The herald., 1897-11-28
A STRANGE MEETING
TWO DEADLY ENEMIES DIS
COVER THEIR KINSHIP
written for The Herald.)


was reading the Sunday Herald last
week in Central park. The forenoon was
as lovely and balmy as could be desired.
With a good cigar and plenty of inter-
esting reading matter I was in hopes
of killing time in congenial manner
till the dinner hour should call me to a
discussion of another kind, fully as
pleasant as the present occupation.
I had not been immersed very long in
the doings of the world at large, as re-
ported by the Associated Press. when
man seated himself rather closely to
me. I looked up and took hasty sur
vey of the newcomer. He was tall
man, apparently some So years of age
strongly built and dressed very much
like a miner in his Sunday clothes. HIS
garments consisted of black diagonal,
more or less rusty the legs of the trous-
ers and the arms of the coat being con
siderably shorter than what they might
have been.
NV attention, however, was more par
ticularly attracted to a couple of long
scars on his cheeks, one of which was
fully five inches long. The other went
down from the left temple. narrowly
missing the eye and buried itself in the
corner of his mouth, under a rather
heavy, dark brown moustache.
The newcomer fidgetted about,
coughed, threw away a half-smolled
cigar lit another, and behaved in such
a manner that I knew he was in talk
ative mood and had selected me as a
victim for his loquacity. I awaited the
ordeal with dread. Central park, on
Sundays particularly, is the rendezvous
of all the cranks in Los Angeles, and
hardly one of these cranks that is not
an abominable bore. There is to be
found there the crank on sociology, the
ology and half dozen other "ologies,'
in all his glory. He can offhand ex-
plain to you, satisfactorily to himself,
matters that have puzzled wise people
for centuries.
was afraid that the man in rusty
black waS a Socialist who was going to
make me wish that l was dead. After
q few more squirms and movements
which indicated clearly that he was
going to open his batteries upon me. he
had a happy thought. Taking out
cigar case he thrust it toward me, with
a tentative stranger, hev a smoke!"
took it and then 1 knew that was
gone. AS I extracted the cigar from the
case I saw that two fingers of the man 5
left hand were lacking, and a deep fur
row in the wrist was a further indication
that he had gone through violent ex
ercises of some sort at one time of his
life. After had lighted the strangers
Indifferent domestic" he considered
the ice broken and waded at once into
a conversation of which he betrayed all
IL CUFF fari,, f,.o,,
indigestion of words and they flowed
as water from an arteSian well. Sub
ject after subject was exhausted and yet
he had said nothing about himself,
which was strange for a man of such
conversational powers.
During a lull in his wordy avalanche
asked him how be came to be so cruelty
marked on the face and hands. My
stranger Immediately frightened up.
"Oh" said he, that is quite a story.
and if you care to hear it I don't mind
If l tell 1t to you"
without waiting for my assent hc
plunged into his yarn:
Il was born thirty-seven years ago in
Pike county, Masoura; my name is Jack
Summers now, although it warnt that
when was christened. I had a brother
eighteen years older than myself whom
I had never seen because he ran away
from home when he was seventeen, and
my parents never heard from him any
more. When I got to be sixteen I was
as tall as am now and pretty husky
boy I was allus thinking of going to
Texas to be a cowboy and one day I
took my old mare, my Winchester and
Colt six-shooter and vamoosed from the
ranch without saying goodbye to nary
soul, bound for the Lone Star state.
I done some vaquero work off and on for
couple of years, but had difficulty
with fellow, in which got bullet in
my leg and he plain coffin. That kind
er disgusted me with Texas and l
skipped to Chihuahua.
Here I gets acquainted with some
mugs that had plenty of stuff when
ever they were in town, and they warn't
afraid to spend it. nuther. I gets in with
them and finds that they We're contra
andista--smugglers, you know. They
were UP to all games. They carried
American goods into Mexico; tobacco
and mescal and other things from Chi