Allow me a few words about the "judge". Roy Bean was one of the more colorful personas of the old west, indeed claiming the title "The Law West of the Pecos". He was a freighter, a sheep herder, a blockade runner (for the Confederacy), a saloon-owner and an old round rouge and thief. In San Antonio he sold firewood he'd cut from his neighbor's forest and got run out of the dairy business for watering down the milk. He then worked as a butcher for a while, accepting unbranded cattle, stolen from various farms in the area. He had a rough and rowdy marriage, but produced four children. Finally, he started a saloon, which was so shady that when Bean started talking about maybe going west, his competitors promptly bought him out so he could get the hell outta there.
Bean made a deal with the railroads (who were mightier than the law in west Texas back then) to supply workers with food and drink in his tent saloon, and for a few years he would follow the workers around with his big tent. When things got too bad he was made Justice of the Peace. Talk about the fox guarding the hen house... He more or less settled down in Langtry, some miles west of Del Rio.
One could go on and on about Bean, and these days it's hard to say for sure what is real and what is myth. He only ordered the hanging of two men, and one of them escaped. He organized a boxing match on a sand bank in the Rio Grand to evade Texas law. He acquited a man of killing a Chinese worker, because "he could find no law against killing a Chinaman" and pocketed every fine he ever issued. During trials he would make it compulsory to drink during recesses - the trials were, of course, held in his own bar.
As a Justice of the Peace he also held weddings and funerals. He'd charge $5 for weddings and $10 for divorce, and would end all wedding proceedings with "may God have mercy on your souls" - traditionally the words used for death sentences. He only ever used ONE law book, and didn't consult it much. They kept sending him newer, updated books, but he used them "to kindle fires", in his own words.
One aspect of Bean that may have been something more than colorful bluster, was his obsession with English actress Lillie Langtry. He kept a correspondence with her for years, even convincing her that he'd named the city of Langtry after her (he hadn't, it was named for a railroad engineer). He renamed his private home "Opera House" to convince her to come to town. But more about Ms Langtry in the next post...
All Del Rio pics here.
Ms Langtry, the English actress. More about her in the next post.
A replica of Roy Bean's saloon.
The museum building. There's literally tons more in the buildings behind it.
The main room on the second floor of the museum building. Lots and lots of old stuff jumbled together, as higgedly piggedly as a set of English teeth.
An old phonograph. I luuubs old stuff.
Toys and dolls from way back when.
The graves of Roy Bean and his son, Sam.
I honestly did not expect to see a Norwegian gravestone in the southwest of Texas. According to nearby information, the stone had been dug up when they were laying railroad tracks.
Old crapper.
The area had several wineries.
A reconstructed injun cave. Hmmm. Those painted hands look an awful lot like stone age paintings in the south of France.
This is a piece of an enormous nativity display made by some local madwoman over fuck knows how many years. I'll betcha the scene in Bethlehem did not include a 50 pound baby Jesus.
An old car.
This parrot was a demented little charmer. Pretty much all he could say was "My name is Pepe", and this he kept repeating ever louder and more desperate as I walked the room. When I left, I could still hear him hollering at the top of his little lungs "MY NAME IS PEPEEEE".
John Wayne. 'nuff said.
This very friendly lady worked the desk at the museum. She was over 20 years old and would rub against anything, including me. Sometimes she'd bring in dead mice to show the other employees. Oh, and the lady in the hat worked there too.
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