as defendant, and I was employed as counsel. His
crime was the trifling offence of snatching a curly-
headed Jew from behind his counter by his curly
hair, and then dragging him by his curly hair into
the street.
My bold client was convicted, but the judgment was entered so awkwardly, that I had it set aside on review, and he escaped punishment.
Soon after this he married an amiable immigrant girl, and settled down as the most docile of men. But this was not to last.
One day he came to town in a perfect fury, pistol in hand, in search of the deputy sheriff Berry, who he claimed had offended his wife.
Berry was on the alert. About dusk the two men suddenly met face to face on turning a corner and the ball opened. Hirst was a very tall man, and always did things with a sort of flourish. Although quick as a trap whenever he drew his pistol, or raised it to fire, he always raised it in the air and fired as the muzzle descended.
There are two ways of firing a pistol in hand-to- hand combat, and only two. One is to fire as you raise, and the other is to raise and then fire as you fall. Every advantage, it seems to me, is with the former mode, particularly when time means every thing. You can cock a pistol easier, it is true, by raising the muzzle and at the same time raising the hammer, but if strong in the thumb you should by all means cock as you draw, and fire the moment the
