Christian-like--in their "raking-down." If Mr. Daws expected York and
Scott to shake hands after the sermon, he was disappointed. But he did
not relax his purpose. With that quiet fearlessness and determination
which had won for him the respect of men who were too apt to regard
piety as synonymous with effeminacy, he attacked Scott in his own house.
What he said has not been recorded, but it is to be feared that it was
part of his sermon. When he had concluded, Scott looked at him, not
unkindly, over the glasses of his bar, and said, less irreverently than
the words might convey, "Young man, I rather like your style; but when
you know York and me as well as you do God Almighty, it'll be time to
talk."
And so the feud progressed; and so, as in more illustrious examples, the
private and personal enmity of two representative men led gradually to
the evolution of some crude, half-expressed principle or belief. It was
not long before it was made evident that those beliefs were identical
with certain broad principles laid down by the founders of the American
Constitution, as expounded by the statesmanlike A; or were the fatal
quicksands, on which the ship of state might be wrecked, warningly
pointed out by the eloquent B. The practical result of all which was the
nomination of York and Scott to represent the opposite factions of Sandy
Bar in legislative councils.
For some weeks past, the voters of Sandy Bar and the adjacent camps had
been called upon, in large type, to "RALLY!" In vain the great pines
at the cross-roads--whose trunks were compelled to bear this and other
legends--moaned and protested from their windy watch-towers. But one
day, with fife and drum, and flaming transparency, a procession filed
into the triangular grove at the head of the gulch. The meeting
was called to order by Colonel Starbottle, who, having once enjoyed
legislative functions, and being vaguely known as a "war-horse," was
considered to be a valuable partisan of York. He concluded an appeal for
his friend, with an enunciation of principles, interspersed with one or
two anecdotes so gratuitously coarse that the very pines might have been
moved to pelt him with their cast-off cones, as he stood there. But he
created a laugh, on which his candidate rode into popular notice; and
when York rose to speak, he was greeted with cheers. But, to the general
astonishment, the new speaker at once launched into bitter denunciation
of his rival. He not o
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