'.

.
•:t Chapter 1.
Mark Twain, Roughing It (1872)

(Excerpts)

y brother had just been appointed Secretary of

M Nevada Territory-an oft1ce of such majesty that
it concentrated in itself the duties and dignities of Trea­
surer, Comptroller, Secretary of State, and Acting Gov­
ernor .in the Governor's absence. A salary of eighteen
hundred dollars ayear and the title of "Mr. Secretary,"
gave to the great position an air of wild and imposing
grandeur. I was young and ignorant, and I envied q¡y
brother. I coveted his distinction and his financial splen­
dor, but particularly and especially the long, strange
journey he was going to make, and the curious new

wor@ .h.e was going to explore. He was going to travel! ,1

never had been away from home, and that word "travel '

had a seductive charm for me. Pretty soon he would

be hundreds and hundreds of miles away on the great

plains and deserts, and among the mountains of the Far

West, and would see buff"aloes and Indians, and prairie

dogs, and antelopes, and have all kinds of adventures,

and may be get hanged or scalped, and have ever such a

fine time, and write home and tell us aU about it, and be
a hero. And he would see the gold mines and the silver .
mines, and maybe go about of an Bfternoon when his
work was done, and pick up tWO or three pailfuls of
shining slugs, and nuggets of gold and silver on the hill·
side. And by and by he would become very rich, and re·
 I

ROUGHING IT ROllGHING IT

turn home by sea, and be able to talk as calmly about the boat might almost as well have gone to St. Jo. by
San Francisco and the ocean, and "the isthmus" as if it land, for she was walking most of the time, anyhow­
was nothing of any consequence to have seen those mar­ c1imbing over reefs and c1ambering over snags patiently
veIs face to tace. What I suffered in contemplating his and laboriously all day long. The captain said she was a
rhappiness, pen cannot describe. And so, when he offered "bully" boat, and all she wanted was more "shear" and
me, in cold blood, the sublime position of ,private secre­ a bigger wheel. 1 thought she wanted a pair of stilts, but
tary under him, it appeared to me that the heavens and I had the deep sagacity not to say so.
the earth passed away, and the firmament was rolled to­
gether as a scroll! 1 had nothing more to desire. My
contentment was complete. At the end of an hour or two
1 was ready for the journey. Not much packing up ~~
necessary, because we were going in the overland stage
from the Mis!iouri frontier to Nevada, and passengers
were only allowed a small quantity of baggage aple'ée.
There W8S no Pacific railroad in those fine times of ten
or twelve year" ago-not a single raíl of it.
1 only proposed to stay in Nevada three months--I
had no thought of staying longer than that. I meant to
see aH I could that was new and strange, and then hurry
home to business. 1 little thought that 1 would not see
the erad of that three-month pleasure excursion for six Or
seven uncommonly long years!
1 dreamed all night about Indians, deserts, and silver
bars, and in due time, next day, we took shipping at the
Sto Louis wharf on board a steamboat bound up the Mis­
souri River.
We were six days going frorn St. Louis to "St.
Jo."-a trip that was so dull, and sleepy, and eventless
that it has left no more impression on my memory than
if its duration had been six minutes instead of that many
days. No record isleft in my mind, now, concerning it,
but a confused jumble of savage-looking snags, which
we deliberately walked over with one wheel or the other;
and of reefs which we butted and butted, and then re­
tired from and c1imbed over in sorne softer place; and of
sand·bars which we roosted on occasionaUy, and rested,
and then got out our crutches and sparred overo In fact,
 ·.

