Because I came out of that morbid period of
adolescence with a sympathy for children that helped to make possible
one of the first courts established in America for the protection as
well as the correction of children. Because I was never afterward as
afraid of anything as of my own weakness, my own cowardice--so that
when the agents of the Beast in the courts and in politics threatened
me with all the abominations of their rage if I did not commit moral
suicide for _them_, my fear of yielding to them was so great that I
attacked them more desperately than ever.
It was about this time, too, that I first saw the teeth and the claws
of our metaphorical man-eater. That was during the conflict between
Governor Waite and the Fire and Police Board of Denver. He had the
appointment and removal of the members of this Board, under the law,
and when they refused to close the public gambling houses and otherwise
enforce the laws against vice in Denver, he read them out of office.
They refused to go, and defied him, with the police at their backs. He
threatened to call out the militia and drive them from the City Hall.
The whole town was in an uproar.
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