North Carolina Newspapers

u . . . By O. UL (Copyright b Alnalee N Texas you may travel a thousand miles in a straight line. If your course Is a crooked one, it is likely that both the distance and your rate of speed may be vastly Increased. Clouds there sail serenely against the wind. The whip-poor-will delivers Its disconsolate cry with the notes exactly reversed from those of his northern broth er. Given a drought and a subsequent lively rain, and lo! from a glazed and stony soil will spring in a single night blossomed lilies, miraculously fair. Tom Green county was once the stand ard of measurement I have forgot ten how many, New Jerseys and Rhode Islands it was that could have been towed away and lost in its chaparral. But the legislative ax has slashed Tom Green Into a handful of counties hard ly larger than European kingdoms. The legislature convenes at Austin, near 'the center of the state; and, while the representative .from the Rio Grande country is gathering his palm-leaf fan and his linen duster to set out for the capital, the Panhandle BOlon winds his tnuffler above his well-buttoned over coat and kicks the snow from his well greased boots ready for the same Jour ney. All this merely to hint that the big ex-republic of the southwest forms a sizable star on the flag, and to pre pare for the corollary that things sometimes happen there uncut to pat tern and unfettered by metes and bounds. The commissioner of insurance, sta tistics and history of the state of Texas was an official of no very great or very small importance. The past tense is used, for he is commissioner bf insurance alone. Statistics and his tory are no longer proper nouns in the In the year 188 the- governdr ap pointed Luke Coonrod Standifer to be head of this department. Standifer was, then fifty-five years of age, and a Texan to the core. His father had been one of the state's earliest settlers and pioneers. Standifer himself had served the commonwealth as Indian fighter, soldier, ranger and legislator. Much learning he did not claim, but he had irank pretty deep of the spring of ex perience. If other grounds were less abundant, Texas) should be well up in the lists of glory ' as the grateful republic. For both as repuDuc ana Biaur, t ly heaped honors and solid rewards upon its sons who rescued it from the wilderness. . Wherefore and therefore, Luke Coonrod Standifer, son of Ezra Standi fer, ex-Terry ranger, simon-pure Demo crat, and lucky dweller in an unrepre sented portion of the politico-geographical map, was appointed commissioner of insurance, statistics and history. Standifer accepted the honor with some doubt as to the nature of the of fice he was to fill and his capacity for filling it but he accepted, and by wire. He Immediately set out from the little country town where he maintained (and was scarcely maintained by) a eomnolent and unfruitful office of sur veying and map-drawing. Before de parting, he had looked up under the I's, S's and H's in the "Encylopaedla Brittanica" what information and prep aration toward his official duties that those weighty volumes afforded. A few weeks of incumbency dimin ished the new commissioner's awe of the great and important office he had been called upon to conduct. An in creasing familiarity with its workings soon restored him to his accustomed placid course of life. In his office was an old,, spectacled clerk a consecra ted, informed, able machine, who held his desk regardless of changes of ad ministrative heads. Old Kauffman in structed his new chief gradually In the" knowledge of the department without eeeming to do so, and'kept the wheels riirAlilnir wlthrmt the fHn nf ft o.nsr. ' Indeed, the department of Insurance, statistics and history carried no great heft of the burden of state. Its main work. was, the regulating of the busi ness done in the state by foreign in surance companies, and the letter of the law was to guide. As for statistics well, you wrote letters to county of ficers, and scissored other people's re ports, and each year you got out a re port of your own about the corn crop and the cotton crop and pecans and pigs and black and white population, and a great many columns of figures headed "bushels" and "acres" and "square miles," etc. and there you were. History? The branch was pure ly a receptive one. Old ladles inter ested in the science bothered you come with long reports of proceedings of. their historical societies. Some twenty or thirty people would write you each year that they had secured Earn Houston's pocket knife or Santa Ana's whisky-flask or Davy Crockett's rifle all absolutely authenticated and demanded legislative appropriation to purchase. Most of the