play than in more artificial societies, there
blossoms a certain rough and ready chivalrousness which sets respect of
womanhood above all laws and makes every man a self-constituted champion
of the sex. This may be seen in a thousand communities scattered over
the farther West; but it is no outgrowth of the American character, for
it flourishes in all new societies in all parts of the world, no matter
to what nationality the men of those societies belong.

In a certain mining camp, late at night, a man--a man of some means, the
son of a banker in a neighbouring town--was walking with a woman.
Neither was sober and the woman fell to the ground. The man kicked her
and told her to get up. As she did not comply he cursed her and kicked
her again. Then chanced to come along one Ferguson, a gambler and a
notoriously "bad man," who bade the other stop abusing the woman,
whereupon he was promptly told to go to ---- and mind his own business.
Ferguson replied that if the other touched the woman again he would
shoot him. It was at this point that the altercation brought me out of
my cabin, for the thing was happening almost where my doorstep (had I
had a doorstep) ought to have been. The banker's son paid no heed to the
warning, and once more proceeded to kick the woman. Thereupon Ferguson
shot him. And, with the weapon which Ferguson carried and his ability as
a marksman, when he shot, it might be safely regarded as final.

No attempt was made to punish Ferguson. The deputy sheriff, arriving on
the scene, heard his story and mine and those of one or two others who
had heard or seen more or less of what passed; and Ferguson was a free
man. Nor was there any shadow of a suggestion in camp that justice
should take any other course. The fact was established that the dead man
had been abusing a woman. Ferguson had only done what any other man in
camp must have done under the same circumstances.

And while the banker's son was a person of some standing, there was
certainly nothing in her whom he had maltreated, beyond her mere
womanhood, to constitute a claim on one grain of respect.

I trust that I am not reflecting on the chivalry of the camp when I
record the fact that the name by which the lady was universally known
was "Molly-be-damned." The camp, to a man, idolised her.

* * * * *

One of my earliest revelations of the capacity of the American woman was
vouchsafed to me in this way:

A part