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$1.00 a Year, In Advance. . FOR GOD, FOR COUNTRY, AND FOR TRUTH." Single Copy, 5 Cents.
VOL. XV, PLYMOUTH, N. C. FRIDAY. JULY 22. 1904. NO. 18.
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By ROGER
JtO had better own up at once
H -r )i tuat 1 lin t a writer but
0 I O was only raised to punch
cows, and not to tell sto-
fO ries. And, anyway, this
no-account story which I
have to tell is only about a British
lord which I met with once in Ari
zona. It lays no claim to Sunday-best
English, but only stakes Itself out
for being truth.
Away back iu 'SG, me being restive
In old Texas and wishful just to see
the ocean, I pulled out "on the long
trail for California.
In the first hundred miles or so I
was no way adventurous. I reckon
the good traveler shies clear of dan
gers before they come, and the most
excitements happen on the worst man's
journey. Still, sometimes a danger
comes along pressing and insists on
getting right in the way. Before I
left Texas a bad man tried to get my
outfit, pointing his gun from behind
a rock, but lie was hurt when we part
ed and needed a surgeon bad.
Then, in New Mexico, a bear hap
pened into my camp, and, not dis
turbing me, politely walked off with
my provisions. Further on, the water
holes seemed to stray out of my course
-a whole lot, or else they saw me com
ing along thirsty and dried up cau
tious. Near the edge of Arizona one
of my ponies died of rattlesnake, ag
gravated by a bullet through the head.
Still, on the whole, I didn't get scalped
by Indians or wiped out by border
ruffians or diminished by hunger and
thirst to any great extent. The bet
ting was in favor of my winning
through to the Pacific Ocean.
The day after my little mare's death
1 was riding along and driving the
pack horse, when I heard in the silence
the small voice of a rifle far off to
the left. Maybe some hunter was miss
ing a deer in the distance, so I pointed
that way to inquire. After a mile or
so I heard the rifle speaking again,
and three guns answered, spluttering
quick and excited. That sounded
mighty like a disagreement, so I con
cluded I ought to be cautious and roll
my tail at once for foreign parts. I
.went on slow, Hearing a little hill.
Again a rilie shot rang out from just
beyond that hill, and two shots answeredmuzzle-loading
guns. At the
same time the wind blew fresh from
. the hill, with a whiff of powder, and
something ele which made my horses
shy. "Heap bad smell!" they snuf
fled. "Just look at that!" they sig
nalled with their ears. "Ugh!" they
snorted.
"Git up!" said I, and charged the
slope of the hill.
Near the top I tcld them to be good
or I'd treat them worse than a tiger.
Then I went on afoot with my rifle,
crept up to the brow of the hill and
looked over through a clumD of cactus.
At the foot of the hill, two hundred
feet below me, there was standing
water, a muddy pool perhaps half an
acre wide, and just beyond that on
the plain a burned out camp fire be
side a couple of canvas-covered wag
ons. It looked as if the white men
there had just been pulling out of
ramp with their teams all harnessed
for "the trail, for the horses lay, some
dead, some wounded, mixed up in
n struggling heap. As I watched, a
rifle rhot rang out from the wagons,
iiirncd at the hillside, and when I
looked right down I could see nothing
but loose rocks scattered below the
slope. After I watched a moment a
brown rock moved. I caught the shine
on an Indian's hide, the gleam of a
gun barrel. Close by was another
Indian, painted for war, and beyond
him a third lying dead; so I counted
from rock to rock until I made out
thirteen of the worst kind, of Indians
Apaches, all edging away from cover
to cover to the left, while out of the
wagons two rifles talked whenever
they saw anything to hit. One rifle
was slow and cool, the' other scared
and panicky, but neither was getting
much meat.
For a time I reckoned, sizing up the
-whole proposition. "While the Apaches
down below attacked the wagons, their
sentry up here on the hill had forgot
ten to keep a lookout, being too much
interested. He never turned until he
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heard my horses clattering up the
rocks, but then he yelled a warning
to his crowd and bolted. One Indian
had tried to' climb the hill against me
and been killed from the wagons; now
the rest were scared of being shot
from above before they could reach
their ponies. They are making off
to the left, in search of their ponies.
Off a hundred yards to the left was
the sentry, a boy with a bow and ar
rows, running for all he was worth
across the plain. A hundred yards
behind him, down in a hollow, was a
mounted Indian coming up with a
bunch of ponies. If the main body of
the Apaches. got to their ponies they
could surround the hill, charge and
gather in my scalp. I did not want
them to take so much trouble with
me.
Of course, my first move was to up
and bolt along the ridge to the left,
until I gained the shoulder of the hill.
