Roy Norton

“ The men from the cut, rough and hard as they were, were as pygmies confronted by giants, in the face of that terrific onslaught. They were brought against those who had fought where more than bruises was toll of the day; where to die was nothing, but victory everything. They broke into swirling eddies. They fell as they were stricken, and then—took to flight!
“At them. Boys, at them!” shouted Brother William, leading the way in pursuit of the fugitives. “Halt! Some of you go back and pick up a man named Sawyer. He is the one Brooks arrested. Take him to the calaboose and mount guard. ”

“ Back they went again, and this time the door splintered inward with a crash, and Bill Sawyer stepped out to help lynch Tom Brooks.
Brother William ran with astonishing agility for a man of his weight, skirted the crowd, and panted up to his store door. He took no time to unlock it, but put his big shoulder against it and burst it wide open. He fumbled round in the darkness for a moment, seemed to find what he wanted, and was out in the square again as the vanguard of the mob, holding Tom Brooks, approached the flagpole. He never paused, but shouldered men right and left. ”

“ It was then that Brother William came to the fore. “I have always been proud,” he said, “to write back to Pennsylvania that I lived in a town where the Marshal had to make his living by blacksmithing, and that his fees of office had never exceeded one dollar a year. Brother Jones is merely wayward. What he needs more than a jail is charity and kindness. If he falls in the street, it is our duty to pick him up—yea, though it be a hundred times!—and take him home. Torinda needs no place of incarceration. A calaboose would be a blot on our town. ”

“ Sometimes, forgetting that the war was over, we fought among ourselves, still trying to decide that stubbornly contested dispute; but Brother William never fought, and was the greatest peacemaker that ever lived since Lincoln died. ”

“ Once Brother William fired, and Bill Sawyer, who had attempted to rush them, fell with a bullet hole through his chest. They were gaining foot by foot, and yet the mob harried them always. Always the determined little Marshal, a living menace, pressed forward, with the big, corpulent, half nude Quaker behind him, and with a ready gun facing the rioters whenever they came toward him. ”

“ Tom Brooks! Did we ever miss a calaboose until he wanted one? No! I tell thee it is a grave mistake to arrest men so frequently, when kind words could induce them to keep law and order. What we need is a man who would use persuasion, rather than a club. Brother Brooks is a good smith and an estimable man; but he does not understand how to handle the wayward.”
IT was just four nights later that a messenger from one of the bosses on the cut came into Torinda at about eleven o'clock in the night, and the mule he rode was lathering. ”

“ Torinda was not awake to see the pitiful first examples of law and order when Tom, Brother William, and the two culprits walked up to Judge Simon's house and woke him up, he being the Justice of Peace and the “cote.” He was quite inclined to be lenient, as unofficially he was the proprietor of the Rancher's Delight, and “reckoned” a dollar and costs ought to be about right, inasmuch as nothing had been broken but the peace, which was cheap. Brother William paid the fine and saw to it that Hanky had to start on a long trip that very morning ”

“ Remember that a kindly word, well spoken, bears more admonition than all thy force or bars of iron.”
It is a fact that Brother William lost weight after the calaboose was built through staying awake nights for the redemption of Hanky Pank, and that recalcitrant was not put into the house of ill repute. Tom Brooks asserted that it was fear of the calaboose that worked Hanky's reformation; but Brother William retorted with quiet fervor that it was the helping hand, for Hanky Pank was given a job driving one of the freight wagons the Quaker owned, and thereafter eschewed the wine when it was red. ”

“ His bulk and strength were overwhelming. He fought like a professional, his huge arms thrusting, shoving, and striking with astonishing quickness and force. He fairly mowed his way through his opponents. ”

“ When railways were built in those days and the construction had to stop any place for more than a week or ten days, there was a regular following of sharks who prowled about the outskirts, opening up saloons in tents and all sorts of trouble shops. The laborers did most of their fighting in their own camp, and, as far as anyone knew, were allowed to fight it out unless it got too strong, and then some of the bosses went at them and persuaded them to peace—with pick handles. ”