Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1875-07-21

down at him as if he would eat him for
a piece of raw beef.
A tall, fair boy went back to bunk
against the further wall, where the bar
keepers's bull dog lay sleeping in his
blankets. and put his arms about his
neck, and put his face down and re-
NAMED there long time. Perhaps he
wept.
There was a great big hairy head
moved out of the crowd and up to the
bar. The head rolled on the shoulders
from side to side, as if it was not very
firmly fixed there and did not particu-
larly care at this particular time whether
It remained there or not. A big fist fell
/, like a stone on the bar. The glasses
jumped as if frightened half to death;
they ran up against each other, and
clicked and huddled together there, and
fairly screamed and split their sides in
their terror. A big mouth opened be-
hind an awful barricade of beard, again
the big fist fell down, again the glasses
screamed and clicked with terror, and
the head rolled sidewise again, and the
big mouth opened again, and the big
voice said:
" By the bald-headed Elijah p and
that was all.
Then there was another calm, and you
might have heard the little brown wood
mice nibbliug at the old boots and the
leather belts and tin cans slowed away
among the other rubbish up in the loft
of the Howling Wilderness.
Then the fist came down again, and
the big mouth opened, and the big
mouth said, slow and loud and long and
savage, like the growl of a grizzly:
Swaller my grandmother's boots y
Then the man fell back and melted
into the crowd; and whatever romance
there was in bis life, whatever senti-
ment he may have had, whatever poetry
there was pent up in the heart of this
great Titan, it found no other express
sion than this.
The genteel gambler, who sat be-
hind a table, with his green cloth and
silver faro box, forgot to throw his card,
but held his arm poised in the air till
any man could have seen the jack of
clubs, though thousand dollars worth
of gold dust depended on the turn. Yet
all this soon had an end, of course, and
there was confusion of tongues and
noise that settled gradually over against
| the bar. Even there it was after ward re-
marked. though the men really interest
Ell did not know it at the time, that the
cinDamon-headed dealer of drinks put
cayenne pepper in gin cock tail, and
Schledam schnapps IN tom and Jerry.
Timber Tim was there in their midst,
but was {; sad and silent man. Perhaps
k<,<lt I'll 4
perhaps not. Tim was not q talker, but
a thinker. This to him meant the loss
Of his partner, the man he loved--a di-
vorce. 80 ssfaosf 1904 X3h49a 5z5 %
Poor Limberi he onlya backed up
against the wall, screwed his back there,
twisted one leg in behind the other,
stuck his hands in behind him, and so
stood there until he saw man looking
at him.. Then he topped over with his
face to the wall, dug up his great pencil
from his great pocket, and fell to writ
ing on the wall and trying to hide his
face from his fellows.
Rather sudden, AMT it, Judge pr -
'sWell, mot sosudden-not SO sudden,
considerin'g this-this ] glorious
climate Of Californy." aar1 seW no+s.i 4
Tie, wedding-day came. !, The camp
had been invited to man. There was
but one place in the camp that could
hold 1.-THE of its people, and that was
the HowLng Wilderness The planghad
been to have the wedding under the
pines on the hill; but. the wind came
pitching down the mountain, with frost
and snow in its beard, that morning,
and drove them to, the. shelter. What
place was that Howling Wilderness!
It was battle field, prize-ring, dead
house, gambling-hell, courthouse,
chapel thing by turns. There they
stood, side by side and hand IN hand
before the cracking fire, before the lit
tie judge. The house was hot It was
crowded as thick as the men
could stand Tighter than sar-
dimes, in a tin box the men atood
there bareheaded, with hardly room to
breathe. The fat little magistrate was
terribly embarrassed. He had sent all
the way across the mountains by the
last pack train, by the last. EXPRESS by
the last man who had dared the SHOWS;
but no pack train, no express, nothing
had returned with the coveted, the So
much-needed marriage ceremony and
service, which he had resolved to read
to the people, interspersed with such
remarks and moral observations as the
case might require. Alasi the form of
the ceremony had not arrived. He had
nothing of the kind to guide him. He
had never officiated in this way before
He had never studied up in this branch.
Why should he have studied up in this
line, when there was but one woman
in all the camp, in all his little world
| As the form had not arrived, he had
| nothing i'll the world but mis- moral
| observations to use on this imposing
occasion. And he was embarrassed as
man had never been embarrassed be-
rore He stood there trying hard to
begin. He could hear the men breathe.
The pretty little woman was troubled,
too. Her face was all the time held
| down, her eyes dropped, and Gid
not look up-did not look right or left
or anywhere, but seemed to surrender
herself to fate, 10 give herself away.