Santa Fe daily New Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1885-1897, 1897-08-02
FEB WHITES son SAM
HE WAS THE MOST CANTANkEROUS
MORTAL THAT EVER LIVED.
The Old Mans Tale of His Mad Freaks
and Mishaps-Once He Tried to "Whop
ture With a Bull,

ture With Bull.
Speakin about cantankerous critters, !"
said old Zeb White as we sat together one
evening, II reckon my son SAM who
died five Vars ago, was about the wust.
That boy had a powerful good heart in
him as gineral thing, but thar was days
when the devil seemed to hev possession
of him. 1t wasn't no good to switch him.
and when he was outer sorts it wasn't no
good to argy with him. He was Is Vars
old when cum homo from the wah, and
his head was swelled up big huff fur q
man Of fo'ty. He finally got so that he
felt like rubin up ag'in me. I was at
work in the garden one day when he Gums
home from the Corners a-spittin right and
left and bimeby he Gums out to me and
seq:
g Pop, mebbe yo' calls 20 self the best
man on this yere mounting
g Mebbe l do, seq I, as looks at him
outer my left eye.
But yo amt, though, and l kin
prove it,
90 Then who isp'
GO He stands right yere befo yo', and
his cognomen ar Sam White. Dad, Pm
goin to whop yo'p
@ Better go inter the house, boy, and
hev yo'r mother gin yo' sum bread and
butter and lasses on it.
But that boy had the wust kind o.
swell head" said the old man, land be
was airnest in thinkin he could whop his
pop. He gifts higher and higher, and
bimeby he sails fur me. l knowed what
was comm, and befo' he could wink twice
l Topped him on his back and then
whopped him till he hollered fur mercy.
He lived fur two vars arter that, but he
didn't try that game on me no mo-. One
day he was down to Bristol, and thar was
a circus in town. We went in, and as we
was lookin at the animals one of the lions
lies down, with his tail stickin through
the bars of the cage. l seen Sam a-grin-
min, and l SCI:
Young man, don t yo' go and make
no fool of yorself with that lion!'
I'm gwine to pinch that tail, seq he.
What's the use?'
I've heard as how they were made o.
leather and had no feelin in EN-, and I'm
goin to see about it,
81 didn't say nothin mo-, kase knowed
Sam was bound to have his way if it bust
ed him. He gifts clus to the cage and grabs
that tail and gives it a pinch and twist
and then hangs on to it with all his might
The lion jumps up with roar fit to shake
the hills, and in about a mint that hall
menagerie was upset and the circus felix's
a-pilin on to Sam. One of the older lions
in the cage clawed him across the hand,
a dog bit him in the leg, and them circus
foil WI bf, I,1t
bed fur six weeks. He was in to all Jest
SIGH scrapes as that, and the wonder was
that he lived as long as he did. The older
he growed the mo- cantankerous he got,
and one day the ole woman cum to me
with tears in her eyes and SCI:
'Zeb White, Sans a-gittin wusser
and wusser all the time, and I'm almost
hopin the Lawd will take him away
6 'The Lawd couldn't manage him if
he did git him, SEE |.
i" Mebbe he could. Mebbe he's got
pen up thar in heaven to put Sam into
and keep him till he's bin made over
I'm goin to dye my shawl black and fix
up mournin bonnet, fur that boy O. ours
will be brung home dead befo' he's a
month older.
'Waal, SO he was-so he was, said the
old man, with touch of pathos in his
voice. "He was down to the Corners one
day to blow and brag with the crowd
a-hangin out thar in them days, when
man Gums rdin up on mewl to say that
Bill Clark's bull had broken out o. tho
field and was comm up the road. That
bull was big 'un and hooked two bosses
to DEATH AS the man was givin the
alarm the bull showed up down tho road.
He was PAWN up the airth and maxim the
heavens quake with his heller, and SIGH
as had bosses tied up was mighty spry to
set 'em loose and git 'em away. Nobody
didn't propose to git in the way of that
bull and take chances-nobody but my
son Sam. 1t was chance fur him to
show off, and he riz up and yelled:
"'This is the day l hev bin liyin fur
I'll go fo'th and take that bull by the
horns and flop him on his back.
1.-THE men tried to argy with Sam, but |
he was sot, and, pullin off his coat and
flingin down his hat, he walked out and |
begins to paw and heller, same as the
bull. The critter stops to look at him and |
fur mint or two he must hev wondered |
what it was. Then his eyes began to
glare and his tail stand out, and the crowd |
hollered to Sam to git over the fence He |
never minded 'em, but with roar and |
heller he run in on the bull. :"
"And what happened?" I asked, as
the old man paused.
"Jest what might hev bin looked fur"
he replied. "Sam was tossed 20 feet at the
fust go off, and when that bull got through |
with him thar wasn't much left to bury.
A man Gums up to break the news to us.
wasn't home, and he SEE to the ole wom-
an:
Mrs. White ar yor son Sam home
today?
He amt says she.
And do yo' know why he ain'tp
Not exactly, but reckon it's kase
he's sumwhar else.'
That's right, Mrs. White-perfeckly
right and proper. Yo'r son Sam amt
home and amt comm home kase he's got
bizness up thar in the land O. angels and
golden streets which will detain him fur
sum time. " M. QUAD.