Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1889-06-06
UGLY JACKS"
How a Homely Hero's Hopes Were
Moro Than Realized.


"An'-an', you're so ugly, Jacks!
fhe girl added, with something like
little shudder. Il know it, Hannie,
but" Half frightened at the look OF
anguish that her words had brought to
the mans face, the girl turned and
sped along the timber-path that led
from the big spring.
The man covered his face with his
hard hands and groaned. No one knew
better than he just how unhandsOme
he was. As a boy. Jackson Hamlln
had grown alphabetically used to the
so5riquct of Ugly Jacks" and had so
often sought some placid little back
set" in the creek, and gazed at his re-
Election in it with pitiful hope that he
might be growing less deserving of the
title, that every line and 1ineament OF
his ugly face was as familiar to his
mental vision as if it were ever before
his eyes. He had grown from an ugly
child to an equally ugly man, grave
and kindly, and differing greatly from
the shiftless and ''trifing'' beings
about him.
He wore the same fashionless garb
as they. but he spoke little of the
quaint dialect which they drawled.
While they passed as much as posi-
BILE of their time at any thing but
work, he cultivated his timber-farm.
Or when, at night. the young men fol-
lowed yelping ours on 'possum or coon
hunts, or with their sisters and sweet
hearts disported themselves at the
-'hoe-down" dances, Jacks Hamlir
bowed over the home made table in his
bachelor cabin, and. by the light of a
.spluttering tallow Dip conned books
that looked so bloatedly full of wisdom
that the casual and illiterate visitor
regarded them almost reverently.
No one knew their contents, not
even old Jerry Politics. daughter, one
of the few persons in the nei ghborhood
the Egypt of Southwestern Missouri
who could read. They looked too
dry and ponderous to arouse her inter-
est. But she liked to hear him tell of
the great iworld--th world beyond tho
forest-beyOnd the limits of the State,
~even-the outside world of which she
had seen nothing and he very little,
but of which he knew much from read
ing.
And she liked, too, to hear him re-
cite pcetry-poetry that she. with her
-scanty education, could scarcely I'M
derstand. And. at such times. she
would, for little while. forget his
ugly face, the surroundings, the
rickety. shook-covered house where
her father, old Jerry Pottle, calmly
smoked and dOzed in his back-tilted
chair on the porch; forget the apa-
thetic. shiftless. Out-of-the-way world
in which she existed. and live for the
moment in the bright. far-off world of
which the poem told.
This bright-faced, ragged maiden
had hopes-dreams that promised no
shadow of fulfiiment till Sharpley
came. You and / would have con-
ssiderea this Sharpley = very Indifferent
personage-cowdyish as to appearance.
deficient as to grammar, and inclined
10 slOvenliness Of attire. But to Han
he was very interesting indeed. He had
been ALMOST everywhere least, be
said SO. He. too, could quote poetry
of a certain class. AS converse
tiOnalist he seemed almost Il wonder tc
Han, for Sharpley's tongue was ready
and his mind an inventive one. and the
restrictions OF truth bothered hin
little.
Jacks had made no complaint, bu
had kept closer to his farm during the
days. and studied his dry books more
efiercely at night. And Han scarcely
missed him at all. for Sharpley was sc
often lowering about, and his CONVEX,
station seemed always of things in
which she was interested. And-well
it was so easy for Sharpley's agile
tongue to promise any thing. and list
euing, the girl almost forgot Jacks.
Few had known or cared when h,
disappeared for few days. and ther
came back with one of the two grea
hopes of his life poisoning into real
iZatiOn.
..rn tell it to her" he told himself
Tell it to Hannie, and may be-"
He met her in the shady patti, as sh'
was returning with bucket of waite
from the big spring, and started to tel
her the story in a hurried. laundering
way, beginning at the wrong end of tn
narrative and blurting out a little o
the other great hope that he had 81
long cherished. But the girl woult
scarcely listen to him.
81 must hurry on" she said MIR
-somebody will be waitin' fer me.
acknowledgement Jacks Ham
lin said, bitterly. THAT sneakint
hound, that"
Hes jest as smart as you are!" thu