Frontier life conduces to early maturity in cities as well as in men, and Montgomery was no exception to the rule. The hard knocks that produce self-reliance were not slow in coming. In spite of disastrous freshets and destructive epidemics, the population increased, and with its growth came a new and rougher element. An old newspaper suggests drily: “It requires no stretch of art to put rubbish before a shop door; to take down a gingerbread-maker’s sign; to take the wheels from a lady’s carriage and put them on a silversmith’s shop; and make noise enough to disturb the slumbers of the sick by beating stirrups for triangles, and blowing conch-shells for French horns.” Drunkenness and gambling increased, and the same paper soon had occasion to add: “This is the third, if not the fourth, attempt at homicide in this place within a few months.” Such things were the first test of the city’s capacity for self-government, and were met by primitive but rigorous measures. Indecency of language or conduct was punished by a ducking in some neighboring pond, followed by a ride on a rail. There is a record of an outrageous scoundrel who attempted to steal and sell an Indian family, and was promptly whipped through the streets by the squaws while the citizens lined up and saw it well done. But the lawlessness increased until finally it destroyed the peace and threatened the existence of the town. Then it was that the law-abiding class rose in mass, and under the leadership of Colonel John H. Thorington put down the gang and cleaned out their haunts. If they had at times been too lenient toward lawlessness, and at others too impatient to wait for legal formalities, a ready explanation may be found in their absorption in business cares and enterprises. A new country of unknown resources had to be developed. Other things must wait. Governor Gilmer, of Georgia, who visited Montgomery in 1833, was deeply--perhaps too deeply--impressed with this side of their life. He says: “I found the fertile lands of Montgomery settled up with active, intelligent, wealthy citizens, who had been drawn to it from the old States by the great advantages which it afforded to those who desired to increase their riches. The rapid accumulation of wealth whetted the appetite for getting money, until the people could not be satisfied with any quantity acquired. It was a subject of wondering cogitation to me, who had for many years been constantly taken up with the affairs of the government, and the strife of party politics, to listen to my Montgomery friends talking without ceasing of cotton, negroes, land and money.”