The Press., 1888-10-18
SMITHS FIREWORKS.

W6 sWEE6 S&1A okkAOA14Ak EOOAA O1 G1A &AAp lantic steamer and had sighted land; that into the heavens some skyn exets to an nounce her arrival to the lonely man at the lighthouse. We thought that this would re-, mind Smith of something. Everything that happened generally did. When we were settled again in the smoking room Smith said:
 ''That reminds me oe''-
 ;, LCries of ''Hear hear, thought it would" etc, etc1
 Smith did not heed the interruption. He was on his way to England to buy goods He had told more stories than any one elss on board, and was generally looked up to as our most accomplished liar. s
 'slt reminds me of a little fireworks display had myself on the plains ever so many years ago. You see at that time was keep ing general store out in one of the frontier settlements Trade was principally with the cowboys, and right good customers they were. too. Easy to get along with, when they weren't drunk. and then all you had to do was to give 'em the earth. That was all they wanted, that and their own way. Next week they would come back sober and pay for the damage without 8 grumble. They never cared what they paid for thing as 7 long as it suited them, and in that they diff fered from the eastern customers have now" '
 "Yes, but how about the Areworksg'
 ''Oh, 1;en coming to that About the list of May-a lovely day it was, too-snow and rain and then sleet and snow again-a typical May day for that district, acowboy from England rode up and"-
 "From Englandg"
 ''Why, yes. In every sense oe the word. There was a ranch couple of days travel from my place that we called 'England' It was owned by an English company, and most of the boys were from England. guess the majority of them didn't care to go back, either, for one reason and another. Some Of them were Oxford and Cambridge men-aS least so was told. I'm not college man myself, although you may have thought so,"
 Murmurs of astonishment, during which Smith filled up his pipe again and took 'tan observation" as he called it. from the glass on the table
 "Well, he swung off his horse and said to me: Smith, says he, Do you know any thing about 1reworksp
 "'Not much,' says I, except the kind you fellows give us on Saturday nights, and tho sort Maloney keeps at ten cents glass.'
 "tWell, says he, we want to have 8 hang up display at the ranch on the night of the Ath'
 'Twenty-fourth of whatp. says |, 'you mean the Fourth of July, don't your
 "'You bet we don't, although if this fs 2 success we will have one then. too. The 24th of May is the queens birthday, and we are going to celebrate it this year out at tho ranch. Now, we don't care what 1t costs, w@ want it done right. Can you order & lot of fireworksF
 "'I can order anything, if you fellows say you'll pay for it.
 "'An right. Heres $500 on account, now you go ahead. Sky rockets, pin wheels, red fire, Roman candles, bombs and all the rest of it. Besides we want a couple of barrels full of squibs.'
 "'Squibsp says I, what's themr
 "sWel1, fire crackers, think they call 'em here. Do you know how to set 'em oRg
 s' Not thing Light 'em with match, don't your
 E'I fancy so, but we want this thing done right, and don't you forget it. Where will you get lem fromg
 "'Chicago.' "
 "4AM right; tell them to send along ten derfoot who's posted on that sort of thing. We want first class display. We'u pay all his expenses and use him white. He'll have the biggest time he ever had. You come out with him and show him the way, and we'n use you white, too.'
 "Well, on about the 20th along came the Chicago man with the ammunition in a lot of boxes and barrels. We loaded 'em up on burros and off we started for the ranch. The boys had been in, off and on, to see that there would be no hitch in the thing, and the night the things came two of the cowboys came in, and they said they would see us through to the camp, for there were rumors of Indians about, and we didn't want to lose our scalps. We kept sharp lookout all that day, but saw nothing of any redskins. In fact we did not really have any fears for 'en, any, how, so near the settlement, and we canped out the first night feeling easy. We ought to have known that that w9s just when we might have expected them, but the boys were careless, and they had taken on board good deal of liquor at the settlement, and had more with lem. In fact, whisky was to form g good part of the celebration, and they had a lot with 'em.
 F'It was about midnight when woke up, hearing big yell, and before could turn around was tied so tight couldn't move. The Chicago man was dreadfully frightened, but don't know thaS0 he was any more scared than we were, for we knew bettarsn he did just what was waiting for us The cowboys were sobered up, now that they were tied with their own lassoes so that they couldn't budge.
 s'They tied us onto our burHos, and at day light they moved on for the mountains, keep ing down the hollows as well as they could This day was the 24th, and we had expected to get into camp that evening. When one of the cowboys got near me he whispered:
 "SOur only chance is to let lem know some way that we have lot of whisky with ns, and then they'n all get drunk and we'll have q chance of getting away.' :; f "Don't you bet on that" ! says; ''some of 'em will keep sober enough to keep us all right, tied as we are"
 'Tiedp' says the cowboy. ''I can slip out of this tie the moment want to. No Indian can tie me up I used to travel with a spir- itualist company and am up to the tieing game"
 We'll, we camped that night four or five miles north of the ranch, but in hollow where we were out of sight. They didn't light fire, and we knew there was little chance of the boys finding us, although we expected they would. all be on the lookout. < The cowboy motioned to his guard that he wanted to get at 8 bag that was on one of : the burros and the Indian. opened it for him. 1t was full of jugs packed in prairie grass. There was great excitement in camp when the Indians found the whisky.
 But it tswas just as Itsaid;s four of lem stayed assobar as judges and kept the rest quiet. Still they could not resist the emp tation to takes sgwuig or two, and all yer. : pretty sleepy. About 10 o'clock--and it va mighty dark, too-the cowboy rolled oyer ; once or twice and got near me-
 'sWhere's the tenderfoot?n he whispered.
 'sRight here,'aI said.
 'See here, Chicago, what package Is them 1recrackers ing'