Eureka daily sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1871-1887, 1885-07-22
THE GUN.
A en-Picture OF the Man with
Bad Eye.

Bad Eye.
There has lately been some killings in
Montana, which sets the Butte Miner to
moralizing in the forcible manner related
below. 1t says:
The carrying OF oncea led weapons is q
dangerous and murderous practice. In
ninety-nine cases out of a hundred it is
done out of bravado or sheer cowardice.
As q means Of defense the concealed
weapon is used once, while in q thousand
other instances it is drawn by some das-
tard who is neither i'll danger of his life
nor has any good cause of offense. The
hidden bulldog" by giving a squirt of
artificial and morbid courage to cowardly
scoundrels, is a breeder of death. It is
more destructive Of life and happiness in
the United States than any one single
cause. 1t makes more cripples, causes
more deaths, breaks more hearts than
civil war. The ravages upon life in war
recur after long intervals. The sharp re-
port of the fatal six-shooter is heard al
most every hour. The consciousness OF
being "heeled transforms the craven
hoodlum into q murderous brute. With
out q pistol in his pocket, he might be
slapped in the face, and, for the want
Of manliness and pluck, swallow the in
dignity and offer no resentment. But
being armed and intoxicated he swaggers
and becomes a "terror." His chief de.
light is to frequent places where he is not
wanted, and to force his drivelings upon
quiet, and perhaps timid people.
Glorifed in being a man with q "bad
eye," he stalks around with his hand on
his gun, with his courage growing so long
as his bad " talk and jail bird airs excite
no opposition. When he stirs up the ire
of some good man, who is willing to en-
dure considerable bluff rather thar become
embroiled in a vulgar quarrel, but who
will not put up with everything, and will
show fight, the chances are, that coward as
he is, he will look around for q sure means
of escape, fire his gun, and then run. II
he should be caught sober and unarmed a
girl could scare him with a feather. With
out his six-shooter he trembles like Q leaf.
He skulks about afraid to look his neigh.
Dor in the eye until he gets his hand on
the gun again.
OF course. this is the shooter OF the
meanest stripe. From this type up through
many grades we find a multitude of others
who delight in pushing pistols around.
Some of them are better men than the one
described above; some of them may pos.
sess courage. If this be true, however,
they choose q very poor way to mani
fest ID. Genuine courage is modest.
II is manly; 1t does not seek o~ffense, and
IL shrinks from advantage. The brave
man, forced to fight, is willing TO meet his
adversary on equal terms. He would
rather take the chances against him than
seek, like the coward, whose courage Is in
separable from his pistol, "to get the
drop" on his foe.
There are doubtless q few persons whose
duties and whose business render 1t nec-
essary for them to be armed at all times.
They are scarce, however. and their num-
bers should be limited by law.
There is q growing disposition manifest
ing itself, even among the boys, to make
the pistol and dirk a part of their personal
apparel. 1t is a mean, cowardly, democrat
izing, degraded, fatal practice, worthy only
of the assassin. Public sentiment should
stamp 1t out, for the laws are inadequate
to effectually stop it.
One good man murdered by q y
brute, whose courage comes and goes as he
is armed or unarmed, should be enough to
damn the Ubiquitous practice, but one IN
stance OF this kind is nothing. The VIC
tins of the ~hip-pocket are numbered by
the thousands. and no mortal can tell who
the next victim may be.