work in the history branch went into pigeon-holes. One sizzling August afternoon the commissioner reclined in his office chair, with his feet upon the long, of ficial table overed with green billiard cloth. The commissioner .was smo king a cigar, and dreamily regarding the quivering landscape framed by the window that looked upon the treeless eapitol grounds. Perhaps he was think ing of the rough and ready life he had led, of the old days of breathless ad vrMure and movement, of the com II PI s M Case HENRY Magazine Co.) rades who now trod other paths or had ceased to tread any, of the changes civilization and peace had brought, and, maybe, complacently, of the snug and comfortable camp pitched for him under the dome of the capltol of the state that had not for gotten his services. . The business of the department was lax. Insurance was easy. Statistics were not in "demand." History was dead. Old Kauffman, the efficient and perpetual clerk, had requested an in frequent half-holiday, incited to the un usual dissipation by the Joy of having successfully twisted the tall of a Con necticut insurance company that was trying to do business contrary to the edicts of the great Lone Star state. The office was very still. A few sub dued noises trickled in through the open door from the other departments a dull, tinkling crash from the treas urer's office adjoining, as a clerk tossed a bag of silver to the floor of the vault the vague, intermittent clatter of a dilatory typewriter a dull tapping from the state geologist's quar ters as if some woodpecker had flown in to bore for his prey in the cool of the massive building and then a faint rustle and the light shuffling of the well-worn shoes along the hall, the sounds ceasing at the door toward which the commissioner's lethargic back was presented. Following this, the sound of a gentle voice speaking words unintelligible tov the commis sioner's somewhat dormant compre hension, but giving evidence of bewil derment and hesitation. The voice was feminine; the com missioner was of the race of cavaliers who make salaam before the trail of a skirt without considering the quality of Its cloth. ' .'- There stood In the door a faded woman, one of the numerous sister hood of the unhappy. She dressed all in black poverty's perpetual mourn ing for lost joys. Her face had the contours of twenty and the lines of forty. She may have Jived that inter vening ' score of years in a twelve month. There was about her yet an aurum of Indignant, unappeased, pro testing youth that shone faintly; through the premature veil 1 of un earned decline. "I beg your pardon, ma'am,", said the commissioner, gaining his feet to the accompaniment of a great creak ing and sliding of his chair. "Are you the governor, sir?" asked the vision of melancholy. The commissioner hesitated at the end of his best bow, with his hand in the bosom of his 'double-breasted "frock." Truth at last conquered. ' "Well, no, ma'am. I am not the gov ernor. I have the honor to be com missioner of insurance, statistics and history. Is there anything ma'am, I can do fer you? Won't you have a chair, ma'am?" The lady subsided into the chair handed her, probably from purely physical reasons. She wielded a cheap fan last token of gentility to be aban doned. Her clothing seemed to indi cate a reduction almost to extreme poverty. She looked at the man who was not the governor, and saw kind liness and simplicity and a rugged, un adorned courtliness emanating from a countenance tanned and toughened by forty years of out of doors. Also, she saw that his eyes were clear and strong and blue. Just so they had been when he used them to skim the hori zon for raiding Kiowas and Sioux. His mouth was as set and firm as it had been on that day when he bearded the old lion Sam Houston himself, and defied him during that season when secession was the theme. Now, , in bearing and dreBS, Luke Coonrod Standifer endeavored to do credit to the important arts and sciences of in surance, statistics and history. He had abandoned the careless dress of bis country home. Now, his broad brimmed black slouch hat, and his long-tailed "frock" made him not the least imposing of the official family, even if his office was reckoned to stand at the tail of the list. "You t wanted to see the governor, ma'am?" asked the commissioner, with the deferential manner he always used toward the fair sex. "I hardly know," said the lady hesi tatingly "I 'suppose so." And then, suddenly . drawn by the sympathetic look of the other, she poured forth the story of her need. It was a story so common that the public has come to look at its mo notony instead of its pity. The old tale of an unhappy