The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 45, July 1941 - April, 1942 Page: 19
409 p. : ill., maps ; 24 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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The Laredo City Election and Riot of 1886
bors' children were visiting them and playing with
them. Most of them were upstairs, but some of the
children were below, one of mine among the latter.
When the firing commenced, I wanted to get downstairs
to get that child, but as soon as I attempted to open
the door, opening on the balcony at the head of the
staircase, a volley was fired at me, and I closed the
door. Every time I attempted to get out, they fired at
me. I wanted to run through the stream of bullets,
but feared to do so lest the children would follow me
and be killed. The last time I looked out the door I saw
a crowd surround a young man, a Guarache, on horse-
back, and they riddled him with bullets. He fell, and
the smoke so suffocated me that I fell upon the floor.
The shock produced by that terrible spectacle has made
me ill ever since, and the horrible scene will haunt my
memory all the balance of my life.4"
Don Santos Benavides, an old Indian fighter and a colonel
in the Confederate army, in defense of his native city, later
wrote the Galveston News thus:
At the present time something of an interesting and
wholesome character will doubtless be welcomed with
pleasure from Laredo. The great disorder which ob-
tained here on the 7th instant, while deservedly cen-
surable, was not only of transient but of abnormal na-
ture, and is not without its prototype in interior cen-
ters of civilization where law is presumed to always
dominate. En passant it may be observed that the devil
takes advantage of a weak spot anywhere, and sad
demonstrations of this fact are not wanting among
the elite in society, in church and in state, and in seek-
ing them we may ignore for the nonce those of humbler
pretensions and minor opportunities, who not infre-
quently, bear the stamp and have the ring of integrity
and manliness which are the characteristics of a law-
abiding citizen-the latter is a noble appellation.4'
One of the local undertakers, C. L. Fowzer, prominent among
the Guaraches, apparently tired of the political conflict and
mock funerals, decided to quit business, for he advertised:
NOTICE: Wishing to close out the undertaking
business I will from date, sell all cases and caskets at
cost prices, and furnish Hearse free to the funerals.42
40San Antonio Express, April 11, 1886.
41Galveston News, April 16, 1886.
42Lareto Times, July 14, 1886.19
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 45, July 1941 - April, 1942, periodical, 1942; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth146053/m1/25/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.