The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-05-08

Y
people are so meeting, so crossing, so
staring and SO longing to talk year in
and year out. There is no doctors shop
where the impromptu symposium meets
daily in the back room, as ours did at
Doc Lampson's, in Montezuma, or Bak-
er's, in Jamestown, or DR.. Walkers, IN
Sonora. There's no reception at the
camp grocery as there used to be at
BILL Browns" in Montezuma. There's
no lawyers Office, where he feels privi-
legged to drop in as we did at Judge Pres
tons, in jamestown, or Judge CUNTS,
in Sonora. There's no printing Office
and editorial room all in one on the
ground floor whereinto the Camp SEN
ate" lawyer, judge. doctor, merchant
and other citizen may daily repair in the
summers twilight, tilted back IN the
old hacked armchairs on the front port
| leo, and discuss the situation as we used
to with A. N. Francisco, of The Union
| Democrat, in Sonora, and as presume
the relics of antiquity and '49 do at
that same Office today.
These are few of the features which
made camp" attractive. These fur
nished the social anticipations which
lightened our footsteps over those miles
of mountain, gulch and fat. Miles are
nothing, distance is nothing, houses a
mile apart and "camps" five miles apart
are nothing when people you know and
like live in those camps and houses at
the end of those miles. An evening at
the Bella Union saloon in Unknown"
was circus. Because men of indlvidu-
atty, character and originality met
there. They had something to say.
Many Of them had little to do, and per-
haps for that very reason their minds
the quicker took note of SO many Of
those little peculiarities of human nature
which, when told, or limited, or sug-
gested, prove the sauce piquant to con-
versation.
When Brown, the lawyer, was study
ing French and read his Telemaque
aloud by his open Office window in such
stentorian voice as to be heard over
third Of the scamp" and with never
Frenchman at hand to correct his pro-
nunciation, which he manufactured to
suit himself as he went along, it was
part of the Bella Union circus
to hear "Yank" initiate him. When
old Broche, the long, thin, bald headed
French baker, who would never learn
one word Of English, put on his swal-
low tailed Sunday coat, which he had
brought over from La Belle France, and
lifted up those coat tails when he tripped
over the mud puddles as lady would
her skirts, it was a part of the Bella
Union circus to see "Scotty' mimic him.
When John s., the Virginian, i'm
pressively and loudly swore that Jack
rabbit he had killed that day leaped
twenty-five feet in the air on being shot,
and would then look around the room as
if he longed to find somebody who dared
dispute his assertion, while his elder
brother, always at his elbow in support
ing distance, also glared into the eyes Of
the company, as though he also longed
to fight the somebody who should dare
discredit Brother Johns" "whopper,"
it was a part Of the circus to see the
"boys" wink at each other when they
had a chance. When one heard and saw
so many of every other mans peculiar
tiles, oddities and mannerisms, save his
own, set off and illustrated while the
man was absent, and knew also that his
own, under like circumstances, had been
or would be brought out on exhibition,
it made him feel that it was somewhat
dangerous to feel safe on the slim and
slippery ice of self satisfaction and self
conceit. People in great cities haven't
SO much time to make their own fun and
amusement as did the residents of so
many of those lazy, lounging, tumbling
down, ramshackle camps of the era
of 1868 or Whereabouts.
People in the city have more Of their
fun manufactured for them at the thea
tiers of high and low degree. Yet it was
wonderful how in camp they managed
to dig so many choice bits and specimens
out of the vein of varied human nature
which lay SO near them. Whenever /
visited "Jimtown" my old friend Dixon
would take me into his private corner to
tell me 1.-THE last" concerning character
who was working hard on an unabridged
copy of Websters Dictionary in the en-
deavor to make amends for woeful
lack of grammatical knowledge, the re-
suit of a neglected education. "He's
running now on two words" Dixon
would say, land these are perseverance
and 'assiduity.' We hear them forty
times day, for he Tugs them in at every
possible opportunity, and, indeed, at
times when there is no opportunity. He
came to business the other morning a
little unwell, and alluded to his stomach
as being in chaotic state And, sir,
he can spell the word particularly with
six is. How he does it can't tell, but
he can" PRENTICE MILFORD.
ne Loved Her.
A Mrs. Wainwright fell overheard in
Jupiter inlet, Fla, and was eaten by a