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82 - Roughing It by Mark Twain · Roughing It

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  Speaker 1: This is Appendix Sea of roughing It. This is a
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  Speaker 1: Roughing It by Mark Twain Appendix Sea concerning a frightful
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  Speaker 1: assassination that was never consummated. If ever there was a
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  Speaker 1: harmless man, it is Conrad Wagand of gold Hill, Nevada.
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  Speaker 1: If ever there was a gentle spirit that thought itself
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  Speaker 1: unfired gunpowder and latent ruin, it is Conrad Wagund. If
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  Speaker 1: ever there was an oyster that fancied itself a whale,
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  Speaker 1: or a jack O'Lantern confined to a swamp that fancied
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  Speaker 1: itself a planet with a billion mile orbit, or a
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  Speaker 1: summer zephyr that deemed itself a hurricane, it is Conrad Wagand. Therefore,
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  Speaker 1: what wonder is it that when he says a thing
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  Speaker 1: he thinks, the world listens, that when he does a thing,
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  Speaker 1: the world stands still to look, and that when he
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  Speaker 1: suffers there is a convulsion of nature. When I met Conrad,
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  Speaker 1: he was superintendent of the gold Hill Assay Office, and
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  Speaker 1: he was not only its superintendent, but its entire force.
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  Speaker 1: And he was a street preacher too, with a mongrel
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  Speaker 1: religion of his own invention, whereby he expected to regenerate
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  Speaker 1: the universe. This was years ago. Here latterly he has
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  Speaker 1: entered journalism, and his journalism is what it might be
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  Speaker 1: expected to be, colossal to ear, but pigmy to the eye.
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  Speaker 1: It is extravagant grandiloquence confined to a newspaper about the
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  Speaker 1: size of a double letter sheet. He doubtless edits, sets
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  Speaker 1: the type, and prints his paper all alone. But he
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  Speaker 1: delights to speak of the concern as if it occupies
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  Speaker 1: a block and employs a thousand men. Something less than
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  Speaker 1: two years ago, Conrad assailed several people mercilessly in his
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  Speaker 1: little People's tribune une and got himself into trouble. Straightway.
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  Speaker 1: He airs the affair in the Territorial Enterprise in a
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  Speaker 1: communication over his own signature. And I propose to reproduce
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  Speaker 1: it here in all its native simplicity and more than
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  Speaker 1: human candor. Long as it is, it is well worth reading,
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  Speaker 1: for it is the richest specimen of journalistic literature the
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  Speaker 1: history of America can furnish. Perhaps from the Territorial Enterprise
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  Speaker 1: January twenty eighteen seventy seeming plot for assassination miscarried to
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  Speaker 1: the editor of the Enterprise months ago when mister Sutro
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  Speaker 1: incidentally exposed mining management on the comstock and, among others,
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  Speaker 1: roused me to protest against its continuance. In great kindness,
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  Speaker 1: you warned me that any attempt by publications, by public meetings,
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  Speaker 1: and by legislative action aimed at the correction of chronic
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  Speaker 1: mining evils in Story County must entail upon me a
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  Speaker 1: business ruin b the burden of all its costs C.
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  Speaker 1: Personal violence, and if my purpose were persisted in then
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  Speaker 1: d assassination, and after all nothing would be effected. Your
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  Speaker 1: prophecy fulfilling in large part, at least, your prophecies have
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  Speaker 1: been fulfilled for a assaying which was well attended to
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  Speaker 1: in the Gold Hill Assay Office of which I am superintendent.
