The record-union., 1892-05-23
SHE WAS GAHE.
Clever Scheme of the Bridge Build.
er's Wife.
How She Managed TO Delude the Stage
Robbers and Save the
Money.

SEQ home, Tnjuns, go home" said the
man on the Cracker box" This is the
hour for every sneaking son Of a Winnie
bago to say his leetle now 1 lay me- in
the reservation. Git!" And he pointed
| to the door of the rendezvous with a
gesture that admitted Of no delay.
Then copper-colored coyotes would
set thar like alabaster images all
night and the hull of ter morrow, if there
waren't somebody to boot them off. An
! they lissen am don't understand word,
! but look SO pizen KNOWN you'd think
| they wuZ drinkin' it all in.''
! The Indians filed out, and without a
sound disappeared into the night, and fine
usual complement Of visitors gathered at
the stove, with the man on the cracker
box as center-piece. There was the man
who was selling patent clothes reels, and
another who was selling Bibles; old Cap
tain Lemming and the Postmaster, and a
man from the Missouri Bottoms, whose
! team was hitched outside. He told them
| that he expected his ''old woman" and
little gai' by the stage, which was
! usually late.
''Speakin' o. the stage" said the man
on the cracker box, Pm regularly glad
amt in it. Once over them driveways
'twlXt here and Omaha was enough for
me. No, thanlhee, pard; if L can't 60 by
/ steam, stays where l be. I've 10 notion
! Tor travelln with wimmen and sick
babies in Il stage coach.''
| Tell us bout it, can't YEP" suggested
the clothes-reel man, who was dying with
what be called 'endway" at being
stranded in such forlorn place.
- !;lll'r tn toll - cold n
| crackor-box man, cutting off good
| sIzed chew from the pig" of tobacco
offered TO him, ''an' I guess | can wind it
up aiore the stage gets here; but the dom
ana the suIierin' of it is what hurts my
! ieelin's; to think, when l warnted to
whoop and holler, that 1 kept it all in
| just on account OF that good for nOthiu'
say! Pm gettin' ahead of my story.
Boys, dye remember when the bridge
over Pigeon Elver was built, an what II
! lot of money an work an political She
nanigan it took; an how picters of III 9
rlne structure, as they called it, was in
! them New l ork papers, an how Sot up
all the tellers on the prairie ielt cause
! they didn't have to take OFT their shoes
! an stockings an ford the crici<-3in' how
! the work was well under way when the
| ,01J necessary to finish it Oft was sent
| out by Speshlal messenger?
say, was on the stage when the fell
/ lOh WIN IiidG llOil6y SLdEltu 10 come
! through. There were four or five Of us
| on the inside Of the coach that day, and
| one woman with a sick LaUy--SbG was
! tryln' TO get 1t home to her folks atore il
| dlec. she was young an pretty, but her
! eyes were red with cryin' an takin' care
OF the young un day au' night. ShetIidn't
! have much to say to any OF US: but when
| she looked at us with them big sorrowful
! eyes, our hearts just went down into our
! boots, an we would have laid down am
! let her walk over us.
The BABY was wrapped in shawls an
! wells, an lay on Il pillow, an was red
! with one of them nuSSin' bottles, an it
| whined an cried leetle, in 4 faint, sick
! way, an the mother kissed an cOoed to
| it, an sung leetio hymns that made us all
! get colds Ill our heads, am she feared it
! was gettin' worse and would die atore She
got home! She WAS goin' to the FUR end
/ Of the stage route, she said, with her voice
| full or tears.
1.-The t'other passenger that inseres. ed
US rid on the box with the driver
don't know how it was that we saveyed
right OF that he was the Teller who had
| the money for that bridge! ] guess that
it were on the same principle that the
| birds OF the air know when To get to-
geGher an go south-a kind Of instinct
Fact was, we didn't cotton rightly to that
| bridge scheme. We thought the next
| county were putting on airs with a
wrought-iron bridge out on the prairie
for the COWS to hoof over. But 'twern't
any OF our funeral, and we didn't make it
! one.
But that Teller with a cloak with a
cape to 1t sot UP on deck a-seein' the
| landscape DER, as the old hymn ses, an
a-lookin' kinder rich an satisfied, ies'
told on himself, am we kinder wondered
Whar he kept the Spondulics-if he HAD
| 'em in his boots, or in belt, or in his hat
! Iinin'. An we got to talkin' it over in
side, an the little woman spoke up kind
O. quick, an says she: Don't please; my
| baby is worse an sure enutf it were, am
had kinder CONFUSION that made us
feel as If we were murderers for dis
turbin' of it.
AN then somethin' happened. The
horses fus' took to gallopin', and there
was pistol shot, an the stage stopped so
quick we was all in heap. The little
woman grabbed her baby an its piller
an laid 'em both on the seat an hung
over 'em. Just then the door of the stage
| flew open an head was stuck in. 1t
was tibet of a man with mask on, an he
had a pistol pinted ahead of him.
Get out, you tellers,' he says, in a
low voice, but as plain as We ever heard in
yer life; be lively now. We're in a
hurry; we amt goin' to hurt yer if so We
obey orders
'Sh-sh-sh y said the leetle woman.
who was hangin' over her young un, her
face close to its lips. Gentlemen, my
poor child is going-let it die in peace
Bother the bratn said the man,
brutally. We amt emmy business with
wimmin an children. This way. fellers. ,
When we got out there was three high
waymen, an they had the driver an The
young Teller with the overcoat covered
with their pistols, an We're swearin' like
troopers cause they didn't find any
money-that is, not the big haul they eX-
pected. They took what we had. an.
after abusin' US all they dared, an tearin'
our clothes off to search us, they let us go,
firm reg lar fusilade after us am
| emptyin' their revolyers. / might have
been very differently situated if hadn't
met with such misfortune; but it can't be
helped now"
Lose much?" asked the Bible peddler,
as he lighted his pipe at the stove.
''All had" and the cracker box man
| sighed heavily, .'an' a bull's-eye watch
my grandfather carried in the Revolu-
| tionary War"
Did the baby die, and what became
OF the young Teller and the money!" asked
| the clothes-reel man.
1.-THE baby died right there and then.
The mother were fannin' it when the
| stage started up again, and we weren't
| NOR n out o. sight o. them robbers when
she began TO scream, and says she. NV
| baby'S deadv and she drew the shawl
over its face, and wouldn't allow one OF
us to lay finger on it.
Then the teller on the outside. who
had been putty roughly handled, came
| in, an ii 'peared he was her brother, tho
| why he didn't show UP afore was kind %
queer. Howsumever, he says, says he:
Its all over. is it sis?' -
'And she looks up kind of strange an
goes off into fit of highstrikes that
scared us most as bad as the other per-
! formance did,
.tM bat hacar,na Of tho mama .=l-..I