Gunsmoke brought to you by Chesterfield. Chesterfield packs more pleasure because it's more perfectly
packed thanks to Accuray. They satisfy the most.
In Dodge City and in the territory on west, there's just one way to handle the killers
and the spoilers and that's with a U.S. Marshal and the smell of Gunsmoke.
Gunsmoke starring William Conrad, the transcribed story of the violence that moved west with
young America and the story of a man who moved with it.
I'm that man, Matt Dillon, United States Marshal. The first man they look for and the last they
want to meet. It's a chancy job and it makes a man watchful and a little lonely.
Ah, good morning Doc, Chester. Good morning Mr. Dillon. Come have some coffee with us,
Matt. You've got nothing to do in your office. No, but in there people can't see me doing
it. Well, it's no use to hide. They're on to you anyway. You know, I don't think the
Christmas season has made you any more charitable at all, has it Doc? I'm not a man to be good
on Sunday and sin all week, if that's what you mean. Well, you're honest if nothing else.
Oh, I don't know. Hey, look at that fella. What fella, Chester? Yonder, across the street
there in the coonskin hat. Oh, now that's the tallest man I ever saw. And that rifle
he's carrying is as long as he is. He sure looks out of place in Dodge, don't he? He
is out of place, Chester. That's a squirrel hunting southern mountain man. He's coming
over here. Look at him walk. Yeah, if everybody had legs like that, the Santa Fe Railroad would
go out of business. Oh my, he's from the hills all right. Well, at least he ain't another
gunman, Mr. Dillon. He has something to be thankful for. Howdy. Hello. Which of you be
the, what do you call them? You mean the marshal? That's the word. I never heard it till a fella
told me this morning. Well, I just mean the peace officer. I'm again peace officers. It
ain't fitting for some folk to be meddling in other folks' business. Where do they figure
it like that, stranger? Ozark Mountains? Better country than this. My name's Eben Hakes. My
name is Dillon. This is Chester Proudfoot and Doc Adams. Peace officer, the man said
you'd help me find where that Joth Monger is living. Joth Monger? Yeah. He come out
here about a year ago. He's got an old mountain gal with him. They're married. Oh yeah, they
got a place up near Rock Springs, about oh, ten miles north of here. I'll find it. You've
come a long way to see a friend, Hakes. Joth Monger ain't exactly a friend, peace officer.
But I gotta get going. It being Saturday and all. Well, what's Saturday got to do with
nothing? Except I won't kill no man of the Sunday. I never have. I never will.
People everywhere are finding that Chesterfield packs more pleasure. Yes, Chesterfield packs
more pleasure because it's more perfectly packed. For the more perfectly packed your
cigarette, the more taste and mildness are released for you. And Chesterfield made with
Accu-Ray is more perfectly packed than any cigarette ever could be before. Firm and pleasing
to the lips, mild, yet deeply satisfying to the taste. And Accu-Ray Chesterfield has an
open easy draw that unlocks all the pleasure of fine tobacco. So remember, Chesterfield
packs more pleasure by Chesterfield, mild, yet they satisfy the most.
Joth Monger's face don't look no better than it ever did, does it? No, not much, Chesterfield.
Oh, look at that for me, Miss Monger. Outdoing chores as usual. I wonder where Joth is. Asleep
somewhere is probably. Morning, Miss Monger. Howdy. How are you, ma'am? Poorly. Has Joth
here, ma'am? Today, one Saturday he'd be here. What? Joth goes to Dodge every Saturday. He
does? I never see him. No, if you socialize more you'd see him. Joth's got his ways, Marshal,
that lonesome, but there he isn't. I see. Miss Monger, do you know a man called Eben
Hakes? Hakes. If you speak that name around here, you won't be welcome, Marshal. There's
trouble between you? If you call Joth being the only Monger left and even being the only
Hakes left, then you could say there's trouble. You mean it's a feud? Both families been whittled
down to just them two. I see. Is that why Joth came out to Kansas to get away from it?
