Arizona weekly journal-miner., 1893-02-08
OLD MULTIPLICATION.
How A LowIy and Despised Arizona
 Glucose Can Redeemed Itself

For three months l had been camping in the mouth of Fools Canyon, which is over against the
 Hassayampa on tho north side,
 I was seeking the freckled treasue so conspicuous for it's scarcity in those waters. Among my peculiar and extensive collection of house
 hold eoveniances was a certain
 square syrup can, from which the
 rectiiied glucose had been transfer
 red to some pioneers internal make
 up in the days of 'i9 or thereabout
 This piece of metallic furniture 1
 had dressed up in the leg of pair
 of oyeralls. and used 1t as a substi-
 tute for canteen. Time and eat
 claws subsequently, removed its
 duck jacket, but had not impaired
 it's usefulness. That can excelled
 all the copper-lined, double-turret-
 cd. ten-dollar cans on earth in it's
 capabilities for noise.
 When that can was empty, peb-
 ble as big as your eye falling on it
 from an altitude of four feet could
 be distinctly heard for four miles,
 When it stood uncorked on the su-
 warrc stump outside my humble
 door, the wandering zephyrs got a
 system of diabolical whistles and
 groans out of it's in'artis, that
 would make the blood run cold and
 inbue the daring HassayampeE
 with a tendency to sit skeered and
 cuss.n and when belated bug took
 shelter in it's empty depths and be- gan to flop his wings, why Gilmore's
 band was not a circumStance. Time
 after time, in my wrath, had I
 grabbed my trusty Winchester and
 sworn to porforate that despicable
 old can tc finish, but l happened
 to think that before the resur-
 rection day Gabriel might soak" bis
 horn or lose it by some means, and
 he could use that can to advantage
 in waking up the dead. SO l spared
 it for Gabriel's sake.
 Finally one blustry afternoon
 when "Old Resurrection" a the
 boys called my can, was swinging
 joyfully under the front palo verde. bounding from side to side. striking
 branches and boughs and knots,
 with din that would turn a buss conductor gray headed, caught up a sawed oH shotgun in my des- peration, and forgetting all about
 my friend Gabriel for the moment.
 I turned the aforesaid instrsrl sat loose in the direeffcr of mv tor mentor l- ] dti sa be noise chang ed from a series lt eoilussal bang tn plalutire monotone, like tBe summer winds hlowfnr hr8-a lra sSe--l2l,- s Mormon missionary. 'ul oi which melted ny heart win romowa. and rcm.u1pt nn oi my obligation to my l.send Gabriel.
 5 | took "ResuTrectionH tender ly down from the palo verde, and carefully plugged each little hole with tin foil and found in due time that its capacity for numbering sleep and annihilating silence was deeper, louder and more hideous than ever. This was the Friday ba- fore Christmas, and on that good old all round day we were to have a shooting match, in which AResur rection" was to be the central fig ure, the bull's-eye in fact. We in tended to keep up the contest till Resurrection should lose all sem blance to a golden syrup can, and like many of our fellow citizens, be- come too holy for any use.
 The next day was Saturday, and Monday would be ''Resurrection's" last day around the Kit mansion. On Saturday l went to work across the river, as usual. l had worked rather late, as water was getting scarce in the diggin's, and was re- turning home just as 1t was get sing dark. I was carrying q dull pick on my shoulder. and "Resur- rection" swung kleefully over my back from the end of that pick. A blue tailed dy' had erawled into z 'Resurrection's" diaphragm as crossed the creek, and was hum ming n suppressed lullaby with his damp wings, when, with a noiseless sliding movement, huge mountain lion appeared in the trail before me. He was the largest specimen I ever saw, capable of dragging horse to the earth in an instant, yet there he stood not five feet away, crouch ing backward, tail swaying and eyes gieaming. Two seconds of hesi- iati0n meant certain death. Yet what could be donei Such blow ls l might strike would hasten my )wn destruction. Flight was i'm possible. was frozen with terror. | forgot that s'Old Resurrection vas on the end of that pick. even 'orgot that there was a pick on the md of that handle. But in my wild, unreasoning, instructive des- Deration, brought that pick down ,n the lions head with all the pow TT possessed A crash. din, oar, as though hundred demons lad shrieked in unison, a scream md side leap by the lion. He ladn't struck ground yet when he disappeared over the little ridge to he left, and the rattle and crash of 1 ,rush and rock for miles, as that brute went over the 1 mountain and out of the country, ,royed that the roar and bark of | Old Resurrection" over that lions | lead, had saved me from being re- moved from the face of the earth. | Why, the explosion of a pound of | To. l giant ten feet away wouldn't | e in it.
 It took me about five minutes to | lake up my mind what had hap ened and how still continued to | o alive. When it did all come ack to me, l gathered "Oid Resur- actionp tenderly up in my arms. patted that old can with fearful I held it lovingly in my rms, and pressed my cheek to it the emotion of insane gratitude ,ward my inanimate deliverer. ore "Old Resurrection" home with alous care. 1t is my household )d, and hangs on the palo verde ' day and by night, and whistles, Id jingles and bangs at its own rect will month in and month out ie long year through.
 The shooting match went off. ut my beloved Resurrection lsn't in it. We substituted Pain -the-Stomaeh Joe's coffee pot to