参考译文：

亚利桑那州墓碑镇：可怕得让人窒息

美国有数千个废墟镇，这些镇曾经是非常繁荣的社会活动中心，但后来人们都搬到了别的地方去了。今天，我们就带你去参观一个这样的镇，这个镇位于美国西部亚利桑那州，它因其野蛮的历史而作为废墟之镇得以保存至今，这个镇就叫墓碑镇(又可称之为杜姆斯通镇)。

这个镇现在是亚利桑那州的墓碑镇，它原先是一个矿工营地。银矿主爱德.斯奇佛林给这个镇取了这个名字。在1877年，斯奇佛林先生在亚利桑那地区寻找银矿，这一地区在当时是非常危险的，阿帕奇印第安人认为这一片土地是他们的，他们随时准备为保护他们的土地而战。

爱德.斯奇佛林利用华切卡军事营地作为他寻找银矿的基地。该军事营地的士兵曾经问他，为什么每天要进出阿帕奇印第安人的地方，他回答到：“为了收集石头。”有一个士兵对他说：“你在阿帕奇印第安人周围游荡，你将只能发现一块石头，那将是你的墓碑!”墓碑是一块立在一个人的坟前作为墓地标志的石头。

在此后不久的一天，爱德.斯奇佛林终于在这一地区找到了有价值的银矿石，因为那个士兵的警告，因此，他决定将此地称之为墓碑。不久，人们听说他在此找到了银矿，于是都来到了这个地区。有些人在此发现了更多的银子，于是也开了一些银矿。这些人在银矿附近建立起的小镇就取名为墓碑镇。

墓碑镇四周因有银矿而出名，因而越来越多的人来到这个地方，有些人是移民、店主和矿主，但还有些人来此是为了赚轻松钱的，他们是赌徒和小偷，这些人经常酗酒，并用他们手中的枪来解决争端。到1881年，墓碑镇的人口达到五千多人，全镇有五家当地的报纸，至少有两座剧场，一个法庭，一个旅店和许多酒店。在这里所发生的一次枪战，使墓碑镇永远存留在美国西部的那些著名故事之中。

这次枪战就是“OK镇畜栏枪战”。

这次著名的OK镇枪战发生在1881年10月26日，参战的双方，一方是该镇的首席执行官和他的代理人，另一方是一些违法的牛仔。一些看到此次枪战的人，把这次枪战的情况告诉了报社的记者，于是出现了更多的故事、小说，后来又出现了电影和电视剧。这些故事，并非都是真的，例如，枪战并没有发生在OK镇，而是发生在此镇一条主要街道外的一片旷野中。下面是一个普遍为人们所接受的版本。

墓碑镇的执法官叫维吉尔.伊尔普，他的兄弟怀亚特.伊尔普和摩根马.伊尔普也住在这个镇中。事实上，怀亚特是城市执法官的代理人，而摩根马则被人称之为特殊警察。伊尔普兄弟长期以来与那些牛仔们发生争执。伊尔普兄弟试图抓捕这些在过去犯过抢劫和谋杀罪的牛仔。这些牛仔包括比利.克莱博恩、艾克.凯尔顿、比利.凯尔顿、汤姆.麦克劳利和弗兰克.麦克劳利。

在这次著名枪战发生的那天，这些人来到了OK镇附近的一个畜栏边上，畜栏是关马和其他动物的地方。这些牛仔们全副武装，他们违背小镇的禁令，携带枪支，他们还喝了酒，并威胁说要杀了伊尔普兄弟。维吉尔.伊尔普认为解除他们的武装是他的职责，他的两个兄弟和一位朋友----神枪手多克.赫利迪(有关这位神枪手的故事，请看----美国西部最危险的神枪手)前来帮助他，这四个人沿着街道向畜栏走去。维吉尔.伊尔普告诉那些牛仔交出武器，比利.克莱博恩跑了，而枪战开始了。

枪战并没有持续多长时间。历史学家们说，在二十三秒钟内，共开枪32次，没有人知道是谁先开的第一枪，但汤姆.麦克劳利、弗兰克.麦克劳利和比利.凯尔顿受伤而死，维吉尔.伊尔普、摩根马.伊尔普和多克.赫利迪也受伤了。只有艾克.凯尔顿和怀亚特.伊尔普没有受伤。拍摄于1993年的电影《墓碑镇》就是最新讲述这个故事的版本。下面请听这部电影所讲述的这次著名枪战。萨姆.伊利特出演维吉尔.伊尔普、库尔特.拉塞尔出演怀亚特.伊尔普，而斯蒂芬.劳出演艾克.克莱顿。

维吉尔：“我们来就是要解除你们的武器，举起手来。”

维吉尔：“你们拿着枪，这并不是我所希望的。”

怀亚特：“ 噢，我的天。”

艾克：“请…请停止!不，不，不要开枪，我没带枪，请不要向我开枪，我没拿枪!”

