The Goodland republic. [volume] (Goodland, Kan.) 1891-1907, 1893-09-08

y
tirely unreasonable Later concessions
had been made. A room, the entire gar
ret over the shop, had been placed at
Pats disposal, and here he had finally
moved his few belongings cot, a chair
or two, a huge green box which held his
surplus clothingin fraction of its space
(such a wooden bin as the poor Irish emf
grant usually dignifes by the name of
trunk and which one need not be English
to call box, a gaudy picture of the Vir-
gin Mother with her heart afame,
much framed photograph of Carlotta in
her first communion dress, rosary and
q crucifx, and hanging across the raft
ers the moth eaten remains of bright
uniform ani broken torch lamp, for
before his accident Pat had been an
Irishman, a Fenian, an American ward
politician and festive leader in torch
light professions, patriotism and the
like.
Nobody ever knew just how or by
whom the shot was fired that made him
cripple and d cobbler (and, he always
added, "a Dutchman and dago to boot"
laughing alone at his final pun). But it
was a fearful row. Three men were shot,
and all came near dying, but didn't die,
and as all the wounded carried weapons
more or less spent they considered dis
erection the better part of valor and insti-
gated no Investigations.
All this was before the days of tele-
phones and hospital ambulances, and Pat
was carried into the shop of German
shoemaker next door to the saloon where
the shooting was done. He would prob
a0ly have been sent to the Charity hos
pital next day, however, excepting that
his host, Hans Schmidt, had happened to
be in the saloon at the time of the dis
turbance, and his recollection of the
matter being somewhat hazy he feared
possible implications and insisted on
nursing the wounded man through his
trouble.
The neatness of this arrangement lay
in the fact that as soon as the GONZALES
cent was able to hold up his head here
was a trade for him right under his eyes
and hands. The ward politician became
an artisan, and, as he Enthusiastically
expressed it, ''his first tool was his last"
can ye niver seen an Irishman a-mind-
in shoes afore?" he was wont to say on
occasion. ''Mebbe not, an yet divil a
wan I'D turn is back on a cobbler! IT'S
thrue enough, in the ould country it's
the prastes that do be savin our sowls
for US, an I'm wOrrkin at the same
thrade, savin soles to feed me body. But
the edge of the joke is, twas losin me fut
that set me to shoemakin." Thus by
light and witty speech did he cover what
he firmly believed to be broken spirit,
4 tedious convalescence, with enforced
abstemiousness, had given him ample
time for reflection, and by the time he
had been nour1shed back to strength on
apple pie, cinnamon cake, nudels and
smierkase and found himself practically
apprenticed to a shoemaker he felt that
he was no longer, even at heart, zone of
the boys"
AS soon as his period of invalidism
was safely over, however, when his eau
tious and worthy host was assured that
his life was no longerin jeopardy, things
were rearranged on a business basis, and
the terms were not satisfactory to the
prentice, who, with true Celtic alac-
rity, had mastered the trade to degree
that surprised himself.
Before the occupation of the corner
shop by the Di Carlos cobbler had car
ried on business here, by which he and
small barefoot family had managed to
live, and when Pat discovered the change
of tenants the bright idea of slipping
into this trade had occurred to him;
hence the proposition, conveyed by an
interpreter, to occupy a cobbler's chair
/ in the new fruitshop.
The arrangement had much to recon-
mend it. On washdays, when the father
and the boys were out peddling over
ripe stock, Pat often represented the en-
tire business, calling 'Shopr' on occa-
sion or even effecting a trade when there
were no complications,
'tPicayune o. lemons, is it?' he would
say, for instance, to the small boy Gus
toner. "Fetch yer silver heer till feel
the heft av ut. That's solid-rings like
the bells o. heavenI Drop it beyant on
the counter, so. Now pick two big lem
ons or three little vans. That's a man;
takes three middlin sizes. He's got
business fist on 'im-'u be Vanderbilt
yet-nades shoestring fo' lagniappe."
And to himself, as the embryotic Van
derbilt departed, he would continue aft
er this fashion:
''Faith an be the time I do work. up
me Dutch thrade wud dago's business
an throw in a creole lagniappe I do
have to run me hand forninst me habby
pockutbook to know mesilf for Paddy
And his soliloquy held as much truth as
humor, for Notwithstanding the fact that
he soon commanded neat little custom
Pats heart and hand were those of
true son of the Emerald Isle.
From the day she first put up her pref
ty red lips for the shaggy old fellow to
kiss his whole heart and purse had be
longed to the baby Carlotta. AS his
mind had begun to run on shoe leather
his first spare dollar had gone for pair
of little red shoes for her when she was
+! barely able to toddle.
This was the beginning, and then there
were other things-trinkets, pair of
gold earrings set with turquoises (and he
4 had locked himself in the coalhouse and
stopped his ears while they were put into
her little ears), and then later thimble,
then prayer book and mother of pearl
! rosary, and so it went.
As he petted the little thing and the
other babies as they came he accused
himself OF an old mans fondness. though
when this story begins he was, In fact.