ROUGHING IT

looking race¡ taking note of everything, covertly, Iike aU

the other "Noble Red Men" that we (do not) read
about, and betraying no sign in their countenances; in­
dolent, everlastingly patient and tireless, like aH other
Chapter XIX.
Indians; prideless beggarr-for if the beg~ar instinct
were left out of an Indian he would not "go, , any more
than a clack without a pendulum¡ hungry, always hun­
gry, and yet never refusing anything that a hog would
eat, though often eating what a hog would decline; hunt­
ers, but having no higher ambition than to kili and eat
jackass rabbits, crickets and grasshoppers, and embezzle
carrion from the buzzards and cayotes; savages who,
O n the morning of the sixteenth day out from St.
Joseph we arrived at the entrance of Rocky Can­
yon, two hundred and fifty miles from Salt Lake. It was
when asked if they have the common Indian belief in a
Great Spirit show a something which almost amounts to
emotion, thinking whiskey is referred to; a thin, scatter­
along in this wild country somewhere, and far from any ing race of almost naked black children, these Goshoots
habitation of white men, except the stage stations, that are, who produce nothing at all, and have no villages,
we carne across the wretchedest type of mankind I have and no gatherings together into strictly defined tribal
ever seen, up to this writing. 1 refer to the Goshoot In­ communities---...a people whose only shelter is a rag cast
dians. From what we could see and aU we could learn, on a bush to keep off a portion of the snow, and yet who
they are very considerably inferior to even the despised inhabit one of the most rocky, wintry, repulsive wastes
Digger Indians of California; inferior to all races of sav­ that Our country or any other can exhibit.
ages on our continent; inferior to even the Terra del The Bushmen and our Goshoots are manifestly de­
Fuegans; inferior to the Hottentots, and actually inferior scended from the self-same gorilla, or kangaroo, or
in sorne respects to the Kytches of Africa. Indeed, I Norway rat, whichever animal-Adam the Darwinians
have been obliged to look the bulky volumes ofWood's trace them to.
"Uncivilized Races of Men" c1ear through in arder to One would as soon expect the rabbits to fight as the
find a savage tribe degraded enouRh to take rank with Goshoots, and yet they used to live off the offal and re­
the Goshoots. I find but one peopTe fairly open to that fuse of the stations a few months and then come sorne
shameful verdict. It is the Bosjesmans (bushmen) of dark night when no mischief was expected, and burn
South Africa. Such ofthe Goshoots as we saw, along the down the buildings and kili the men from ambush as
road and hanging about the stations, were amall, lean, they rushed out. And once, in the night, they attacked
"scrawny" creatures; in complexion a duU black like the the stage-coach when a District Judge, ofNevada Terri­
ordinary American negro; their faces and hands bearing tory, was the only passenger, and with their first volley
dirt which they had been hoarding and accumulating for of arrows (and a bullet or two) they riddled the stage
months, years, and even generations, according to the curtains, wounded a horse or two and mortally wounded
3ge of the proprietor; a silent, sneaking, treacherous the driver. The latter was full of pluck, and so was his
 ROUGHING IT ROUGHING IT

passenger. At the driver's caH Judge Motl swung him­ him and left him treacherous, filthy and repulsive-and
self out, c1ambered to the box and seized the reins of the how quickly the evidences accumulated that wherever
team, and away they plunged, through the racing mob one finds an Indian tribe he has only found Goshoots
of skeletons and under a hurtling storm of missiles. The more or less modified by circumstances and surround­
stricken driver had sunk down on the boot as soon as he ings--but Goshoots, after all. They deserve pity, poor
was wounded, but had held on to the reins and said he creatures; and they can have mine-at this distance.
would manage to keep hold of them until relieved. And Nearer by, they ~ever get anybody's.
after they were taken from his relaxing grasp, he lay There is an impression abroad that the Baltimore and
with his head between Judge Mott's feet, and tranguilly Washington Railroad Company and many of its em­
gave directions about the road; he said he believed he ployés are Goshoots; but it is an error. There is only a
could live till the miscreants were outrun and left be­ plausible resemblance, which, while it is apt enough to
hind, and that if he managed that, the main difficulty mislead the ignorant, cannot deceíve parties who have
would be at an end, and then if the Judge drove so and contemplated both tribes. Sut seriously, it was not only
so (giving directions about bad places in the road, and poor wit, but very wrong te start the report referred to
general course) he would reach the next station without aboye; for however innocent the motive may have been,
trouble. The ]udge distanced the enemy and at last rat­ the necessary effect was te injure the reputation of a
tled up to the statíon and knew that the níght's perils c1ass who have a hard enough time of it in the pitiless
were done; but there was no comrade-in-arms for him to deserts of the Rocky Mountains, Heaven knows! If we
rejoice with, for the soldierly driver was dead. cannot find it in our hearts to give those poor naked
Let us forget that we have been saying harsh things creatures our Christian sympathy and compassion, in
about the Overland drivers, now. The disgust which the God's name let us at least not throw mud at them.
Goshoots gave me, a disciple of Cooper and a worship­
per of the Red Man-even of the scholarly savages in
the "Last of the Mohicans" who are flttingly associated
with backwoodsmen who divide each sentence into two
egual parts: one part criticaUy grammatical, refined and
choice of language, and the other part just such an at­
tempt to talk like a hunter or a mountaineer, as a
Broadway c1erk might make after eating an edition of
Emerson Bennett's works and studying frontier life at
the Bowery Theatre a couple of weeks--I say that the
nausea which the Goshoots gave me, an Indian worship­
per, set me to examining authorities, to see if perchance
1 had been over-estimating the Red Man while viewing
him through the mellow moonshine of romance. The
revelations that carne were disenchanting. It was curious
to see how guickly the paint and tinsel fell away from
 ROUGHING IT

