Evening star., 1902-08-16
STOOD IN WfrH TRACY

s.r,.
Ihat universal human trait of which
ihonas Carlyle Rrotdtso divertingly and
eomprehensively, said the man who
thinks aloud which he termed hero wor-
SNIP doesn't take any cognizance of our
inborn, inherent sneakv. if YOU will. re-
gard for indivfauaisr whom We really
should despise; yet Il fear that all of us
possess sort of deep-set admiration of
and pity for and sympathy with chaps
whose conduct We SHOULD both inwardly
and outwardly reprobate.
Take this fellow Tracy. for example.
I'd spread myself on record as most in
corrig1bie and hopeless liar if L We're to
say that | ever had any other feeling for
mat chap than sympathy and good will.
from tne very jump | wanted him to win
OUT. wanted him to get clean scot away
from ms pursuers and make another
chahce III HE Tor himself / knew that he
mad Killed whole lot of men, that he was
a born enemy of society, that human life
was nothing to him, that he would in all
hkeilnood nave killed a lot more folks had
ne got loose Tor good. that he was low
type OF man with no heart or soul to speak
of-and yet. durn my fool eyebrows, i just
wanted Tracy to get away from en- the
WORST klho OF way. First thing Id 90
"nen L picked up paper was TO see
whether they'd succeeded in pabbing Tracy
yet, and when I'd read that he had once
more given EN- the slip and got through a
coTdoh OF deputies and people like that,
L nave feeilng of inward triumph ana
pleasure just as if l was in some way re-
lated to the desperate, or, in fact, as If
at some time or another been des-
perade myself. When, at length. they
founued MN up in that cornfield, and pune
tured him so that he couldn't see any more
sense In his trying to keep on, wounded as
ne was. and SO put a ball in his head,
am bound to confess that 1 was sorry way
/, ind - I, ,tv,,o och
in that way.
And it's not alone with regard to Tracy
mat L nave the same sort of unlawful
Feelings. whenever [ read in the paper
OF Dig train robbery, in which bunch OF
oa -ad men put the engineer under the gun
and run the locomotive about a mile up the
track, while the rest of 'em dynamite the
express car and swipe everything in sight
hope that they will all get away with the
big spondullx that they've captured. I
watch the paper to see whether the hastily
formed posses have got on the train rob
bers have lodged the whole bunch and
made for the mountains, leaving not
sign of trail mark behind, l feel good all
over again and hope that they'll have q
puily good time blowing the money in.
It's because these fellows are such utter
ly nervy devils l suppose that 1 secretly
root for them and for the success of their
plans Now, | haven't got much use for
>nPoShVl, ilol LOT d poTcH cllNlDeI, fiot
for hotel sneak nor for a burglar nor fsr
any OF that class of people It's only the
out-and-out ba-ad man from Bitter Creek
the ducks that know how to shoot quick
and fast, and how to cover up their trails,
ana all that, that | have a natural born
sympathy for. Once in a while L have q
sneaking sort of sympathy for some bank
cashier or other who yanks out five or SIX
hundred thousand dollars-the amount
must be large-and who makes a fine mys-
terious getaway of it. and who keeps EN-
all at sea and at bay just about as long as
he likes III
I've asked lot O. friends O. mine how
they've felt about certain desperadoes on
big scale, and I've seen the sneaky grin of
sympathy steal over their faces, so that
know l m not the only one who feels this
way. And that's why I think there must
be sort of bandit streak In all of us that
rests dormant only because of the environ
ment of civilization under which we live
and have our being. l bet I'd be a corking
good imitation Of Jesse James if I'd been
born and brought up under the circum-
stances that ruled his birth and rearing"