怀亚特：“艾克，要么加入战斗，要么赶紧离开。”

伊尔普兄弟和多克.赫利迪因被指控谋杀而被捕，并在法庭受审。有一位法官认为他们的行为符合法律。怀亚特.伊尔普在法庭上为自己辩护。下面是当地报纸所报道的有关他所辩护的内容，他说：“我那时相信，我现在还相信，这些人合谋要杀害我的兄弟摩根马和维吉尔以及我的朋友多克.赫利迪，还有我自己。我认为，在我的管辖范围内，向他们射击，在法律上和道义上，我都是合法的，但我没有这么做，或没想这么做，我没有寻求便利。当我作为执法官的代理人去帮助维吉尔解除他们的武装，并逮捕他们时，我在履行我的职责，而且我是按照我的执法官兄弟的命令执行的。我并没有打算打战，除非为了必要的自卫和履行公务。当比利.凯尔顿和弗兰克.麦克劳利拔出他们的手枪时，我知道为了生命必须开枪，于是我也拔出了手枪，为了我自己的生命，还有我的兄弟和多克.赫利迪的生命，我不得不开枪。”

有些人仍然对此有争论，他们说，伊尔普和多克.赫利迪并不是为了自卫而开枪，而是依法对付这些谋杀者。专家们说这次枪战之所以吸引许多人，其中一个原因是没有人知道是谁开的第一枪，以及为什么要开枪。但我们知道伊尔普兄弟与那些牛仔们之间的暴力冲突并非在OK镇的畜栏那结束，两次试图枪杀伊尔普兄弟发生在这次著名的枪战之后，第一次，维吉尔.伊尔普受伤，第二次摩根马.伊尔普被杀害。怀亚特.伊尔普、多克.赫利迪和其他一些人决定追击那些牛仔们，并要将他们杀死，他们认为那些牛仔们应该对这两次枪杀事件负责。

今天，发生在OK镇的枪战吸引了全世界的游客来到墓碑小镇，来自墓碑镇商会的最新消息说，墓碑镇还有人口1800人，但这个镇每年接待十至四十万游客。每天在OK镇，演员们再现当年的枪战。不过其他一些枪战也在墓碑镇中得到回忆，在一个户外的餐馆，这个餐馆名叫“六枪城”，在这个餐馆中，演员们再现了发生在墓碑镇的一些真实的枪战。

例如，有一个节目反映了枪杀比利.克莱博恩的枪战，比利.克莱博恩是牛仔团伙中的一员，他从OK镇跑出后，在墓碑镇的一条主要街道上被神枪手弗兰克.莱斯利枪杀。事实上，在这个现场附近有一块墓碑，这块墓碑上就记述了这件事，墓碑上写道：“贝克斯金.弗兰克.莱斯利于1882年11月14日在此枪杀了比利.克莱博恩。

死于墓碑镇早期的神枪手和其他一些人都被埋葬在当地的墓地----靴山上。之所以取名叫靴山，是因为埋葬在这里的许多人都是死于暴力冲突(他们的脚上还穿着靴子)，或者正如人们所说的“与他们的靴子一起走了”。在1884年后，就不埋葬在这里了，但这块墓地到二十世纪三十年代得以重建。那里除了一些小的金属墓碑外，就只有几块基石了。许多小的金属墓碑上只是简单地写着“不知道”，但其他一些金属墓碑上还有一些简短的话，有一句话重复了许多次：这里埋葬的是莱斯.莱斯特.摩尔，他被一把44口径的手枪连中四枪，没有莱斯了，再也没有了。

来自世界各地的人参观墓碑镇，目的是体验美国以前西部的部分感觉，他们会想象，如果他们生活在像墓碑镇这样的地方，会怎么样。无论所有这些古老的故事是真还是假，这一切都无关紧要。墓碑镇的人们只是非常高兴地欢迎他们来到这个著名的“可怕得让人窒息”小镇。

