Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1890-04-17
apustedln crled Price; lyon don,t mean to


There amt an ounce of metal in a mountain
of it, We got to sell a mule to pay the
! freight on it, There was mistake in them
returns-the assayer sent us the wrong GER
tifcate. I'd oughter killed him, but didn't
he said he hoped we hadn't been put out
any by it, and he gimme some of his cards to
throw round 'mong the boys. There'll be a
holy circus out to camp when they near bout
it and begin to boiler for their pay. What
chews me up the worst, though, Price, is that
he widow'l back out like as not now. You
never can depend on a woman, nohow.n
Beyond deep sigh Price made no reply to
this discouraging platitude and the two
partners disappeared in the gloom. Watson
Immediately sought the oblivion and solace
which by common consent is supposed to be
located somewhere near the bottom of a glass
OF whisky. How Price passed the hours of
dar1ness-what paroxysms Of despair, what
cyclones of passion disturbed his ordinarily
calm and dreamless slumher, it is not the
purpose of this narrative to disclose; let it
suffice that the rising sun found him wan and
haggard-that is, us wan as his sun burned
complexion would admit of.
He partook of light breakfast with much
the same relish as the condemned man feels
for the delicacies of his last earthly meal,
G..d about 10 o'clock in the forenoon directed
his steps toward the widows tent Although
afflicted with a CHASTITY sinking feeling in the
region of his heart, or stomach-he was not
exactly certain which, not being strong in
anatomy-he resisted the temptation to take
some stimulant to enable him to endure the
approaching operation.
When, after several abortive attempts, he
succeeded in reaching the tent, and found
the lady engaged in putting the finishing
touches to the green caliker;" when he re-
flected that now, perhaps, that festal gar
ment no longer possessed reason for exist
ence-when, in short, all the bitter thoughts
of what might have been came crowding
into his mind-emotion almost mastered him.
"MusU "a ketched cold las night from the
way't you snufiie,n remarked his fiancee by
way of greeting. The delicate, one might al
most say wifely, solicitude conveyed by these
simple words was all that was lacking to
complete Prices discontinue, and it was
some time before he managed to reply in a
choking voice:
eyes, wuz up ruther late. l wanted to
see Watson--he came back on the train"
Drunk agin, too; heerd him screechin'
and hollerin' around"
"He wuzn't drunk when he come, but the
ore didn't work quite so-that is, it didn't
come up to the assayer's fggers, an Wat
sons so techy an easy put out by emmy
thing't goes wrong, he got bowled up a little
fore he knowed it.n
"What did that air rock work, ennywaysg'
1--WE amt had it worked yet-we thought
-it--she don't work at ALL Said Price, des-
perately, realizing the futillty of further eva
sion; "there wuz a mistake somewheres
There amt no mineral in that ore-the as
sayer sent us the wrong certificate-we've
blowed ourselves in for all we've got, and so
I've come to say't if you wanted to pull down
your ante an drop out fore the deal goes
emmy furder-why, o. course you can-but-
I-I"-
Mrs. Halves eyes fairly blazed, with SYM
pathy and love, doubtless, as she replied:
"That drunken no caount Watson's been
a-puttin' you up to this. He's been a-pizen-
in your mind agin the wimmen folks. Tole
you | wuz too ole fur ye, did he? Been
a-eggin' you on fur to leave me in the lurch,
alter everything's ready for the wedding
This is some o that Heely Monsters doin's
but he don't make it stick-you sabe that3
You thought wuz stuck on that ole grave
stun quarry O. your'n, but I'll jest fool We
once fur luck. It's you | want, an I'll hev
We, too, Of there's emmy law in Arizony.n
Oh, phenomena, forever incomprehensible,
of the human hearth
When Price believed the woman of his
choice was irretrievably lost to him, that he
could no longer hope to win her, the glamor
of the impossible endowed her with all the
charms fancy ever dreamed Of but when he
found that instead of losing her, she possessed
him, body and soul, at the very moment
when his felicity should have been the most
complete and unalloyed, it was tinctured by
a vague regret-the indellnable, intangible
sense of disappointment which ever accom-
panies the realization of our cherished ideals.
This disappointment was heightened by the
fact the bride would not consent to Watson
being present at the marriage ceremony
Price would have liked to have his old partner
witness the legal sanction of his bliss, but the
lady was inexorable, and Price acquiesced,
performance in which he was rapidly acquir-
ing proficiency,
The discordant clamor of the charivari had
long since been hushed; darkness had invaded
the sidereal heights and silence brooded over
slumbering Arivaca. The barkeeper of the
Fashion was just locking the door of that
establishment, and Watson, who had been
compelled reluctantly to abandon his loca-
ton before the bar, chung to an awning post,
ard inveghed against the folly of marriage
and the wiles Of woman.
Common horse sense, decency, r'ligion,
everything's agin 1.-THE Bibles agn it, too"
ooh, come off," replied the barkeeper;
"whats the Bible got to say about itq
"What's the Bible got to say about itq
The Bible says jest eggsactly 'Misfortunes
never comes single'-thats what she says,
an when the Scriptures coppers ennything,
young Teller, you can player to lose every
time
Out on the desert the coyotes yelled in de-
rision, and far off in the west the whistle of a
receding train faded lingeringly away into
the silence of the highland even so melted
into air all the glittering hopes founded on the
nj Chine EranniSnp