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  Speaker 1: In consequence of my publication has been taken elsewhere. So
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  Speaker 1: the president of one of the companies assures me, with
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  Speaker 1: no reason assigned other work has been taken away, with
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  Speaker 1: but one or two important exceptions. Our assay business now
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  Speaker 1: consists simply of the gleanings of the vicinity B, though
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  Speaker 1: my own personal donations to the People's Tribune Association have
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  Speaker 1: already exceeded one thousand, five hundred dollars. Outside of our
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  Speaker 1: own numbers, we have received in money less than three
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  Speaker 1: hundred dollars as contributions and subscriptions for the journal see
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  Speaker 1: On Thursday last, on the main street in gold Hill,
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  Speaker 1: near noon, with neither warning nor cause, assigned by a
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  Speaker 1: powerful blow, I was fell to the ground, and while
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  Speaker 1: down I was kicked by a man whom, it would seem,
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  Speaker 1: had been led to believe that I had spoken derogatorily
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  Speaker 1: of him, by whom he was so induced to believe
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  Speaker 1: I am as yet unable to say. On Saturday last,
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  Speaker 1: I was again assailed and beaten by a man who
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  Speaker 1: first informed me why he did so, and who persisted
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  Speaker 1: in making his assault even after the erroneous impression under
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  Speaker 1: which he also was at first laboring had been clearly
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  Speaker 1: and repeatedly pointed out. This same man, after failing through
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  Speaker 1: intimidation to elicit from me the names of our editorial contributors,
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  Speaker 1: against giving which he knew me to be, pledged, beat
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  Speaker 1: himself weary upon me with a raw hide, I not resisting,
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  Speaker 1: and then paintingly threatened me with permanent, disfiguring Mayhem, if
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  Speaker 1: ever again I should introduce his name into print, and who,
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  Speaker 1: but a few minutes before his attack upon me, assured
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  Speaker 1: me that the only reason I was permitted to reach
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  Speaker 1: home alive on Wednesday evening last, at which time the
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  Speaker 1: People's Tribune was issued, was that he deems me only
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  Speaker 1: half witted, And be it remembered, the very next morning,
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  Speaker 1: I was knocked down and kicked by a man who
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  Speaker 1: seemed to be prepared for flight. He sees doom impending.
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  Speaker 1: When will the circle join? How long before the whole
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  Speaker 1: of your prophecy will be fulfilled? I cannot say. But
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  Speaker 1: under the shadow of so much fulfillment in so short
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  Speaker 1: a time, and with such threats from a man who
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  Speaker 1: is one of the most prominent exponents of the San
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  Speaker 1: Francisco mining ring, staring me and this whole community defiantly
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  Speaker 1: in the face and pointing to a completion of your augury,
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  Speaker 1: do you blame me for feeling that this communication is
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  Speaker 1: the last I shall ever write for the press, Especially
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  Speaker 1: when a sense alike of personal self respect, of duty
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  Speaker 1: to this money, of pressed and fear ridden community, and
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  Speaker 1: of a mere ser aicon fealty to the spirit of
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  Speaker 1: true liberty all command me and each more loudly than
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  Speaker 1: love of life itself, to declare the name of that
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  Speaker 1: prominent man to be John B. Winters, president of the
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  Speaker 1: Yellow Jacket Company, a political aspirant, and a military general.
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  Speaker 1: The name of his partially duped accomplice and better in
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  Speaker 1: this last marvelous assault is no other than Philip Lynch,
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  Speaker 1: Editor and proprietor of the gold Hill News. Despite the
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  Speaker 1: insult and wrong heaped upon me by John B. Winters
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  Speaker 1: on Saturday afternoon, only a glimpse of which I shall
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  Speaker 1: be able to afford your readers. So much do I
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  Speaker 1: deplore clinching by publicity a serious mistake of any one
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  Speaker 1: man or woman committed under natural and not self wrought passion.
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  Speaker 1: In view of his great apparent excitement at the time,
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  Speaker 1: and in view of the almost perfect privacy of the assault,
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  Speaker 1: I am far from sure that I should not have
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  Speaker 1: given him space for repentance before exposing him, were it
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  Speaker 1: not that he himself has so far exposed the matter
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  Speaker 1: as to make it the common talk of the town
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  Speaker 1: that he has horsewhipped me. That fact having been made public,
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  Speaker 1: all the facts in connection need to be also or
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  Speaker 1: silence on my part would seem more than singular, and
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  Speaker 1: with many would be proof either that I was conscious
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  Speaker 1: of some unworthy aim in publishing the article, or else
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  Speaker 1: that my non combatant principles are but a convenient cloak,
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  Speaker 1: alike of physical and moral cowardice. I therefore shall try
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  Speaker 1: to present a graphic but truthful picture of this whole affair,
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  Speaker 1: but shall forbear all comments, presuming that the editors of
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  Speaker 1: our own journal, if others do not, will speak freely
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  Speaker 1: and fittingly upon this subject in our next number. Whether
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  Speaker 1: I shall then be dead or living, for my death
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  Speaker 1: will not stop, though it may suspend the publication of
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  Speaker 1: the People's Tribune. The non combatant sticks to principle, but
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  Speaker 1: takes along a friend or two of a conveniently a
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  Speaker 1: different stripe. The trap sat On Saturday morning, John B.
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  Speaker 1: Winters sent verbal word to the Gold Hill Essay Office
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  Speaker 1: that he desired to see me at the Yellow Jacket Office.
