Captain McDonald's reply to Ogle's letter was, in part, as follows:

"Austin, Texas, June 4, 1908.
"Mr. Bill Ogle,
"Huntsville, Penitentiary.
"Dear Sir:

"Your letter of the 21st inst. received, and contents duly and carefully noted.

"I note what you say in regard to what your friends say about my opposing your pardon, claiming that in case of your release I had fears of my own life. Now, Bill, ... my advice to you is to make a clear truthful statement, giving all the facts connected with numerous murders committed by this mob, and thereby secure your liberty.

"You know I'm not in the Ranger service now, and it makes no difference to me who is released, and I so notified the Board of Pardons.

"You say you have no feeling of bitterness against me, and that you would not attempt to harm me. You can rest assured that I have no fears in that line. I only did my duty as an officer, as you say I did, and I have no animosity against you; and would not have gone before the Board of Pardons, had I not been sent for.

"I understand your conduct has been all right while in jail, and in the Penitentiary, and I am sorry that your conduct wasn't better before you got into that mob, because you know that was an awful thing. Now, don't you?

"You asked me to consider this matter, and that you will appreciate it as long as life shall last. I certainly will not utter any protest, unless the Governor asks me what I know about it, and I'll then tell the truth about it.

"Very respectfully,
W.J. McDonald."

What Captain Bill had said before the Board of Pardons was:

"I don't know the gentleman that is presenting this petition and making this talk to you, but I do know the names of a good many of those signers, and I know Bill Ogle is guilty of this murder, and I know that a good many of these other fellows ought to be where Bill is now."

[XXX]

Quieting a Texas Feud

THE REECE-TOWNSEND TROUBLE, AND HOW THE FACTIONS WERE ONCE DISMISSED BY CAPTAIN MCDONALD

As the old century drew near its end, a wave of disorder and crime that amounted to an inundation swept over the eastern and south-eastern portion of Texas. Murders, lynchings, mobs and rumors of mobs, were reported daily. The Pan-handle, even in its palmiest days, had been a Young Men's Christian Association as compared with the older, more thickly settled portions of the State. In the Pan-handle, crime was likely to be of a primitive, elemental kind-the sort of crime that flourished in the old, old days when the Patriarchs pastured their flocks on a hundred hills and protected them with a club.