The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-04-11
THE TENDERFOoT TURNED.
He Got Even Quickly With Two Very
Bad Men.

He Got Even Quickly With Two Very
Bad Men.
1.-The bad men down my way haven't
been fooling with tenderfeet much of
late years." said George Craig, an Ari-
iona man, who is in Washington in
I-connection with mining case. Ten
derfeet have a way of coming to life
once in a, while, and the wolf-eaters
have found this out. | remember the
| case of a tenderfoot who arrived at
himself in Phoenix back in 1887. He
was a tow-head, with white eyebrows,
peachy skin and a slight lisp-but he
made good. He had struck Arizona
straight from a mining school some
where back east. He hadn't made the
mining engineer proposition stick, and
within a month after he landed in Ari-
IONA he found himself broke in Phoe-
nix. So he got a S. day job pounding
Z! the piano in the back room of Joe Har-
desty's 'Palais saloon. He was pretty
| fair piano sharp and earned his wages.
| His name was Algernon Montclair, and
he looked the name, with his girly skin.
| big blue eyes and mild, inquiring eX-
preston. The boys got to guying him
good deal, calling him mammals an
gel child and that sort of thing, and
they tried pretty hard to get rise out
of the key puncher, but he stood for
the whole thing, and never stopped
playing when they were guying him the
hardest. Joe Hardesty called the gang
down once in a while for ridiculing the
piano player, but when Joe wasn't
around they poured it into the tender
foot pretty hard. His two chief tor
mentors were Buck Freeman, genu-
ineiy bad man, who ran another saloon
and gambling joint further down the
street, and Chop Suey' Pollock, a bad
proposition from San Francisco, who
got his nickname because he could talk
Chink and loved the dope pipe. Both
were killers with records They had
been warned to cease their picking on
the tenderfoot piano player by Joe Hair
desty, who was pretty quick with a
gun himself; but one Sunday the pair,
who were thick friends for some rea-
son or other, combed up the whole lot
along toward night and went down TO
the 'Palais.' They knew that Hardesty
was out of town, and they wanted to
have some fun with the piano whacker.
The tenderfoot was drumming away
when Freeman and Pollock lurched
into the back room of the saloon. Most
of the patrons of the place were up
stairs trying to beat the faro layouts.
Hey, sis, said Freeman to the ten
derfoot, as soon as he got into the
room, you thump that thing pretty
well, don't you? But there's one thing
l never seen you do, an that's play the
piano and waltz at one an the same
time. Never teached you t. do that
did they? You ever seen him do it,
| Chop? he asked his pal, turning to
Pollock.
Not any, said Pollock. But it
| sounds as if it ought to work pretty
good
/ u 5o,,+ I-ro,,, o,,, - I'D ,,,o,.l,, -o;d
| Freeman, because 1 never seen it did
But 1 got a powerful hankerin' t see
| it. Sis. s'pose you heave US one O. them
doublin'- up stunts I'm a-talkin about
I've hearn you do tn key punchin end
of it; now [ want some ballay with it,
Go ahead!
II don't danth,' replied the tender
foot
i" Oh, yeth you do chimed in Pol
/ lock, initiating the tenderfoots lisp.
You can danth all right. You got to
danth
II thay. you fellowth,' began the
piano playing tefp1erfocf. I'm not feel
ing we'll tonight, and thith it'll no time
/ to-
Danth! shouted both Freeman and
Pollock together, suddenly pulling their
/ guns and both of the DULLES planted
! balls within an inch of the tenderfoCt's
/ heels, the bullets boring through the
sole pine floor.
"Algernon Montelair struck up On
! the Beautiful Blue on the piano. at the
same time shutting his feet about
! clumsily in time with the music. His
| gyrationS tickled the two devils behind
him to the limit. They roared out direc-
tons, and when the tenderfoots move
ments seemed to slacken from WeaTi-
/ ness they put another pair of bullets
through the floor close to his feet, and
he went on with renewed energy. There
1 were number of men in the front part
of the saloon who didn't like the thing
a little bit, but they kept out of it
from motives of prudence. The tender
foot played the waltz through and
danced to it twice before his tormentors
grew weary of the fun and let up on
him by walking up to the piano and
! bringing their paws down on the keys
together. They had put away their
guns.
'That'u do YOU, sis said Freeman.
I knowed you could danth. an you've
proved it. You danth like you were
born to it. Your mother must ha' been
a ballay danther, or else
Freeman was walking toward the
front room with Pollock as he said this.
| y thay, YOU called Tenderfoot
Algernon Montcair after him, in quiet
tone of voice, and Freeman turned
around to see what the key punche1
wanted. AS he did so he saw the ten
derfoot standing with his back to the
piano and a gun in each hand. There
were two almost simultaneous reports,
and both Buck Freeman'S arms were
broken close to the shoulders. Chop
Suey' was quick on the trigger, and he
had his two guns out before the tender
foot's pair belched forth a couple more
flashes. Then Pollock's twin guns fell
to the floor like so much junk. Both
of his arms We're broken. too.
You dirty dogth,' said the tender
foot to the two helpless DULLES, as they
stood and looked at him savagely with
their shattered arms at their sides, and
then he walked over to them and spat
in their faces, one after the other. Free
man gave a sudden reach out with his
right boot as If to trip the tenderfoot
his idea probably being to get the
piano player down and stamp the life
out of him-but the tenderfoot, whose
mild blue eyes were now blazing, was
too quick. He hoped back out of
reach like a boxer, and with his right
hand gun he bored a hole fair and
plump through Buck Freemans fore
) head. Pollock begged for his life like
cur, and the tenderfoot, after looking
, him over doubtfully for a full minute,
gave it to him. He took Chop Suey'
! by the back of his shoulders and kicked
| him all the way to the front door.
where he thrust him across the wood
pavement into the gutter. Then he
got his hat and started out. Mean
i while the whole crowd from upstairs
had come down, having heard the
shooting. They held the tenderfoot up,
ans for ten minutes he had his hand
shaken as it was probably never shaken
before, and he would have been blind
paralyzed on champagne that cost So
i bottle if he had consented to drink
: it,"
.'He walked up the street a couple OF