INTRODUCTION: Legends, lawmen, and lore by "Professor Jer Thom"

     Let me welcome you to the brand new Badges and Badmen blog. I'll be yer' host most of the time, though not always, cuz' we all know variety is the proverbial spice of life. My created alias, an eighteen-forty-niner type character, is "Professor Jer Thom" (an' I'll be typin' like he talks). 

     Now for my part, I'll be giving ya'll history lessons in my humble and peculiar way,

and there will also be a heap of other items finding their place on the page from day-to-day.

So get out yer' slates, an' get out yer' chalk,

I'm gonna give ya' some schoolin' while the hands of the clock go tick an' tock.

There's a heap of knowledge ta' be had,

if'n ya' got a mind ta' learn.

Many a lady; well, females at least, an' lads an' cads,

and others ya' might want ta' burn or spurn.

But it's all a part of our homegrown history,

back in the old west, wild an' woolly,

with many a free shootin' sprees ta' see.

There's a number of names ya' just might recall,

though many tales I'll be tellin' just don't stand as tall,

fer' those that are in them, those that they're about,

made the press in their day,

but could not last it out

through the years,

into legends,

fer' time did dull their shine.

Leavin' only a few facts remaining

fer' those like me ta' set ta' rhyme.

Yet ya'll will see as I get goin',

as I get passed this hem an haw,

that there's many a colorful characters

on both sides of the law.

The amount may surprise ya' friends,

scads and scads,

the sheer volume would fill an encyclopedia.

An' that there's just the facts,

not the legends an' myths of the media.

So let us get ta' goin',

an' someday, hopefully, ta' cover "A" thru "Z."

With tales of woe, grit, guts, an' glory;

heritage, pride, honor, an' even our shame.

Just take it in stride,

the anonymous, the famed,

an' the lessons ta' be learned in American history.