Not if he's always talking about going back long enough to kill Eben Hakes. Yeah. Well,
what do you think, ma'am? Don't you think it's gone far enough? Either one of them could
call it off if he wants some muley. How did this feud start, ma'am? If you had any upbringing
you wouldn't ask. It's a family matter. Where'd you see Eben Hakes anyway? Well, he was in
Dodge asking about Joth. If he was asking, then he'll find him, and that's bad. Joth
don't even know he's around. Well, that's why I came out here. Joth knew about him.
I wouldn't worry. Joth's a better shot than Eben Hakes any day. Look, Miss Monger, the
law doesn't hold with feuding. Whichever one kills the other, he'll hang for it. You start
meddling, they'll shoot you. But I'm worried about Joth. He'll be drunk soon as it's dark.
I'll find him, ma'am. Goodbye. Goodbye. Is all hill people like that, Mr. Dunham? They're
mighty independent, Justin. Well, the law sure don't seem to mean much to them. Not
when it comes to feuding. Now, look over there. That little bluff there. Well, for... Now,
how did he get here? I don't see no horse. Well, let's go ask him. Hello, Hakes. That
Joth Monger's plays yonder, Peace Officer? Yeah. Good. I'll get a little closer and shoot
him when he comes out. You don't care whether you hang or not, do you? Hang? For shooting
the Monger? For shooting anybody. Do you ever hear of murder? Peace Officer, you're getting
downright contrary. Where's your horse, Hakes? I got no horse. Well, you left him in Dodge.
I don't need no horse to travel by. You mean you walked all the way from the Ozarks? It's
mostly downhill, Peace Officer. But I'd walk anywhere to get me Monger. Well, maybe I ought
to throw you in jail. Now you are being meddlesome. I gotta get closer to that house. And don't
you fretting on the buck, you old lady. I don't aim to shoot her. Mr. Dillon, you gonna let
Hakes wait here and shoot Joth? No, let him go, Chester. Let's get back to Dodge. We'll
find Joth and warn him. Why don't you just let them shoot each other and have done with
it? Don't tempt me, Chester. Now, Chester, you go ask Sam if he's seen
Joth, huh? Okay. Evening, Kitty. Hello, Matt. Where you been? It's pretty near midnight.
I've been trying to stop a feud. Well, it's a long time since I've heard of a feud around
Dodge. Now, this one kind of got transplanted from the Ozarks. The Ozarks? Yeah. To wonder
that crazy Joth Monger isn't mixed up in it. Now, that's Joth I'm looking for. You are?
I've been to never saloon in Dodge. You must have a cave somewhere. I'll bet you a dollar
is right out back, Matt. Out back? Sure. He's there every Saturday night. Comes in and buys
a bottle of corn from Sam and takes it out back and drinks it. Sits there all alone with
his long rifle in one hand and his bottle in the other. Nobody knows what he's thinking.
Yeah, no wonder I haven't seen him around. Mr. Dillon, Sam's here. Oh, oh, Miss Kitty.
Hello, Chester. Yeah, Kitty just told me, Chester. Go out back and see if he's there. If he is,
I'll bring him in, huh? All right. Well, who's Joth feuding with, Matt? A man called Eben
Hakes, Kitty. Is he from the Ozarks, too? Yeah, he arrived today on foot. On foot? Yeah, he's
all legs. Real traveling man. Hey, I'd like to see him. He's got a face like a hatchet
and he's built like a piece of wire. Oh, I'll bet he carries a long rifle, too. He does.
There he is, Mr. Dillon. I made him leave his rifle with Sam. Hello, Joth. You just up
and say what you want, Marshal, because I don't care to be cooped up inside here very
long. Eben Hakes is looking for you, Joth. Of course he is. Mongers and the Hakes been
looking for each other nine to forty years. They most all got found, too. You've been
drinking, Joth? Well, the Mrs. won't allow no drinking on the place, Marshal, so I got
to come to town every Saturday. Joth, Monger. It's Hakes, Mr. Dillon. Get out of the way,
Kitty. I got you caught like a bar up a tree, Joth. Put your rifle down, Hakes. Who's going
to kill me? I ain't even got no gun. Put it down, I said. You're standing in the way,
Peace Officer. And I'm going to stay here. And I'll have to shoot you first. You're not
going to shoot anybody. Of course I am. That's what I come for, ain't it? Don't try it.