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  Speaker 1: Though such a request struck me as decidedly cool in
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  Speaker 1: view of his own recent discourtesies to me there alike
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  Speaker 1: as a publisher and as a stockholder in the Yellowjacket mine,
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  Speaker 1: and though it seemed to me more like a summons
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  Speaker 1: than the courteous request by one gentleman to another for
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  Speaker 1: a favor, hoping that some conference with Sharon looking to
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  Speaker 1: the betterment of mining matters in Nevada might arise from it.
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  Speaker 1: I felt strongly inclined to overlook what possibly was simply
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  Speaker 1: an oversight in courtesy. But as then it had only
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  Speaker 1: been two days since I had been bruised and beaten
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  Speaker 1: under a hasty and false apprehension of facts, my caution
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  Speaker 1: was somewhat aroused. Moreover, I remembered sensitively his contemptuousness of
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  Speaker 1: manner to me at my last interview in his office.
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  Speaker 1: I therefore felt it needful if I went at all
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  Speaker 1: to go accompanied by a friend whom he would not
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  Speaker 1: dare to treat within civility, and whose presence with me
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  Speaker 1: might secure exemption from insult. Accordingly, I asked a neighbor
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  Speaker 1: to accompany me. The trap almost detected. Although I was
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  Speaker 1: not then aware of this fact, it would seem that
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  Speaker 1: previous to my request, this same neighbor had heard Doctor
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  Speaker 1: Zabriski state publicly in a saloon that mister Winters had
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  Speaker 1: told him he had decided either to kill or to
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  Speaker 1: horse with me, and had not finally decided on which
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  Speaker 1: my neighbor therefore felt unwilling to go down with me
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  Speaker 1: until he had first called on mister Winters alone. He
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  Speaker 1: therefore paid him a visit. From that interview, he assured
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  Speaker 1: me that he gathered the impression that he did not
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  Speaker 1: believe I would have any difficulty with mister Winter's and
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  Speaker 1: that he Winters would call on me at four o'clock
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  Speaker 1: in my own office my own precautions. As share of
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  Speaker 1: commings was in gold Hill that afternoon, and as I
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  Speaker 1: desired to converse with him about the previous assault, I
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  Speaker 1: invited him to my office and he came. Although a
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  Speaker 1: half an hour had passed beyond four o'clock, mister Winters
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  Speaker 1: had not called, and we both of us began preparing
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  Speaker 1: to go home. Just then Philip Lynch, publisher of the
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  Speaker 1: gold Hill News, came in and said blandly and cheerily,
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  Speaker 1: as if bringing good news. Hello, John B. Winters wants
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  Speaker 1: to see you. I replied, indeed, why he sent me
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  Speaker 1: word that he would call on me here this afternoon
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  Speaker 1: at four o'clock. Oh well, it don't do to be
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  Speaker 1: too ceremonious. Just now he's in my office and and
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  Speaker 1: that will do as well. Come on in Winter's wants
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  Speaker 1: to consult with you alone. He's got something to say
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  Speaker 1: to you. Though slightly uneasy at this change of program,
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  Speaker 1: yet believing that in an editor's house I ought to
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  Speaker 1: be safe, and anyhow that I would be within hail
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  Speaker 1: of the street, I hurriedly and but partially whispered my
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  Speaker 1: dim apprehensions to mister Cummings and asked him if he
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  Speaker 1: would not keep near enough to hear my voice in
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  Speaker 1: case I should call. He consented to do so while
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  Speaker 1: waiting for some other parties, and to come in if
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  Speaker 1: he heard my voice or thought I had need of protection.
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  Speaker 1: On reaching the editorial part of the news office, which
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  Speaker 1: fewed from the street, is dark, I did not see
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  Speaker 1: mister Winters, and again my misgivings arose. Had I paused
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  Speaker 1: long enough to consider the case, I should have invited
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  Speaker 1: Sheriff comings in. But as Lynch went downstairs, he said
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  Speaker 1: this way wagoned, it's best to be private, or some
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  Speaker 1: such remark. I do not desire to strain the reader's
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  Speaker 1: fancy hurtfully. And yet it would be a favor to
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  Speaker 1: me if he would try to fancy this lamb in
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  Speaker 1: battle or the dueling ground, or at the head of
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  Speaker 1: a vigilance committee m T. I followed, and without mister Cummings,
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  Speaker 1: and without arms, which I never do or will carry,
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  Speaker 1: unless as a soldier in war, or unless I should
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  Speaker 1: yet come to feel I must fight a duel, or
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  Speaker 1: to join an aid in the ranks of a necessary
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  Speaker 1: very vigilance committee. But by following I made a fatal mistake.
