VOA慢速英語:亞利桑那州的墓碑:“The Town Too Tough To Die"

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From VOA Learning English, welcome to This is America. I’m Steve Ember.

The United States has thousands of "ghost towns."

[Wind and prairie sounds]

These are communities that once were successful but all the populationmoved to other places. Today on our program, we visit a town in the westernstate of Arizona that was saved from being a ghost town by a violent history.

[Gun Shots]

It is called Tombstone. Come along with us!

The town that is now Tombstone, Arizona was first amining camp. Silver miner Ed Schieffelin named thetown. In 1877, Mr. Schieffelin was searching for silver in the Arizona territory. The area at the time wasextremely dangerous. Apache Indians considered it to be their land and were all too ready to fight for it.

Ed Schieffelin used the army’s Camp Huachuca as abase for his search for silver. The soldiers there onceasked him why he went out into Apache country everyday. He answered: “To collect rocks.” One soldierthen told him: “You keep fooling around out thereamongst them Apaches and the only rock you’ll find will be your tombstone!” A tombstone is the stone thatmarks a person’s grave in a large burial place.

One day not long after, Ed Schieffelin finally diddiscover valuable silver ore in the area. He decided tocall his claim “Tombstone” because of the soldier’swarning. Soon, people heard about his silver discoveryand arrived in the area. Others found more silver andestablished other mines. And they used the name Tombstone for the townthey built nearby.

The area around Tombstone became well known for its silver mines. Andmore people came to the town. Some were settlers, storekeepers andminers. But others were looking for easy money. These were gamblers andthieves who drank too much alcohol and settled their disagreements with theirguns.

Allen Street in Tombstone shows the town's wild west roots

[Gunfire]

By the end of 1881, the town ofTombstone had a population of more than 5,000. It alsohad five local newspapers, at least two theaters, acourthouse, hotels and many local drinking places. And a gunfight had already taken place that would foreverinclude Tombstone among the famous stories toldabout the American Wild West.

[Frankie Laine sings “Gunfight at OK Corral”]

OK Corral, OK Corral

There, the outlaw band

Make their final stand

OK Corral…

Oh, my dearest one, must I lay down my gun

And take the chance of losing you forever?

Duty calls, my back’s against the wall

Have you no kind words to say before I ride away?

It was the Gunfight at the OK Corral.

The famous gunfight took place on October 26, 1881between the town's top lawman, or marshal, and hisdeputies on one side and an outlaw group called theCowboys on the other.

Stories from people who saw the fight led to newspaperreports, more stories, books, and later, movies andtelevision shows. Not all these stories are exactly true. For example, the gunfight did not really take place in theOK Corral, but near it in a field just off a main street intown. Here is one generally accepted story.

Hisbrothers, Wyatt and Morgan, also lived in the town. Infact, Wyatt was deputy city marshal, and Morgan had been named as a special policeman. The Earps had along-standing dispute with the Cowboys. They hadtried to arrest group members in the past for crimessuch as robbery and murder. Members of the groupincluded Billy Claiborne, Ike Clanton, Billy Clanton, TomMcLaury and Frank McLaury.

[Corral sounds]

On the day of the famous fight, those men weregathered near the OK Corral, an enclosed area used tokeep horses and other animals. They were armed, inviolation of a town ban against carrying guns. Theywere also drinking alcohol and threatening to kill theEarp brothers.

Virgil Earp decided that it was his duty to disarm them. His two brothers and a friend, the gunfighter DocHolliday, went along to help. The four walked down thestreet toward the corral. Virgil Earp told the cowboys tosurrender their weapons. Billy Claiborne ran away. And the fight began.

[Gun battle]

It did not last long. Historians say 32 shots were fired in the space of about 23seconds. No one really knows who fired first. But Tom McLaury, FrankMcLaury and Billy Clanton died of gunshot wounds. Virgil Earp, Morgan Earpand Doc Holliday were wounded but survived. Only Ike Clanton and WyattEarp were not hurt.