married life made so by a brutal, conscienceless husband, a robber, a spendthrift, a moral cow ard, and a bully, who failed to pro vide even the means of the barest ex istence. Yes, he had come down in the scale so low as to strike her. It happened only the day before there was the bruise on one temple she had offended his highness by asking for a little money to live on. And yet she must needs, woman-like, append a plea for her tyrant he was drinking; he had rarely abused her thus when sober, "I thought," murmured this pale sister of sorrow, "that maybe the state might be willing to give me some re lief. I've heard of such fhings bring done for the families of old settlers. I've heard veil that the state used to give land to the men who fought for it against Mexico,, and settled up the country, and helped drive out the In dians. My father iA u't that, and he never received anything. He never would take it. I thought the governor would . be the one to see, and that's why I " came. If father was entitled to anything, they might let It come to me." :'. ; ' - :- "It's possible, ma'am," said Standi fer, "that uch might be the case. But most all the old veterans and settlers got their land certificates issued, and located long ago. Still, we can look that up in the land office, and be sure. Your father's name, now, was " , "Amos Colvin,, sir.". "Good Lord!" exclaimed Standifer, rising and unbuttoning his tight coat, excitedly. "Are you Amos Col vin's daughter? Why, ma'am, Amos Colvin and 'me were thicker than twov hoes thieves for more than ten years!: We fought Kiowas, drove cattle and ran gered side by ' side " nearly all over Texas. I remember seeing you once before, now. You were a kid, about seven, a-riding a little yellow pony up and down. Amos and me stopped at your home for a little grub when we were trailing that band of Mexican cattle thieves down through Karnes and Bee. Great tarantulas! and you're Amos Colvln's little girl! Did you ever hear your father mention Luke Standifer Just kind of casually as if he'd met me once or twice?" A little pale smile flitted across the lady's white face. "It seems to me," she said, "that I don't remember hearing him talk about much else. Every day there was some story he had to tell about what he and you had done. Mighty near the last thing I heard him tell was about the time when the Indians wounded him, and you crawled out to him through the grass, with a canteen of water, while they " "Yes, yes well oh, that wasn't anything," said Standifer, "hemming" loudly and buttoning his 'coat again,' briskly. "And now, ma'am, who was the infernal skunk I be.g your pardon, ma'am who was the gentleman you married?" "Benton Sharp." The commissioner plumped down again into his chair, with a groan. This gentle, sad little woman, in the rusty black gown, the daughter of his oldest friend, the wife, of Benton Sharp! Benton Sharp, one of the most wniiiiiiiiii iiiiuii!iKii,",",,,l"n " 1,1 mvm&wmmMimv il I "ARE YOU AMOS COLVIN'S DAUGHTER?" noted "bad" men in that part of the state a man who had been a cattle thief, an outlaw, a desperado, and was now a gambler, a swaggering bully, who plied his trade in the larger frontier towns, relying upon his record and the quickness of his gun play to maintain his supremacy. Seldom did anyone take the risk of going "up against" Benton Sharp. Even the law officers were content to let him make his own terms of peace. Sharp was a ready and an accurate shot, and as lucky as a brand-new penny at com ing clear from his scrapes.. Standifer wondered how this , pillaging eagle ever came to be mated with Amos Colvln's little dove, and expressed his wonder. Mrs. Sharp sighed. "You see, Mr. Standifer, we didn't know anything about him, and he can be very pleasant and kind when he wants to. We lived down in the little town of Goliad. Benton came riding down that way, and stopped there a while. I reckon I was some better looking then than I am now. He was good to me for a whole year after we were married. He insured his life for me for five thousand dollars. But for the last six months he has done every thing but kill me. I often wish he had done that, too. He got out of money for a while, and abused me shameful ly for not having anything he could spend. Then father died, and left me the little home in Goliad. My husband made me sell that, and turned irte out into the world. I've barely been able to live, for I'm .not strong enough to work. Lately, I heard he was making money in San Antonio, so I went there, and found him, and asked for a little help. This," touching the livid bruise on her temple, "is what he gave tne. So I came on to Austin to see the governor. II