The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1904-02-12

ia tHS dlI I'll TIC pCoploI
and an austere respect for them do not
belong to the point of honor In the under
world is for the most part concerned with
q mans sensitive recognition of his own
claims and his determination to have 9TH
'er people austerely respect them. And
Howard Siifer was punctiliously honor
able. He was possessed of considerable
Gums of ready money, kept, with some
trifing exceptions, In strong boxes, the
formula for opening which invariably In
cluded a drill and a bit Of dynamite. The
tr1fing exceptions were small matters OF
loose coin and broken rolls Of bank notes
which people 9f fortune, who had hea no
stood and delivered to him lat sight and
ION demand and by a solecism In their
business habits asked no q%uittance or re-
ceipt. His physique was a patent of no.
bility in which all who stood might read
a power to levy taxes and to assume pos ,
session of his personal estate wherever
he might find 1t. He was Of the build
that led men to follow him with their eyes
and to speculate upon the amount of pun
fshment' he could take and could inflict,
and while they speculated they respected
him g~reatly-him and his man servant
and his maid servant, his OK and his ass,
and everything that was his.
Captain Brigstock of the - precinct
was not a man, he was a deputy divinity, |
and respected nothing except the arch
deputies. his official superiors. Technical
ly, there were sharp limitations to his con-
stitutlonal powers over mere mortals, but
An practice technical distinctions SO sell
dom obtruded themselves upon his notice
that his sense Of them was apt to become
quite vague. What the precise occasion
was of his entering Mr.. Slifer's domicile
nobody in the outer world ever plucked up
courage to ask him. When Slifer was
asked he said the captain had dropped
In unoffcially on private business and
added no comment beyond q malign grin.
There was an impression in the outer
world that the captain had made his visit
expressly at a time when he knew Mr..
Slifer was not at home, and that Mr..
Sltfer had returned unexpectedly. What
was certain is that the captain made his
exit from the Slifer domicile in unconven-
tional haste, and that no mention Of the
Incident was ever made in the public
prints. He had reached the street from a
eecond-story window, through which he
had backed with such violence as to bring
away the sash. This was the hour of the
naughty Slifer's triumph and the hour
when the gods abandoned him.
Three weeks afterward there occurred
a manifestation of esprit du corps among
the powers that rule which it was not
pleasant to contemplate. Patrolman Hoop
er, Of Captain Brigstock's precinct, had
been murdered overnight while on duty,
and not only in Brigstock's precinct, but
throughout the city, the force was of one
mind. 1t was not only that IL an officer
on duty is not safe not a man of them
was safe: there was an element Of insult
and effrontery In an attack upon a pa
trolman that stirred something more in
his associates than personal fear; it
touched their corporate pride.
somebody's got to croak for this" De-
tective SWinton declared sententiously to
q group of his brother "sleuths.' Il don't
r, ,n &c Iaerar WOE .or1,y n fatt,, Ito ~os
a copper, and we fly cops have got to send
some bloke to the chair for bastin' him.
There's a push O guns in this town that
thinks tlatties don't count, that there
won't be much of a kick when one of ems
Eeeled over, an they'll croak some Of us
fly cops before long IL we don't learn 'em
q lesson. 1t was a great bull somebody
wasn't croaked for the KILN O. Patrol.
nan Stimson two years ago. Stimson was
a fool right enough to go up against the
gang that did him. but If one of 'em hat
croaked for blastin' him Hooper nd b.
alive now. I tell you, guns are just Xix
kids when it comes to learn 'em anything
If they sect We mean business they'll
crawl, but if We monkey with 'em they'll
trow ye down. There's some that think
that guns'll act on the level with copper
whether they got to or not. That's damn
rot. Course there's some squarer thai
others, but I've known all kinds TO
NS 49, '
Stralgn& they amt ouiit TO IKE US. Inc
cot the game class 1eelh I we nave. az
II we can't croak one of 'em for doir
Hcfper theyi ger SO nerVy that copper
!. be droppln IN the1r tracks every moh'i
Ihey got to be caiied DOWN
AAe law lot the powers tnat prey IS Una
IL Is better nlnety-nlne guilty men snoui
escape than that one innocent man shoul
suffer. The law TOR the powers that rul
IS that an example must De mace. IN
powers that prey must suier as a cian le
an otfense against the powers that ruiz
The clan must give up It's of1endlng men
Der or must stand IN terror ana unce'
talnty or Where precisely tle mana OIL u
force VIII strike. mat II VIII s'rlhe SOM
where there must not be the slshte!
doubt.
The orders Oh captain Brlsstock wei
laconlc ana smackeo Oh ms oiVlne autho
ity. lie recognized no lmposslolllty m u
case; ne spoke WIN tne accen. % ohilnp
tence. lie salu Simply: ~ nm,
don't want TO near a woro ABOUT III
cultles; Damn the ulliicu'ties' l want ~
1ound. Inere were lor tne ionlen -
the sllsnlest lNuicat1ohs " 81 upoN. ~
er must nave peeh stiuch .n '
mus. nav - 10. w. ~. I,,at A. 10.
IN the scurne lost MS heliiet. AZ ieaS