The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-06-06
MONK, THE GOAT BUTTER.
A CHASTE CHAPTER FROM MON
TANA SPORTING LIFE


Helena and Butte CitS ana Its Culmination
In n Darky's triumphant nuchinE Against
the Goats OF Butte-The Buffers waterloo.
Tho man who had been In South America had
just finished q story about an ~orang-outang.
beside which Kipling's "Biui" was of no ac-
count. Three other men had told animal stories
from India, and the rest Of tho crowd was strug-
Cling not to look skeptical, when Col. Hutch,
who was known to have spent his early and late
years In the Northwest, wriggled around on his
chair, took a long breath, and remarked:
Now, when l was In Montana"
A deep silence followed. and then each man
settled down in his scat to listen, for only once
in a great while would Col. Hutch tell a Montana
story, and never when he was asked.
when l was In Montana" repeated the Col.
onel, "the silver mines were all going, and every
man in the State had metal TO smelt. Tho boys
spent their money as fast as the mints made II
for them, which was too slow for some of the
crowd, and there was no want, no poverty. and
nothing but plenty to eat, plenty to drink,
plenty to wear and money to gamble
with. Naturally we wero a sporty thronE. and
1t was only according TO human nature that We
were always trying to burn up the neighborhood
with something now. l was ono Of the Helena
crowd. and in our bosoms we cherished a most
cordial contempt for the boys Of Butte City.
We regarded them as our natural rivals. Butte
being the largest city near us. and tho boys
there being Just as we'll of and just as heavy
s%penders as we were. II the Butte crowd got
a-hold OF a slugger. tho first thing they'd do with
him would DO to ring him in on us and carry
of our money. II we could fool them with
O ringer wo generally did II, and so
things went merrily on until In one month the
Butte boys did us up on q prize fighter. q rife
shot and a wrestler. They cleaned us out, and
a. h,,rt a,r ,rtl, = ~ D-tNn tha x,hol4 t1r~r
was drinking up our money, and their news
paper was making fun OF us in every issue. We
didn't like 1t and We were racking our brains for
some way to get even, when one day a colored
man came into town and announced that no
wanted q hacker. We seized him and ran
him of to a saloon TO find out what no
could do. We naturally supposed he was q
fighter and no was, but not the kind we thought.
He almost ioored US when he said that he was
the champion goat butter Of the world, that he
would fight any go at we'd produce in q ten.foot
ring and guarantee to knock him out All he
wanted was a hacker. he said, and he'd mako
his own and everybody else's fortune by going
around the country knocking out goats. He as
sured us that nobody in tho West had ever heard
OF him and that he was q dead safe bot.
when We came to look the man over we
found him an ordinary looking negro, Weighing
about 40 pounds. He had o rather large head
and massive shoulders. but otherwise there was
nothing remarkable about him. and we would
not have noticed his peculiarities had we not
had a particular interest in him. BY way OF illus
barroom With his head a couple OF times, and
offered to break II in II tho proprietor would
him to the floor, whereupon he promptly banged
his head against 1t, making all the glasses be-
I'VE kept that fellow In Helena for two weeks,
and during that time he laid out a dozen goats
for us. His performance was the queerest thing
which extended from his chest to his hips. 1t
was heavily padded over the stomach and Sc
waist and across The shoulders. He never
wore anything, but that harness and
he Fought ssf Of the ''' PSets ON in his bhS hands rindSs; and and
knees. with his head clean shaven. When
we first put a goat against him we were a bit
leave his heavy crop OF hair on. He declined to
give the goat any such edvantaec; howeyer,
cushion, and that his blows wouldn't count.
we'll. the time came to play our hard against
they had q goat they thought could knock out a
man, We bad a man we'd bring up and try
man, would fEht a goat in q ten-foot ring. on his
hands and knees and forfeit the fight II he used
S sss s1.Soo but on his a rd head they se!SSy pro ostsssa so 70
came OF. Ths Esss Sas ( sood..iss$ fellow
man, had been knocking out Just such goats for
us for two weeks. and we had no fear OF the re-
thea our man crnwled In the ring and began
mGki3g faces a. the goat, The goa! LOCKED sur,
lodged, and just as the goat turned around. but.
ted him in the nose. 1t nearly knocked the goat
OF his feet, and you never saw such a SURPRISED
another rush at the negro. Monk lodged once
RIBS With I his head. OHTf Then he lee SIsSdN after crit It. 81 and /.
smashed 1t three times over the side Of the head,
sSs ri i@a si, iS' a tsrFii fhs t fSS1 sSH Wien ah sh sld soS ct
got loose It jumped, out Of the ring. and the
s said q S %9rd, ,OS ~ t0 eoiisc es pb bets sn %na ao se our pe %sn
back TO Helena as quickly as we could.
We'll. the story OF the goat fighter and his
and MSf1 every "G man who oWnesa I a f@ht aiE9I goat
wanted to put him against the, negro. We so-
again tV when an NOM mi n eoeidn nGss set e out q the the S %a2
squarely on top Of the head and go sailing
US ws thai ss,e es aSiy to on 't t"pi il 10 because %ss sp his to a's cd
smashed to bits, he said. If he caught a butt on
and he was a mint, Time and again when we
found big money behind some mining camp
got square, but we took on all corners, and our
man laid out the goats one after another,
wa" ~s ws al III te sne ' e so and 1t A SS%e a IL ;u1 al IL:
from Butte was a mining camp, called Poney
They used to publish a paper up there called the
Poney Erpress, and they Just thought there
wasn't anything in the State good enough for
them. We had Just come back from a trip when
we got word from Poney that they had n goat
up there that they wanted TO put up against our
man. We wanted Mont to lay Off n
week and enjoy some Of, the, money, he'd
earned. but he wouldn't hear OF It.
Montana was getting on 10 him, he
said, and pretty soon he wouldn't be able to get
q bet. He wanted to work the State when II
was hot. he said, so we took him up TO Poney and
the crowd bet us on their goat until we hadn't
n cent left 10 wager. The goat was certainly
a beauty. They had captured him wild in the
mountains and had been saving him for Monk
saw, with crinkly horns and the wiekedest ego
that ever glared at an enemy. 1t took four men
to hold him. while Monk got in the ring, and
when thoy let go. instead OF rushing, y Just
crouched and sized up the negro. Monk
made faces at the boast according to his custom
but the goat meyer moved. he lust kept those
bad a way OF looking out Of the ring at US. whe1
failed to rouse the goat he laughed outright, and
then half turned HIS head around toward where
and some others sat and winked. 1t was thu
last thing Monk ever did. The goat charged