ones heard father eay that there was some land, or a pen sion, coming to him from the state that he never would ask for." t Luke Standifer rose to his feet, and pushed his chair back. He looked rather perplexedly around the big of fice, with its handsome furniture. ".It's a long trail to follow," he said, slowly, "trying to get back dues from the government. There's red tape and lawyers and rulings and evidence and courts to keep you waiting. I'm not certain," continued the commissioner, with a profoundly meditative frown, "whether this department that I'm the bo, 3 of has any jurisdiction or not. It's "nly insurance, statistics and hls torj ma'am,, and it don't sound as if it x aid cover the case. But some times a saddle blanket can be made to stretch. You keep your seat, just for a few minutes, ma'am, till I step into the next room and see about It." The state treasurer was seated with in his massive, complicated railings, reading a newspaper. Business for the day was about over. The clerks lolled at their desks, awaiting the closing hour. The commissioner of in surance, statistics and history entered, and leaned in at the window. The treasurer, a little, brisk, old man, with snow-white mustache and beard, Jumped up youthfully and came forward to greet Standifer. They were friends of old. "Uncle Frank," said the commis sioner, using the familiar name by which the historic treasurer was ad dressed by every Texan, "how much money have you got on hand?" The treasurer named the sum of the last balance down to the odd cents something more than a million dollars. The commissioner . whistled lowly, and his eyes grew hopefully bright. "You know, or else you've heard of, Amos Colvin, Uncle Frank?" "Knew him well," said the treasurer, promptly. "A good man. A valuable citizen. One of the first settlers in the southwest," "His daughter," said Standifer, "is sitting in my office. She's penniless. She's married to Benton Sharp, a coy ote and a murderer. He's reduced her to want, and broken her heart. Her father helped build up this state, and it's the state's turn to help his child. A couple of thousand dollars will buy back her home and let her live in peace. The state of Texas can't af ford to refuse it. Give me the money, Uncle Frank, and I'll give it to her right away. We'll fix up the red-tape business afterward." The treasurer looked a little bewil dered. . "Why, Standifer," he said, "you know I can't pay a cent out of the treasury without a warrant from the comptroller. I can't disburse a dol lar without a voucher to show for it." The commissioner betrayed a slight Impatience. "I'll give you a voucher," he de clared. "What's this job they've given me for? Am I just a knot on a mes quite stump? Can't my office stand for it? Charge it up to insurance and the other two sideshows. Don't statis tics show that Amos Colvin came to this 6tate when it was In the hands of Greasers and rattlesnakes and Cc manches, aid fought day and night to make a white man's country of it? Don't they show that Amos Colvln's daughter is brought to ruin by a vil lain who's trying to pull down what you and I and all old Texans shed our blood to build up? Don't history show that the jLone Star state never yet failed to grant relief to the suffering and oppressed children of the men who made her the grandest common wealth In the Union? If statistics and history don't bear out the claim of Amos Colvln's child I'll ask the next legislature to abolish my office. Come, now. Uncle Frank, let her have the money. I'll sign the papers officially If you say so; and then If the gov ernor or the comptroller or the janitor or anybody else makes a kick, by the Lord I'll refer the matter to the peo ple, and aee If they won't indorse tn,e act?" The treasurer looked sympathetic but shocked. The ' commissioner's voice had grown louder as he rounded off the sentences that, however praise worthy, they might be In sentiment, reflected somewhat upon the capacity of the head of a more or less impor tant department1 of state. The clerks were beginning to listen. "Now, Standifer," said the treasurer, soothingly, "you know I'd like to help in this matter, but stop and think a moment, please. Every cent in the treasury is expended only by appro priation made by the legislature, .and drawn out by. checks issued by the cemptroller. I can't control the use of a cent of It. Neither can you. Your department isn't disburslve it lau't even administrative it's purely cler ical. The only way for the lady to obr tain relief Is to petition the legisla ture, and "To the devil with the legislature," said Standifer, turning away. The treasurer called him back. "I'd be glad, Standifer, to