Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1883-08-22

big jumps now and then, when |
: thought the scenery was too tame tO
, be painting, or never would have got
To the end of the road.
II branched off at Benson, in Ari-
IONA, and took run up the San Pedro
river as far as Tombstone. meaning to
lay the paint on that town pretty
thick, because its name makes it sort
of conspicuous, you KNOW. and
thought the boss would like it.
But the first pot of paint was the
last. | started in about 10 O'clock one
morning to decorate little shanty that
was not fit to keep a billy goat in. 1t
was made of about three dozen rough
planks nailed to four posts, with a lot
of three branches rs roof.
Il swung black paint all over one
side pretty lively us a ground work for
the white lettering; but l no sooner
started in with the white, when big
fellow slouched across to where l was
and says he:
That's mighty pretty. Paint the
other side now.'
wait till get done this side, will
you, my friend? says L, making the
outline of big l., in white paint,
Just scratch that out, If you please.
My name don't begin with an L.
''Iie said that mighty soft; but when
| looked at him | had to look into the
muZZle of big seven-shOoter navy.
I've had plenty of trouble with men
who didn't want their barns and fences
painted up with signs; but that fellow
made more fuss over his little shanty
than l ever saw before or since. He
said he was paying $40 a month rent
for that place Il wouldn't give him
forty cents for the whole thing, and he
made me paint all four sides, from top
to bottom, with good black paint,
while the whole town stood around
and criticized the way | slung brush.
''They let me go, after | got that
shanty painted; but the sheriff of the
town walked piece with me, and told
me I'd better get. He said the men
could stand little swearing, and
little shooting and a little gambling;
but when ii came to making sign-boards
of the houses. he was afraid lawleSSness
was going too far, and he wouldn't an
Swer for the consequences if | stayed
| i'll town.
81 was determined that | would not
go out of that Tombstone district
without leaving my mark, any how.
So | just bunked on the hillside that
night and in the morning | made a
Decline for the Milestone Mountains,
whfh are in sight of the cIty;and after
little skirmishing around | found a
canon with a precipice on one side of
it as clean straight up and down as "A
knife.
"When | looked over the edge |
could see the water in the little creek
down below dancing and singing along
through the powders. 1t wasn't such
a ,arnation piece down there-only
two or three hundred feet-but it was
little furth er than | cared to Jump.
81 had a coil of silk rope among my
tools, and after fastening one end to a
cottonwood tree / swung the other
end, with loop i'll it for "A seat, over
board, and climbed down hand under
hand.
"What did / do with my paint
bucket and brush? put the brush into
the bucket and carried the bucket ham
die in my mouth. Oh, L assure you,
this kind OF thing was common with
me. The next time you go among the
mountains, if you will examine the
painted rocks pretty close, you will find
that my way is really the only way to
get at them.
''Give me good silk rope-silk be-
cause very small silk rope will carry
a man, and painter don't want TO
lug heavy rope around with him
and III paint your name on the steep
est precipice that ever was.
when I'm sitting down my brush
has got a seven-foot swing, and set out
to paint the words Loves Lung Loz-
enSes' in seven-fOot letters. L didn't
care if it took me "a week, | wasn't
going to be bluffed by them Tomb
stoners.
"Well, sir. was brushing away and
singing to myself like mocking- bird,
when a stone came down and lit fair
in the paint-pot, splashing paint all
over my sign, | looked up madder'n
a hornet, and there L see two dirty
Apache heads grinning at NE.
II didn't say anything; but the sight
of them took the life out of me so that
| dropped my brush, and L could hear
it bounding along from rock to rock un-
til finally it struck bottom. / swear
it seemed to me ten minutes from the
time that brush left my hand until it
struck the ground. Every time it
bounced from one rock to another
seemed to say to myself: you'll strike
there, and there, and there
Il knew the Indians were Apaches
the minute | saw their heads, and L
knew, too, that the Apache is the
blood-thirtiest animal on earth.
''They grinned at me, with their
heads stuck over the precipice, and
then one of them swung out his right
arm and began making passes at the
taut rope with a butcher knife in his
hand. You won't find them fellers
carrying tomahawks any more; they
carry guns and knives instead.
Il watched the knife flying around
up there, with its sharp edge always
turned toward the rope, until it made
me sick, and looked down for relief. |
Below Inc there was nothing but lit
tie mesquit bush growing out of the
precipice about half way down, and
under that powders.
''Suddenly thought of something,
and whipping my whisky flask out of
my breast pocket, held it up toward
them. They stopped grinning. the
knife stopped wheeling around, and
saw in a minute, that they We're two
thirsty Indians, and that had chance
yet. But, like blamed fool. was too
sure, and didn't take enough care of
the bottle, and the first thing l knew
it slipped from my hand and smashed
to flinders on the rocks below.
1.-The Indians gave one howl and
then zip went the knife across the rope,
and followed the whisky bottle.
did get killed? Well, not hardly,
You remember that mesquit bushl
Well, the end of the rope managed to
get wrapped around that bush in the
fall, and it brought me up so sudden
that the shock broke out four of my
/, front teeth"
but you were still one hundred
feet above ground, and your rope only
tifty feet long''