Evening star., 1899-03-25
THE TENDERFOOT TURNED

mining case. "Tenderfeet have a way Of
coming to life once in a while, and the
wolf eaters have found this out l remem-
Der the case of tenderfoot who arrived
at himself in Phoenix back In 1887. He
was tow-head, with white eyebrows, a
peachy skin and a slight lisp-but he made
good. He had struck Arizona straight
from mining. school somewhere back east.
He hadn't made the mining engineer prop
osition stick, and within month after he
landed in Arizona he found himself broke
In Phoenix. So he got a s. a day job
pounding the piano in the back room of
Joe Hardesty's 'Palais' saloon. He was a
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, inquring ex-
presslon. The boys got to guying him a
good deal, calling him mamnas angel
chlld' 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
guylng him the hardest. Joe Hardesty call
ed the gang down once in a while for ridi-
cui1ng the piano player, but when Joe
WASH around they poured it into the ten
aeffoot pretty hard. His two chief tor
mentors were Buck Freeman a genuinely
BAD man. who ran another saloon and
gambling joint further down the street, and
Chop Suey' Pollock, bad proposition
from san francisco, who got his nickname
because he could talk Chink and loved the
dope pipe. Both We're killers with records
They had both been warned to cease their
picking on the tenderfoot piano player by
Joe Hardesty, who was pretty quick with a
gun himself; but one Sunday the pair. who
We're thick friends for some reason or
other, combed up the whole lot along to-
ward night and went down to the 'PaIais ,
Ihey knew that Hardesty was out of town.
ana they wanted to have some fun with
the piano whacker. The tenderfoot was
thrumining away when Freeman and Pol
lock lurched into the back room of the sa-
loon. Most of the patrons of the place
We're upstairs, trying to beat the faro
layouts.
Hey, sis said Freeman to the tender
loot as soon as he got into the room,
you you thump that thing purity well, don't
You? But there's one thing I never seen
you do, an that's play the piano an. waItz
at one an the same time. Never teached
you t do that did they? You ever seen
MN do 1t, Chop? he asked his pal, turning
Not any said Pollock. But it sounds
as II 1t ought to work pretty good
doht know how it 'ud work said
Z freeman, because l never seen it did But
got a powerful hankerin' t. see it. Sis.
s'pose you heave us one O. them doubIin, I'm
stunts m a-talkin' about I've heearn you
DO Tn key punchin' end of 1t; now | want
some ballay with it. Go aheadr
:. .db 6oh danth, replied the tenderfoot
lnltatiEg the tenderfoots lisp. You can
danth all right You got to danth.'
may, you fellowth,' began the piano
Paying tenderfoot, I'm not feeling well to-
hight, and thith ith no time to
Danthn shouted both Freeman and
foIiock together, suddenly pulling their
guns, and both of the bullies planted halls
within an inch of the tenderfoot's heels,
floor. -' Piti0
'Algernon Montelair struck I'D ON the
Beautlful Blue on the piano, at the same
Tune shuffling his feet about clumsilv In
time with the music. His gyrauons tickIad
re Two deVlis behind him to the limit
iheS Ioared out directions, and when the
tenderfoots movem ents seemed to slacken
from WEAKNESS they put another pair of
bullets through the floor close TO his feet
ana ana ne went on with renewed energy
ne ns'e were number of men in the front
part OF the saloon who didn't like the thing
little bit, but they kept out of IT from
motives OF prudence. The tenderfoot played
the waltz through and danced to 1t twice
oeIore ms tormentors grew weary of the
i0n and let up on him by walking lin tn tha
piano and bringing their paws down on the
guns. ' 'eii
" 'That'n do you, SIS said Freeman. Z
krowed you could danth an you,va Trn,.d
1t. You danth like you were horn to IL
iour mother must ha' been a balIav dan.
ther or else ''-
freeman was walking toward the front
room with Pollock as he said this
thay, you called TendArfoot A1eer-
non Montclair after him, in a quiet tone of
voice, and Freeman turned around to SEQ
What the key puncher wanted. AS he did
so he saw the tendarfoot standing with bic
back to the plano and a gun in each hand r,de
Ihere were two almost stmultanaous ra
ports and both of Buck Freeman's arms
we're broken close to the shoulders. .Chon
Iis was quick on the trigger, and he had
h..
PAR nelched forth a couple more flashes
linen hneh Poilock's twin guns fell to the fioor
il hke 50 much junk. Both of his arms were
broken, too. ' ''i 'i' were
You dirty dogth,' said the ten5arsoo,
20 tne two helpless bullies, as thew stood
+hu tii iooked al MIN savagely with their shat
.dT .Tu arms at their sides, and then he
faens tneu on over 10 them and spat in their
= a"Ses, one after the other. Freeman gave
d sudden reach out with his right boce3 as
II 10 trip the tenderfoot-his idea nroha hIT,
peins 10 get the piano player down and
foot ,A'p ,h me me , out Of him-but the tender
liss, was TOO quick. He hoped back o1It
oi fsach like boxer, and with his right
nand gun he bored a hole fair and nI7mn
haS nloush buck freemans forehead. Pollock
oesSed Tor his life like a cur and the
tenderfoot, after looking him over donht-
IuIiy lor full minute, gave 1t to him, He
took Chop Suey' by the back Of his
SHOULDERS sI and kicked him all the way to the
NNN'' "iiSic ne MIN across the
WOOD pavement into the gutter. Then he
got MS hat and started out. Meanwhile
the Whole crowd from upstairs had come
ooWn, having heard the shooting. They
heid the tenderfoot up, and for ten minutes
ne mad his hand shaken as it was proha hlv
never shaken before. and he would have
been blind paralyzed on Champagne that
cost sl2 bottle If he had Consented to
drink It, "
He walked up the street a couple of
docks, when he met the night marshal.
VINO mad heard of the shooting and was on
MS way at lope to Hardesty's place. The
piano player surrendered himself to the
night marshal and was locked I'D over
night III the calaboose. A coroner's iurv
was got together at 10 O'clock the next
morning and inside of exactly eight min
utes the verdict was reached that Buck
ing freeman had met a justifable death at
the hands of tenderfeot who is hereby
acquitted The jury having been dissolved
the members of it repaired to a room and
formulated resolutions of thanks to the
tenderfoot for having wiped two hard cfti-
zens out or the towns population When
Joe Hardesty came back the next dav and
heard how his piano thumper had lined IN
70 meet an occasion he gave AIpernon
Montclair 5000 and ticket up to the Colo
rado mining country, where the tenderfoot
wanted to go. i'o'
Tsnderfeet haven't been toyed with
much down here in Phoenix since that
thing happened"