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795
R. W. Robertson was a soldier under General Shelby of Missouri. On receiving his discharge here in Texas, he and a number of others went to Mexico expecting to join General Maximilian's army. On reaching Mexico they discovered Maximilian's cause was a hopeless case. They then tendered their services to the Mexican government and were offered only a dollar a day and they bear their own expenses. Being disgusted, he sold his gun and pistol for $43.00, mounted his weary cavalry horse and came back to San Antonio, after having purchased some pretty fair clothing in Mexico. He then went to the Menger Hotel and asked for a bed, where he understood many Confederate soldiers had been given free beds. The clerk remarked, "You are dressed very well and we are not giving away free beds any more." General Tarver, a brother-in-law of the late General Ham P. Bee, having overheard part of the conversation stepped up and said, "What's the trouble?" Bob Robertson stated his case and Tarver said, "Give the man a bed ; I'll pay for it." The next morning he went to Sapplington's Livery Stable, mounted his horse and pulled out for San Marcos, where he knew a comrade by the name of Breeding resided. On reaching San Marcos neither he nor Breeding could find any work for him. There was to be a picnic the next day and a dance that night which he attended, and the next morning he went down the San Marcos River and landed at Prairie Lea. Shack Jones coming out of a groggery hailed him saying : "Where are you going?" his reply was "I am hunting work." Shack, being a big-hearted fellow and an ex-Confederate soldier replied, "Well let's go in and get a drink, then you come on home with me to my mother's," which he did. The next morning at the breakfast table Mrs. Jones said, "Johnnie,"