The Virginian (1929)

Mary Brian: Molly Stark Wood

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Quotes 

• Molly Stark Wood : [Molly has just discovered Steve was hanged for rustling]  Don't you realize that was down right murder?

  Mrs. 'Ma' Taylor : Now there ain't no use talkin' about it, dearie. Crimes is ranked different in different countries. And out here, stealin's about the meanest, the lowest thing a man can do.

  Molly Stark Wood : But that doesn't justify killing! And Steve, his friend!

  Mrs. 'Ma' Taylor : It ain't a question of friends, or enemies... it's question of right and wrong!

  [arms akimbo] 

  Mrs. 'Ma' Taylor : Why, if we didn't hold a rope and a six-shooter over them outlaws, you couldn't teach your school at all! Why our lives wouldn't be worth *nothin'*.

  [snaps fingers] 

  Molly Stark Wood : [appalled]  Do you think I'll teach my children to believe in that? Do you think I'll raise a new generation to approve of murder?

  Mrs. 'Ma' Taylor : Where you come from they have policemen and courts and jails to enforce the law. Here, we got nothin'! So when we have to, we do things our own way. Do you think it was easy for him to have to hang a friend? It was a durn-sight harder for him to do it than for us to bear it! And there he is, just because'a lawlessness, somebody took a shot at him! And you can't tell me it was Indians!

  Molly Stark Wood : I suppose this country has destroyed every human feeling in you, and in him! I suppose in time I'd feel that way too, but I won't!

  Mrs. 'Ma' Taylor : Then why don't you go back where you come from?

  Molly Stark Wood : [indignant]  I will! As soon as he's well, I won't stay in this place any longer!

  Mrs. 'Ma' Taylor : [with contempt]  Alright, go on back home! You don't belong here, we don't want your kind! Go on back east, where livin's soft, and easy! Sit on your silk cushions, and get hired girls to wait on ya! And drink your pink tea! Why, when I married Taylor I drove a ox team a thousand miles from Council Bluff to this very spot! I fought Indians with m'father's rifle, and him layin' dead across my knee! I killed a Sioux squaw with her own ax! And you, a'talkin'. This is a new country we're buildin' up here, and there ain't no room in it for weaklings, men or women! Go on back east, and I for one'll say good riddance!

• Molly Stark Wood : I have several little boys just your age.

  The Virginian : Do book learnin' do a cowhand any good?