The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??, 1893-04-07
BIG JIM LEES SCRAPE.

q which is fine muscle, sinew and
Eg6@ente. Not pound of fat turks
aoout his immense anatomy. He is,
among other things a politician, and
as ne has demonstrated time and time
again that he is able to whip any two
men in the country, it will readily be
0armased that he is an influence
He not only has s'pull,'' but has
jerk, shove and a ..knock-down"
Whenever he is in the proper mood
for such things.
If on election day his party is buy
ing votes, he laughs and says that
while he does not approve of such
things generally, che guesses all is
fair in love, war or politics" If, on
the other hand, his party is = little
Sport of money, and the other side is
flush, " he declares in tones of rumb-
ling thunder that selling votes is a
crime that is more far-reaching in
disastrous results than any other
known to the law; that such prac-
dce is an open road to government
decay; that it blasts love of country,
bids for future disintegration and
breathes into the body OF treason a
living soul.
Accordingly, he feels it duty he
owes to his country to prevent such
fellows from voting. He knows every
mans politics, and if one whom he
knows belongs to his party attempts
to vote the opposite ticket, he is sure
the fellow sold his vote, and he
promptly prevents with his fist)
delivery of the goods. Often he takes
q club, and thus preserves the purity
Of the ballot with the billet. Two
years ago at an election, he learned
that an old man and four of his sons
had knocked of their votes to the
highest bidder, which bidder hap
pened to be on the opposite side of
their political fence. s.Big Jim"
fastened tothem Immediately, sprang
in among them like a wolf among
sheep, aid whipped all 80 terribly
that they had to pay out all the
money they got for votes to settle
doctors bills.
But if he is terror among men he
is not always so among the opposite
Letcher county will abundantly dem
onstrate.
Two or three weeks ago he left for
Letcher county with the view Of pur-.
chasing drove OF young cattle. He
had wandered from the main high
ways one day and found himself rid
ing along q slender byway that
chased zigzag little stream that
wiggled itself between two precipit-
GUS mountains Near the head of
the stream. in a deep, shadowy cove
he espied little cabin, about eight
feet high and twelve long, surmount-
ed by backed roof He rode
up in front of it and yelled '.Bells!"
A minute Or two later the clap
board door began to scrape the
puncheons. A minute or two more
and an old woman's head was eau
tiously protruded.
what We want, stranger" she
asked
lis the man of the house about?"
''Nah, sir, not now; wat We want
wifi him?''
I'm hunting cattle to buy. Has
he got any?"
"Yas; got ole Muley, ole Spec an
t.eir calls.
Would he sell emp"
"Yas; he'd sell anything, 'thout it
wuz me, an l wouldn't put hit much
past him ter sell me-"
Il wouldn't, either. When will he
be in?' ~
I'm lookin' for him all the time. -
Il guess I'd better get down and
wait for him."
Guess ye had, eff you want ter
see him.
big Jim" got down, hitched his
horse to the limb Of a tree, and en-
tered the cabin. The day was rather
cold, but only handful of fire was in
the fireplace. A heap of straw lay
in corner at the rear of the house,
covered by greasy quilt This was
the bed, and the only one. Long
strings of dried pumpkins festooned
the walls on all sides and swung from
the rough joists overhead Two
broken chairs and badly crippled
board table constituted the furniture,
Soon after Big Jim had seated himself
10 front of the pretense of a fire, the
Old woman took a seat in the corner
She took cob pipe from the jamb-
rock, filed it full of homespun to-
bacco. dipped it in the ashes, and
then brought it to her mouth. Her
lips began to pull vigorously at the
stem, making noise similar to that
produced by cooking mush. She had
an old, dirty red handkerchief wound
about her head, from which her un-
keyhpt iron-gray hair struggled
wherever it could find an opening.
The outlines of her face resembled a
rough triangular framework over
spread with wet rawhide. Her eyes
were set deep in cavern-like sockets,
and when they would look at Big
Jim they reminded him, ho said, Of
venomous snakes heads peeping from
knot-holes.
"Whar ar ye from, stranger" she
finally asked. in q voice that almost
made him bleed at the ears.
Lewis county" was the reply.
'.Uh hughl How kim yer ter git
way out hur huntih' cattlep"
.Oh, / just thought I'd come out.
rs many cattle bayerb have been IN