Los Angeles daily herald., 1890-01-20

my iendish clatter at the back and woke
nothing but an echo. Then SURVEYED
the scene through the window. A Dot of
cold coffee and plate of ham were
standing on the table, accompanied bv a
tin of preserved fruit and huge loaf. II
was too much. had eaten nothing for
twenty-four hours and I went bodily
through the sash, taking most of the
window with me, and swallowed the
ham in one act. The fruit and the coffee
followed, also the larger part of a tin of
condensed milk, and then gathering M
the loaf escaped through the easement
and fled wildly from the scene of nv
crime. AS l left 1 saw a fellow-tranip
looming up in the distance behind me. I
trust he was not hungry, for there was
nothing left for him except two empty
tins and the privilege of licking the
empty plate where the ham had been.
1t was about this time that began to
look round very anxiously, in the hope
that pair of boots might arise on the
western horizon. l was rapidly drifting
into hopelessly unshod condition, and
as even the guileless Indian did not
hang his shoes on the trees along with
his dried beef to give me a chance Of
making midnight exchange, my pros
poets were not bright.
AT TUCSON, ARIZONA,
Things came to a crisis, and under the
influence of a brilliant inspiration / ap.
piled at the door of u local journalist,
; intending to appeal to him in the name
! of our common calling for pair of dis
used No. 6's, if he chanced to have such
, a thing on hand. But somehow the
, scheme did not prosper. Probably the
!, boy who took up my note gave need
lessly accurate description of my per.
sonal appearance, for he returned pres
i. emily with message to the effect that
, the journalist did not desire to be trou-
| bled by any tramps. He broke out in a
} grin of such diabolical malignity as /
t read this memorandum that gave way
!, to sudden insanity and damaged him
. seriously in several places. After this
t act of vengeance I wandered into the
/ dreary little old Spanish city, and there
t being an election in progress
t solaced my feelings by voting
= once or twice. Not being citizen had
no distinct right to vote, but was asked
to do go, and desire to obligs fellow
. creature in distress for want of public
Office made me comply. l earned my
dinner by exercising the suffrage on be-
half of Antonio Coyote or some similar
y outlaw, and laid in some other miscella-
, neous provisions by acting in the place
! of missing German, one Heinrich
! Schmellitscheck. But about 10 O'Clock
: that evening a Nemesis started on my
, trail on account Of these or some other
! of my actions. had built my campfire
about couple of miles from the town
: and was lying in the glow of the burning
. n Uni a Iov
! piece of cheese, languidly resolving in
!, my own mind that the way of the tramp
was hard and very stony, when ], became
suddenly aware that a policeman was
bearing down on me in the moonlight
with ferocity in his eye and a club
, grasped firmly in his right hand.
!, Then I thought of the journal
,, lists offensive boy whom I had
damaged that morninr-I reflected upon
i, , the cases of Antonio Coyote and Hem
I rich Schmellitscheck - and gathering
myself up scrambled over the fence
and fed. My last pair of socks, which
: had washed and hung on bush to dry,
were left behind in that sudden retreat,
but retired in good order with the loaf
and the cheese, and my ponderous an
tagonist made no attempt at pursuit.
The actual reason why he wanted me !
never learned. / was almost the only
sober individual in Tucson that day,
which should have counted for some
thing in my favor.
CELEBRATION.
The city officials were drunk to the
last man, aud one of them was deliver.
ing speech about Washington, while
another hcorayed for jeff Davis and the
old days of secesh. The American popula-
ton was drunk more or less. The Mex
leans were drunk. An exotic English
man who was very drunk was found
making an ovation in the public thcr-
oughfare about the greatness of England
and the Esprit of his fathers" and my
recollections of this gentleman induced
me to drop into verse beside my camp
fire thus:
The drivel of OUT fathers-it drifts across the
Like England's half-mast flag 1t braves the bat.
tie and the breeze
Unchanging and eternal it fills the listening air,
Where'er our fathers trod they left its dismal
The drivel of our fathers on many a tombstone
s.ines
Where the earthly gods OF ages are sleeping
meath the vines;
Men W who hollered loud on paper while in strife
And perished 2 a lighting bravely where the ruby
liquors flow.
The drivel Of our fathers tells of how they died
in mail,
Where the blood. stained flags were streaming
in the shrill November gale;
And as they fell they uttered some language
wild and terse
(Som etimes they spoke in prose, and other times
they spoke in verse;. -
And in these dying utterances they said that
Il they were there.
And begged cir stricken country not to weep
and rend its hair
tWhen their spirits had departed to Join the
| heavenly choirs,
And their memories were EN- balmed amidst the
drivel OF their sires.
For history mostly travels on the things that
never were,
And the deeds of men who never lived, or else
u who were not there,
Are told in tones of frenzy by historians who
| died
And were buried and embalmed before the days
o. which they lied.
Owing to the interference of the police
man already mentioned, the other sew
enteen verses of this beautiful poem were
lost forever to posterity.
TIE WILDERNESS.
Tucson is practically the last outpost OF
civilization in Arizona. Leaving it. 1
struck a drearier and more solemn will
derness than any l had yet encountered,
an endless plain, where victuals we're