QUICK ON DRAW

Evening Star, Issue 22817, 27 November 1937, Page 21

QUICK ON DRAW

FASTEST IN ARIZONA Two-gun Tom Updegrove, deputy sheriff of Tolare County, said he was the fastest man on the draw in Arizona. He had two Mexican silver pistols in his holsters, another in the leg of « high-heeled boot when he was inter, viewed in London. He comes from the Bar XY ranch in Arizona, a trail-rider bora and bred* . He is tough, and looks it, five feet fiv» of bone and muscle. Breaking in_ mustangs and bareback-riding steers in the cowboys’ rodeo back in the Middle West is Tom’s idea of a quiet "day. Or was. A steer more vicious than most threw Tom heavily, trampled on him, twisted his leg. He will ride the steers no more. So he is earning a better living > than any man on the ranges by his pistols and his stockwhip. He is the man whose face you never \ see in western films, hut you see his whip, his .shooting. When the end of a curling lash flicks_ a cigarette from the lips of the smirking villain, that it Tom just out of sight. Remember “ The Plainsman ”P When the sheriff’s glass of ale is shattered by a pistol shot, that is Tom, He gets £lO a time for tricks like that. When the reporter met him at Grosvenor House Hotel Tom was hatless. He found the cowboy’s ten-gallon hat attracts too much notice in town. He won’t wear his chaps—those sheepskm pants—either. Drawing a pistol on the crossdraw, that is taking it from the left hand holster with the right hand, Tom .can fire, do a drop-draw and get ms right holster pistol and fire again so quickly that the two shots sound as one. He can look in a mirror, shoot ove» his shoulder or under his- arm without turning round—and never miss.