be going at such a price¡ and added that the saddle alone

was worth the money. It was a Spanish saddle, with pon­
..
}¡
derous tapidaros, and furnished with the ungainly sole­
:,' Chapter XXIV. leather covering with the unspellable name. I said 1 had
half a notion to bid. Then this keen-eyed person ap­
peared to me to be "taking my measure"¡ but I dis­
missed the suspicion when he spoke, for his manner was
full of guileless candor and truthfulness. Said he:
"1 know that horse~now him well. You are a
stranger, I take it, and so you might think he was an
American horse, maybe, but I assure you he is noto He is
nothing of the kind¡ but-excuse my speaking in a low
1 resolved to have a horse to ride. 1 had never seen
such wild, free, magnificent horsemanship outside of
a circus as these picturesquely-c1ad Mexicans, Califor­
voice, other people being near-he is, without the
shadow of a doubt, a Genuine Mexican Plug!"
nians and Mexicanized Americans displayed in Carson I did not know what a Genuine Mexican Plug was,
streets every day. How they rodel Leaning just gently but there was something about this man's way of saying
forward out of the perpendicular, easy and nonchalant, it, that made me swear inwardly that I would own a
\yith broad slouch·hat brim blown square up in front, Genuine Mexican Plug, or die.
and long nata swinging above the head, they swept "Has he any other-er-advantages?" I inquired,
through the town like the wind! The next minute they suppressing what eagerness I could.
were only a sailing puff of dust on the far deserto If they He hooked his forefinger in the pocket of my army­
trotted, they sat up gallantly and gracefully, and seemed shirt, led me to one side and breathed in my ear impres­
pan of the horse; did not go jiggering up and down after sively these words:
the silly Miss-Nancy fashion of the riding-schools. I had "He can out-buck anything in America!"
quickly learned to tell a horse from a cow, and was full "Going, going, going-at twent-ty-four dollars and a
of anxiety to learn more. I was resolved to buy a horse. half, gen-" .
While the thought was rankling in my mind, the auc­ "Twenty-seven!" 1 shouted, in a frenzy.
tioneer carne skurrying through the plaza on a black "And sold!" said the auctioneer, and passed over the
beast that had as many humps and corners on him as a Genuine Mexican Plug to me.
dromedary, and was necessarily uncomely¡ but he was I could scarcely contain my exultation. I paid the
"going, going, at twenty-two!-horse, saddle and bridle money, and put the animal in a neighboring livery-stable
at twenty-two dollars, gentlemen!" and I could hardly to dine and rest himself.
resisto In the afternoon I brought the creature into the plaza,
Aman whom 1did not know (he turned out to be the and certain citizens held him by the head, and others by
auctioneer's brother) noticed the wistfullook in my eye, the tail, whüe 1 mounted him. As socn as they let go, he
and observed that that was a very remarkable horse to placed all his feet in a bunch together, lowered his back,
and then suddenly arched it upward, and shot me
 ROUGHING IT
ROUGHING IT

