The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1882-07-24
How g. Montana Man Talks.
Detroit Free Press.l


''Tell me about those dear, delightful, beau
tiful billiards you have in your country"
said the Brooklyn girl, folding her hands and
looking up at him with bewitchingly plead
ing glance. 81 know they must be just too
sweet for anything!"
ooh, they're sweeteners!" calculated the
Montana man, throwing one leg over the 9TH
er and warming to his subject. "You once get
a blizzard after you, and you'll wish you hadn't
any skirts on to bother you"
"And did you ever see one?" she asked with
profound interest
"Well, should fire grin!" responded he
politely. GIVE been around when our neck O.
the woods was toiling hard to save it's county
representation! Why, miss, seen a blizzard
tip prairie fire right up on end, and it blazed
away streak of fire thirty miles high! just
tipped it right up!"
"Gracious!" squealed the girl. "f should
have thought it would have blown it clear
over!''
s'1hat's when you ketch your he'll Yeu see,
the fire struck agin a railroad locomotive that
was passing some eighteen miles up, and
the engine held it perpendicular" ex-
CldlmGu Guo u1OAbthud l1hl Ou Cdu lOOl @
prairie fire much! When it came down it kept
right on blazing and the melted engine dropped
on the track and run right to the round house
in liquid ctr cam. They had to pack it in ice
SO as to freeze it into shape again Oh, we have
ice in our school district"
81 had no idea that a blizzard was SO power
ful!' murmured the girl,
Powerful Well you just shout sister! Only
two months ago, blizzard lifted the Powder
River straight up in the air and carried it back
seven miles in the woods. GU just deal your
last giblet on the poweri That's rivers up in
the trees yet, and we're building saw mills up
side down so as to get the water privilege! You
read about these tornadoes. They're only
gustsI'
"Myl" exclaimed the girl. ga blizzard must
be something terrible"
"Well, should gobble distinctly" returned
the Montana man, with quiet smile. "Just
before left, an old he blizzard struck my
town, and whooped us up about eighty feet
Town and all! We didn't come down for four
weeks, and wouldn't have come down yet on.
ly Yankee threw lariat over that streak OF
wind and started an elevator! Why, miss,
you don't know no more about it than
an old sock! Why, just south OF us
one of 'em happened to hit patch OF
country some fellows were surveying and blew
the whole line of the road right through the
surveyors transit! You betl And the compA-
ny lost its franchise, because the land granted
to it was just rolled over, and they had to
build the road straight up and down. or give 1t
up!
81 don't see how you manage to live in such
country" said the astonished girl.
"Oh, we peg along!' was the courageous re-
Spouse. "Its the greatest country out doors.
l remember one blizzard, though, that bothered
us some. 1t happened to pop the Crow reser-
vation plump centre, and just blew the whole
business right over on our Observation-Disclosures,
ground, crops, everything"
Son top of you?" calculated the girl.
"The same," replied the Montana man.
skins didn't dare to go off their reservation tor
fear of war, and we didn't dare climb up
through for fear of violating the treaty"
''But how did you get out?" queried the
girl.
ooh, you can't hold us fellows down long.
We're wild, woolly and hard to curry, miss.
Then we've got the best soil in the world We
just planted grain crop under that reserva-
ton, and in fourteen days the wheat had hoist
ed it up hundred feet and there it stood.
When the winter froze it into that position we
gathered the crops and moved out from under
it. Then the thaw came in the spring, and,
miss, you'd have just busted your collar band
to have seen them Crow Indians when their
reservation dropped"
She sat and looked at him in amazement.
"But it isn't all tragedy, miss" continued
the Montana man. Billiards has funny
side, sometimes. / remember when q buck
blizzard slammed into Bud Kipple's funeral.
We mourners just laid right down and hung
on with our teeth but the defunct hadn't our
energy, and he was whirled up pretty near
mile! We never expected he was going that
way, and it must have been something of an
astonisher to Bud! Miss he hasn't come down
yetl'
"And you didn't bury himr' calculated the
Mortified girl.
sob, we planted him! You don't find any
lamenteds hunting around our parts for the
benefits of religion A funeral is too good
chance for fight! We just set to and build
grave right up to him, and he's sleeping his
eternal rest in the doggondsst place you ever
saw, right on the top of that grave! lie heed
eth not the billiards. howl, nor careth he IA
-a"-and the Montana man pulled up sud-
denly in his pious reflection and rolled his
eyes.
"What curious ideal" muttered the girl.
"You bet your sweet lifel'' conceded the
Montana man. "By the way, the blizzard
that struck Small Pox Run was a teaser. The
air was so black nobody could see what was
going on for an hour, and when they got
around again there was the prettiest old edge
you ever stuck your foot in! Pretty Yum,
m-mi [ reckon not. Twenty ounces to the
pound and all wool! The biggest find ever
known in them parish
"What was it?" asked the bewildered girl.
"a mine! A bonanza And them fellows
worked it'll Assayed two hundred dollars to
the ounce and no limit to the game! But they
lost it."
"HoW?"
"Some preachers from Minnesota came over
and claimed that it had been blown from their
State, and the Montana men had to give it up
Minnesota men packed it on wagon and
took it home.'
81 didn't know they could carry mine in
that way. What kind of thing was it?"
at was a churchdebt Them Minnesota fell
lows had been living off it for years, and hadn't
had to sink shaft. The placer was as soft as
your cheek, and they hadn't touched the main
veinl 1t was bonanZa, and Small Pox Run
has never been the same place since"
81 never heard q church debt called mine
BEFORE" sighed the girl.
Then the Montana man rose up and looked
at her with mingled pity and contempt, for
there are degrees of innocence that even a
Montana man can't tolerate.