money and less law than any other place, and…
source date: 1889
availability: public-domain

money and less law than any other place, and Mesilla became the paradise for gamblers, the greatest number of them coming from Cali- fornia where they had been carried in the bo- nanza wave that swept the country in 1849, all young men of sporting proclivities destined to lead a reckless life, they soon developed into gamblers and desperadoes of the most danger- ous type. We who had lived here so long on the raging frontier had witnessed the blood-curd- ling deeds of the killers from Texas and the Apache Indians until we had become accus- tomed to such pastimes, but here was a new tribe of blood-spillers from the Pacific slope who could discount them all. They used to say this was the place I have been hunting for a long time. New Mexico, Texas and Mexico, three different jurisdictions in sight, and no ex- tradition laws. When they were losers in the game they killed a man for luck, and they had to kill also as they said to keep up the reputa- tion of the town, but the finger of fate pointed incessantly to the maelstrom that was yawning to engulf them and they were bound to fulfill their destiny. I saw many of them die with bullet holes through them and one of them lived forty-eight hours after he had been pierced with five balls. The balance of them joined the Con- federate army and were lost sight of in the tu- mult and whirl of the great revolution.