It might seem to you that there are too many rules. There may even seem to be too many people in authority. Imagine that you wake up one morning and find there is no longer any authority. All rules, laws, police, courts, teachers, principals, and governments have disappeared. The following is an excerpt from Mark Twain's Roughing It , a story about the Old West.
Twain writes about a time when people often took the law into their own hands.
As you read this excerpt, think about what problems arose because there was a lack of effective authority. The devil seems to have again broken loose in our town. Pistols and guns explode and knives gleam in our streets as in early times. Night before last Jack Williams was assassinated, and yesterday forenoon we had more bloody work, growing out of the killing of Williams, and on the same street in which he met his death. He went to the meat market and renewed his quarrel with Gumbert, threatening his life.