Tolerance gave way
to antagonism; distrust to bitterness; grievance to open hostility. The
Forest Reserves were cursed as a vicious institution created for the
benefit of the rich man, depriving the poor man of his rights and
privileges, imposing on him regulations that were at once galling and
senseless.
The Forest Rangers suddenly found themselves openly unpopular.
Heretofore a ranger had been tolerated by the mountaineers as either a
good-for-nothing saloon loafer enjoying the fats of political
perquisite; or as a species of inunderstandable fanatic to be looked
down upon with good-humoured contempt. Now a ranger became a partisan of
the opposing forces, and as such an enemy. Men ceased speaking to him,
or greeted him with the curtest of nods. Plant's men were ostracized in
every way, once they showed themselves obstinate in holding to their
positions. Every man was urged to resign. Many did so. Others hung on
because the job was too soft to lose. Some, like Ross Fletcher,
California John, Tom Carroll, Charley Morton and a few others, moved on
their accustomed way.
One of the inspiring things in the later history of the great West is
the faith and insight, the devotion and self-sacrifice of some of the
rough mountain men in some few of the badly managed reserves to truths
that were but slowly being recognized by even the better educated of the
East.
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