You're No Man-Eater

"The first time I saw Pat Garrett, we had an argument. I had been in Roswell... When I returned there was a gate wired up. In those days we didn't wire up gates. If I had to go around I would have had to ride four miles around the fence and come back to the gate to get on the trail again. I cut the gate down and left it down.

The next morning Pat Garrett rode up to our camp. He asked, 'Do you know anything about that gate being down?'

'I do. I cut it down last night when I came to it. Gates aren't supposed to be wired in this country.'

'If you don't want to get into trouble, you had better leave that gate alone,' Pat replied.

'The next time I come to that gate and it is wired up, I will cut it down, I'll damned sure tell you, and I don't intend to ride around.'

'Young man, I am a good mind to get down from here and whip you with this quirt,' Pat answered.

'Pat you have another thing coming. Remember, for once you don't have a gun on, and I do. You may wear a quirt out on some, but you will never wear one out on me. I am not afraid of you or the stories they tell, for you don't look like a man-eater to me. So you had better think before you get off that horse,' I answered.

Pat never answered. He turned his horse and rode away. The gate wasn't tied up when I next came to it, and I always put it back up after going through it."

- Charles Rourke (Totty, Frances E, and Charles Rouark?. Early Days In Lincoln County. New Mexico, 1938. Manuscript/Mixed Material. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/wpalh001306/>.)