Now, here, wait a minute, everybody. I just thought of something. I wished all you folks
had stopped meddling in this. It's after midnight, Hakes. What? It's Sunday. Sunday? Yeah, he's
right, Hakes. Well, of all the gall bling luck. Oh, quit looking so troubled, Joth.
I won't shoot no man of a Sunday, even a Monger. But you come awful close to it, Eden. Ain't
it a doggone shame it took me so long to find you today? You traveled a long way, Eden.
I know. But I got tired waiting for you to come on back home, Joth. I was coming. I was
coming this summer. I know. But your old lady told me about it today. I seen her scratching
around doing chores. That ain't much of a place you got there, Joth. Be quiet, Chester.
Oh, a fella can make a crop here sometimes, Eden. But it's a hard fight with a short stick.
I didn't see no hogs out there. Where's your hogs, Joth? I'm getting some come spring.
Eden, how's things back home? Well, there's been a lot of changes since you left. Eden,
I got a little jug out back. It's most empty now, but we could maybe buy another one, set
out there for a spell, kind of get soured on the cob. What's, Eden? Might as well. We
can't do no shooting till Monday. Where at do we buy this jug? I'll show you. A fella
over here said you'll have to lend me some money. I didn't bring none with me. Well,
if they don't be all, Mr. Dillon. Yeah. Looks to me like they're going to call that feud
off. No, not them, Chester. Midnight tomorrow, they'll be stalking each other all over again.
Well, how are you going to stop them? Well, I'll let them enjoy themselves tonight. But
tomorrow I'm going to throw them both in jail. And they're going to stay there till they learn
something more than feud.
People everywhere are finding that Chesterfield packs more pleasure. Yes, Chesterfield packs
more pleasure because it's more perfectly packed. For the more perfectly packed your
cigarette, the more taste and mildness are released for you. And Chesterfield, made with
Accu-Ray, is more perfectly packed than any cigarette ever could be before. Firm and pleasing
to the lips, mild, yet deeply satisfying to the taste. And Accu-Ray Chesterfield has an
open easy draw that unlocks all the pleasure of fine tobacco. So remember, Chesterfield
packs more pleasure by Chesterfield, mild, yet they satisfy the most.
I wasn't sure that jail would teach Joppan even a thing, but I still couldn't let him
run loose and chewed each other down. So the next morning Chester and I went looking for
him. We found where they'd built a small fire out back of the long branch. And we found
a number of empty bottles, but that was all. We searched the town till noon with no luck.
And I decided to ride out to the Monger place and see if by any chance Jop had returned.
There was nobody in sight when we got there, so we dismounted and walked up to the door.
Hey Smoke, come nigh the chimney Mr. Jones. Yeah, that doesn't mean Joth's here Chesterfield.
Well, no she isn't. Afternoon. Don't go away Marshall. Now wait a minute Miss Mulder. If
you don't want to get shocked, you'll do what I say. Friendly ain't she? Yeah. But she didn't
have no gun. It must be Joth in there. Yeah, probably. Well if it is, why would he want
to shoot you? Well, there's one reason I can think of. You mean he's gone and killed even
Hakes. I don't know Chester, but I'm sure going to find out. They ain't going to open
the door. There's a window around the side. You need a very clean window. That'll do.
