156 The Winning of the West 



Jails were scarce in the wilderness, and often 

 were entirely wanting in a district, which, indeed, 

 was quite likely to lack legal officers also. If pun- 

 ishment was inflicted at all it was apt to be severe, 

 and took the form of death or whipping. An im- 

 promptu jury of neighbors decided with a rough 

 and ready sense of fair play and justice what punish- 

 ment the crime demanded, and then saw to the exe- 

 cution of their own decree. Whipping was the 

 usual reward of theft. Occasionally torture was re- 

 sorted to, but not often; but to their honor be it 

 said, the backwoodsmen were horrified at the treat- 

 ment accorded both to black slaves and to white con- 

 vict servants in the lowlands. 56 



They were superstitious, of course, believing in 

 witchcraft, and signs and omens; and it may be 

 noted that their superstition showed a singular mix- 

 ture of Old- World survivals and of practices bor- 

 rowed from the savages or evolved by the very force 

 of their strange surroundings. At the bottom they 

 were deeply religious in their tendencies; and al- 

 though ministers and meeting-houses were rare, yet 

 the backwoods cabins often contained Bibles, and 

 the mothers used to instil into the minds of their 

 children reverence for Sunday, 57 while many even 

 of the hunters refused to hunt on that day. 58 Those 



but sometimes great injustice is done. Generally the vigi- 

 lantes, by a series of summary executions, do really good 

 work; but I have rarely known them fail, among the men 

 whom they killed for good reason, to also kill one or two 

 either by mistake or to gratify private malice. 

 56 See Doddridge. McAfee MSS. 68 Doddridge. 



