Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1884-09-20
SELECT STORY.
THE LONG PACK.

tavern, much frequented by COM
mercial travellers, which bears the odd
title of ''The Long Pack"
"Does that mean long pack of
cards. inquired traveller, glancing
at the swinging signboard, which also
represented the weatherworn picture
of something resembling a soldiers
overgrown knapsack.
"No," replied the gray haired land
lord. 1t means a peddler's pack.
Nowadays they call them sample
cases, believe pointing to the bag
gage Of several commercial drummers
that stood in q corner. "You see T
have a good deal of that sort of GUS
tom. | try to make the road boys as
comfortable as possible, for l was a
little hard on their fraternity once"
GLOW was that -
"Well, said the mountain Boniface,
who had waited until his daughter, a
buxom matron, had left the room.
at isn't very pleasant story, but |
like to tell it sometimes, just to re-
mind myself that the worst thing a
man can have in this world is hot,
obstinate temper. You see, | came to
this coast soon after the gold fever
broke out, and settled down in the
Santa Barbara valley, below here,
ranching. I was u widower even
then, and had brought with me my
only child-a daughter, past seven
teen. She was pretty girl, if | do
say it, and being as good as pretty,
you can imagine was wrapt up in
her. OF course, / was anxious to
keep her with me, and if not that, at
least | looked for her to do something
better than fall in love with ped
der"
"And did she 2"
eyes, you see, in those days, the
country was full of young fellows,
who had struck out for themselves
and were trying to get start by car
rying knick- -knacks around from one
mining camp to another. Some of
them were lively chaps enough and
well-educated, but | was fresh from
the States with all the prejudices, and
it almost drove me wild when Nellie
told me she wanted to marry 3 young
fellow who had brought his pack
through our district a good deal
oftener than the trade seemed to re-
quire. | was hot-tempered fool in
those days, so l stormed, threatened,
locked Nellie up for week and sent
word to her lover that | had loaded
my gun for wildcats and peddlers."
"What did Nellie do?"
''You might have guessed, stranger.
One day when | came back from Il cat
tie sale she was missing. chased her
a couple of days, but they had taken
to the high timber and it was no use.
After a while got = letter from
Frisco, and | wrote back saying that
| disowned her, and he had better
keep out of the range Of my deer
rifle"
"What did you do then ~
Suffered, mister-just suffered. |
knew | was wrong, but I'd have died
rather than give in. For four years
| lived like toad in rock, hating
the whole world. All the pleasure
had was in watching for peddlers.
The number | chased off the ranch
during that time would astonish you.
One evening after terrible rainstorm
one of the tribe came to my house
and asked for shelter for the night
He was thin, wsak-looking fellow,
with his face covered by a huge rag
ged beard. He carried on his back
an enormously long and heavy pack
and seemed so exhausted with his
tramp through the mire that hadn't
the heart to do more than order him
off the place"
"That was pretty bad" said the
listener.
"Well, l suppose it was. The
peddler was all broke up when he
found that | wouldn't sven give him
bunch of straw in the stable, and
no other house within twelve miles.
Instead of complaining, however, he
merely begged that l would let him
leave his pack, which he said contain
ed goods of value, under shelter from
the rain. | finally consented to this.
SO, az | had sworn never to let one of
his trade cross my threshold, | carried
his pack inside, while its owner limped
off to crawl under some bush or other
"Didn't YOU feel mean ?"