Vigilante Days and Ways: The pioneers of the Rockies; the makers and making of Montana and IdahoLangford, Nathaniel Pitt
History
Vigilante Days and Ways: The pioneers of the Rockies; the makers and making of Montana and Idaho
Langford, Nathaniel Pitt
Frontier and pioneer life -- Northwestern States; Northwestern States -- History; Vigilance committees; West (U.S.) -- History
Henry Plummer was a man of wonderful executive ability. He was well
educated. In stature he was about five feet ten inches, and in weight,
one hundred and sixty pounds. His forehead was partially concealed by
the rim of the hat which he rarely removed from his head, and his eyes
were mild and expressive. In demeanor he was quiet and modest, free from
swagger and bluster, dignified and graceful. He was intelligent and
brilliant in conversation, a good judge of men, and his manners were
those of a polished gentleman. To his enemies his magnanimity was more
seeming than real. He always proffered them the advantage in drawing the
pistol, but he knew that the instance would be very rare, where, even
thus favored, his antagonist could anticipate him in its deadly use.
Hon. Wm. C. Rheem, in a letter to the Helena (Montana) _Herald_, writes
of Henry Plummer as follows:
“I remember Plummer very well. He was frequently in my cabin, and I
often came in contact with him while he was exercising the office of
sheriff. His form and face were familiar to the first settlers in
Bannack. He was about five feet eleven inches in height, and weighed
a hundred and fifty pounds. He was straight, slender, spare, agile,
and what Western men call withy. He was a quiet man and talked but
little; when he did speak, it was always in a low tone and with a
good choice of language. He never grew boisterous, even in his cups,
and no impulse of anger or surprise ever raised his voice above that
of wary monotone. His countenance was in perfect keeping with his
utterance. Both were under the same vigilant command. If one was
like the low, continuous purr of the crouching tiger, the muscles of
the other were as rigid as those of the beast before he springs.
Affection, fear, hate, grief, remorse, or any passion or emotion,
found no expression in his immovable face. No color ever flushed his
cheeks. With mobile and expressive features, he would have been
handsome—all except the forehead; this, with the conformation of the
skull, betrayed the murderer, and Plummer knew it. The observer
beheld a well-cut mouth, indicating decision, firmness, and
intelligence; but not a line expressive of sensuality; a straight
nose and well-shaped chin, and cheeks rather narrow and fleshless,
still, in their outlines, not unhandsome. But one might as well have
looked into the eyes of the dead for some token of a human soul as
to have sought it in the light gray orbs of Plummer. Their cold,
glassy stare defied inquisition. They seemed to be gazing through
you at some object beyond, as though you were transparent. While
other men laughed or pitied or threatened with their eyes, his had
the same half-vacant stare, no matter how moving the story or tragic
the spectacle.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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