straight into the air a matter of three or four feet! I carne have told you that he'd buck; he is the very worst devil
as straight down again, lit in the saddle, went instantly to buck on the continent of America. You hear me. I'm
up again, carne down almost on the high pommel, shot Curry. Old Curry. Old Abe Curry. And moreover, he is
up again, and carne down on the horse's neck--all in the a simon-pure, out-and-out, genuine d--d Mexican
space of three or four seconds. Then he rose and stood plug, and an uncommon mean one at that, too. Why,
almost straight up on his hind feet, and 1, c1asping his you turnip, if you had laid low and kept dark, there's
lean neck desperately, slid back into the saddle, and held chances to buy an Amen'con horse for mighty little more
on. He carne down, and immediately hoisted his heels than you paid for that bloody old foreign relic."
into the air, delivering a vicious kick at the sky, and 1 gave no sign; but 1 made up my mind that if the
stood on his forefeet. And then down he carne once auctioneer's brother's funeral took place while 1 was in
more, and began the original exercise of shooting me the Territory 1 would postpone all other recreations and
straight up again. The third time I went up I heard a attend it.
stranger say: After a gallop of sixteen miles the Californian youth
"Oh, dan 't he buck, though!" and the Genuine Mexican Plug carne tearing into town
While I was up, somebody struck the horse a sound­ again, shedding foam-f1akes Iike the spume-spray that
ing thwack with a leathern strap, and when I arrived drives before a typhoon, and, with one final skip over a
again the Genuine Mexican Plug was not there. A Cali­ wheelbarrow and a Chinaman, cast anchor in front of
fornian youth chased him up and caught him, and asked the "ranch."
if he might have a ride. 1 granted him that luxury. He Such panting and blowing! Such spreading and con­
mounted the Genuine, got Iifted into the air once, but tracting of the red equine nostrils, and glaring of the
sent his spurs home as he descended, and the horse wild equine eye! But was the imperial beast subjugated?
darted away like a telegram. He soared over three fences Indeed he was noto His lordship the Speaker of the
like a bird and disappeared on the road toward the Wa­ House thought he was, and mounted him to go down to
shoe Valley. the Capitol; but the first dash the creature made was
I sat down on a stone, with a sigh, and by a natural over apile of telegraph poles half as high as a church;
impulse one of my hands sought my forehead, and the and his time to the Capitol-one mile and three quar­
other the base of my stomach. I believe I never appre­ ters--remains unbeaten to this day. But then he took an
ciated, till then, the poverty of the human machinery­ advantage-he left out the mile, and only did the three
for I still needed a hand or two to place elsewhere. Pen quarters. That is to say, he made a straight cut across
cannot describe how I was jolted up. Imagination cannot lots, preferring fences and ditches to a crooked road; and
conceive how disjointed I was-how internally, exter­ when the Speaker got to the Capitol he said he had been
nally and universally I was unsettled, mixed up and rup­ in the air so much he felt as if he had made the trip on a
tured. There was a sympathetic crowd around me, comet.
though. In the evening the Speaker carne home afoot for ex­
One elderly-looking comforter aaid: ercise, and got the Genuine towed back behind a quartz
"Stranger, you've been taken in. Everybody in this wagon. The next day 1 loaned the animal to the Clerk of
camp knows that horse. Any child, any Injun, could the House to go down to the Dana silver mine, six miles,
 ROUGHING IT

presence without stopping to tie his horse. He seemed

much excited. He told the General that he wanted him
to conduct a suit for him and would pay h'lm "ve hun­
dred dollars if he achieved a victory. And then, with
Chapter XXXIV. violent gestures and a world of profanity, he poured out
his griefs. He said it was pretty well known that for
some years he had been farming (or ranching as the
more customary terrn is) in Washoe District, and mak­
ing a successful thing of it, and furthermore it was
known that his ranch was situated just in the edge of the
valley, and that Torn Morgan owned a ranch imrnedi­
ately above it on the mountain side. And now the trou­

