Arizona republican., 1898-02-12
THE HOUSE THAT CANT BUILT.

A few weeks ago MT. Cant decided to build a house, so he hitched up his old gray horse early one morning and came to town to consult with contractor. As he wished the house to be we'll built he decided to figure with J. s. Hendrix. Accord ingly he took that long whiskered gentleman into the front office of the Tempe house, the most convenient place in town, and laid before him his plans.
 It was some time past noon when the matter with MT. Hendrix was sat isfactorily arranged. Both entlemen felt the need of a good meal. so thy went across the street to the Office cafe where they replenished their ex- pended energies on the excellent food set before them from the kitchen of G. F. Richards.
 After dinner, having learned from his carpenter, approximately the amount of lumber he needed, MT. Cant went down the street to the Blinn lumber yard and spent several hours figuring with George N. Gage. He learned that he could do as well on lumber in Tempe as anywhere. and therefore ordered about 19,00O feet immediately.
 AS he would now have more people than usual to feed consequent to his building enterprise, and as he was short on groceries, he went into the store of William Goodwin and closed the days business by placing a large order for that young mercha nt's stock in trade.
 A few minutes later an old gray horse giving evidence of the splend d care it had received at G. R. Finch's livery during the day, was seen leav- ing toyn with MT. Cant in the buggy behind, his characteristic foot hang ing out of the box and a smile of sweet satisfaction Illuminating his counts- nance.
 The next morning he was in town bright and early. The first thing he did was to stop, on his way in, at the H. W. Ryder company's estab- lishment and figure with MT. John ston on some hardware.
 While these two had their heads to- gether, MT. Hendrix went down the avenue. He wanted aid in the con- struction of the house and nothing short of Justice Meyers would do him, and to make the necessary ar
 
 went around to the court house where the two were closeted until noon. Now, then, as MT. Cant is a highly respected citizen and, further, on ac- count of his going ahead with so valuable improvement to the south side, his every move was of interest to the public, so it is professionally safe to mention that the next pace he entered after leaving Ryder's was the Root drug store.
 When Messrs. Hendrix and Meyers came to an agreement they went around on Mill avenue, where they found MT. Cant talking to some ca-tle buyers who were negotiating for some of his fine beeves. There was wink from MT. Hendrix, and bli1 from Mr. Meyers, which were both answered by a sweet smile from MT. Cant. It was the mutual understanding that a three sides of the triangle were equal and MT. Cant being so pleased in his belief that he would now have a square" house, that he excused him self from the buyers and led his car penters across the street into the Laird & Dimes drug store and called for the drinks, which were draw :, from the stores popular soda foun- tain At the fountain MT. Cant told MT. Hendrix to order the nails he needed.
 The next morning MT. Gant's heavy wagon came in after lumber. The driver knowing that he had a great | deal of lumber to haul a long ways. | determined to take as much at one trip as possible. The first load was topped off with several kegs of nails from J. J. Hodnett's hardware store. When the lumber was all on the I ranch the wagon gave evidence of hard usage and the horses shoes showed the wear of many miles of travel. Mr. Cant ordered the whole outfit into the shop for repairs. The blacksmith was out of the shoes and iron he needed for the job. While he was ordering he concluded to lay in a stock of these lines ard therefore gave large order on Phoenix, in the hands of Lew Collins, the stage man Now. the Collins stage has a re- markable business and on this day 1 MT Collins had an extra number of 1 large orders for freight to be hauled up from Phoenix the next morning He has very recently learned that it | would have paid him to have run an extra on that fatal day.
 The heavy pull injured the best horse in his team. The horse contin- ued to do service on the stage, how ever, not acting unwell nor showing any evidence of anything serious un- til about two weeks later it gave out in front of John Knights store on the way back from Mesa. MT. Collins | took it out of the harness and led it ! into town and put it in Finck's stable, where the faithful animal died a few hours later. Mr. Collins had refused $75 for it. The unfortunate stage man was noticeably touched, not be- cause it would take money to replace the horse, but because he had lost a staunch friend. Nor was this all the trouble that that heavy load caused. The stage had long been getting loose in it's joints. The extra load racked it woefu1ly and necessitated the use of wire and rope, which left the parts together for awhile. Strange to say, the stage quit about the same l time tho oOOd hOrco diod MT Co1J;pc