Northwest enterprise. [volume] (Anacortes, Wash. Ter.) 1882-1887, 1885-08-15
HOW SWATTERS FELL FROM
GRACE.
HE BUYS AN OLD FIRE DEPARTMENT
HORSE, AND BIS FUN.

A Chicago green grocer, by the name CT
Swatters joined church about six weeks
ago. and few days later bought a horse
Of the fire department which had reached
the age at which those magnificent ami
mails are retired from public service.
There is no doubt bnt that Swatters was
in downright earnest about wanting to
be good, and that he sincerely repented
having sandcd his sugar and worked off
stale vegetables at full market Rates
whenever he got chance, but lie made
the great mistake of his lifetime in un.
dertaking two very difficult things at the
same time. 1t may he that with longer
and more extended experience as a Chris
tian he might possibly have been able 70
manage that horse without reiapsing into
the path of the backslider, but there is
no absolute certainty that such a result
could have been depended upon. He
was casually overheard the other day, ex-
planning to customer:
"Well, sir, the very devil himself could
not hold him when the fire~bells are ring.
ing. 1t don't make any difference where
L happen to be when an alarm goes in, he
whips around and goes to the engine
house like streak OF wind, IL spite of all
| can do, aud it don't matter how much
of hurry | may happen to be In, if an
engine comes my way that old reprobate
has to cut right in behind it, and I've got
to go and see the fire, whether or no, and
stay till the last hose is rolled up Is
man responsible for his conduct with
horse like that in front of him9 Am
to be held accountable for everything as
long as that beast worries the life out of
me, and don't pay any more attention to
WHOM than he would TO the President
The other day started cut about eight
O'Clock in the morning to deliver some
goods to a customer who was going to
have wedding in the house that even
ing, and hope to he packe d in ice before
the weeks out If didn't have to 90 to
'htSO iSo1 ohN oSO tiO WuOlc SLOW at
each one, before could go there, and as
one of them was big one that took the
whole force, l didn't get around till away
long in the afternoon, and a madder set
of women you never saw than l found ,
there-just as though it was my fault.
They had given me up hours before, and
had anfnallxy n
somewhere else, and had some of il baked
up. They wouldn't listen to anything
said, but slammed the door in my face,
and now I've lost their trade-my best
customers, too, and all on account of
that cussed horse. 1t makes me mad
nough to shoot him; and I'd do it, too,
it wasn't for the money I've got in the
old pelican. One Sunday, just after
got him, I had him hooked up to the
buggy, and was going to take my wife
down to Englewood to see her mother,
but just as We got to the southern fringe
of town, as luck would have it, you
might swear, there was a fire alarm, and
ooOn VIC went ioi luo ciiSiuc uouSe aI u
gait that made every body stare, That
was the first scrape I'd had with him, and
l didn't know what to make OF it. I
thought he was running away with me,
and got considerably alarmed, sawed
and yanked on the bit TIL my hands were
blstered, but couldn't shake his gait one
darned bit. On we went, like despair in
q panic, as tight as he could jump, and
just as we got to the engine house the
second alarm went in, and out came the
machine he'd been running with. He
jumped into the line right behind it, and
l don't suppose people along the way
have got through wondering yet why
my wife and were in such e laundering
hurry to get to that fire. saw forty men
or more that knew scattered along the
street, and every last one of them stopped
and looked as though he was stumped.
The lord only knows when I'll ever ges
through explaining to them fellows how
happened to be in such an all-frel rush
that morning. My wife sticks to it that
forgot was church member more
| than dozen times on that one trip, but