The Advocate and news., 1898-11-02

AAAGAAb AA ANOW OLlgtlAAo anu GGtn AnkO=
MO before their final exile to the far
frontier. From that day to this no line
had ever come from the angered and
aging man, even when Laura's baby
girl was born. Funds he sent from time
to time-he knew he'd have to do that,
as he told her mother and she told her
friends-and then, just as more funds
were much needed because of pressing
claims Of creditors whose bills had not
been paid from previous remittances,
Winn being much in the field and Lau-
ra becoming disburser general in his
absence, the major suddenly died, leav.
ing small life insurance for his dis
consulate widow and nothing to speak
of for his children. They had sucked
him dry during his busy life.
The Wins did not invite Mr.. Hodge
to dinner and were not hidden to meet
him. Laura was still in light mourning
for her father, and for days she really
heard very little Of Hodges revelations
regarding her discarded Wyoming lover.
1t was through the nursegirl, an old
soldiers daughter, that she first began
to CLEAN the chaff of the stories fitting
from house to house and to hear the
exaggeration Of Hodges romancings
about Captain Barclays wealth, for
that, after ALL proved the most vividly
interesting Of the travellers tales he
told. Barclay proved to be, said Hodge,
an expert mineralogist and geologist,
and this was of value when craze for
dabbling in mining stocks swept over
Sanders Barclay, who lived so simply
in garrison, was discovered (through q
breach Of confidence on the part of the
officiating clergyman, that we'll nigh
led to another breach) to be the princi-
pal subscriber to the mission church be-
ing built in Laramie City 1t suddenly
became known that Barclay had bal
Rnce in the local bank and reserve funds
at the east, whereupon promoters and
prospeotors by the dozen called upon
him at the fort and strove to induce
him to take stock in their mines. Nine
out Of ten were sent to the right about,
even those who called his attention to
the fact that Colonel This and Major
That were large shareholders One or
two he gave ear TO, and later got leave
of absence and visited their distant
claims. He was out prospecting, said
Hodge, half the time in the fall Of
1868. The ventures of the other officers
seemed to prove prolific sources of as
sessments. The Lord only knows how
much fun and money the mine owners
Of those days got out of the army But
they failed to impress the puritanical
captain and by the summer of 1869 they
ceased to do business in his neighbor-
hood, for, before sending good money
after bad, officers had taken to consult
ing Barclay, and many an tonest fell
lows boarded savings were spared to
his wife and children all through Bar
clay's calm and patient exposition Of the
fallacy of the "company's" claims.
Then, said Hodge, when Charming of
the Twenty seventh was killed by Red
Clouds band back Of Laramie peak
and his heartbroken widow and chill
dren were left penniless, somebody
found the money to send them all to
their friends in New England and to
see them safely established there. And
when Porter's wife was taken so ill
while he was away up north of the Big
Horn and the doctor said that trained
nurse must be had, in the first place,
there came one from far Chicago, and
later, after Porter reached the post.
overjoyed to find his beloved one slow
ly mending and so skillfully guarded,
the doctors told him she must be taken
to the seashore or the south, and, though
every one at Sanders knew poor Porter
had not penny, it was all arranged
somehow, and Emily Porter came back
the next winter rosy, blooming, hap
py wife. No one knew for certain that