The Sheriff’s Refusal to Arrest a Gun-Toting Reveler
A town rumor alleges local officials were too intimidated to confront an armed man in a Ritzville saloon, sparking a fierce editorial debate on equity before the law.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
We have heard it rumored on the streets during the past few days that one of the 'wild and wooly' people from the range was in town last Saturday night and tried to do some scarlet decorating down at the corner saloon. The story goes that the gentleman from the bunch-grass region pulled his gun in the presence of an arresting officer and was permitted to run his bluff. He then put his gun up and proceeded with the painting process. In the course of time he took occasion to again dig up his artillery, when another official was notified and requested to take charge of the man with the big gun; but the said official declined, giving as his reason that he was afraid of the man. We do not know just how much truth there is in the story, but if it be true that the city or county officers are as negligent in their sworn duties as this rumor would imply, they should be severely dealt with. It is not right to arrest one class of law-breakers and let another go, just because the latter pay for their liquor and carry a gun. It strikes us that if an officer knows that he has not the nerve to arrest an offender, regardless of his race, color or present condition of soberness, it would be the proper caper for him to tender his resignation.
“It strikes us that if an officer knows that he has not the nerve to arrest an offender, regardless of his race, color or present condition of soberness, it would be the proper caper for him to tender his resignation.”
This editorial captures a classic frontier tension: the performative chaos of 'range' culture versus the hardening expectations of a settled civic order. The demand for officials to treat 'all alike' remains the central, unresolved argument in modern American policing.
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