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  Speaker 1: Following was entering a trap. And whatever animal suffers itself
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  Speaker 1: to be caught should expect the common fate of a
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  Speaker 1: caged rat. As I fear events to come will prove
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  Speaker 1: traps commonly are not set for benevolence. His bodyguard is
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  Speaker 1: shut out the trap inside. I followed Lynch downstairs. At
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  Speaker 1: their foot, a door to the left opened into a
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  Speaker 1: small room. From that room, another door opened into yet
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  Speaker 1: another room, And once entered, I found myself inveigled into
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  Speaker 1: what many will ever henceforth regard as a private subterranean
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  Speaker 1: gold hill den, admirably adapted in proper hands to the
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  Speaker 1: purposes of murder raw or disguised for from it, with
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  Speaker 1: both or even one door closed. When too late I
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  Speaker 1: saw that I could not be heard by share of
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  Speaker 1: comings and from it by violence and by force. I
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  Speaker 1: was prevented from making a peaceable exit when I thought
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  Speaker 1: I saw the studious object of this consultation was no
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  Speaker 1: other than to compass my killing in the presence of
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  Speaker 1: Philip Lynch as a witness, as soon as by insult
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  Speaker 1: a proverbially excitable man should be exasperated to the point
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  Speaker 1: of assailing mister Winters, so that mister Lynch, by his
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  Speaker 1: conscience and by his well known tenderness of heart toward
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  Speaker 1: the rich and potent, would be compelled to testify that
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  Speaker 1: he saw General John B. Winters kill Conrad Wagon in
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  Speaker 1: self defense. But I am going too fast. Our host,
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  Speaker 1: mister Lynch was present during the most of the time,
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  Speaker 1: say a little short of an hour, but three times
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  Speaker 1: he left the room. His testimony therefore would be available
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  Speaker 1: only as to the bulk of what transpired. On entering
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  Speaker 1: this carpeted den, I was invited to a seat near
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  Speaker 1: one corner of the room. Mister Lynch took a seat
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  Speaker 1: near the window. J. B. Winters sat at first near
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  Speaker 1: the door, and began his remarks essentially as follows. I
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  Speaker 1: have come here to exact of you a retraction in
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  Speaker 1: black and White of those damnably false charges which you
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  Speaker 1: have preferred against me in that infamous lying sheet of yours,
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  Speaker 1: and you must declare yourself their author, that you published
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  Speaker 1: them knowing them to be false, and that your motives
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  Speaker 1: were malicious. Hold, mister Winters, your language is insulting and
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  Speaker 1: your demand an enormity. I trust I was not invited
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  Speaker 1: here either to be insulted or coerced. I supposed myself
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  Speaker 1: here by invitation of mister Lynch, at your request. Nor
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  Speaker 1: did I come here to insult you. I have already
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  Speaker 1: told you that I am here for a very different purpose.
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: Yet your language has been offensive, and even now shows
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  Speaker 1: strong excitement. If insult is repeated, I shall either leave
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  Speaker 1: the room or call in Sheriff Cummings, whom I just
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  Speaker 1: left standing and waiting for me outside the door. No
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  Speaker 1: you won't, sir, You may just as well understand it.
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  Speaker 1: At one says not here you are my man, and
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  Speaker 1: I'll tell you why. Months ago you put your property
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  Speaker 1: out of your hands, boasting that you did so to
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  Speaker 1: escape losing it on prosecution for libel. It is true
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  Speaker 1: that I did convert all my immovable property into personal
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  Speaker 1: property such as I could trust safely to others, and
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  Speaker 1: chiefly to escape ruin through possible libel suits. Very good, sir,
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  Speaker 1: having placed yourself beyond the pale of the law. May
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  Speaker 1: God help your soul. If you don't make precisely such
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  Speaker 1: a retraction as I have demanded, I've got you now
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  Speaker 1: and by before you can get out of this room.
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  Speaker 1: You've got to both write and sign precisely the retraction
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  Speaker 1: I have demanded. And before you go anyhow you mean,
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  Speaker 1: low lived, lying arm, I'll teach you what personal responsibility
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  Speaker 1: is outside of the law. And buying am Sheriff Cummings
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  Speaker 1: and all the friends you've got in the world besides
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  Speaker 1: can't save you you, et cetera. No, sir, I'm alone now,
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  Speaker 1: and I am prepared to be shot down just here
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  Speaker 1: and now, rather than be vilified by you as I
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  Speaker 1: have been, and suffer you to escape me after publishing
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  Speaker 1: those charges, not only here where I am known and
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  Speaker 1: universally respected, but where I am not personally known and
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  Speaker 1: may be injured. I confess this speech, with its terrible
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  Speaker 1: and but too plainly implied threat of killing me if
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  Speaker 1: I did not sign the paper he demanded, terrified me,
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  Speaker 1: especially as I saw he was working himself up to
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  Speaker 1: the highest possible pitch of passion, and instinct told me
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  Speaker 1: that any reply other than the one seeming concession to
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: his demands would only be fueled to a raging fire.