There I took cover and said: "Abide
with me and keep me cool, if you
please," while I sighted, took a steady
bead and let fly at the mounted In
dian. At my third shot he came down
flop on his pony's neck, and that was
my first bird. The bunch of ponies
smelt his blood qnd stampeded pro
miscuously. The Apaches, being left afoot,
couldn't attack me none. If they tried
to stampede they would be shot from
the wagons, while I hovered unpleas
antly above their line of retreat, and
if they stayed I could add up their
scalps like a sum in arithmetic. They
were plumb surprised at me and some
discouraged, for they knew they were
going to have disagreeable times. Their
chief rose up to howl, and a shot
from the wagons lifted him clean off
his feet. It was getting very awk
ward for those poor barbarians, and
one of them hoisted a rag on his gun
by way of surrender.
Surrender? This Indian play was
robbery and murder, and not the hon
est game of war. The man who hap
pens imprudent into his own bear trap
is not going to get much chance by
claiming to be a warrior and putting
up white flags. The game was bear
traps, and those Apaches had got to
play bear traps now, whether they
liked it or not. There were only two
white folks left alive in the wagons,
and one on the hill, so what use had
we for a dozen prisoners who would
lie low until we gave them a chance
and then murder us prompt! The man
who reared up with the peace flag
got a shot from the wagons .which
gave him peace eternal.
Then I closed down with my rifle,
taking the Indians by turns as they
tried to bolt, while the quiet gun in
the wagon camp arrested fugitives,
and the scary marksman splashed lead
at the hill most generous. Out of six
teen Apaches, two and their boy got
away Intact, three damaged and the
rest were gathered to their fathers.
When it was all over I felt unusual
solemn, running my paw slow over
my head to make sure I still had my
scalp, then collected my two ponies
and rode around the camp. There I
ranged up with a yell, lifting my hand
to make the sign of peace, and a man
came limping out from the wagons.
He carried his rifle and had a yearling
son by the paw.
The man was tall, clean built and
of good stQOk for certain; but his
clothes were in the lo-and-behold style
a deer-stalker cap, pan; of glass on
the off eye, stand;iip collar, spotty
necktie, boiled shirt, riding breeches
with puffed sleeves (most amazing),
and the legs of his boots stiff like a
brace of stovepipes. His near leg was
all bloody and tied up with a tour
niquet bandage. As to his boy, Jim,
that was just the quaintest thing in
the way of pups ever saw loose on the
stock range. He was knee high to a
dawg, but trailed his gun like a man
and looked as wide awake as a little
fox. I wondered if I could tame him
for a pet.
"How d'ye do?" squeaked the pup,
as I stepped down from the saddle. I
allowed I was feeling good.
"I'm sure," said the man, "that we're
obliged to you and your friends on
the hill. In fact, very much obliged."
Back in Texas I'd seen water go
1
to sleep with the cold but this man
was cool enough to freeze a boiler.
"Will you er ask your friends," he
drawled, "to come down? I'd like to
thank them."
"I'll pass the glad word," said I;
"my friends is in Texas."
"My deah fellow, you don't aw
mean to say you were alone?"
"Injuns can shoot," said I, "but
they cayn't hit."
"Two of my men are dead, and the
third is dying. I defer to your er
experience; but I thought they could
er hit."
Then I began to reckon I'd been
somewhat hazardous in my gun play.
It made me sweat to think.
"Well," I said, to be civil, "I cal'
late I'd best introduce myself to you
alls. My name's Chalkeye Davies."
"I'm Lord Balshannon," said he,
mighty polite.
"And I'm the Honorable Jim du
Chesny," squeaked the kid.
I took his paw and said I was
proud to know a warrior with such
heap big names. The mkt laughed.
"Well, Mr. Balshannon," says I,
"your horses is remnants, and the near
fore-wheel of the wagon is sprung to
bust, and them Apaches has chipped
your laig, which it's broke out bleed
ing again, so I reckon"
"You have an eye for detail," he
says, laughing, "but if you will ex
cuse me now, I'm rather busy."
He looked right into my eyes, cool
and smiling, asking for no help, ready
to rely on himself if I wanted to go.
A lump came into my throat, for I
sure loved that man from the begin
ning. "Mr. Balshannon," says I, "put this
kid on top of the wagon to watch
for Indians, while you dress that
wound. I'm off."
He turned his back on me and
walked away.
"I'll be back," said I, busy un
loading my pack horse; "I'll be back,"
I called after him, "when I bring
help."
At that he Swung sudden and came
up against me. "Er thanks," he said,
and grabbed my paw. "I'm awfully
obliged, don't you know."
I swung to my saddle and streaked
off for help.
II.
