The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-05-26


When I was stableman for the Canadian
Pacific syndicate. at Eagle Pass Landina
in British Columbia. hadn't much worl
the first month. and the second tive
months i did a great deal Of loadng.
only had a half dozen horses In the sta
bic and my chief amusement was lying
on a pile Of sacks and reading novels. II
it not a bad way Of earning So a month,
even If one has TO pay half dollar meal
In addition TO being stableman / worked
in the store-stood behind the counter
tying up sugar. served out molasses, learnt
how to tie parcel. and TO break string
across my finger. just if 1 had been
brought up in a grocery. tried to do il
the other day and cut my finger to the
bone. But then I was handy at it.
This store was the provision depot Of
the Canadian Pacific syndicate. and we
kept in it all the grub that went up the
line to different camps, TO say nothing
about 1000 pounds of dynamite in cases
and such trifes as a few tons OF gun
powder in kegs. I helped to build the
store myself, because went to Eagle Pass
when the place was just booming and
they were building things all around
putting in a house here and house there,
and making hash houses and saloons and
gambling dens.
The store was on the edge of the lake.
I could Jump off the platform into seven
or eight feet of water. The beach was all
shingles, stumps, muck and refuse and
in shady places, drunken men. Sometimes
cinnamon used to come in and visit US,
for there were a number Of Cinnamon
employed on the works on both sides OF
the lake. They were not very pleasant
crowd either. One lot of them basned
their overseer with shovels and then NEG
into the bush He shot two, but they
fixed him. However. they couldn't hang
seventy. and hanged nobody. Anyhow
in a capitalist country a Chinaman IS
worth a great deal more than a white
man. even II you do pay him little less.
I don't like Cinnamon, l never dld-dhd /
had a good deal TO do with them 100
j only came across one who pleased me
at all. and he was Chinese cook, whlte
mana real white man-I'm going to tel
a story about him one day There was
one fairly white Chinaman who used 70
come into the store-they called MIN Char-
lie He had made money. He was not
a bad fellow sometimes, ana ne used 10
offer me cigars. / took them on the prlh-
ciple that 1t is a bad thing to refuse any
thing that is offered you-especlally c.
CARS when they are good.
one day. when was in this pace serving
ont molasses or some such truck, ana was
rather busy. two Cinnamon came IN ana
stood at the counter waiting for me TO be
disengaged But there wasn't much
chance Of that. seeing the way Things
were going thcn-for we were nNlnB up
new camp about four miles away ana
was getting out stores for it. l spoke as
! rustled round.
''Well, Johnny, what is it,
Me got two box, two lillee box. Me
want 'em go TO Camp Thirteen And ne
gave me a piece Of paper with some chi
nese characters on it.
"All right, Johnny, bring in your boxes.
And they brought them in and slowed
them away on the left hand side of the
big door that looked out on the lake, close
TO the dynamite in high pile; and then
the Cinnamon thanked me and departed
] promptly forgot everything about them
and their gear and chucked their invoice
behind tea-chest.
There was "A night Waterman working at
the same place, because with Indians,
white men. loafers, Cinnamon and the
general riff-raff of the west, one was
nightly liable to get anything stolen that
was not too hot or too heavy to be lifted.
! very often used to sit with Jack. the
Waterman. in the store at night; for if l
had had an easy time, 1 didn't care so
much about retiring to my pile of hay
in front of the boss's horse So we fire.
quently sat on EARNING the platform by the
open door. looking out upon the Shushwap
Lake. which was there nine miles across,
towarsd the Salmon Arm Jack told me
stories Of the west-cOme very tough ones
too-how he saw two men hanged on the
bridge at Spokane Falls one morning; how
he himself helped to lynch another
mi his brother or his cous-
earn living stealing horses But he
was good chap all the same. and / liked
him very much, even if he was a hard
nut. for he was as tough as hickory, with
a bright eye and plenty Of grit; so we GOT
on pretty well together
One night when we were sitting on the
platform in the moonlight. about seven or
eight days after those Cinnamon had come
In. 1t seemed to me that there was an I'M
pleasant odor about the place Now. there
are odors and odors. There are some that
are very suggestive. Not long before we
had found dead man in the lake He
had had long bath, no one knew how
long; in fact, the doctor took a good deal
of thought to reckon it up. even if he did
know that 1t was hot weather, and that the
water there was pretty warm. We took
him and showed him in a box and that
night he lay outside just underneath this
PLATFORM saw him. Perhaps it was the
memory of that CHASTITY white face star
ing up at the moon that made me dislike
this smell, or that made the smell so sug-
gestive-but that l cannot say. Anyhow.
! shifted and looked at Jack, and Jack
shifted and looked at me; and l said:
Il smell SMELL
And Jack said: so do l."
Jack" l said again, Il should like to
know whether you, as man of some ex-
perience, would like to say off hand, what
that smell suggests to you?"
He said: Il reckon it suggests the same
TO me as 1t does to you, Texas"
And l said: Right you are, my son. .
For we both knew it. or so it seemed to us.
1T must be somewhere about" said
Jack. Have you ever been right under
the store, Texas?" for the store was built
on stumps and piles; there was a space
underneath 1t of beach single. The
drunk chaps used TO go and lie under il
for shelter; sometimes you would hear
them snoring right through the floor. II
did not seem impossible that somebody
might be underneath who had got oveI
snoring for ever. So we took the Lantern
and went out and crawled underneath; but
we found nobody. We went back into