T he mountains are very high and steep about Car­

son, Eagle and Washoe Val1eys--very high and
very steep, and so when the snow gets to melting off fast
ble was, that one of those hated and dreaded land-slides
had come and slid Morgan's ranch, fences, cabins, catde,
barns and everything down on top of !lis ranch and ex­
in the Spring and the warm surface-earth begins to actly covered up eVery single vestige of his property, to
moisten and soften, the disastrous land-slides commence. a depth of about thirty-eight feet. Morgan was in pos­
The reader cannot know what a land-slide is, unJess he session and refused to vacate the premises--said he was
has lived in that country and seen the whole side of a occupying his own cabin and not interfering with any­
mountain taken off sorne fine morning and deposited body else's--and said the cabin was standing on the
down in the valley, leaving a vast, treeless unsightly scar sarne dirt and same ranch it had always stood on, and he
upon the mountain's front to keep the circumstance would like to see anybody make him vacate.
fresh in his memory all the years that he may go on liv­ "And when I reminded him," said Hyde, weeping,
ing within seventy miles of that place. "that it was on top of rny ranch and that he was tres­
General Buncombe was shipped out to Nevada in the passing, he had the infernal meanness to ask me why
invoice of Territorial officers, to be United States At­ didn't 1 slay on my ranch and hold possession when I see
torne y. He considered himself a lawyer of parts, and he him a-coming! Why didn't 1 slay on it, the blathering tu­
very rnuch wantcd an opportunity to manifest it-partly natic-by George, when I heard that racket and looked
for the pure gratification of it and partly because his sal· up that hill it was just Iike the whole world was' a.ripping
ary was Territorially meagre (which is a strong expres­ and a-tearing down that mountain side-splinters, and
sion). Now the older citizens of a new territory look cord-wood, thunder and lightning, hail and snow, odds
clown upon the rest of the world with a calm, benevolent and ends of hay stacks, and awful c10uds of dust!-trees
compassion, as long as it keeps out of the way-when it going end over end in the air, rocks as big as a house
gets in the way they snub it. Sometimes this latter takes jumping 'bout a thousand feet high and busting into ten
the shape of a practical joke. million pieces, cattle turned inside out and a-coming
One morning Dick Hyde rode furiously up to Gen­ head on with their tails hanging out between their
eral Buncombc's door in Carson city and rushed into his teeth!-and in the midst of all that wrack and destruc­
 ROUGHING IT
ROUGHING IT
and he walkcd back for exercise, and got the horse
towed. Everybody 1 loaned him to always walked back¡ six weeks' keeping---5tall-room for the horse, fifteen
they never could get enough exercise any other way. dollars; hay for the horse, two hundred and fifty! The
Still, 1continued to loan him to anybody who was willing Genuine Mexican Plug had eaten a ton of the article,
to borrow him, my idea being to get him crippled, and and the man said he would have eaten a hundred if he
throw him on the borrower's hands, or killed, and make had let him.
the borrower pay for him. But somehow norhing ever 1 will remark here, in all seriousness, that the regular
happened ro him. He took chances rhat no other horse price of hay during that year and a part of the next W3S
ever rook and survived, but he always carne out safe. It really two hundred and fifty dollars a ton. During a part
was his daily habir to try experiments that had always of the previous year it had sold at five hundred a ton, in
before been consldered impossible, but he always gor gold, and during the winter befare that there was such
rhrough. Sometimes he miscaJculated a little, and did nor scarcity of the article that in several instanees small
ger his rider rhrough inraer, bur he always gor through quantities had brought eight hundred dollars a ton in
himself. Of Course 1 had tried to seU him¡ but that was a coin! The consequence might be guessed without my
stretch of simplicity which mer with Iiule sympathy. telling it; people turned their stock loase to starve, and
The 3i!ctioneer stormed up and down the streets on him befare the spring arrived Carson and Eagle valleys were
for four days, dispersing the populace, imerrupting busi­ almost Iiterally carpeted with their careases! Any old set­
ness, and destroying children, and never got a bid-ar tler there will verify these statements.
least never any bur the eighteen-dollar one he hired a 1 managed to pay the livery bill, and that same day I
notoriously substanceless bummer to make. The people gave the Genuine Mexican Plug to a passing Arkansas
only smiled pleasantly, and restrained their desire to emigrant whom fortune delivered ioto my hand. If this
buy, ifthey had any. Then the aucrioneer brought in his ever meets his eye, he will doubtless remember the do­
bill, and I withdrew rhe harse from the market. We nation.
tried ro trade him off at private vendue next, offering Now whoever has had the luek to ride a real Mexican
him ar a sacrifice tor second·hand tombstones, old iron, plug will recognize the animal depicted in this chapter,
temperance tracts--any kind of property. But holders and hardly consider him exaggerated-but the unini­
were stiff, and we retired from the market again. 1 never tiated will feel justified in regarding his portrait as a
rried ro ride the horse any more. Walking was good fancy sketch, perhaps.
enough exercise for aman like me, that had nothing the
marter with him except ruptures, internal injuries, and
such things. Finally 1tried togive him away. But it was a
faHure. Parties said earthquakes were handy enough on
the Paeifie eoasr-rhey did not wish to own one. As a
last resort 1 offercd him to the Governor for the use of
the "Brigade." His face lit up eagerly at first, but toned
down again, and he said the thing would be too palpable.
Just then rhe Iivcry stable man brought in his bill for
 ·'