Here, let me take a look. What is it Mr. Jones? Here, have a look yourself. Well, they're
eating dinner. All three of them. Yeah, come on. I want to talk to the men Miss Mulder and
I'm coming in. Joth! Alright, stay away from those rifles. Why he busted in. He busted
in right past the woman. I never heard of a man coming into another man's house that
way. If he had any upbringing, he wouldn't have. Is this the kind of people they got
in Kansas, Joth? It's the first I've seen. Never mind about that Joth. Now why did your
wife threaten to shoot me? What's going on here? If you hadn't come to put them in jail,
you wouldn't get shot, Marshal. How did you know I was going to put them in jail? Even
if you told him you was? Oh that's right, I didn't. If he killed anybody. I ain't killed
nobody. The feud's off. We stopped it. You stopped it? Sure. Last night? We got to talking
a little about old times and everything. You know what we found out? No. What? You tell
him. Well, Peace Officer, this here feud started a long time ago. What happened was my grandfather
stole Joth's grandfather's girl and married up with her. So Joth's grandfather declared
a feud right then and there. But you ain't told him what we found out yet, Eden. Oh,
well we hadn't thought of it before, Peace Officer, but last night we was thinking that
if my grandfather hadn't done that, then Joth here would have been me. What? Don't you see?
Otherwise my grandmother would have married up with Joth's grandfather and I'd have been
Joth. So anyway you look at it, we're kind of related like. Anyway you looked at it last
night, you mean I saw them bother. No, it doesn't matter Chester, as long as the feud
is off. It ain't only off. Eden's going to stay on here with us. We're going to work
this place together. I'm going to give him a sharing come Christmas. Come Christmas?
Think far off. January 6th. Now here, wait a minute. Since when did Christmas get to
be January 6th? If you knew anything, you'd know that. I swear I'm getting to know less
and less, ma'am. No, you folks don't understand. Back in Yozarks, we do our Christmas celebrating
twelve days from when you do. Wait a minute, you're talking about twelfth night? We call
it Christmas too. And if you only knew, Marshal, it works just fine for us. Well there's no
reason why it shouldn't, ma'am. It's an old custom. Thank you. Maybe you and Chester'd
come out and celebrate with us. If they don't mind kraut and sour pickles and cornbread
and coffee, they'll come. Now ain't there going to be no chitlins, woman? I was keeping
them for a surprise. Chitlins are no chitlins. I'll be proud to come, Miss Mugger. And me
too. Well, we'll leave you to your dinner now. We'll see you twelfth night.
And now our star, William Conrad. Friends, at this time I'd like to join with Liggett
and Myers, the makers of Chesterfield and L&M filters. They're over six thousand wholesale
distributors and the one million three hundred thousand retail cigarette dealers. And wish
all of you a very Merry Christmas. On the frontier, violent death might come to a man
in a number of ways, and life around him served as a daily reminder. Gunfighting in the street,
stampeding cattle, marauding Indians, hunger, thirst. Now, there were a lot of ways to die,
and most of them hard. But the Westerner wasn't bothered by that. The important thing was,
when his time came, that he'd die standing up and in fine style. And that was the West.
Good night.
Our story was specially written for Gunsmoke by John Meston, with music composed and conducted
by Rex Corey. Sound patterns by Tom Hanley and Bill James. Featured in the cast were
John Danaer, Helen Klebe, and Vic Perrin. Harley Bear is Chester, Howard McNeer is Doc,
and Georgia Ellis is Kitty. Most accidents aren't really accidental at all. Only you
can cause an accident. That's right. It's up to you to read and heed the safety signs.
To keep your eyes on the road. To watch out for those curves ahead, and the cars driving
along near you. Most drivers know how to operate a car. They know the traffic rules. They know
that speeding, taking chances, failing to keep to the right of the line are dangerous
hazards. Accidents happen because drivers do these things despite what they know. So
while you are driving, remember that you and only you are responsible for your life and
the lives of those driving with you. Drive carefully.
Make today your big red letter day, your L&M red letter day. Superior taste and filter,
it's the miracle tip. Make today your big red letter day, change to L&M today. L&M's
got everything. Superior taste. And superior filter. Get L&M today. This is it. L&M, superior
taste and filter. L&M, America's best filter tip cigarette.
Join us again next week for another specially transcribed story as Matt Dillon, U.S. Marshal,
fights to bring law and order out of the wild violence of the West in Gunsmoke.