The Lafayette gazette. [volume] (Lafayette, La.) 1893-1921, 1896-02-29

arranged. That evening the colone
held an enthusiastic reception at tn
! Alagazan, the leading hotel, where Their
were none SO confident of the futur
OF Lariat, so jovial, and withal so LAWS
with his money, as he. incidentally
it may be said that the bar of the Ala
gazan did a big business, and that tn
| landed ProPrietors of Lariat, Hank Nc
Dougall especially, awakened to TIL
TACT that they had good thing.
/ The next morning the colcnel, note
! book in hand, and accompanied by tn,
! leading citizens of the town, inspected
! property available for the uses of tn,
! Black Butte Cattle company. In til,
afternoon-for the agents time wa.
limited-the purchasing began. Til.
courteous old gentleman who had en-
tertained them so Hospitality the nigh,
before did not hagglc over prices. II.
paid cash for his new acquisitions II
crisp, new $500 notes-a proceeding
which, to make change, unfortunately
drained the town in u short time of al
it's smaller denominations.
BY evening the English syndicate
had acquired choice tract of land
lying on both sides of the railroad, in
the heart of Lariat, for which it had
paid out some $4,000. McDougalI,
editor and town marshal, had made
some thousands by the deal, and had
he been a ready speaker would prob
ably have said: ''These Englishmen are
the biggest suckers 1 ever saw But,
as it was, he contented himself with the
simple words: beats ally"
1t wanted but a few minutes of train
rying his compact little valise, his face
beaming with happy good nature, saun-
tered leisurely down to where the big
engine was putting and blowing, pre-
Parntory to it's long trip down the road.
II must leave just at this tine,'' he
said, Ito transact some very important
business in Cheyenne. Bat I'll he back
in a week or ten days, and begin work
And he treated the lit
tie crowd about the train to cigars
The whistle footed a warning note,
the bell rang and the colonel cordially
shook hands all around. Stepping on
the rear platform of the train, he
turned about once more and waved his
good-byes to persons in the distance.
Just at the moment thot the wheels
began to turn, Hank McDougall, lis
marshaIs star cleaning on his vest--
he wore no coat-ca1nc running down
Wyoming avenue from the post Office,
j yellow paper in his hand, which he
waved dramatically over his head.
stop that train!" yelled the town
But the conductor and en-
yineer did not hear, and the train |
moved on. |
Jump, you scoundrel, Jump" again |
'elled Hank, at the same time drawing
lis gun. The colonel's only answer
vas a polite wave of the hand. Then
Tank took IL snapshot at the fast de-
PARTING train, and-would you believe
t?-that little old man whipped out
wo pistols from somewhere, quick as
wink, and for a few moments the
way the bullets whistled about the
leads of the crowd along the track
vas something wonderful. And as the
rain grew smaller and smaller in it's
course over the prairie,
he last act of the lone passenger on
he rear platform was to wave a white
towards the little city of
ariat and disappear within the car.
The town marshal replaced his gun
1 his hip-pocket and turned sadly
way. Deaf to repeated inquiries as to
ne meaning of it all, he disappeared
'ithin the editorial sanctum; for in the |
lidst of all excitement he still remem-
cred that, ex-officio, he was an editor,
nd-he was both a thrifty and eau
Gus man.
An hour later another edition of the
Nponent appeared, double-leaded, as
in mourning, and the copies sold for |
dollar apiece. The editorial was brief +
Id to the point: !
"From a telegram received only too
tie by our town marshal, because of {
e necessity of forwarding it by mail }
ON Crouch's, it appears that our la te {
visitor, Stemble, was i
,ne other than the well-known dcs- !
.rado and confidence man Ike Rogers, r
tely fugitive from the Black Hills. f
is painful to be forced to state that i
e greenbacks which Rogers so gen s
ously distributed while in Lariat are c
ever counterfeits, in exchange for I
hich he carried away thousands of 1
liars of our citizens earnings.
tThe editor of the Exponent bids
rewell to his many friends, and an t
unccs his intention of pulling up p
axes and moving Immediately to the II
g Horn country."-Lippincot Mag a
inc. t
Going Too Far. | a
L /