Ten Commandments of the Old West

I’m on the road tomorrow and through the rest of the week, doing further research on a book about outlaws of the Old West. I’m fixated on the subject. According to the code of the West, a murderer was one who shot in the back or from ambush, who gave no warning or who shot an unarmed man. A bushwhacker was a “murderer.” Of course, if a bad man “got the drop,” and the enemy, instead of going for his weapons, signified his surrender by raising his hands, it would be downright murder to shoot him; but it was self-defense if the enemy reached for his gun. To violate his code would incur the wrath of witnesses and would usually cause a hanging bee. There was limit beyond which even the worst bad man of the West could not go with impunity. No one had to guess what those limits were, they were written on the hearts of every person who ventured west of the Mississippi. The “ten commandments” of the Old West were as follows: 1. Thou shalt not appear too inquisitive about one’s past. 2. Thou shalt be hospitable to strangers. 3. Thou shalt give thine enemy a fighting chance. 4. Thou shalt not shoot an unarmed man. 5. Thou shalt not make a threat or wrongly accuse someone of a crime without expecting dire consequences. 6. Thou shalt not practice ingratitude. 7. Thou shalt defend thyself whenever self-defense is necessary. 8. Thou shalt not rob. 9. Thou shalt honor and revere all womankind; shalt never thing of harming one hair of a woman. 10. Thou shalt look out for thine own. These commandments were binding and effective. It was the unwritten law of the Western frontier, and the pioneers understood it quite plainly and they appreciated it-and what’s more, they enforced it! I’d sure like to see enforcement of the fifth commandment right now.