The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1903-12-12
Their Last.
Trail

IF IT Il true that cutting on the
] hands Of Baxter street clothier
-deprives him Of al power of speech.
what argument can q cowboy be ex-
pected to enforce II you take away his
armsf The "short. sharp bark" Of his
pistol. always at hand. quick. faithful
and vicious as watchdog. Is the col
league Of his disputation. It Is the
italics. the exclamation point. the con-
-clusion of his syllogistic premises. and
the umpire Of his debate. This. at
least. Is the case with the very new
est and toughest western settlements.
Rapid City (the city being the
star at which, the townspeople aimed,
rather than an index of population)-
Rapid City was7an extreme example Of
these picturesque but unwholesome
communities. The alarming death
rate. indeed. managed to secure the,
town . certain amount Of free adver-
tising. but even this was of sort that
tended to induce less inrmigration than
emigration.
The realization of this latter un-
poetic truth compelled the local mar
shall to issue reluctant edict forbid
ding man, woman. child or broncho
to pack gun" In the vague lin
its Of the city. He was not blind to
the heroic poetry Of stalking life on
a tiny bullet. or the dramatic justice
of an appeal to arms; but he was there
primarily to serve the municipal adj
vantage. So he nailed up his mani
-festo-with the revolutionary effect Of
Luther's thesis.
Now. the present incumbent Of the
marshalsy Of Rapid City had won his
exalted position solely because no one
could recall time when he had been
either dilatory for fatal moment, or
inaccurate for an effective hairs
breadth in his manipulation OF that
product of the American desire for
quick results.
So the cow-punchers took out their
revenge in oaths and threats against
the next election. and from the very
day after the edict the place Of the
pistol knew It no more.
Men had a half-clad look and
naked. defenseless feeling without
their customary armament. Many a
hand went back to an unresponsive
belt, and quarrels went tame and
all unsatisfactory. How was n nan
to prove his ownership Of an over
boiling Jackpot" with only empty
hands to verify his claim? How set
the tenderfoot to hopping IN Terp-
sichorean terror? How avenge the
lie direct without artillery? For
fists are urdignified weapons on the
frontier. and for use only in unim-
portant squabbles. and as an introduce
ton to the higher court procedure of
the revolver.
Rapid City had managed to survive
about a week of this uncomfortable.
negative virtue. when Jesse Bolanae.
Esq, rode into town at about four Of
the afternoon. He had been on his
ranch all week,and as he stood at the
unmirrore6 bar of Keno Jim's Place
he listened to the new state of affairs
with many an oath of incredulous
amaze. At his right side. hammer to
the front, swung his far-famed "A ex-
tra-long revolver. To demand 1t Of
him would be calling on Hector to
yield up his lance and count himself
tanned.
So Bolande stood, lounging In re-
Taxed might across the grimy little bar
and throwing into his unseared throat
glassfuls of liquid fire-that uncon-
gealed lava OF western distillery-vol-
cano. Suddenly those at the window
began to evince genuine excitement. a
thing unusual In the more than So
cially blase cow-punchers. whom a
mortal combat hardly galvanizes.
One of them blurted out. smacking
his lips valkyrie-wise in anticipation
of q magnificent battle: Watch out,
Bolande, the marshal's comm"
Bolsnde shrugged his huge frame in
contemptuous indifference. Quick upon
this heralding came the marshal's au-
gust self. He paused just inside the
door and blinked his eyes. in intro
duction to the dusk of the low-browed
room. In the twilight he did not i'm
pose an heroic figure. His colossally
impressive power saluted you only
when the full day brought You a
glimpse Of jaw that was not square
and phlegmatic, but yet gaunt and
nervoisly firm: of eyes that did not
waste their fcrocious steel In set
fierceness. and yet gave hint of Turk
ing demons. The marshal was hard
ly above medium height. and rather be-
low medium weight His light bones
were wrapped with steel wire rather
than with ponderous muscles. whose
bulk Is their own chief hindrance. Tho
marshal wore a pistol at his side. cx-
oficio. His duty demanded II. and no
man feared ifs abuse In the dove-like
gentleness of his unoffensive moods.
The marshal and Bolnnde were old
friends. They had once moiled on a
ragged claim upon the mountains to-
gether; they had stood back to back n
skffriishes with yelling savases In q |
wilderncss And now their |
youthful mistress. Adventure. had lost |
charm for them and they had drawn |
into the shell that man In his for
ties will protect with his life from any
encroachment. though he has no de-
sire to make y ~ base Of excursions