Texas is different, I believe, from any other state in the Union in its methods of jury trial. Here the jury not only decides the innocence or guilt of the defendant but also assesses the punishment, and all the judge has to do apparently is to instruct the jury on points of law, and tell them the limits of punishment for the offence under trial. He also does the actual sentencing after the jury have brought in their verdict. I have seen myself, in a civil case, a lawyer rolling and smoking cigarettes while addressing the court, so one can imagine there is little of the majesty and dignity of the law in some Texas courts. A jury is said once to have sent the following note to the judge: "If you don’t send us in something to eat we will have to find the defendant guilty; but if you send in plenty to eat and drink we will stay here till he is innocent." They tell about a J.P. up in Pecos county who had a man before him on the charge of shooting a Chinaman. He said, “I have carefully gone over the statutes of the state of Texas, and I cannot find it anywhere stated that it is a crime to kill a Chinaman. I therefore declare the prisoner free.” Henry Burns, our sheriff, was a fine-looking man, well over six feet in height. He did more than any one man to make Uvalde a law-abiding place during the twenty-two years he was sheriff. He was far from a good shot (I myself have beaten him pistol-shooting), but he was a man of wonderful nerve, which is what really counts. For a man may hit a target every shot at 30 yards, and yet cannot hit a man at 30 feet if the man is also doing some shooting. In my wanderings I have met one really wonderful shot who could, with a Colt’s 44 frontier 7-inch barrel, hit a tomato can almost every shot at 40 yards. I have also known men, who were considered very good shots, stand at a distance of fifteen paces and empty their guns at one another without either getting a scratch. There is a saying throughout the South that the best weapon made is a double-barrelled shot-gun and buck-shot. I have heard and read a great deal about the wonderful pistol shots, but have, with the above exception, never met one who came up to the standards I have read of. The general advantage the bad-man had over the rest of the community was twofold: first, he practised drawing his pistol as quick as a flash, and then he always knew when he intended to shoot, while the other fellow was still thinking over the pros and cons. The first shot always counts in these affrays, as most of the shooting is done in a saloon or gambling-hall at a distance of a few feet when it is impossible to miss.