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  Speaker 1: So I replied, well, if I've got to sign, then
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  Speaker 1: I pause some time. Resuming, I said, but, mister Winters,
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  Speaker 1: you are greatly excited. Besides, I see you are laboring
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  Speaker 1: under a total misapprehension. It is your duty not to inflame,
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  Speaker 1: but to calm yourself. I am prepared to show you
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: if you will only point out the article that you
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  Speaker 1: allude to that you regard as charges what no calm
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  Speaker 1: and logical mind has any right to regard as such.
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  Speaker 1: Show me the charges, and I will try at all events.
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: And if it becomes plain that no charges have been preferred,
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: then plainly there can be nothing to retract, and no
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: one could rightly urge you to demand a retraction. You
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: should be aware of making so serious a mistake, for
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: however honest a man may be, every one is liable
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: to misapprehend. Besides, you assume that I am the author
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: of some certain article which you have not pointed out,
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: It is hasty to do so. He then pointed to
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: some numbered paragraphs in a Tribune article headed What's the
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: matter with Yellowjacket, saying that's what I refer to. To
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: gain time for general reflection and resolution, I took up
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: the paper and looked it over for a while, he
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: remaining silent, and as I hoped cooling, I then zoomed, saying,
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  Speaker 1: as I supposed, I do not admit having written that article,
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  Speaker 1: Nor have you any right to assume so important a
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  Speaker 1: point and then base important action upon your assumption. You
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  Speaker 1: might deeply regret it afterwards. In my published address to
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  Speaker 1: the people, I notified the world that no information as
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  Speaker 1: to the authorship of any article would be given without
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  Speaker 1: the consent of the writer. I therefore cannot honorably tell
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  Speaker 1: you who wrote that article, nor can you exact it.
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  Speaker 1: If you are not the author, then I do demand
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  Speaker 1: to know who is. I must decline to say, then
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  Speaker 1: by an I brand you as its author, and shall
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: treat you accordingly. Passing that point, the most important misapprehension
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  Speaker 1: which I notice, is that you regard them as charges
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: at all, when their context, both at their beginning and end,
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  Speaker 1: show they are not. These words introduce them such an
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: investigation just before indicated, we think he might result in
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: showing some of the following points. Then follow eleven specifications,
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  Speaker 1: and the succeeding paragraph shows that the suggested investigation might
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  Speaker 1: exonerate those who are generally believed guilty. You see, therefore,
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  Speaker 1: the context proves they are not preferred as charges, and
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  Speaker 1: this you seem to have overlooked. While making those comments,
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  Speaker 1: mister Winters frequently interrupted me in such a way as
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  Speaker 1: to convince me that he was resolved not to consider
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  Speaker 1: candidly the thoughts contained in my words. He insisted upon
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  Speaker 1: it that they were charges, and by gun he would
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  Speaker 1: make me take them back as charges. And he referred
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: the question to Philip Lynch, to whom I then appealed
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: as a literary man, as a logician, and as an editor,
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: calling his attention especially to the introductory paragraph just before quoted,
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: He replied, if they are not charges, they certainly are insinuations.
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: Whereupon mister Winters renewed his demands for retraction precisely such
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: which as he had before named, except that he would
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: allow me to state who did write the article, if
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: I did not myself, and this time shaking his fist
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: in my face with more cursings and epithets when he
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: threatened me with his clinched fist. Instinctively, I tried to
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: rise from my chair, but Winters then forcibly thrust me down,
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: as he did every other time, at least seven or
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: eight when under similar imminent danger of bruising by his
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: fist or for aught, I could know worse than that,
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: after the first stunning blow, which he could easily and
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: safely to himself, have dealt me, so long as he
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: kept me down and stood over me. This fact, it was, which,
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: more than anything else, convinced me that by plan and plot,
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: I was purposely made powerless in mister Winter's hand, and
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: that he did not mean to allow me that advantage
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: of being afoot which he possessed. Moreover, I then became
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: convinced that Philip Lynch, and for what reason, I wondered,
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: would do absolutely nothing to protect me in his own house.
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: I realized that the situation thoroughly. I had found it
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: equally vain to protest or argue, and I would make
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: no unmanly appeal for pity, still less apologize. Yet my
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: life had been, by the plainest possible implication, threatened. I
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: was a weak man. I was unarmed, I was helplessly down,
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: and Winter's was afoot and probably armed. Lynch was the
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: only witness. The statements demanded, if given and not explained,
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: would utterly sink me in my own self respect, in
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: my family's eyes, and in the eyes of the community.
