Edgar Lee Masters’ “Jack McGuire” from Spoon River Anthology is a companion piece to “The Town Marshal.” In “Jack McGuire,” the reader learns more about Logan, the town marshal, in addition to Logan’s “The Town Marshal” soliloquy.
First Movement: “They would have lynched me”
Jack begins by reporting the startling news that he would have been hanged by a lynch mob, if he had not been “secretly hurried away / To the jail in Peoria.” He implies that his deed in Spoon River had worked up a number of folks who were ready to administer justice even without a proper trial.
Second Movement: “And yet I was going peacefully home”
Jack explains that he was minding his own business, “going peacefully home,” when he was accosted by “Logan, the marshal.” Jack admits that he was “a little drunk” and that he was “carrying [his] jug” on his way home.
But Logan, who was employed by the prohibitionists to enforce the ban on booze in Spoon River, stopped Jack and bullied him, calling him “a drunken hound.” Logan also invaded Jack’s personal space and “shook him.”
Third Movement: “And, when I cursed him for it, struck me”
Jack reacted to Logan’s harassment by swearing at the marshal. Logan then struck Jack with his “Prohibition loaded cane.” Jack responded by drawing out his gun and shooting the marshal dead.
Fourth Movement: “They would have hanged me except for this”
Jack explains how he avoided the gallows, and his explanation differs from Logan’s. Jack’s lawyer, Kinsey Keene, was also the counsel against “Old Thomas Rhodes” who was charged with “wrecking the bank.”
The judge in Jack’s case was a friend of Rhodes’ and wanted Rhodes to be acquitted. So Jack’s lawyer Keene “offered to quit on Rhodes / For fourteen years for me.”
The reader will recall that Logan explicated the fourteen-year sentence differently; Logan claimed that he appeared to a juryman in a dream and revealed his complicity in his own death, and that resulted in the short sentence for Jack.
Fifth Movement: “And the bargain was made. I served my time”
Jack says he served his term and “learned to read and write.” Jack, of course, knows nothing about Logan’s claim to have appeared in a dream to the juryman. And Logan could not have known about the deal struck between the judge and Keene.
This disconnect opens up a fascinating arena for the evaluation of the worth of each man’s story. While the reader accepts Jack’s version as probably the correct one, the reader cannot with certainty discount Logan’s version.
A bitter irony prevails, however, that Jack, who actually took the life a fellow human being—as opposed to merely being a bully, as Logan was—appears to be the one who came out the winner; not only was his sentence light, but he also learned to read and write to boot.
Sources
- Edgar Lee Masters, "Jack McGuire," Spoon River Anthology, bartleby.com
- Edgar Lee Masters, "The Town Marshall," Spoon River Anthology, bartleby.com
Linda Sue Grimes - As a writer, researcher, and SRF devotee, Linda Sue Grimes has studied poetry and practiced Kriya Yoga for over thirty years..