contribute a hundred dollars personally toward the immediate expenses of Colvln's daughter." He reached for his pocket book. '"Never mind, Uncle Frank," said the commisioner, in a softer tone. "There no need of that She hasn't asked for anything of that sort yet, 'Besides, her case is in my hands. I see now what a little, rag-tag, bobtail, gotch-eared department I've been put in charge of. It seems to be about as Important as an almanac or a hotel register. r But while I'm running it, It won't turn away any daughters of Amos Colvin without ' stretching its Jurisdiction to Cover, if possible. You want to keep your eye on the depart ment of insurance, statistics and his tory." . , The commissioner returned to his office, looking thoughtful. He opened and closed an inkstand on his desk many times with extreme and , undue attention before he spoke. "Why don't you get a divorce?" he asked, suddenly. "I haven't the money to pay for it," answered the lady. "Just at present," announced the commissioner, in a formal tone, "the powers of my department appear to be considerably string-halted. Statistics Beem to be "overdrawn at the bank, and history Isn't good for a square meal. But you've come' to the right place, ma'am. The department will see you through. Where did you say your husband is, ma'am?" , . "He was in San Antonio yesterday. He Is living there now." Suddenly the commissioner aban doned his official air. He took the faded little woman's hands In his, and spoke in the old voice he used on the trail and around campflres. "Your name's Amanda, isn't itf "Yes, sir." . , "I thought so. I've heard your dad eay It often enough.. Well, Amanda, here's your father's best friend, the head of a big office in the state gov ernment, that's going to help you out of your troubles. And then here's the old bushwhacker and cowpuncher that your father has helped out of scrapes time and time again wants to ask you a question. Amanda, have you got money enough to run you for the next two or three days?" . Mrs. Sharp's white face flushed the least bit. "Plenty, sir for a few days." "All right, then, ma'am. Now you go back where you are stopping here, and you come to the office again the day after tomorrow at four o'clock in the afternoon. Very likely by that time there will be something definite to report to you." The commission er hesitated, and looked a trifle embar rassed. "You said your husband had insured his life for $5,000, Do you know whether the premiums have been kept paid upon It or not?" "He paid for a whole year In ad vance about five months ago," said Mrs. Sharp. "I have the policy and receipts in my trunk." Mrs. Sharp departed, and soon after ward Luke Standifer went down to the little hotel where he boarded and looked up the railroad time table in the daily paper. Half an hour later he removed his coat ,and vest, and strapped a peculiarly constructed pis tol holster across his snoulders, leaving the receptacle close' under his left armpit. Into the holster he shoved a short-barreled 4-caliber re volver. Putting on his clothes again, he strolled down to the station and caught the flve-twenty afternoon train for San Antonio. The San Antonio Express of the fol lowing morning contained this sensa tional piece of news: BENTON SHARP MEETS HIS MATCH The Most Noted Desperado In South west Texas Shot to Death In the Gold Front Restaurant Prominent State Official Successfully Defends Himself Against the Noted Bully Magnificent Exhibition of Quick Gun Play. Last night about eleven o'clock Ben ton Sharp, with two other men, en tered the Gold Front restaurant and seated themselves at a table. Sharp had been drinking, and was loud and boisterous, as he always was when un der the Influence of liquor. Five min utes after the party was seated a tall, well-dressed elderly gentleman entered the restaurant. Few present recog nized the Hon. Luke Standifer, the recently appointed commissioner of in surance, statistics and history. Going over to the same side where Sharp was, Mr. Standifer prepared to take a seat at the next table. In hang ing his hat upon one of the hooks along the wall he let It fall upon Sharp's head. Sharp turned, being In an especially ugly humor, and cursed the other roundly. Mr. Standifer apol ogized calmly for the accident. Mr. Standifer w?.s observed to draw near aad speak a few sentences o the des perado In so low a tone that no 2& else caught the words Sharp spraajr up, wild with rage, in the meantime Mr. Standifer had stepped some yards away, and was standing quietly with his arms folded across the breast of his loosely hanging coat. , With that impetuous and deadly rapidity that made Sharp so dreaded, he reached