Wat hi-lar-i-ous -------- Original Message -------- On Dec 17, 2019, 2:33 PM, Ryan Carboni wrote:
> “Do I know you? I know you clear through. I was born and raised in > the South, and I’ve lived in the North; so I know the average all > around. The average man’s a coward. In the North he lets anybody walk > over him that wants to, and goes home and prays for a humble spirit to > bear it. In the South one man all by himself, has stopped a stage full > of men in the daytime, and robbed the lot. Your newspapers call you a > brave people so much that you think you are braver than any other > people—whereas you’re just as brave, and no braver. Why don’t your > juries hang murderers? Because they’re afraid the man’s friends will > shoot them in the back, in the dark—and it’s just what they would do. > > “So they always acquit; and then a man goes in the night, with a > hundred masked cowards at his back and lynches the rascal. Your > mistake is, that you didn’t bring a man with you; that’s one mistake, > and the other is that you didn’t come in the dark and fetch your > masks. You brought part of a man—Buck Harkness, there—and if you > hadn’t had him to start you, you’d a taken it out in blowing. > > “You didn’t want to come. The average man don’t like trouble and > danger. You don’t like trouble and danger. But if only half a > man—like Buck Harkness, there—shouts ’Lynch him! lynch him!’ you’re > afraid to back down—afraid you’ll be found out to be what you > are—cowards—and so you raise a yell, and hang yourselves on to that > half-a-man’s coat-tail, and come raging up here, swearing what big > things you’re going to do. The pitifulest thing out is a mob; that’s > what an army is—a mob; they don’t fight with courage that’s born in > them, but with courage that’s borrowed from their mass, and from their > officers. But a mob without any man at the head of it is beneath > pitifulness. Now the thing for you to do is to droop your tails and > go home and crawl in a hole. If any real lynching’s going to be done > it will be done in the dark, Southern fashion; and when they come > they’ll bring their masks, and fetch a man along. Now leave—and take > your half-a-man with you”—tossing his gun up across his left arm and > cocking it when he says this.
