The Judge Ignores Particulars
"Do you often have these visitations?" Ogden inquired of Judge Henry. Our host was
giving us whiskey in his office, and Dr. MacBride, while we smoked apart from the
ladies, had repaired to his quarters in the foreman's house previous to the service which
he was shortly to hold.
The Judge laughed. "They come now and then through the year. I like the bishop to
come. And the men always like it. But I fear our friend will scarcely please them so
well."
"You don't mean they'll--"
"Oh, no. They'll keep quiet. The fact is, they have a good deal better manners than he has,
if he only knew it. They'll be able to bear him. But as for any good he'll do--"
"I doubt if he knows a word of science," said I, musing about the Doctor.
"Science! He doesn't know what Christianity is yet. I've entertained many guests, but
none--The whole secret," broke off Judge Henry, "lies in the way you treat people. As
soon as you treat men as your brothers, they are ready to acknowledge you--if you
deserve it--as their superior. That's the whole bottom of Christianity, and that's what our
missionary will never know."
There was a somewhat heavy knock at the office door, and I think we all feared it was Dr.
MacBride. But when the Judge opened, the Virginian was standing there in the darkness
"So!" The Judge opened the door wide. He was very hearty to the man he had trusted.
"You're back at last."
While they shook hands, Ogden nudged me. "That the fellow?" I nodded. "Fellow who
kicked the cook off the train?" I again nodded, and he looked at the Virginian, his eye and
his stature.
Judge Henry, properly democratic, now introduced him to Ogden.
The New Yorker also meant to be properly democratic. "You're the man I've been
hearing such a lot about."
But familiarity is not equality. "Then I expect yu' have the advantage of me, seh," said the
Virginian, very politely. "Shall I repawt tomorro'?" His grave eyes were on the Judge
again. Of me he had taken no notice; he had come as an employee to see his employer.