A 1993 movie called “Tombstone” is one of the most recent attempts to tellthis story. Listen to its recreation of the famous fight. Sam Elliott is Virgil, KurtRussell is Wyatt and Stephen Lang plays Ike Clanton.

Virgil: “We’re here to disarm you. Throw up your hands.”

Voice: “Hold it. It’s not what I want.”

Wyatt: “Oh…my….God.”

Ike: “Please…please!!! Stop! No! No! Don’t shoot. I got no gun. Please. Don’t shoot me. I got no gun!”

Voice: “Ike…get to fightin’ or get away.”

The Earps and Doc Holliday were arrested for murder and tried in thecourthouse. A judge decided they had acted within the law. Wyatt Earp spokein his own defense at the trial. Here is part of the local newspaper’s report ofwhat he said:

“…I believed then, and I believe now…that thesemen…had formed a conspiracy to murder my brothersMorgan and Virgil and Doc Holliday and myself. Ibelieve I would have been legally and morally justified inshooting any of them on sight, but I did not do so orattempt to do so; I sought no advantage. When I wentas deputy marshal to help disarm and arrest them, Iwent as part of my duty and under the direction of mybrother, the marshal.

“I did not intend to fight unless it became necessary inself-defense and in the performance of official duty. When Billy Clanton and Frank McLaury drew theirpistols I knew it was a fight for life, and I drew and firedin defense of my own life and the lives of my brothersand Doc Holliday.”

Some people still dispute this. They say the Earps andDoc Holliday did not fire in self-defense, but used thelaw as an excuse for murder. Experts say one of thereasons the gunfight is so interesting to many people is that no one knowswho shot first or why. But we do know that the violence between the Earpsand the Cowboys did not end at the OK Corral.

Two more attempts to kill the Earp brothers took place after the famous fight. The first injured Virgil; the second killed Morgan. Wyatt, Doc Holliday andothers decided to hunt down and kill those members of the Cowboys they feltwere responsible.

Today, the gunfight at the OK Corral brings visitors from all over the world to the small town of Tombstone. The latest information from the TombstoneChamber of Commerce says the town has a population of almost 1,400people. More than 50 thousand people stopped by the Tombstone VisitorCenter in 2013. But the town welcomes thousands more each year.

At the OK Corral, actors still recreate the famous gunfight. But othergunfighters are remembered in Tombstone, as well. For years, a restaurantcalled “Six Gun City” recreated some of the other gunfights that took place inTombstone. A fire destroyed the restaurant in 2010. But those gunfightreenactments continue.

[Gun battles]

For example, one recreation plays out the gunfight that killed Billy Claiborne, amember of the Cowboys gang, who ran from the OK Corral. He was killed bygunfighter Frank Leslie on the main street in Tombstone. In fact, a markernear the spot tells what happened. It says: "Buckskin Frank Leslie killed BillyClaiborne here on November 14, 1882.”

Frankie Laine sings]

Boot Hill, Boot Hill,

So cold, so still

Wyatt Earp, they say, saved Doc Holliday

From old Boot Hill…

Gunfighters and others who died in those earlyTombstone years are buried in the local graveyard, “Boot Hill.”

[Wind blows]

It was named “Boot Hill” because many of those buried there died violently, or, as the saying goes, “with their boots on.” Burials there ended after 1884, but the cemetery was restored in the 1930s. Only a few headstones survive, butsmall metal signs mark the graves. Many simply say “unknown,” but othersinclude short sayings. One that has been repeated many times says: “HereLies Lester Moore, Four Slugs from a 44, No Les, No More.”

People from all over the world visit Tombstone toexperience a small part of the old American West. They want to imagine what it would have been like tolive in a place like Tombstone. It does not really matterif all the old stories are true or not. The people ofTombstone are only too happy to welcome them to aplace known as “the town too tough to die.”

Our program was written by Nancy Steinbach. JimTedder read the newspaper story, and I’m SteveEmber. Join us again next week for This is Americafrom VOA Learning English