19 Texas Rangers, Only 18 Winchesters. Why?
The title of this article was the caption on an ad for the Winchester Repeating Arms Co. back in the last century.
The ad ran in all the major outdoors publications at the time touting the superiority of the Winchester. It showed 19 Lawmen, 18 of whom were carrying Winchester Model 1895's, while one lone Ranger was armed with a Krag.
Speculation was made (by the Winchester ad-men) if the worried look on the Krag rifleman's face was due to the fact that he did not have a Winchester.
Then someone ruined the whole thing.
Some history buff somewhere pointed out to Winchester that these were not Texas Rangers, but were in actuality THE ARIZONA RANGERS! It seems the photo had been taken around 1901 in the mining towns of Clifton/Morenci, AZ during a strike at the mine. The Rangers had been called in to keep the peace.
An insult had been offered the State of Arizona. What was Winchester to do but 'fess up and try to make it good.
They ran ads in all the same outdoors magazines apologizing for the oversight and to make amends for the crime of calling Arizona Rangers by that other name, they offered a copy of the now-infamous photo to anyone who would write and request it.
Being interested in history I ordered a copy. Some years later I put it on a board and decoupaged it. It hangs in a place of honor in my reloading shop.
Click on the photo to see it "life-size" ... it takes a bit of time to load on a dialup connection. Note the 5th Ranger from the right.. the lone wolf with the Krag.
Ya gotta love a guy who does not go along with the crowd!