ROUGHING IT ROUGHING IT

eion sot ehae cussed Margan on his gate-post, a­ prehended, after all, that this was merely a joke. An un­
wondering why 1 didn't sray and hold possession! Laws earthy stil1ness prevailed, for at the slightest noise the
.; bless me, 1 juse took one glimpse, General, and lit out'n judge uttered sternly the command:
ehe county in three jumps exactly. "Order in the Court!"
"But whae grinds me is that that Morgan hangs on And the sheriffs promptlY echoed it. Presently the
there and won't move off'n that ranch--5ays it's his'n General elbowed his way through the crowd of specta­
and he's going to keep it-likes it beuer'n he did when tors, with his arms ful1 of law-books, and on his ears fel1
it was higher up the hi11. Mad! Well, ¡'ve been so mad an order from the judge which was che first respectful
for two days 1couldn't find my way to town--been wan­ recognition of his high official dignity that had ever sa­
dering around in the brush in a starving condition-got luted them, and it trickled pleasantly through his whole
anything here to drink, General? But ¡'m here now, and system:
{'m a-going eo law. You hear me!" "Way for the United States Attorney'"
Never in all the world, perhaps, were a man's feelings The witnesses were cal1ed-Iegislators, high govern­
so outraged as were the General's. He said he had never ment officers, ranchmen, miners, lndians, Chinarnen,
heard of such high-handed conduct in al1 his Jife as this negroes. Three fourths of them were called by the de­
Morgan's. And he said there was no use in going to fendant Morgan, but no matter, their testimony invari­
law-Morgan had no shadow of right to remain where ably went in favor of the plaintiff Hyde. Each new
he was-nobody in the wide world would uphold him in witness only added new testimony to the absurdity of a
ie, and no lawyer would take his case and no judge listen man's c1aiming to own another man's property because
to it. Hyde said that right there was where he was mis­ his farm had slid down on top of it. Then the Morgan
eaken-everybody in town sustained Morgan; Hal lawyers made their speeches, and seemed to make singu­
Brayton, a very smart lawyer, had taken his case; the larly weak ones-they did really noching to help the
courts being in vacation, it was to be tried before a ref­ Morgan cause. And now the General, with exultation in
eree, and ex-Governor Roop had already been appointed his face, got up and made an impassioned effort; he
to that office and would open his court in a large public pounded the table, he banged the law-books, he shouted,
hall near the hotel at two ehat afternoon. and roared, and howled, he quoted from everything and
The General was amazed. He said he had suspected everybody, poetry, sareasm, statistics, history, pathos,
before that the people of that Territory were fools, and bathos, blasphemy, and wound up with a grand war­
now he knew it. Bue he said rest easy, rest easy and col­ whoop for free speech, freedom of the press, free
lect the witnesses, for the victory was just as certain as if schools, the Glorious Bird of America and the principies
the conflict were already overo Hyde wiped away his of eternal justice! [Applause.)
tears and teft. When the General sat down, he did it with the con­
At two in the afternoon referee Roop's Court opened, viction that if there was anything in good strong testi·
and Roop appeared throned among his sheritFs, the mony, a great speech and believing and admiring
witnesses, and speetators, aOO wearing upon his face a countenanees all around, Mr. Morgan's case was killed.
solemnity so awe-inspiring chat some of his fellow­ Ex-Governor Roop leant his head upon his hand for
conspirators had misgivings that maybe he had not com- sorne minutes, thinking, and the still audience waited for
 ROUGHING IT ROUGHING IT

