The Tucson citizen., 1902-08-07
TRACY AND HIS lMlTATORS.

The death Of Tracy. the Oregon out
law. will furnish a theme for blood
and thunder stage heroes and yellow
back novels for many a day, The
manner of his crossing to the golden
shore was in keeping with the rest Of
his career. as far as it has been re
yealed, particularly with his exploits
during the last eventful two months of
his life. He was a genuine article in
the desperate line, and it is not to
be doubted that his memory will be
fattered by imitation for some time 20
come.
A few months ago a contributor to
the Atlantic Monthly Magazine ut
tered very wholesome protest against
the tendency of mankind to do every
thing not singly but in droves
Whether it be an amusement or a
charity, an aggressive reform, or even
the serious and somewhat humdrum
task Of self-culture. scarcely any man
seems content TO do what he has to do
by himself. but his first thought is to
form an association and do it in COM
pany This. of course, kills all indi-
Viduality.
There is another phase to the drove
idea which may have a we'll defined
relation to this one. if we knew just
where to put our finger on the link.
The popularity just sketched touches
the tendency of the bulk of our people
nowadays to seek cOmpaniOnship in
any undertaking; but there is also
tendency, where a man attempts to 10
something by himself. to prevent him
"a lot of less ingenious or less cour-
ageous persons rushing in after him
with inferior copies of his achieve
ment. We call the net resultant an
epidemic; applying to the moral i'm
pulses term borrowed from physical
pathology. Thus We have epidemics
Of runaway marriages. of crazy specu-
Iation of defalcaton by trustees-or.
rather of confession and discovery
Of foolhardy exploits. of suicides ana
suicidal attempts
Just now we bid fair to have an cpl
Gemic Of general outlawry. We had
one years ago. when the James boys
and the Youngers. the Benders and the
Buzzards, the Earps, the Ringoes and
q oil fv
grim but picturesque procession across
the stage of current sensation. A long
lull was broken by Tracy. There was
doubtless something fascinating to the
weaker class of intellect in the spec
tacle Of Tracy knowing that price
was set on his capture. yet scorning
stiffness and secrecy and resorting TO
no disguise, working his way across
the country. defying officers and
posses, and hobnobbing with all sorts
OF men and women with as much
self-assurauce as a politician out for
a house to house canvass of his
county.
unquestionably the romancers of
the press of Oregon and Washington
ior there are such at rare intervals
'oId us OF great many things that
never happened to Tracy. and also OF
Things that lie never attempted to per-
form. Incidents were glowingIy de-
scrlbed Of which the plain. unadorned
version would be painfully Ineffective.
Still 1t matters little to an imitator
whether the performances of a great
and good bandit are all real, or all
mythical, or divided between the two
classes; what he wants is the story,
and he models himself on that
Even while Tracy was hunted like
wild animal. with sheriffs competing
Tor the glory OF killing him-and the
$b,o0O reward-there were men who
tried to impersonate him and win
little brief glory. The dispatches Of a
few days ago told OF an absurd crea-
ture. Nixon of name, up in Washing
ton who tried to acquire heroism in
the eyes of music hall actress by pre-
tending to reveal to her in confidence
that he was no other than the much
hunted fugitive. OF course the woman
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