“Yet your language has been offensive, and even now shows strong excitement.  If insult is repeated I shall either leave the room or call in Sheriff Cummings, whom I just left standing and waiting for me outside the door.”

“No, you won’t, sir.  You may just as well understand it at once as not.  Here you are my man, and I’ll tell you why!  Months ago you put your property out of your hands, boasting that you did so to escape losing it on prosecution for libel.”

“It is true that I did convert all my immovable property into personal property, such as I could trust safely to others, and chiefly to escape ruin through possible libel suits.”

“Very good, sir.  Having placed yourself beyond the pale of the law, may God help your soul if you don’t make precisely such a retraction as I have demanded.  I’ve got you now, and by—­before you can get out of this room you’ve got to both write and sign precisely the retraction I have demanded, and before you go, anyhow—­you—–­low-lived—­lying—–­, I’ll teach you what personal responsibility is outside of the law; and, by—­, Sheriff Cummings and all the friends you’ve got in the world besides, can’t save you, you—–­, etc.!  No, sir.  I’m alone now, and I’m prepared to be shot down just here and now rather than be villified by you as I have been, and suffer you to escape me after publishing those charges, not only here where I am known and universally respected, but where I am not personally known and may be injured.”

I confess this speech, with its terrible and but too plainly implied threat of killing me if I did not sign the paper he demanded, terrified me, especially as I saw he was working himself up to the highest possible pitch of passion, and instinct told me that any reply other than one of seeming concession to his demands would only be fuel to a raging fire, so I replied: 

“Well, if I’ve got to sign—­,” and then I paused some time.  Resuming, I said, “But, Mr. Winters, you are greatly excited.  Besides, I see you are laboring under a total misapprehension.  It is your duty not to inflame but to calm yourself.  I am prepared to show you, if you will only point out the article that you allude to, that you regard as ‘charges’ what no calm and logical mind has any right to regard as such.  Show me the charges, and I will try, at all events; and if it becomes plain that no charges have been preferred, then plainly there can be nothing to retract, and no one could rightly urge you to demand a retraction.  You should beware of making so serious a mistake, for however honest a man may be, every one is liable to misapprehend.  Besides you assume that I am the author of some certain article which you have not pointed out.  It is hasty to do so.”

He then pointed to some numbered paragraphs in a Tribune article, headed “What’s the Matter with Yellow Jacket?” saying “That’s what I refer to.”