Description
Judge Roy Bean’s unique courthouse in Langtry, Texas, is pictured on this vintage postcard, showing the light brown building with vibrant green plants. The card details Judge Roy Bean’s unusual methods of dispensing justice from his combination saloon and courthouse, “The Jersey Lilly.” This colorful Curteich-Chicago Art-Colortone postcard dates from around the 1950s.
Front Text (cleaned):
TX-4
Judge Roy Bean
Justice of the Peace, Law West of the Pecos
The Jersey Lilly
Law West of the Pecos, Langtry, Texas
7B-H810
Back Text (cleaned):
C. T. GENERAL TEXAS SCENES—
Around 1870 Judge Roy Bean began dispensing law in the combination saloon and courthouse shown on the opposite side of this card. The Judge named his saloon "The Jersey Lilly" and his home town "Langtry," both after Lily Langtry, a beautiful actress whom he had never met but whose picture he saw in the Police Gazette. He died in 1902 at the age of 71, too late to meet Lily Langtry when she stopped her private car to see the law west of the Pecos and the town named in her honor.
POST CARD
GENUINE CURTEICH-CHICAGO "C.T. ART-COLORTONE" POST CARD (REG. U.S. PAT. OFF.)
Nov. 21, 1955