With all the signs and the signal
smokes pointing for war, I reckoned
I could dispense with that ocean and
stray round to see the play. More
over, there was this British lord, lost
in the desert, wounded, helpless as a
baby, game as a grizzly bear, ringed
round with dead horses and dead
Apaches, and his troubles appealed to
me plentiful. I scouted around until
I hit a live trail, then streaked away
to find people. I was a bit doubtful
if I had done right in case that lord
got massacred, me being absent, so
I rode hard and at noon saw the smoke
of a camp against the Tres Hermanos
Mountains. It proved to be a cow
camp, with all the boys at dinner.
They had heard nothing about
Apaches on the war trail, but when I
told what I knew they came glad, on
the dead run, their wagons and their
pony herd following. We found the
Britisher digging graves for three dead
men, and looking apt to need a fourth
for his own use.
"Er good evening," says he; and 1
began to wonder why I'd sweated
myself so hot to rescue an iceberg.
"Gentlemen," said he to the boys,
"you'll find some coffee ready beside
the fire and afterward, if you please,
wo will bury my dead."
The boys leaned over in their sad
dles wondering at him, but the lord'p
cool eye looked from face to face,
and we had to do what he said. He
was surely a. great chief, that Lord
Balshannon.
The men who had fallen a prey to
the Apaches Avere two teamsters and
a Mexican, all known to these Bar Y
riders, and they were sure sorry; but
more than that they enjoyed this short
horn, this tenderfoot from the East,
who could stand off an outfit of hos
tile Indians with his lone rifle. They
saw he was wounded, yet he dug
graves for his dead, made coffee for
the living and thought of everything
except himself. After coffee we lined
up by the graves to watch the bluff
he made at funeral honors. Lord Bal
shannon was a Colonel in the' British
Army, and he stood like an officer on
parade, reading from a book. His
black hair was touched silver, his face,
yellow and gaunt with pain, was
strong, hard and manful, and his voice
quivered while lie read from the lit
tle book:
For I am a stranger with Thee,
And a sojourner, as all my fathers were;
O spare me a little, that I may recover my
strength
Before I go hence, and am no more seen.
I reckon that there "were some of
us sniffing as though we had just
caught a cold, while we listened to
that man's voice and saw the loneli
ness of him. Afterward Dick Bryant,
the Ear 1' foreman, walked straight
up to Lord Balshannon.
"Britisher," said he, "you may be a
sojourner, and we hopes you are a
whole lor, but there is no need to be
a stranger. Shake!"
So they shook hands, and that was
the beginning of a big friendship.
Then Lord Balshannon turned to the
crowd and looked slowly from face
to face of us.
"Gentlemen," he said, kind of fee
ble, and we saw his face go gray
while he spoke, "I'm much obliged to
you all for er coming. It seems, in
deed ah ! that my er little sou Jim
and I have found friends and er
neighbors. I'm sorry that you should
find my camp in such aw in such
a beastly mess; but there's some fairly
decent whisky in this nearest wagon,
and er" The man was reeling and
his eyes seemed blind. "When we get
to my new ranch at Holy Cross, I I
hope you'll friends-aw and"-
And he dropped in a dead faint.
The Bar Y foreman knelt down to
loosen the stranger's collar, while one
of the boys brought water from the
camp, and the rest of us stood watch
ing. "These Britishers," says he, "runs
to two breeds, the lords, Avhich they
say 'er haw!' and the flunkeys, which
cast their aitches and says 'orse' for
'hawss.' That's how you know their
brand, -and this Mister Balshannon
4iere is a sure lord. I reckon, boys,"
he looked all round at us, "that we
alls has met with a man which we're
sure to be proud to have for a friend
and neighbor."
"Er haw!" said one. of the boys.
"Hay-men!" squeaked another.
That's how it all began, and I put in
twelve long years at Holy Cross, rid
ing for Lord- Balshannon. Black and
White.
Climate in Philippines.
When the treaty with Spain by which
we acquired the Philippines was under
debate in 1S98, ex-United States Sen
ator Edmunds in public speech af
firmed that the climate of those islands
was so fatal to a white man that
no American could expect to live there
and briug up a family. At that time
the Oregonian quoted' the fact that
Englishmen had lived many years in
a worse climate that of tropical India;
that Macaulay was able to do hard
legal work in Calcutta when the mer
cury stood at OG degrees above zero;
that Thackeray was born in India,
where his parents had lived for many
years, and that Lord Iloberts had cam
paigned over forty years in India.
