Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1888-07-06

selves ON the ground and roarin' til
l. they were black in the face. l Offered
d to lick three or four of the worst 0
:, the roarers, but nary man Of 'en
could keep his face straight Ion:
enough to fight me. Finally, like Bax
ter's hog, l went off in a grove by my
self and sat down in the outskirts o
the camp, where / began preparations
for again takin' to the road. To keeI
the scorchin' sun from burnin' my
ankles, got some strong cloth ano
made straps, SO could strap the leg,
of the drawers down to my moccasin.
Then ! was green from hips to feet.
"When l got up to pursue my way
was SO tightly cased in from my hips
down that could hardly bend my
knee jints, but presently the drawer.
limbered up little at that pint. In
passing along by the wagon trains tha
l overlook had to stand all the fun
that people seed fit to poke at ME, and
it was not a little. Men whooped and
roared as l came in sight, and the
wimmin sittin' in the front parts OF
the wagons, laughed till the tears
made streams down their faces through
the alkali dust. When one woman got
sight of me every female critter in the
wagon had got to have look. 1t was
For Gods sake, Sally, Jane, Betsy,
look herev and in mint the whole
front end of the wagon would be filed
With faces peepin' out at me through
long sun bonnets. Why, they'd even
hold up the babies to let them have a
look at me.
At times the uproar would be sich
that the people in and about the wag-
ons half IL mile ahead would all be
lookin' back to see what WAS up, and
sometimes the captains of trains would
come chargin' back under whip and
spur to investigate. What made me
look worse than otherwise would was
the fact of my roundabout bein' red /;
the red aggravated the green and the
lgreen the red. You bet, l skipped
along pretty lively past the wagons ex-
cept when was obliged to stop to ask
for drink of water or bite of grub.
"As hove in sight some feller would
sing out, Hurrah! here comes the
great crane of the desertsv and an
other: Oh, the legs of himv some
called me the Green Dragon Of the
Palms. and one old Teller declared that
was the Wingless fiamingo of the in
land lakes, u bird he had been in search
of for years.
Every train overlook had some
new name for me. With enc train
was the Upland Lobster of the Great
Basin, and with the next / was The
Whangdoodle.' The lightest dose /
got was to be asked how l got away
from Barnum. l rather prided myself
ON the title of Green Dragon of the
Palms. and generally announced my
self as sich when got chance, for it
seemed to me there was nothin' sneak
in about that.
Well, when got across the Sierras
to Hangtown, / found out that there
was to be grand ball that night just
| in the edge of the town. Before scat
tering out to the various California
camps for which they were bound, the
people were gOin' to have farewell
dance together. In the evening, l
Thought I'd slip down to whar the
dance was to come off and look on q
while. 1 always was very fond of
dancin', and down in old Missouri not
many could beat me at the double
shuttle or the fancy steps or filings.
When got to the place I found
they had set up a lot of crotches in
which they had laid poles, coverin' the
whole with pine and spruce boughs,
maxim sort of canopy over a big
open hall. The ground under this
great shed had been leveled off and
beaten down till it was like a brick
yard. found two or three fiddlers
mounted on pine poles, and with them
q feller with clarionet. They were
maxim pretty fair music, and great
crowd was dancin' away. A happier
lot of people never saw before, and
have never seen since. All the dam
gers of the plains and deserts were
left behind, and before was a land Of
flowers and of gold.
Well, l stood in the edge of a
crowd of two or three hundred spec
tators for u while as mere looker-on,
but pretty soon / got excited like.
MY old Missouri ambition was aroused.
l forgot all about my drawers and
sailed into the thick of the business
with o tall, gallus Pike county gal
with sun-bOnnet off and hair hanging
1down her back almost to the heels Ol
her shoes. She was built-like racer
and carried her head like the lead-hoss
of band wagon. l can tell you We
made the dust fly. 1 am little over
six foot, and that gals head came
well up over my shoulders; SO you
} can see we were no slouch Of II couple.
Besides, the gal was. prettier than q
bay steer.
al soon saw that, though my draw
} ers might be little too tight, had OF
, about the soundest rig in the Who'll.
: place. 1 looked just like l was il
! some kind of masquerade outfit, and
soon found that lots of the people
thought was made up for something
: as could hear the spectators in tn
front ranks buzzing about it. begar
!, to consider myself the beau Of the bal
: regular dandy.
"Go in, green legs!" the fellers OF
y the outside would holler, and go in