his decision. Then he got up and stood erect, with been deprived of his ranch by the visitation of God! And
bended head, and thought again. Then he walked the from this decision there is no appeal."
floor with long, deliberate strides, his ehin in his hand, Buncombe seized his cargo of law-books and plunged
and still the audience waited. At last he returned to his out of the eourt-room frantic with indignation. He pro­
throne, seated himself, and began, impressively: nounced Roop to be a miraculous fool, an inspired idiot.
"Gentlemen, I feel the great responsibility that rests In all good faith he returned at night and remonstrated
upon me this day. This is no ordinary case. On the con­ with Roop upon his extravagant decision, and implored
trary it is plain that it is the most solemn and awful that him to walk the floor and think for half an hour, and see
ever man was called upon to decide. Gentlemen, I have if he could not figure out sorne sort of modification of
Iistened attentively to the evidence, and have perceived the verdict. Roop yielded at last and got up to walk. He
that the weight of it, the overwhelming weight ofit, is in walked two hours and a half, and at last his face lit up
favor of the plaintifF Hyde. I have listened also to the happily and he told Buncombe it had occurred to him
remarks of counsel, with high interest-and especially that the ranch underneath the new Morgan ranch still
will I commend the masterly and irrefutable logic of the belonged to Hyde, that his title to the ground was just as
distinguished gentleman who represents the plaintiff. good as it had ever been, and therefore he was of opin­
But gentlemen, let us beware how we allow mere human ion that Hyde had a right to dig it out from under there
testimony, human ingenuity in argument and human and-
ideas of equity, to influenee us at a moment so solemn as The General never waited to hear the end of it. He
this. Gentlemen, it iII becomes us, worms as we are, to was always an impatient and irascible man, that way. At
meddle with the decrees of Heaven. lt is plain to me that the end of two months the faet that he had been played
Heaven, in its inscrutable wisdom, has seen fit to move upon with a joke had managed to bore itself, Iike an­
this defendant's ranch for a purpose. We are but crea­ other Hoosac Tunnel, through the solid adamant of his
tures, and we must submit. If Heaven has chosen to understanding.
favor the defendant Morgan in this marked and won­
derful manner; and if Heaven, dissatisfied with the posi­
tion of the Morgan raneh upon the mountain side, has
chosen to remove it to a position more eligible and more
advantageous for ¡ts owner, it iII becomes us, insects as
we are, to question the legality of the act or inquire into
the reasons that prompted it. No-Heaven created the
ranches and it is Heaven's prerogative to rearrange
them, to experiment with them, to shift them around at
its pleasure. It is for us to submit, without repining. I
warn you that this thing which has happened is a thing
with which the sacrilegious hands and brains and
tongues of men must not meddle. Gentlemen, it is the
verdict of this court that the plaintifF, Richard Hyde, has

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