Forty Years at El Paso, 1858-1898Mills, W. W. (William Wallace)
Philosophy
Forty Years at El Paso, 1858-1898
Mills, W. W. (William Wallace)
El Paso (Tex.); Texas -- History
The postmaster at Fort Concho, “Jim” Trainer, whom I had never seen, had
threatened to whip me on sight because he had been told that I had said
he gave false receipts to the Mail Company, as other postmasters had
done. After we got into camp near Concho I told my wife that I would go
up to the sutler’s store and see Mr. Trainer, and I remember her cheery
words to me as I walked away: “Look out for yourself!”
Arrived at the store I entered and asked for Mr. Trainer. A
good-looking, good-natured gentleman behind the counter replied that he
was the man, and when I told him who I was he hesitated awhile and then
invited me into the office, gave me a chair and a cigar, and after we
had chatted awhile he asked me if I knew he had intended to thrash me. I
told him yes, but that I had never spoken unkindly of him and did not
know anything about his acts as postmaster. He said he had been the
victim of liars, and presented me with a bottle of fine brandy and
wished me a pleasant journey. Trainer was not a coward but had been
played upon by my enemies.
[Illustration]
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ASSAULT BY KUHN AT FREDRICKSBURG.
When we arrived at Fredricksburg, sixty-five miles west of Austin, where
Mr. Zabriskie left us for San Antonio, we stopped at Nimmit’s Hotel for
a day’s rest, and Mrs. Mills and I were given a room upstairs. During
the day I met in the hall of the hotel Albert Kuhn, who has been
mentioned in my war story as the man who piloted the party of Texas
soldiers who kidnapped me in Juarez in 1861, and who had received the
reward for my capture. Kuhn had left El Paso with the Confederates in
1862, and I had not seen or heard of him for eight years. Kuhn was a
very large man of rough and almost frightful appearance, and prided
himself on being considered _bad_. He was a prototype of Mark Twain’s
“Mr. Arkansas.” We passed each other without speaking, but when we met a
second time in the back yard Kuhn said: “Mills, don’t you know me?” I
replied: “Yes.” “Then why didn’t you speak to me?” “Because I did not
wish to do so.” Kuhn then went to the bar and proceeded to get himself
drunk. I told “Johnnie” what had occurred and instructed him to harness
the team and be ready to proceed on our journey. I told my wife that
Kuhn was at the hotel and that there might be trouble. I went down
stairs again, armed, of course, and met Kuhn, but he made no
demonstration. Mrs. Mills and I then went to the ambulance, Johnnie
being already on the box, and Mrs. Mills got inside, but before I could
take my seat Kuhn appeared with a cocked pistol in his hand and swore
great oaths that if I did not get out he would kill me where I was.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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