SELF-CONTROL 545That clergyman lived many years after the Lawrence massacre.
What did he say to the guerrilla? What was there in his personality that
led the latter to sit down and talk? What did they talk about?
"Are you a Yankee abolitionist?" the guerrilla had asked.
"Yes, I am;' was the reply, "and you know very well that you ought
to be ashamed of what you're doing."
This drew the matter directly to a moral issue. It brought the
guerrilla up roundly. The clergyman was only a stripling beside this
seasoned border ruffian. But he threw a burden of moral proof onto
the raider, and in a moment the latter was trying to demonstrate that
he might be a better fellow than circumstances would seem to indicate.
After waking this New Englander to kill him on account of his
politics, he spent twenty minutes on the witness stand trying to prove
an alibi. He went into his personal history at length. He explained
matters from the time when he had been a tough little kid who would
not say his prayers, and became quite sentimental in recalling how
one thing had led to another, and that led to something worse, until
-well, here he was, and "a mighty bad business to be in, pardner."
His last request in riding away was: "Now, pardner, don't think too
hard of me, will you?"
The New England clergyman made use of the law of retaliation,
whether he knew it at that time or not. Imagine what would have
happened had he come downstairs with a revolver in his hand and
started to meet physical force with physical force!
But he didn't do this. He mastered the guerrilla because he fought
him with a force that was unknown to the brigand.
Why is it that when once you begin to make money the whole world
seems to beat a pathway to your door?
Take any person that you know who enjoys financial success and
they will tell you that they are being constantly sought, and that
opportunities to make money are constantly being urged upon them!