So far as I know, the regular law took no notice. The effects of the action of the Vigilantes were, however, marked and immediate. That night many of the worst characters in town left it, some in their haste walking all the way to Denver to get clear of a spot so ominous to them. The rowdyism, the displaying of revolvers and shooting at lamps out of bravado, stopped instanter. There never was another man shot in the town of Evans for two years, and then the shooting was accidental, though, as the man who fired the rifle on that occasion happened to have had words with the man who was wounded--it was not a fatal shot--he was most terribly frightened, fully expecting the Vigilantes to get after him. This rapid and most surprising purification of the moral atmosphere of Evans City did, I admit, dispose me at the time to think favourably of the action of lynch law. But five years’ residence in the territory was enough to alter my opinion. During that time only one man was legally executed there, and he was a foreigner and a poor man; and, moreover, there is reason to believe that his crime only amounted to manslaughter. Yet during those years many crimes of violence were committed, and many lynchings occurred. Some of these were, I make no doubt, as well deserved as the one of which I was a witness; others very probably were not--for instance, two men, if not three, were lynched, on one of the creeks that run from the Divide, for killing a calf. But the general effect of the system upon the administration of the ordinary law was simply disastrous. Whenever atrocious murderers are hanged as soon as caught, there arises at once a strong presumption that a man-slayer, who is left to be dealt with by an ordinary jury, has probably much to excuse him. This feeling vastly increased the difficulty of getting juries to convict. Popular criminals are quite sure to get off, and the ordinary law became glaringly ineffective and sinks into something very like contempt, while the lynchers alone are really dreaded. And this very dread increases crime, because horse-thieves and cattle-thieves, when pursued, know they will probably be lynched, and never hesitate to shoot, thinking they may as well be hanged for killing a man as for killing a calf. Every thief becomes a potential murderer, and goes armed. Peaceful citizens arm themselves in defence of their lives and property, and, as collisions will occur, crimes of violence naturally abound. The remedy is worse than the disease. R. B. Townshend. _A Tenderfoot in Colorado._ Copyright by Dodd, Mead and Company, Inc. By permission of the publishers. THE BLIZZARD HERBERT QUICK