Secretary of War Taft is over six feet
and weighs 320 pounds not a very
good subject to endure a tropical cli
mateand yet he returned from the
Thilippines in perfect health, and he
suggests that the newspapers "can
help the American Government by de
nying the lies circulated about the
terrible climate there." Of course, 110
man of common sense fails to adjust
himself and his habits to his environ
ment. No man wears the same cloth
ing in winter or summer in western
Oregon that he would wear in western
Massachusetts. There are vast areas
of country in the United States where
no white man can live long because
of malaria. Neither the bottom lands
of the Mississippi nor the swamps of
South Carolina, where negroes can live,
are healthful for a white man. There
are? doubtless, such lands in Cuba, in
Torto Kico, in Africa, in India and in
the Philippines ; but it is not neces
sary that white men should pick out
a patch of malarial country for a
homestead. Portland Oregonian.
A Pardonable Mistake.
An Irish laborer boarded a street
car and handed the conductor a rather
dilapidted-looking coin in payment of
his fare. The conductor looked at it
critically and handed it back.
"That's tin," he said.
"Sure I thought it was foive," an
swered the Irishman complacently, as
he put the piece back in his pocket
and produced another nickel.
In St. Petersburg the death rate Is
fifty-one per thousaud, the highest of
any European capital; It is to bo hoped
that the little brush with Japan will
not materially increase that rate dur
ing the next few months.
THE LOVER'S HANDY POEM.
Xo castle in the air build ,
No pompous phantom pile,
With turrets soaring to the sky,
In shifting, shadowy style;
No blazoned embattlements I raise
Ephemeral estate
With misty moat and halls o' haze,
And ghostly guarded gate.
A much more modest mirage mine.
An humble dream devoid
Of highflown hopes or fancies fine,
Drawn but to be destroyed;
A simple cottage truth afiirms
Mv edifice in air
Modernly improved on easy terms
Helen
Ellen
Polly
Mollv
With Dollv I reigning there!
Mazie
Daisy
Etc..
ad lib.
Will S. Adkins, in Puck.
"Did you motor yesterday?" "No;
we gasolene-launched." Cincinnati
Commercial Tribune.
Lives of great men all remind us
They ha'e been with genius blest.
And have left such whopping footprints
They discourage all the rest.
New York Sun.
"That's a remarkable child of Good
ley's." "Think so? He struck me as
being a very ordinary and quiet sort
of kid." "Exactly. He is quiet and
he always obeys his parents." Phila
delphia Press.
How often one will read a sketch
That strikes him very pat, &
And say within his inmost heart, :
"1 could have written that!" if
-Life. H
Patron "I'll have a piece of pump
kin pie." Waiter "Punkin pie? Yes,
sir." Patron "Pump-kin pie." Wait
er "Oh, yes, sir. Think the Boston
Club will have any chance o' winnia'
the pennant this year?" Philadelphia
Ledger.
"The taste for classical music is"
something that comes with time and
cultivation." "That's rigbt,' answered
Mr. Cumrox. "I've noticed that some
of these grand operas don't sound
near as bad as they did at first."
Washington Star. ,
"Well, sir," said the ruthor, enthu
siastically, "my book is selling like hot
cakes!" "Hot cakes, eh?" remarked
the critic. "I can understand that. I
heard a. fellow say to-day that your
book gave him mental dysp'psia."
Philadelphia Tress. v
"now nonsenical it was for them to
say there was nothing original about
your book," said Miss Cayenne. "You
perceived its merit, then?" said the
young man with sad eyes and inky,
fingers. "Yes, indeed. The cover de
sign was one of the most original I .
ever saw." Washington Star.
A charitable young lady, visiting a
sick woman, inquired, with a view to
further relief, as to her family. She
asked: "Is your husband kind to you?"
"Oh, yes, miss," was the instant re
sponse: "he's kind very kind. In
deed, you might say he's more like a
friend than a husband." Brooklyn
Life.
"And you say you saw the maa
knocked senseless by footpads and de
liberately left in that condition in a
lonely place?" "Sure; that's just what
I did. I knew he'd come round all
right." "What reason had you to be
so certain that he'd come round?"
"Reason! Why the man was a bill
collector!" New Orleans Times-Democrat.
"Yes," said the American traveler.
"I'm delighted with your city. I wish
we had your climate." "But the fog.
yW know," said the Londoner, in sur
prise; . "here's its noon by the clock
at this minute and yet it's dark as
night." "Yes, splendid, splendid! I'm
president of an electric lighting com
pany at home, you know." Philadel
uhia Press. -.
"Windfall For the State.
Tho State of Minnesota is enriched
to the extent of $10,000 by the recent
death of Mrs. Pnreheart Wakeley, of
.Sharon, aged 111 years, who left no
heirs. She had lived alone for many
years. t
A new horse disease has come to
England from India by way of South
Africa. It is called epizootic lymphan
gitis, and is very contagious.