Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1898-03-09
JIM REEDS PRIZE.

Never heard toll Of Jim Recd and the
time lie had witt TINT Ir,t,..c stamp 4irl
from NORTH ..oliuus Why thought ev-
eryhody knew ut that Vel, the way
1t happened "a. tai-' .jfa was in chonEe
of a coal iaItrC'vr rear Trinidad Colo.
The mine ally t,iui god to Uncle sam
but there wiz TWO II three tiitlt.eut sets
of people Lu Wor, trying 10 rove up ON
it, and .Llil was sent Gown by tie TT hest Of
the lot to sort I'll hold the fort beng II at
posSessIoa j, nine FONTS Of til law a. the
saying gDs, ana rather Etsre whoa II
comes 10 land case.
We! L. first Jim though; he bod a soft
snap ere wasn't much worl, to do ex
cept to COX his own meals unt, !o9R after
the ltt., log cabin and the little - d day
COMING IN rs regularly n. tho clock licked,
but il DIN take him l0nf 20 find out that
tie lest kind of Jobt. .ls.:1 can tackle
i ont y here he docsn b.. .nything to
.. u that : exactly " ~,.s the matter
IL Jim, and that's where the trouble
Ltl"n.
y, | never knew exactly whether 1t
was t-ecause Of the ordinary way that satan
l&s. up mischief for people out of work
oil \, neither it : sort of human nature for a
u
ai.} thing else to do, but at any rate Jim
med To geo mighty fond of the postof-
all Of u sudden, and then be began to
t on that there was girl back east that
lie had known for long time that was,
likely to come out and help hold down
that coal claim. Some of the neighbors
susplcioncd that she was n postage stamp
girl. but IAN said no; she was an old
schoa!1untrof his ;Eat lie had known whom
he Vas Il tio, and that the two Of them
had aiHay- teen kind Of sweet on each 9th.
or and only waiting until they could see
their way clear t. getting married.
And then, after awhile, linn went up to
the hotel at trinidad and gave it cut that
lie MAS going to niece his bride, and She
WAS L. he there ON certain day, and he
was to he back at the station On another
day with his witc-they were to bo mar
ried at the hotel - and the neighburs
thought it wouldn't be any more than po-
lite to meet the newly married couple at
the station and give them pleasant wei
come to their western home. But, in spite
Of TIN folks at tho depot to meet them,
Jim zion come, and he dIdn / come he
next day, and the next day he did come,
but lie came alone, and lie explained to the
felix's that after be had heen at the hotel u
saylng that ,te COuldn come ut the time
She said -ho " uud.
80 that made more talk than ever, and
some OF the boys wanted To bet that she
wuuldu I come at all. But about Il couple
OF months after Jim got ahothvr letter,
and IL said tits time she Was con11ng oLrC,
and Jim went to Trinidad again, though
this time he didn t tell Anybody lie Was
going ON account Of the Way he Lad been
Joshcd before. But when he got to the
hotel be found that the people there seemed
to know has affairs pretty well, either un
account OF " hat he'd tod them the other
time or else because the whole county hy
that time knew pretty we'll about JIM and
his postage stamp girl, hot having much
else to talk about, as you might guess.
So the clerk said real polite like. well,
Mr.. Reed when do you expect Mrs. Reed
And there was nothing for Jim to do but
redden up like a Ben Davis apple and tell
him. And. Of course, the whole town was
on the lookout Tor Minnie, from the kid
who sold apples at the depot to Judge
Coombs, VINO used to leave his seat in the
courtroom and walk over to the window
when the train came in, for they looked
for her more than one day, and poor Jim
said he dldn know whether hc was IA
widow or an orphan, because he didn get
any letter and didn't know what to ex-
poet. 80 he waited around for pretty near
ly a week, eating his head oil at the hotel
and nothing to show for 1t, and finally he
made up his mind that he d have To 90
back to the cabin again ali by his lone.
some.
But the very night that Jim made up
his mind that he'd have to go back the
next day something did happen. The
train was late that night, and Jim had got
so discouraged waiting that he didn't
think there any Use Of sitting up, so
he went off to bed early When the bus
came up to the hotel from the depot, some
body says to the night clerk, shes come. -
And sure enough she had, and nobody had
any doubts about who she was.
She wash more than 80 years old, kind
Of chunky and not so very bad looking Tor
the kind, as the fellow said. But the worst
thing about her was her complexion, which
was coffee color, and If a fellow had that
color of coffee he wouldn't kick on there
being too much water In it either. Then
she had pretty thick lips, and her hair was
black and shiny like piece of wet coal.
Negro, by jiminyl" says the night
clerk but she wasn't. At least the straight
hair didn't look that way, and there's a
whole lot Of Indian blood among some of
those North Carolina folks, so I've heard.
Well, there she was anyway, and some
of the folks VINO had seen photograph of
Minnie that Jim used to carry around said
she didn lock any more like that picture
than the least little bit in the world.
II believe she is postage stamp girl"
said the night clerk, and everybody around
agreed that they thought so too. What
postage stamp girl; No, it ism Il young
lady that sells stamps in posto1lice. y
postage stamp girl is girl that answers
advertisements in u newspaper: Wanted
A young woman Of not much sense and
considerable money" and get married
through the pqstell4ce
so list to make sule about it, the clerk
nut up n jiul, on Jim, and besides, be want
ed To punish him for the yarns he d been
telling about me little sweetheart OF his