The Gentlemen in the White Hats: Dramatic Episodes in the History of the Texas Rangers

For more than 150 years the Texas Rangers have blazed a trail across Texas history in their role as policemen for the state of Texas. In 1934, when C. L. Douglas wrote this popular account of the Rangers’ achievements, there were few other histories of the organization. By vocation a journalist, Douglas devoted years of research to these historic lawmen with their aura of courage and resolve. Legendary feats from all the historical periods of the Rangers are brought back to life in Douglas’s accounts. From the early days of the Republic and before the Civil War he writes of the battles of the vengeful Comanches against the relentless advance of the white frontiersman and their way of life. After the creation of the Frontier Battalion in the 1870s he narrates the heady exploits against the Mexican bandits and outlaw cattle rustlers. From the twentieth century we read of such exploits as those of Frank Hamer and his relentless pursuit of Bonnie and Clyde. The mystique of the Texas Rangers persists–the mystique of a remarkable cast of characters vividly brought to life by Douglas. Truly a different breed were these Gentlemen in the White Hats.