简评：

今天，我们再一次领略了美国西部以前的风采。像这个让人惊惧的小镇，其名字就让人害怕----墓碑镇。所谓墓碑，就是说，谁生活在此，也就意味着死亡。

然而，就是这样的地方，仍然有大量的人来到此地，有定居的，有开店的，更多的来开矿的。当然还有赌徒和小偷。这些人来到这里，不是为了找死，而是为了发财，尽管在这里发财，可能意味着死亡。但正是因为这样的地方，才更容易发财。他们后来之所以离开，也绝不是因为这个地方是墓碑，是死亡之地，而是因为这里的矿被开采没了，这里已经没有什么价值了。

既然是为了发财，而不是为了生存来到这个地方，于是，为了金钱而不惜一切的争斗，自然也就在所难免。正因为如此，美国西部的各种各样的枪战，也就层出不穷。而这些枪战，在今天，也就演变成了美国精神的一部分。

人都是趋利的，这是人的天性。一个政府，如果想要做某件事，采取什么办法呢？最好的办法就是充分利用人的这种天性，吸引人主动去做，同时，进行必要的法律规范。例如，我们的西部开发，已经进行了多年，有效果吗？有，但说实在，效果仍然没有达到预期。为什么？也许我们的方法还真的有待进一步研究。我们所进行的西部开发，其主体是谁？是政府。这岂不是本末倒置了吗？西部开发的真正主体应该是企业和个人。如何让企业和个人对西部开发有兴趣呢？就要让企业和个人在西部开发中看到丰厚的利润。让利于民，民会为此而不惜一切。

Tombstone, Arizona: 'The Town Too Tough to Die' 

The United States has thousands of ghost towns. These are communities that once were successful but all the population moved to other places. Today on our program, we visit a town in the western state of Arizona that was saved from being a ghost town by a violent history. It is called Tombstone.

The town that is now Tombstone, Arizona was first a mining camp. Silver miner Ed Schieffelin named the town. In eighteen seventy-seven, Mister Schieffelin was searching for silver in the Arizona territory. The area at the time was extremely dangerous. Apache Indians considered it to be their land and were all too ready to fight for it.

Ed Schieffelin used the army’s Camp Huachuca as a base for his search for silver. The soldiers there once asked him why he went out into Apache country every day. He answered: "To collect rocks." One soldier then told him: "You keep fooling around out there amongst them Apaches and the only rock you’ll find will be your tombstone!" A tombstone is the stone that marks a person’s grave in a large burial place. 

One day not long after, Ed Schieffelin finally did discover valuable silver ore in the area. He decided to call his claim "Tombstone" because of the soldier’s warning. Soon, people heard about his silver discovery and arrived in the area. Others found more silver and established other mines. And they used the name Tombstone for the town they built nearby.

The area around Tombstone became well known for its silver mines. And more people came to the town. Some were settlers, storekeepers and miners. But others were looking for easy money. These were gamblers and thieves who drank too much alcohol and settled their disagreements with their guns. By the end of eighteen eighty-one, the town of Tombstone had a population of more than five thousand. It also had five local newspapers, at least two theaters, a courthouse, hotels and many local drinking places. And a gunfight had already taken place that would forever include Tombstone among the famous stories told about the American Wild West. 

That was called "The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral."  

The famous gunfight to O.K. place on October twenty-sixth, eighteen eighty-one between the town's top lawman, or marshal, and his deputies on one side and an outlaw group called the Cowboys on the other.  Stories from people who saw the fight led to newspaper reports, more stories, books and later movies and television shows. Not all these stories are exactly true. For example, the gunfight did not really take place in the O.K. Corral, but near it in a field just off a main street in town. Here is one generally accepted story. 

The town marshal in Tombstone was Virgil Earp. His brothers, Wyatt and Morgan, also lived in the town. In fact, Wyatt was deputy city marshal, and Morgan had been named a special policeman. The Earps had a long-standing dispute with the Cowboys. They had tried to arrest group members in the past for crimes such as robbery and murder. Members of the group included Billy Claiborne, Ike Clanton, Billy Clanton, Tom McLaury and Frank McLaury.

