218 THE DRAMA OF THE FORESTS 



member, it is much safer to approach the great bulls of the 

 forest than it is to approach the smaller bulls of the farmers' 

 fields. Likewise, when tramping along the rural road one runs 

 a much greater chance of being bitten by the farmer's dog, than 

 one does, when travelling through the forest, of being bitten by 

 a wolf. Then, too, it is just the same of men, for the men of 

 the cities are much more quarrelsome, dishonest, and evil- 

 minded than are those of the wilderness, and that, no doubt, 

 accounts for the endless slandering of the wilderness dwellers 

 by fiction writers who live in towns, for those authors — never 

 having lived in the wilderness — form their judgment of life, 

 either as they have experienced it in cities or as they imagine 

 it to be in the wilderness. 



THE OUTLAW AND NEW YORKER 



Now, in order to confirm my statement, I shall go to the very 

 extreme and quote what Al Jennings, the notorious outlaw, says 

 upon this very subject. The quotation is taken from Jen- 

 nings' reminiscences of his prison days, when he and the late 

 lamented William Sydney Porter — the afterward famous 

 author 0. Henry — formed such a strong friendship. In the 

 following dialogue Jennings is in New York City visiting Porter 

 — whom he calls "Bill" — and Porter is speaking: 



"I have accepted an invitation for you. Colonel." He was 

 in one of his gently sparkling moods. "Get into your armor 

 asinorum, for we fare forth to make contest with tinsel and 

 gauze. In other words, we mingle with the proletariat. We 

 go to see Margaret Anghn and Henry Miller in that superb and 

 reahstic Western libel, 'The Great Divide.' " 



After the play the great actress, Porter, and I, and one or two 

 others were to have supper at the Breslin Hotel. I think Porter 

 took me there that he might sit back and enjoy my unabashed 

 criticisms to the young lady's face. 



