John Stevens' Courtship: A Story of the Echo Canyon WarGates, Susa Young
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John Stevens' Courtship: A Story of the Echo Canyon War
Gates, Susa Young
Latter Day Saints -- Fiction; Utah Expedition (1857-1858) -- Fiction
A few hours later, just in the cool edge of the late afternoon, John
found himself eagerly looking over some new daguerreotypes of various
of his friends in the shop of Marcena Cannon, the photographer, on
Main Street. He was so busily engaged that he did not notice the
slight noisy wrangle of some drunken men on the street until he saw a
group of them darken the small doorway of the tiny shop. As his glance
caught the fact that they were soldiers, he withdrew into the shadow
and waited for developments. He was unwilling to embroil himself with
these men, and yet he had caught sight of the dissolute face of Captain
Sherwood in the crowd, and John remained to watch.
"Hello, Mr. Cannon," cried the tipsy captain, "we want our pictures
taken. Can you take the picture of a gentleman as well as the ugly mugs
of these d--d Mormons?"
The face of the photographer was drawn into a sneer of contempt for the
insult thus offered himself and his associates, but he only said:
"Men in my profession must be as willing to try their hands at painting
a fool as they are to take the likeness of an honest man. Are there any
honest men in your party who want to pose before my camera?"
For answer the captain only leered about the shop, pausing unsteadily
before first one picture and then another; finally he caught sight
of a large daguerreotype of President Brigham Young, done by the
enterprising pioneer photographer Marcena Cannon. Steadying himself in
front of this picture, Sherwood raised his pistol, and shot through it,
the bullet embedding itself in the wall behind. His marksmanship was
so unsteady that only the corner of the canvas was riddled; but the
soldiers surrounded their captain at once, fearing that his overt act
might precipitate some trouble. Sherwood yelled out as his shot rang
into the dim silence of the room:
"That's the way I'd serve the old scoundrel if I could get him in the
same place."
Instantly the room filled with street-loungers, although the sound was
no unusual one in those unhappy Salt Lake days. As the smoke cleared
away, Captain Sherwood found himself looking down the muzzle of John
Stevens' own revolver, while a cool, grating voice hissed in his ear:
"Git out, vermin."
The soldier, sobered by his own folly, found his small squad of men
were vastly outnumbered by the civilian police who now crowded into the
tiny room, and without further parley he assumed a braggart air, and
swaggered out of the place.
"'He who runs away'," quoth Charlie Rose, who was at John's elbow by
this time, "'may live to fight another day.' But then again he may not.
You can't sometimes always tell. Little Captain Sherwood may reach the
place of his own seeking sooner than he anticipates."
The incident only served the better to reveal the unprincipled
character of a man whom already poor John hated with a righteous vigor.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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