On the day of the famous fight, those men were gathered near the O.K. Corral, an enclosed area used to keep horses and other animals. They were armed, in violation of a town ban against carrying guns. They were also drinking alcohol and threatening to kill the Earp brothers.  Virgil Earp decided that it was his duty to disarm them. His two brothers and a friend, the gunfighter Doc Holliday, went along to help. The four walked down the street toward the corral. Virgil Earp told the cowboys to surrender their weapons. Billy Claiborne ran away. And the fight began.

It did not last long. Historians say thirty-two shots were fired in the space of about twenty-three seconds. No one really knows who fired first. But Tom McLaury, Frank McLaury and Billy Clanton died of gunshot wounds. Virgil Earp, Morgan Earp and Doc Holliday were wounded but survived. Only Ike Clanton and Wyatt Earp were not hurt.  A nineteen ninety-three movie called "Tombstone" is one of the most recent attempts to tell this story. Listen to its recreation of the famous fight. Sam Elliott is Virgil, Kurt Russell is Wyatt and Stephen Lang plays Ike Clanton. 

Virgil: "We’re here to disarm you. Throw up your hands."
Virgil: "Hold it. It’s not what I want."
Wyatt: "Oh ... my ... God."
Ike: "Please ... please! Stop! No! No! Don’t shoot. I got no gun. Please. Don’t shoot me. I got no gun!"
Wyatt: "Ike … get to fightin’ or get away."

The Earps and Doc Holliday were arrested for murder and tried in the courthouse. A judge decided they had acted within the law. Wyatt Earp spoke in his own defense at the trial. Here is part of the local newspaper’s report of what he said: "I believed then, and I believe now ... that these men … had formed a conspiracy to murder my brothers Morgan and Virgil and Doc Holliday and myself. I believe I would have been legally and morally justified in shooting any of them on sight, but I did not do so or attempt to do so; I sought no advantage. When I went as deputy marshal to help disarm and arrest them, I went as part of my duty and under the direction of my brother, the marshal.  I did not intend to fight unless it became necessary in self-defense and in the performance of official duty. When Billy Clanton and Frank McLaury drew their pistols I knew it was a fight for life, and I drew and fired in defense of my own life and the lives of my brothers and Doc Holliday."  

Some people still dispute this. They say the Earps and Doc Holliday did not fire in self-defense, but used the law as an excuse for murder. Experts say one of the reasons the gunfight is so interesting to many people is that no one knows who shot first or why. But we do know that the violence between the Earps and the Cowboys did not end at the O.K. Corral.  Two more attempts to kill the Earp brothers took place after the famous fight. The first injured Virgil; the second killed Morgan. Wyatt, Doc Holliday and others decided to hunt down and kill those members of the Cowboys they felt were responsible. 

Today, the gunfight at the O.K. Corral brings visitors from all over the world to the small town of Tombstone. The latest information from the Tombstone Chamber of Commerce says the town has a population of almost one thousand eight hundred people. But it welcomes between one hundred thousand and four hundred thousand visitors each year. Every day at the O.K. Corral, actors recreate the famous gunfight. But other gunfighters are remembered in Tombstone, too. An outdoor restaurant called "Six Gun City" recreates some of the other real gunfights that took place in Tombstone.

For example, one recreation plays out the gunfight that killed Billy Claiborne, a member of the Cowboys gang who ran from the O.K. Corral. He was killed by gunfighter Frank Leslie on the main street in Tombstone. In fact, a marker near the spot tells what happened. It says: Buckskin Frank Leslie killed Billy Claiborne here on November fourteenth, eighteen-eighty-two.

Gunfighters and others who died in those early Tombstone years are buried in the local graveyard, Boot Hill. It was named Boot Hill because many of those buried there died violently, or, as the saying goes, "with their boots on."  Burials there ended after eighteen eighty-four, but the cemetery was restored in the nineteen thirties. Only a few headstones survive, but small metal signs mark the graves. Many simply say "unknown," but others include short sayings. One that has been repeated many times says: Here Lies Lester Moore, Four Slugs from a Forty-four, No Les, No More. 

People from all over the world visit Tombstone to experience a small part of the old American West. They want to imagine what it would have been like to live in a place like Tombstone. It does not really matter if all the old stories are true or not. The people of Tombstone are only too happy to welcome them to a place known as "the town too tough to die." 

http://www.wwenglish.com/m09/voa/spec/2008/10/wwenglish.com_tia0810120.mp3