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

nd 1860 was an era long to be remembered; all hands and the cook were making money, peace and plenty shed a halo of prosperity around south- ern New Mexico. The new purchase had a charm about it for adventurers of every kind and they soon came flocking in. There was more ( 6 )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.