Serious Difficulty at the Skating Rink -- Colored Free School Picnic
27 APR 1884. Austin Daily Statesman.
SIX-SHOOTERS! JUST ONE WEEK’S RECORD IN THE PROUD CAPITAL OF TEXAS. At the Skating Rink, on the Streets, and in the Saloons.
At about eleven o’clock Friday night a serious difficulty occurred at the skating rink at Millett’s opera house, between Walter Swain and Howell and Frank Brown, jr., in which the six-shooter, as usual, came into play. It seems that there is some rivalry between Swain and Frank Brown, and some little feeling had already been engendered by Swain shoving in ahead of Brown and Brown shoving in ahead of Swain, and matters were simply brought to a crisis on this occasion. From all reports Frank Brown attempted to strike Swain, who, being more powerful and more active, warded off the blow and was rather getting the best of Brown, Howell Brown, an older brother, made his appearance, and, drawing a pistol, struck Swain on the back of the head. Howell Brown was promptly disarmed by friends and further difficulty avoided. Whatever cause for grievance these young men may have had, it is scarcely probably that the six-shooter was a necessary adjustment, and certainly not in a building where ladies and gentlemen are gathered together for an evening’s enjoyment.
Mr Howell Brown’s business has called him from the city, but time enough elapsed between the occurrence and his departure for him to be arrested for the violation of the pistol law, but this was not the cause. The Statesman again asserts that the pistol must go! This occurrence only serves to revive the subject. The lives of men and women are in constant danger from the moment they make their appearance upon the streets in the daytime, until they have retired at night. Not even at public gatherings is there any guarantee of safety. A prominent, eloquent speaker in a recent address on this subject said: “the truth is we are in a state of armed neutrality all the time,” and he was about right as far as Austin, the capital of the state, is concerned. Not alone are the people in danger of balls intentionally discharged, but more so from accidental shots! No less than three pistols are known to have been accidentally discharged during the past week!
On the night of the twenty-first a pistol fell from the pocket of a hack driver in the Horse Shoe saloon, and was discharged, the ball breaking out the round of one chair, passing through the seat of another and going out the back door after plowing a furrow along the wall.
On the very next evening at about 6 o’clock, a pistol was fired off in the neighborhood of the police station, followed in less than two minutes by another near the corner of the avenue and East Ash street, this latter shot being occasioned by a pistol falling from the pocket of someone who had just crossed the street, and who picked up the pistol and disappeared through some opening in the wall or earth so suddenly that the police were unable to find out who it was who was thus guilty of carrying a pistol in open violation of the law. But this was not all!
At eleven o’clock the very same night a pistol shot rang out in the classic regions of the first ward, and again were the police unable to obtain any information leading to a subsequent arrest. In fact, nothing could be learned further than that the party firing the shot had gone over the bridge. Nor does the record end here. Only a day or two more, and a prominent young man is arraigned before the recorder for carrying a pistol. He was fined fifty dollars and costs, and justly so, for the law is on the statute books that prescribes the penalty.
Then comes the affair at the skating rink, followed by another! A pistol was dropped yesterday and discharged and another young man is called upon to appear before Recorder Johns to answer a charge of carrying a pistol. Unless the laws with regard to the six shooter are enforced no man or woman’s life is safe in Austin.
About 500 colored people were present at the picnic of the colored free school children yesterday at Horst’s pasture.
