The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1893-10-22

THEY LOOKED PALEFACED AND WORRIED.
dents, smoked a cigar with dictator, eaten
dinner with a governor and played poker
with supreme court judge, they rose up
and howled for joy. There was no longer
any fear that we wouldn't do the right thing
in the right place
His excellency arrived by stage at
o'clock Tuesday afternoon. There was
crowd of 1000 people in the streets to well
come him. We stepped forward as the
great man descended and extended the
freedom of the town. Our little speech was
only 30 seconds long. There were two rea-
sons for this. We knew the governor was
weary, and we felt sure that if we held him
in that crowd over minute some of the
boys would begin to ache to shoot at his
standup collar. His reply was neat and
graceful, and if he had only worn Il red
shirt and dropped in few cuss words the
crowd would have carried him on their
shoulders in triumph.
We ate dinner with his exccllcncy at his
own request. Such of our fellow citizens as
expected to see us eat with our knife, drink
out of our saucer or lick our plate were
doomed to disappointment. If we made
any mistake, it was in picking up the leg of
jack rabbit and gnawing the meat off,
but the governor did the same thing. After
the banquet Dan Riardon, our popular I'M
dertaker, brought around the hack which
always leads Il funeral procession, and the
distinguished visitor and ourself drove
about the town. We could not help but
admire his candor. He thought it poor
location for town and found nothing pic
turesque or romantic. Indeed lie was
frank enough to say that if he was mayor
of the town he'd put the streets in better
shape or bust lung. We silently accepted
the reproof, realizing that he didn't know
our crowd and hadn't been told that our
road fund for year amounted TO only $l3
and an old revolver. We saved our private
graveyard for the last sight, and we must
confess to our disappointment that it pro-
duccd little or no effect on the governor
Nature not only made it romantic spot,
but we have planted IL men there and spent
upward of $500 to beautify it,
We expected our visitor to get out of the
carriage and stroll around the sacred spot
with us, but he merely glanced about and
observed that editorial private gravcyards
were SO numerous in New Mexico that no
one gave them any attention. He must
have been thinking of mule and cattle
ranches Without the slightest disrespect
to him we hereby offer reward of $500 to
any person who can locate one single pri-
vate graveyard in that country. They don't
have 'em and can't start 'cm We are per-
sonally acquainted with % editors in New
Mexico and will wager 500 to $40 that not
one of them can put n bullet into mule
tied to post 50 feet away.
His excellency left shortly after clock,
expressing himself we'll pleased on the
whole. He was repeatedly called upon To
Speak, but was wise enough to refuse. Any
subject he could have touched upon would
have riled somebody and resulted in him
being called liar. After his departure
committee of citizens called at TIE KICKER
Office and presented lis with an assortment
OF thanks for the way we did it, and we
took advantage of the occasion to somewhat
increase our subscription list