Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1898-10-20

that inheritance. When lawyers once
get hold of an estate it's dollars to
dimes nobody else ever does, and by the
time judgment is awarded in your IA
vor it will be eaten up in fees and in
Vulnerable charges. You cannot count
OIL cent of it. You cannot save any
thing to speak of here. Just capitalize
those debts of yours; borrow the money
from some business man on reasonable
time and interest, get your life insured
in his favor, and go out and join our
troop. We can have you relieved as at
your own request, and once out on the
frontier you can save so much month,
and little by little pull yourself OUT
And leaving his pretty sweetheart.
his chosen friends and pleasant sur
roundings, this was exactly what
Randy Merriam did. Ned Parry, with
puzzled look on his face, had listened
to his mournful recital, had promptly
offered his services and his bank ac-
count, and made but one stipulation:
Don't you go near those fellows, Mer-
Ram. Let me have the bills and Til
send you the receipts" for Parry had
theory of his own.
Sedgwick was as dreary post, so far
could be found in the west. It stood
on pebbly mesa, fat and barren, over
looking the narrow, tortuous, shallow
canyon through which rippled the
waters of the San Mateo. Across the
western horizon hung low. jagged
curtain of distant blue mountains. Far
away to the northwest a snow peak
shimmered in the dazzling sunshine,
but north, east and south the low roll
ing contour of the prairie, like the
ground swell of the ocean, was lost in
illimitable monotony. The only trees
were some willows down in an arroyo
that emptied it's rivulet after a rain
storm into the stream. The only green
things were the blinds and vines upon
the piazas of the officers quarters. Yet
Sedgwick was a big post, an important
post, for great Indian reservation lay
only 20 miles away toward the noun
tains. Two lines of railway met at the
junction three miles down stream, and
by riding few miles westward one
came suddenly upon a fertile valley,
where grass and trees abounded, and
where all nature seemed to smile, and
where by rights the old post should
have been located; but all that was In
dian reservation when Sedgwick was
built, and not until long after did the
territorial officials succeed in getting
it Topped off from Los allotment and
thrown open to settlement. Along the
bowery shades of the Santa Clara were
now ranches by the dozen, and a hun
dred or more of enterprising settlers,
and between them and the thronging
garrison at Sedgwick was peace and
good will and every kindly relation,
when Randy Merriam came out in the
December of the Columbian year, de-
termined to take his punishment like
man. He had sworn off cigars and
extravagances of every kind. For
time he even declined to subscribe to
the hops, which were charming affairs,
for the band was excellent and the regi-
ment blessed with many lovely and
lovable women. Merriam spends all
of his money in stamps was the COM
ment of the garrison wits, for he wrote
day after day to his distant darling in
the east. That winter Ned Parry ac-
cepted the junior partnership in the
great firm of Graeme & Rayburn,, in
Chicago, and moved thither with his
lovely wife, while Fan remained with
Aunt and Uncle Mellen in Gotham, pin
ing, presumably, for her far-away SOL
der boy, and yet writing much less fire.
quently than he did, for the demands
of society were incessant and auntie
kept her 'son the CO."
One day in April there came letter
from the east at sight of which Randy
Merriam's face was radiant with joy.
It briefly told him that the long litiga-
ton was over and that some $4,000, all
that was left of the original Sc 900, were
at his disposal brilliantly, confidently
then, he wrote to Fanny to name the
day, and in course of time there came a
reply, long, self-accusing, penitent,
miserable, but all-sufficient- The day
was named, and so was the man-Mr.
John Harold McLane, of New York,
wealthy widower of SIS.
The wedding of Miss Hayward and
Mr.. McLane followed so speedily the an
nouncement of the engagement that
elderly club men, long years the chums
of the groom, barely had time to con-
coct suitable forms of compliment and
congratu!ation. The reception which
followed the ceremony, however, was
on such a scale of magnifcence as to
leave little room for doubt that the Mel
lens had long been preparing for the
event. The business relations existing
for a decade between. Uncle Mel!en and
John McLane were well understood.
Indeed the match was declared to be of
Uncle Mellen's making, and the whole
transaction was openly referred to by
younger club men as a most Mellenchol-
~ affair. Charlotte Parry went on from
Chicago to attend it, but Ned. her de-
voted lord, pleading very pressing pro-
fessional engagements, positively re-
fused to 90 He wrote a letter to Uncle