shove along mah dogie! 
Hike out my honey! 
We'lls ’Il hit sweet grass bye’n bye! 
M. J. Brown, 
Del Rio, Texas. 
