The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1899-12-29

IN front of us. Some of them fer
safety sake and some fer shame sake"
and Jim Furthermore said we ought to
wear the memory of them disgraced
and wicked days about us as an an
cient sailor or some old salt, wore q
dead goose about his neck as keep
sake that he had been low down and
sinful
But drunkards as we all certainly
was, and what is more, vergin' clost
onto bein' bar-fer-keeps, old drunk
ards as was no likely salvation for, we
want any of us SO very happy and
comfortable and easy into our minds, at
the beginnin' of that night year ago
In Hank Harmon's blacksmith shop
in the alley, jist off the Rudy-some-
thing, bullygard in the city of Sardin-
apolis, where We boys lived. We put
the boss blanket over the gapinest
cracks to keep the wind frum farm
out the smutty lamp that stood smokin'
and Wobbly on an old table where
Hank writ his accounts, amongst lot
Of nails and bolts and rivets and small
gearin, with jug Of Joe Howard's
cheapest, hellishest whisky in the mid
die as kind of devil center piece. o,
can't l, and can't all of US cronies jist
remember exactly, how that jiggly,
trembly, dirty old table looked and l
am bound that it had the delirium
tremens, if anything in the world bar
rim man can have them. I can smell
the oil that Hank spilled when he
filled the lamp with his nervous,
shaky hands and it run along amongst
the old iron and under Hanks day
book and dropped over the edge onto
the floor and went down a crack. And
there was the white jug with the blue
letterin': 81 gal.," with a sheaf of blue
wheat below to make it look tasty and
sell.
And this was our New Years table!
Four men-made in the image Of God!
And men for their folks and neigh
bors to be proud of-except they was
drunkards. There was Jim Cameron,
one; me. two; Jim Green, three
whose father had been preacher
and Hank Harmon, as owned the shop.
AS said we want over happy and
comfortable that night, considerin' we
had such reckless layout and an
early start. 1 have frequent noticed,
that you can't always kick conscience
under the table or settee as you can
an unruly dog that whines and banks
when he has no call to. And some
how conscience has habit of gettin'
around and in the way on such dom
days as New Years, Christmas and the
like. And four consciences as hadn't
had their just deservin's nor innings
for many month, slipped their halters
that night year ago and managed to
make things unpleasant for their own
ers. i suspect the troubled waters
mentioned in the scriptures means
somethin' like this. But any way we
was troubled onaccountably.
Not so onaccountably either, for we
wasn't SO old and hardened and crusted
in sin and drinkin', but what we all
could think when W. give ourselves a
chance, which we made sure not to do
over frequent, because it was not
agreeable.
One thing that made us feel trifle
down and dismal was that the keeper
of the Happy Home saloon, Joe How
ard, had jist moved a day or so back,
out Of his old house down by the gas
works and the tannery, into his hand
some new residence frontin' the park
and the library buildin'. 1t was the
prettiest, fastest, imposin list house in
the Circle and he had made every dol
lar Of it out Of such fellows as me and
the rest of us.
And then Jim Cameron had moved
that very day-New Years day-from
the home his father had given him
and every brick and board in it was
like Twin, lovin' thing to Jim--had
moved into little old untidy frowsy
house with bowed in roof and anglin'
shutters, in a part of the town where
self-respectin' folks didn't generally
try to get. And Jim knew, and we all
knew that he and the rest of us and a
lot more had built Joe's house in the
park, and that every nail in it IL 1t
was counted dozen times. wouldn't
count UP as many ner tenth as many
as the tears shed fer it's putin up!
We callated that one of us had hand
ed enough hard earned money over his
counter to pay for the grand stairway.