They swarmed up in front of Sherburn’s palings as thick as they could jam together, and you couldn’t hear yourself think for the noise. It was a little twenty-foot yard. Some sung out “Tear down the fence!tear down the fence!” Then there was a racket of ripping and tearing and smashing,and down she goes, and the front wall of the crowd begins to roll in like a wave.
Just then Sherburn steps out on to the roof of his little front porch,with a double-barrel gun in his hand,and takes his stand, perfectly ca’m and deliberate,not saying a word. The racket stopped,and the wave sucked back.
Sherburn never said a word—just stood there,looking down. The stillness was awful creepy and uncomfortable.Sherburn run his eye slow along the crowd;and wherever it struck the people tried a little to out-gaze him,but they couldn’t; they dropped their eyes and looked sneaky.Then pretty soon Sherburn sort of laughed;not the pleasant kind,but the kind that makes you feel like when you are eating bread that’s got sand in it.
Then he says, slow and scornful:
“The idea of _you_ lynching anybody!It’s amusing. The idea of you thinking you had pluck enough to lynch a _man!_ Because you’re brave enough to tar and feather poor friendless cast-out women that come along here, did that make you think you had grit enough to lay your hands on a _man?_ Why, a _man’s_ safe in the hands of ten thousand of your kind—as long as it’s daytime and you’re not behind him.
“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.
The crowd washed back sudden, and then broke all apart,and went tearing off every which way,and Buck Harkness he heeled it after them,looking tolerable cheap.I could a staid if I wanted to, but I didn’t want to.
I went to the circus and loafed around the back side till the watchman went by,and then dived in under the tent.I had my twenty-dollar gold piece and some other money,but I reckoned I better save it,because there ain’t no telling how soon you are going to need it,away from home and amongst strangers that way.You can’t be too careful.I ain’t opposed to spending money on circuses when there ain’t no other way,but there ain’t no use in _wasting_ it on them.
It was a real bully circus.It was the splendidest sight that ever was when they all come riding in,two and two, a gentleman and lady, side by side,the men just in their drawers and undershirts,and no shoes nor stirrups,and resting their hands on their thighs easy and comfortable—there must a been twenty of them—and every lady with a lovely complexion, and perfectly beautiful, and looking just like a gang of real sure-enough queens, and dressed in clothes that cost millions of dollars, and just littered with diamonds. It was a powerful fine sight; I never see anything so lovely. And then one by one they got up and stood, and went a-weaving around the ring so gentle and wavy and graceful, the men looking ever so tall and airy and straight, with their heads bobbing and skimming along, away up there under the tent-roof, and every lady’s rose-leafy dress flapping soft and silky around her hips, and she looking like the most loveliest parasol.
And then faster and faster they went,all of them dancing,first one foot out in the air and then the other,the horses leaning more and more,and the ring-master going round and round the center-pole,cracking his whip and shouting “Hi!—hi!” and the clown cracking jokes behind him;and by-and-by all hands dropped the reins,and every lady put her knuckles on her hips and every gentleman folded his arms, and then how the horses did lean over and hump themselves!And so one after the other they all skipped off into the ring,and made the sweetest bow I ever see,and then scampered out,and everybody clapped their hands and went just about wild.