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: On the other hand, should I give the authour's name,
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: how could I ever expect that confidence of the people,
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: which I should no longer deserve? And how much dearer
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: to me and to my family was my life than
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: the life of the real author to his friends? Yet
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: life seemed dear, and each minute that remained seemed precious,
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: if not solemn. I sincerely trust that neither you nor
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: any of your readers, and especially with families, may ever
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: be placed in such seeming direct proximity to death. While
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: obliged to decide the one question I was compelled to, viz,
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: what should I do? I a man of family and
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: not as mister Winters is alone. The reader is requested
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: not to skip the following m T strategy and mesmerism
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: to gain time for further reflection, and hoping that by
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: a seeming acquiescence I might regain my personal liberty at
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: least till I could give an alarm or take advantage
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: of some momentary inadvertence of winters, and then without a
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: cowardly flight escape, I resolved to write a certain kind
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: of retraction. But previously had inwardly decided first that I
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: would studiously avoid every action which might be construed into
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: the drawing of a weapon, even by a self infuriated man,
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: no matter what amount of insult might be heaped upon me.
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: For it seemed to me that this great excess of
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: compound profanity, foulness, and epithet must be more than a
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: mere indulgence, and therefore must of some object, surely in
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird. Therefore,
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: as before without thought, I thereafter, by intent kept my
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: hands away from my pockets and generally in sight, and
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: spread upon my knees. Second, I resolved to make no
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: motion with my arms or hands which could possibly be
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: construed into aggression. Third, I resolved completely to govern my
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: outward manner and suppress indignation. To do this, I must
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: govern my spirit. To do that, by force of imagination,
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: I was obliged, like actors on the boards, to resolve
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: myself into an unnatural mental state, and see all things
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: through the eyes of an assumed character. Fourth, I resolved
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: to try on Winters, silently and unconsciously to himself a
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: mesmeric power which I possess over certain kinds of people,
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: and which at times I have found to work even
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: in the dark over the lower animals. Does any one
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: smile at these last counts? God save you from ever
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: being obliged to beat in a game of chess whose
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: stake is your life, you having but four poor pawns
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: and pieces, and your adversary with his full force unshorn.
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: But if you are provided you have any strength with
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: breadth of will, do not despair. Though mesmeric power may
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: not save you, it may help you try it at
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: all events. In this instance, I was conscious of power
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: coming into me, and by a law of nature I
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: know Winters was correspondingly weakened. If I could have gained
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: more time, I am sure he would not even have
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: struck me. It takes time both to form such resolutions
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: and to recite them. That time, however, I gained while
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: thinking of my retraction, which I first wrote in pencil,
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: altering it from time to time till I got it
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: to suit me. My aim being to make it look
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: like a concession to demands, while in fact it should
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: tersely speak the truth into mister Winter's mind. When it
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: was finished, I copied it in ink, and if correctly
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: copied from my first draft, it should read as follows.
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: In copying, I do not think I made any material change.
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: Copy to Philip Lynch, editor of the gold Hill News,
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: I learned that General John B. Winters believes the following
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: pasted on clipping from the People's Tribune of January, to
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: contain distinct charges of mine against him personally, and that
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: as such he desires me to retract them unqualifiedly. In
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: compliance with his request, Permit me to say that, although
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: mister Winters and I see this matter differently, in view
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: of his strong feelings in the premises, I hereby declare
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: that I do not know those charges, if such they
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: are to be true, and I hope that a critical
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: examination would altogether disprove them conrad Wagoned, gold Hill, jar Fifteenth,
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: eighteen seventy. I then read what I had written and
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: handed it to mister Lynch, whereupon mister Winters said that's
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: not satisfactory and it won't do, and then addressing himself
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: to mister Lynch. He further said, how does it strike you? Well,
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: I confess I don't see that it retracts anything, nor
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: do I said Winters. In fact, I regard it as
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: adding insult to injury. Mister Wygan, You've got to do
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: better than that. You are not the man who can
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: pull wool over my eyes. That, sir, is the only
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: retraction I can write. No, it isn't, sir, And if
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: you so much as say so again, you do it
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: at your peril, for I'll thrash you to within an
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: inch of your life. And by God, sir, I don't
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: pledge myself to spare you even that inch either. I
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: want you to understand I have asked you for a
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: very different paper, and that paper you've got to sign.
