Forty-one Thieves / A Tale of California

Coming of

ins came home in state-home at last, where the familiar caw of crow and tinkle of cow-bell might almost conjure the dead back to life again. Three years before, at the time of the great Cent

neral-indignant youths, solemn old men and women. True, the younger generation had hardly known of the Californian's existence. To them he seemed to have come out of the Sierras like a Rip Van Winkle, who slept soundly on, asking no questions. But to the old men he had died a

on the corners of the village street, or stepped into the bank to look at the six-shooter which had failed th

e sword shall peri

Anglo-Saxon blood recoiled. And a former Californian, wh

re would have been two dead robbers. This doctrine of non-resistance is wrong, dead wrong. We proved that in Ca

for the combat, "the Civil War was a national crime. Think of the

vis and the other criminals ought to have been h

replied the minister, "tha

you think Will Cummins did w

been alive to-d

ed for a principle. He believed in self-de

d, 'if any man take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also'-'turn the other

kely to get killed. What I say is, I admire a man who is not afraid of getting killed when h

y soldiers returning from the Civil War and by men returning from the lawless life of t

ou are a C

n't know. If Jesus Christ said self-de

nd to consider it. Dead men tell no tales and make no arguments. Will Cummins slept peacefully on. But the facts o

rine of non-resistance, and lays down his life for the faith that is in him. A martyr, then. Martyrdom in itself cannot establish a pr

spired teachers have done. And what did He really teach? Not one word of Scripture was written by His hand. The spirit of Christ-this is the important thing. The letter killeth, the spirit giveth life. Did He

the four thousand who fled to the mountains and fought off their persecutors till help arrived? Read of the heroic defense, when for fifty-three days the men of that gallant band, with a few rifles, saved their women and child

d friends may be a sacred duty. If I have any quarrel with the Californians it is not with their courage and daring. These were

e, and old man Palmer, himself in a pauper's grave by the Middle Yuba, robbed