A story was told how one day Jackson was dispensing justice [as a Tennessee judge] at a crossroads when the proceedings were interrupted by a local rowdy. This man, either drunk or belligerent by nature, brandished a pistol and sheath knife and threatened homicide against Judge Jackson, against the jury, and against everyone else associated with that morning's dispensation of justice. Jackson ordered the sheriff to arrest the rowdy for contempt of court. The sheriff tried but failed. The man was too violent to be apprehended, he said. Jackson then ordered the sheriff to summon a posse. The sheriff did so but had no better luck. The bully intimidated the posse and remained at large.

Jackson by now was thoroughly irked at both the bully's bad manners and the paralysis of local law enforcement. He ordered the sheriff to summon him -- Jackson -- as a member of the posse. The sheriff was skeptical, but Jackson insisted and was duly enlisted to bring the bad man in.

Jackson declared a ten-minute recess in the trial. He doffed his judicial robe, took up his pistol, and strode out the door. The rowdy was ranting amid a crowd of people not far from the courtroom door. Jackson parted the crowd and approached the man, who had worked himself into a full lather. Jackson showed his gun and said, "Surrender, you infernal villian, this very instant, or I'll blow you through."

Everyone gasped, wondering how the bully would respond. To general amazement he meekly handed over his weapons and allowed himself to be led away. When the onlookers recovered their breath, one inquired why the ruffian had surrendered to a single man after holding an entire posse at bay.

"Why, when he came up, I looked him in the eye," the prisoner said, "and I saw shoot. There wasn't shoot in nary other eye in the crowd. So I says to myself, says I: Hoss, it's about time to sing small, and so I did."