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: Mister Winters, I assure you that I do not wish
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: to irritate you. But at the same time, it is
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: utterly impossible for me to write any other paper than
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: that which I have written. If you are resolved to
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: compel me to sign something, Philip Lynch's hand must write
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: at your dictation, and if when written I can sign it,
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: I will do so. But such a document as you
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: say you must have from me. I never can sign.
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: I mean what I say. Well, sir, what's to be
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: done must be done quickly, for I've been here long
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: enough already. I'll put the thing in another shape, And then,
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: pointing to the paper, don't you know those charges to
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: be false? I do not. Do you know them to
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: be true of my own personal knowledge? I do not?
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: Then why did you print them? Because, rightly considered in
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: their connection, they are not charges but pertinent and useful
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: suggestions in answer to the queries of a correspondent whose
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: stated facts which are inexplicable. Don't you know that I
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: know they are false? If you do, the proper course
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: is simply to deny them and court an investigation. And
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: do you claim write to make me come out and
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: deny anything you may choose to write and print? To
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: that question? I think I made no reply, And he
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: then further said, come now, we've talked about the matter
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: long enough. I want your final answer. Did you write
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: that article or not? I cannot in honor tell you
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: who wrote it? Did you not see it before it
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: was printed? Most certainly, sir? And did you deem it
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: a fit thing to publish? Most assuredly, sir? Or I
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: would never have consented to its appearance, of its authorship,
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: I can say nothing whatever, but for its publication I
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: assume full soul and personal responsibility. And do you then
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: retract it or not? Mister Winters, If my refusal to
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: sign such a paper as you have demanded must entail
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: upon me all that your language in this room fairly implies,
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: then I ask a few minutes for prayer prayer. You
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: this is not your hour for prayer. Your time to
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: pray was when you were writing those book lying charges.
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: Will you sign or not? You already have my answer?
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: What do you still refuse? I do, sir? Take that then,
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: And to my amazement and inexpressible relief, he drew only
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: a raw hide, instead of what I expected, a bludgeon
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: or pistol. With it, as he spoke, he struck at
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: my left ear downward as if to tear it off,
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: and afterwards on the side of the head as he
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: moved away to get a better chance for a more
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: effective shot. For the first time I gained a chance
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: under peril to rise, and I did so, pitying him
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: from the very bottom of my soul to think that
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: one so naturally capable of true dignity, power, and nobility, could,
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: by the temptations of this state, and by unfortunate associations
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: and aspirations, be so deeply debased as to find in
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: such brutality anything which he could call satisfaction. But the
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: great hope for us all is in progress and growth,
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: and mister b Winters, I trust, will yet be able
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: to comp had my feelings. He continued to beat me
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: with all his great force, until absolutely weary, exhausted, and
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: panting for breath. I still adhered to my purpose of
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: non aggressive defense, and made no other use of my
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: arms than to defend my head and face from further disfigurement.
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: The mere pain arising from the blows he inflicted upon
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: my person was of course transiant, and my clothing to
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: some extent deadened its severity, as it now hides all
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: remaining traces. When I supposed he was through, taking the
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: butt end of his weapon and shaking it in my face,
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: he warned me, if I correctly understood him, of more
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: yet to come, and furthermore said, if ever I again
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: dared introduce his name to print in either my own
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: or any other public journal, he would cut off my
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: left ear and I do not think he was jesting,
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: and send me home to my family a visibly mutilated man,
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: to be a standing warning to all low lived puppies
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: who seek to blackmail gentlemen and to injure their good names.
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: And when he did did so operate. He informed me
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: that his implement would not be a whip, but a knife.
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: When he had said this, unaccompanied by mister Lynch, as
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: I remember it, he left the room for I sat
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: down by mister Lynch, exclaiming, the man is mad, He
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: is utterly mad. This step is his ruin. It is
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: a mistake. It would be ungenerous in me, despite of
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: all the ill usage I have here received, to expose him,
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: at least until he has had an opportunity to reflect
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: upon the matter, I shall be in no haste. Winters
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: is very mad, just now, replied mister Lynch. But when
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: he is himself, he is one of the finest men
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: I ever met. In fact, he told me the reason
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: he did not meet you upstairs was to spare you
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: the humiliation of a beating in the sight of others.
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: I submit that that unguarded remark of Philip Lynch convicts
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: him of having been privy in advance to mister Winter's intentions,
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: whatever they may have been, or at least to his
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: meaning to make an assault upon me. But I leave
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: to others to determine how much censure an editor deserves
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: for inveigling a weak, non combatant man, also a publisher
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: to a pen of his own, to be horsewhipped, if
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: no worse for the simple printing of what is verbally
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: in the mouth of nine out of ten men and
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: women too upon the street. While writing this account, two
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: theories have occurred to me as possibly true respecting this
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: most remarkable assault. First, the aim may have been simply
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: to extort from me such admissions, as in the hands
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: of money and influence would have sent me to the
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: penitentiary for libel. This, however, seems unlikely, because any statements
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: elicited by fear or force could not be evidence in law,
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: or could be so explained as to have no force.
