This is probably Twain’s bitterest attack on people. Do you think Twain believed that people are as bad as Sherbourne says they are? Do you agree with Sherbourne comments on people? Explain.

Sherbourne makes a commentary on mob psychology and the crowd. He knows that their only courage is in numbers against people who cannot fight back. He says they "tar and feather" prostitutes who venture into town.

“The idea of you lynching anybody! It’s amusing. The idea of youthinking you had pluck enough to lynch a man! Because you’re brave enough to tar and feather poor friendless cast-out women that come along here, did that make you think you had grit enough to lay your hands on a man? Why, a man’s safe in the hands of ten thousand of your kind—as long as it’s daytime and you’re not behind him."

The anonymity of a mob gives the people a collective identity because each person has none of their own.

"The pitifulest thing out is a mob; that’s what an army is—a mob; they don’t fight with courage that’s born in them, but with courage that’s borrowed from their mass, and from their officers."