Of all the twenty-odd legal justifications for homicide in Texas, the second most common is the epithet which is never spoken by gentlemen in the presence of ladies except on the New York stage. There were no ladies in front of the Somersworth post office when Jim Begley culminated a sharp quarrel over a horse-trade by speaking this epithet distinctly and viciously to Newt Shaw; and Newt, under all the rules and precedents, was justified in his immediate action, which was to draw a forty-five revolver, place the muzzle of it against Begley’s stomach and begin shooting. He fired three rapid shots. This would have seriously discommoded Begley if he had not been wearing a metal breastplate ben…
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