for the gun he carried in his hip pocket a movement that has preceded the. death of at least a dozen men at his hands. Quick as the mo tion was, the bystanders assert that it was met by the most beautiful exhibi tion of lightning gun-pulling ever wit nessed In the southwest As Sharp's pistol was being raised and the act was really quicker than the eye could follow a glittering 44 appeared as if by some conjuring trick in the right hand of Mr. Standifer, who without a perceptible movement of his arm, shot Benton Sharp through the heart It seems that the new commissioner of insurance, statistics and history has been an old-time Indian fighter and ranger for many years, which accounts for the happy knack he has of hand ling a 44. It is not believed that Mr. Standifer will be put to any Inconvenience be yond a necessary formal hearing to day, as all the witnesses who vwere present unite In declaring that the deed was done In self-defense. When Mrs. Sharp appeared at the office of the commissioner, according to appointment, she found that gen tleman calmly eating a golden russet, apple. He greeted her without em barrassment and without hesitation at approaching the subject that was tho topic of the day, "I had to do it, ma'am," he said, simply, "or get It myself. Mr. Kauff man," he added, turning to' the old clerk, "please up the records of the Security Life Insurance company and see if they are all right." "No need to look," grunted Kauff man, who had everything in his head. "It's all O. K. They pay all lossea within ten days." Mrs. Sharp soon rose to depart. Sha had arranged to remain in town until the policy was paid. The commission er did not detain her. She was a woman, and he did not know just what to say to her at present. Rest and time would bring her what she needed, But, as she was leaving, Luke Stand ifer Indulged himself in an official re mark. , "The department of Insurance, sta tistics and ( history, ma'am, has done the best it could with your case. 'Twaa a case hard to cover according to red tape. Statistics failed, and history missed fire, but, if I may be permitted to say it, we came out particularly strong on insurance." COSTS SOME MONEY TO FLY An Outlay of Many Thousands Neces sary If One Would Become Proficient Aeroplanes are still beyond the reach of the middle class, for it takes both money and leisure to own and op erate one. To be strictly correct. If you are going to use a foreign machine you must attend an aviation school abroad. This course will cost, Includ ing passage to and from Europe and a month on the other side, not less than $1,000, for the course at the school is $500. The cost of a machine is from $5,000 to $7,000, and you are likely to smash up one or two at least before you become proficient. "Experience is the only way to learn in aviation," de clared Count de Lesseps. "The instruc tor may explain, but you must actually do the work, yourself." "You may break a few of these blooomlng buses," said Mr. Radley, the original English aviator, who always speaks of his ma chine as a "bus," "but if you try you will learn, and it's Jolly good sport, you know." The cost of gasoline is another item in the flying game. A Curtiss biplane requires six gallons to keep it in the air an hour. The French models re quire even more. Some machines, es pecially the French, are not so quick in leaving the ground and require con siderable space in landing, which must consist of level ground a long stretch so the value of such a piece of land must be added to the cost of aeroplan Ing. Which type of machine is the safer and better flyer is a matter cf opinion, as each aviator Is loyal to his own car. They all agree, however, that In order to be successful a man must know and trust his aircraft being free from fear and nervousness, and that he must not have a nervous, jerky touch, as a quick jerk to aeroplane machinery l likely to have serious results. Above all, he must attend strictly to busi ness while he is in the air, for eternal vigilance is the price of safety when visiting cloudland Mrs. C. R Myie- ll Leslie's. ' Somewhat Similar. Mr. Motorton and his small sot were in the natural history museum gazing at a skeleton of a chimpanzee, "Gee, pop," exclaimed the boy. "wt humans are certainly built on a nlmh lar chassis, aren't we?" Touchel Rankin If I had your mop of. hair I'd keep It cut short. - Fyle You'd make a mistake tf you did. It would show the shape of your head. Chinese Business Hurt. Collapse of many rubber companic-si in which Chinese capitalists specu lated has interfered with business i China. Plenty of Occupation. No man who minds hi3 own bur-V ni-ps ever com;-laln cf havl.i j v.-z i: lO do.