Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1897-09-11

Company went in
to insolvency, its assets consisted of 9
mortgaged right of way through the
sagebrush and several completed but
detached sections of big ditch.
Mr.. Brick Whalen, the contractor
on section three, had finished the
heavy work there and was preparing tc
move camp to section six when the
company went broke. It was, in fact
upon the very day the suspension was
posted that Whalen, having had his
contract work inspected, took the en-
gineer's certificate up to headquarters
to get his check. He received instead
a statement that the company was in
temporary difficulties and an assurance
that it would soon resume.
Whalen had before this worked for
shaky corporations; he knew better,
and lost no time in acting on his
knowledge.
''No good howlin' over a broken
pipe or tryin' to save the pieces," he
told himself. To his gang of twenty
men, he said: "B'ys, the company's
broke and so am I. I can't pay ye
and I can't feed ye. You got to rus
tle."
"What's the matter with us taking
the mules?" said one.
"Them mules and scrapers don'i
belong to me, as I've often told ye, y
said Whalen, whose custom it was to
refer to legendary backer "This
ditching outfit is the property of Mar
tin, of San Francisco, and any man
that NEEDLES with it will get the Sher-
if after him."
"I'll take one, just the same" said
Shorty, "and tell Martin he can have
him again when my wages is paid.
That's about fair"
A few others took the same view of
the equities involved, and took mules,
to which Whalen made only q wordy
resistance. Most of the men were in
duced to accept orders ON the defunct
company for the amount due them,
payable with large interest. "And if
you don't get it very soon, the interest
will double your money" said Whalen.
When the last man had gone,
Whalen went out to the corral and
counted the mules. "Forty-one
head; that was a pretty close call, u
said he.
It was late in the season to find an
other job Of scraping, but the mules
could not live on sagebrush and were
at once started for the railroad. On
small stream where camp was made
one night, band OF trail sheep was
also camped. Whalen eyed them dis
dainfully.
II see tho beggars eat sage, said he.
"Why, certainly" replied the
sheep-man, "that's the finest kind Of
feed for sheep"
II wish work-mules would do that, "
said Brick. II never was so near a
sheep In my life," he continued; "the
smell OF 'em q mile away is enough
for me. Funny little fellows, and
they look some like mules, with ears
and tails cut off. What do you do
with them?"
Double our money on them every
twelve months, was the reply.
No extended description of sheep.
farming would have impressed the
fancy Of the veteran mule-skinner, but
"double your money" was his own
familiar phrase for describing any
hopeful venture, and on that evening
he smoked many pipes Of black plug
over it. A brute that can thrive on a
brush diet and double your money
every year is an interesting creature.
At daybreak Whalen was in the
sheep-camp negotiating a trade OF
sheep for mules on basis of fifty to
one, and prepared to accept much
less. Three days lator he sat in the
door OF the shack which had long done
duty as mess-house on section three ol
the canal, ss many an evening before
he had sat Watching the mules come
in from water. Tonight there was
never q mule in sight. Down the
breeze came pungent odor and q
tinkling Of little bells. Over the
crest Of an adjacent hill appeared the
flock browsing on the rank sage.
''They do look some like mules, y
he soliloquized, "and I'll bet I'm the
only Irishman in America ever owned
. herd Of sheep
Winter came and passed, and the
only Irishman prospered. By roofing
in cut with brush he had commodious
sheds, and cross sections of poles
divided the broad ditch into as many
corrals as he chose. The sheep were
fat and carried heavy fieeces.
Whalen had for help two boys, who
had wandered there and asked fol
work. He had proposed to hire on,
Of them, but the boys protested tina,
they had never been separated, ant
that il they got jobs at different rancho.
"the other one wouldn't know wher.
the other one was," contingency
which they could not abide. 81