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: The statements wanted so badly must have been desired for
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: some other purpose. Second, the other theory has so dark
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: and wilfully murderous a look that I shrink from writing it. Yet,
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: as in all probability my death that the early practicable
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: moment has already been decreed. I feel I should do
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: all I can before my hour arrives, at least to
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: show others how to break up that aristocratic rule and
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: combination which has robbed all Nevada of true freedom, if
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: not of manhood itself. Although I do not prefer this
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: hypothesis as a charge, I feel that as an American citizen,
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: I still have a right both to think and to
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: speak my thoughts, even in the land of Charon and Winters,
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: and as much so respecting the theory of a brutal assault,
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: especially when I have been subject, as respecting any other
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: apparent enormity, I give the matter simply as a suggestion
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: which may explain to the proper authorities and to the
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: people whom they should represent, a well ascertained but notwithstanding
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: a darkly mysterious fact. The scheme of the assault may
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: have been first to terrify me by making me conscious
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: of my own helplessness after making actual, though not legal,
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: threats against me my life. Second, to imply that I
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: could save my life only by writing or signing certain
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: specific statements, which, if not subsequently explained, would eternally have
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: branded me as infamous and would have consigned my family
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: to shame and want, and to the dreadful compassion and
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: patronage of the rich. Third, to blow my brains out
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: the moment I had signed, thereby preventing me from making
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: any subsequent explanation such as could remove the infamy. Fourth,
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: Philip Lynch to be compelled to testify that I was
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: killed by John B. Winters in self defense, for the
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: conviction of Winter's would bring him in as an accomplice
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: if that was the program in John B. Winter's mind.
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: Nothing saved my life but my persistent refusal to sign,
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: when that refusal seemed clearly to me to be the
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: choice of death. The remarkable assertion made to me by
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: mister Winters that pity only spared my life on Wednesday
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: evening last almost compels me to believe that at first
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: he could not have intended me to leave that room alive,
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: and why I was allowed to unless through mesmeric or
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: some other invisible influence I cannot divine. The more I
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: reflect upon this matter, the more probable as true. Does
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: this horrible interpretation become the narration of these things I
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: might have spared, both to mister Winters and to the public.
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: Had he himself observed silence. But as he has both
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: verbally spoken and suffered a thoroughly garbled statement of facts
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: to appear in the gold Hill News, I feel it
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: due to myself no less than to this community and
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: to the entire independent press of America and Great Britain,
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: to give a true account of what even the gold
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: Hill News has pronounced a disgraceful affair, and which it
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: deeply regrets because of some alleged telegraphic mistake in the
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: account of it who received the erroneous telegrams. Though he
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: may not deem it prudent to take my life just now,
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: the publication of this article, I feel sure must compel
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: General Winters, with his peculiar views about his right to
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: exemption from criticism by me, to resolve on my violent death,
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: though it may take years to compass it. Notwithstanding, I
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: bear him no ill will, and if W. C. Ralston
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: and William Sharon and other members of the San Francisco
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: Mining and Milling Ring feel that he, above all other
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: men in this state and California, is the most fitting
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: man to supervise and control yellow jacket matters until I
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: am able to vote more than half their stock. I
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: presume he will be retained to grace his present post. Meantime,
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: I cordially invite all who know of any sort of
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: important villainy which only can be cured by exposure, and
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: who would expose it if they felt sure they would
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: not be betrayed under bullying threats to communicate with the People's
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: Tribune for until I am murdered. So long as I
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: can raise the means to publish, I propose to continue
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: my efforts at least to revive the liberties of the state,
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: to curb oppression, and to benefit Man's world and God's Earth.
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: Conrad wagoned, it does seem a pity that the sheriff
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: was shut out, since the good sense of a general
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: of militia and of a prominent editor failed to teach
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: them that the merited castigation of this weak, half witted
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: child was a thing that ought to have been done
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: in the street, where the poor thing could have a
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: chance to run. When a journalist maligns a citizen or
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: attacks his good name on hearsay evidence, he deserves to
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: be thrashed for it, even if he is a noncombatant weakling.
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: But a generous adversary would at least allow such a
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: lamb the use of his legs at such a time.
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: M t end of Appendix C and of roughing it
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: read by John Dreamman,