The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1889-10-18
MICROPHONIC EAR

Inc UP was gettlng pretty dull
The Northland was q very slow steamer.
We had been eight days out from Am
sterdam, and there was every prospect
of eight more. We sat listlessly on the
starboard deck in our sea chairs, a
rather glum looking set, talking at in
tervals in q lazy, desultory way of any
trihing subject that came up. We
spoke of the fog, which had kept us
back the previous night. A small,
sharp-faced man of about As, who
usually kept very quiet, and from whom
no one had succeeded in obtaining any
bits of autobiography to amount to any
thing, suddenly spoke up, as if a new
and remarkable idea had just popped
into his head:
"By the great Harry, couldn't Jim
Budgelow have taken in the shekels as
special fog watchman!"
We all started up interestedly at this
exclamation. There was silence for a
moment. Each one waited for some
n else to inquire into the special
qualifications of Jim Budgelow for the
position of special fog lookout. Finally
an off-hand old gentleman from Illinois
said:
Perhaps you wouldn't mind telling
us something about Mr.. Budgelow, now
you've got our curiosity stirred up?"
mo! don't know that there's any
harm in giving a few facts about Jim,'
said the little, sharp-faced man. "He
was a queer little fellow, Jim was," he
went on slowly, with an air which
showed that he was going over specific
examples of Jim's peculiarities in his
his own mind, though his statement
vas general.
Il first met him a good many years
ago out at Pixies Peak. Hornetsville
was the name of the camp; gone now,
not a board left, though there must have
been a thousand people there then. We
called him Jim, the man with the mi.
crophonic ear Jonny Whittle, who
hadn't been out of college long, cooked
up that name. You see, Jim's right
ear was a remarkable organ. It was
like q microscope which was fitted for
hearing instead of seeing. See? That
man could hear a bat wink in the day,
time. When Jim Budgelow took a
room at the hotel he could soon tell
whether he was the only occupant OF
the bed. All he had to do was to give
the thing kick and put his ear to the
headboard, and if there was any inhab-
itants present he could hear them
crawl.
This faculty of Jim's was in some re-
spects a very amusing one, SO usually
he wore a plug in that ear to soften
things down. But the boys never knew
definitely when the plug was in. and
for this reason, I presume, Jim Bulge
lows character vas the only n in
Hornetsville that hadn't been thor
oughly disse ,ted. Nobody dared speak
disrespectfully of Jim. for fear he had
a bead on 'em with his right ear.
raOne time Jim did me a mighty good
turn, and if it hadn't been for that same
ear I wouldn't be here now. I'd been
off prospecting up among the mountains
for a couple OF days with my partner,
Jack Grodale. We thought we'd struck
something; signs were good, at least.
But the thing never PANIED out much,
though that's neither here nor there.
As l was saying, we thought we could
make it pay. So I left Jack and went
back to Hornetsville for provisions. ]
had turned out of the branch gully. in
which we'd been prospecting, and was
scrambling along the sides of a big sort
of a caynon cut that lead down to the
valley in which tue camp was situated.
The slope was pretty steep and slightly
pushed. I had to make my way along
carefully, for below me the sides of the
gulch formed a series of natural ter.
races, and finally went straight down
to the little stream that splashed and
fixed and chuckled along the bottom.
All of a sudden heard noise like
thunder. 1t wa the middle of the fore
noon, and the sun vas shining brightly.
The roar grew louder. In an instant il
flashed upon me; it was q landslide.
didn't know what to do. I couldn't tel
whether to go forward or backward. ]
was pretty scared for a minute. But il
that minute an idea came into my head.
I crept down as fast rs I could to the
edge Of the little steep which led to the
first terrace. The cliff wa perpeDdicu'
lar-inclining in il anything; it was
about twenty feet down and the ledge
below was some six or seven feet wide
with grass and bushes on it. I was
hanging over there in another moment
and down pumped, pretty welishaker
up and brnised, but all right. The ar
preaching roa b@esaale louder ane
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