Evening star., 1898-10-15
A ROUGH RIDERS STORY.
How Happy Jack Got the Drop on n
Spanish Sharpshooter.

Spanish Sharpshooter.
From LesIIe's Weekly.
One spot there was in the rough riders
camp where you could always find curl
Gus group. visitors and troopers; this was
about Josie's cage, Josie being a mountain
lion, one Of the regimental pets. To watch
Josie snarl ard show her white fangs, to
admire the daring of her tanner the one
rough rider whose touch she would permit,
as he rolled her, splitting and clawing, on
her back and cuffed her playfully, and
otherwise displayed his mastery; to see her
" elcome poor little frowsy cuba, the regt-
mental yellow dog. and pat him with her
paws and show that she loved hin-these
were sights that never grew tame for the
followers of Col. Roosevelt. 1t was in this
group one morning that l met Happy
Jack" and for an hour or so thereafter 1
enjoyed the picturesqueness Of his talk.
Happy Jack" is a product of Arizona; In
time of peace he delves the ground for pre-
cious metal, and breaks the monotony OF
things by playing faro. tackling bad men
and painting the evidence Of his presence
over the visage of frontier towns. He does
Ill things. good or bad. with delight, and
ii is not on record that he ever was afraid.
He is a sharp-featured, clean-shaVen young
man of about thirty He speaks English
like anybody else, dialect writers to the
contrary Notwithstanding.
Tell him about how you got the Spanish
Si-sal bSitSDkSA, AAAifSB SeNAA SA4S VI NAto
yes" said I, tell me about the Spanish
shar9shooter."
without further urging. Happy Jack"
took the center of the stage and proceeded
thus: 1T was on the great day when pretty
much everything happened down there-the
LIST of July-and 1 had just gone back from
the firing line a few hundred yards TO carry
a wounded comrade out of danger. But IL
looked as If Ia done the wrong thing, for
just as l came up to where some doctors
and orderlies were, zip came a bullet under
my hat and went into a gentleman behind
me ] was just thinking what a lot OF life
there was in that spent bah, when zip came
another bullet on the other side Of my head
and landed in tree.
q That's no spent ball. said |; there's
lad getting range on me
It's a Spanish sharpshooter somewhere
about said an orderly; he's killed eight or
nine men in the last half hour. See 'em
there He pointed to lot Of dead bodies.
We'll said J. if that's the case L guess
I'd better go hunting for that Spanish
sharpshooter.' So i goes down on tha
ground and gets under cover and L waits
and l watches to make out where the fell
low is You see, he had smokeless powder
and il was a job to fix him.
Il guess it took ME fifteen minutes before
I found him; he was high up I'm a cocoanut
palm. close to the trunk; just made dark
spot there like crows nest. So { throws
up my sight to six hundred yards, gets good
and steady. and then | says, Almighty
God, put Justice and Christianity In this
shot and then / pulls the trigger. j said
that because / was shooting with hraE-
Jorgensen. and amt so well used to them.
If I'd had a Winchester ] wouldn't have
needed TO pray; a Winchester is Happy
Jacks graft every time. Well. sir, 1t work
ed all right. Justice and Christianity pre-
vailed and my friend, the Spanish sharp
shooter, came tumbling out Of that cocoa
nut tree so fast he never knew what hit
him. He fell forty feet and was dead be-
fore he struck the ground