The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-12-10
CHECKED BRET HARTE's TALK.
Sleepy Passenger In a Stage Coach
Discovers Mistake When Too Late.

| tChicago Inter ocean,
My determination to make myself
comfortable under all circumstances
has been matter of regret oftener than
/ can tell YOU is the way in which an
easy-going southef11er began in a Chi
cago club, what turned into an interest
ing story. Il have always. or nearly al
ways, insisted ON having my sleep when
] felt so inclined. A good many years
ago | was in the far west, where stage
| coaches were considered a luxury
took my place in one from the door of
miners tavern in a mountain town.
the name of which 1 long ago forgot
1t was dark when the driver started the
horses. | was the sole occupant of the
ole rattletrap. and drawing my buffalo
robe about me, / turned in for sleep.
Somewhere. / never knew where,
awoae 10 find the stage at a standstill
The driver and some one afoot were
engaged in converse ton. / could hear
only the sound of the voice of the man
in the road, but l distinctly heard the
driver say that il was darned strange
perhaps the language was stronger
that a man should want TO get into a
stage at such a place. Then he said to
the applicant:
. Well, crawl in thar, and don't git
gay with the other passenger. If I
hear anything out of you I'll put you
down in coyote camp, and you won't
know you was ever living
The stranger got in and was my Wis
avis. / concluded to return TO my
sleep. The stranger concluded he would
like to be companionable.a He began by
saying he didn't blame the driver
Picking up a passenger in the dead of
night in such bowling wilderness was
not safe. 1 said no. and shut up. The
stranger said it was country full of
adventures. and that he had witnessed
a lot of them. ] made no reply but he
proceeded. The last / heard him say at
that time was something about noun
tain storm in which he had an expert
ence ne would never forget. l deter
mined not to hear it. and ] didn't 1
went to sleep. | don't know how long
slept When / awoke the driver was
at one of the doors of the coach. What
the conversation was about or why the
driver concluded to get off his box and
look in l never knew. heard him growl
at the stranger:
- You shut up and keep quiet, or you
get out. You was the last in, and
t'other passengers was fust in, and eff
he don't want to CAB, you hush up.
From the strangers reply at once
concluded that he was a gentleman,
and that he had done nothing to excite
the driver However, I had not finished
The stranger laughed good naturally
and began another story l was
termined I would not listen. and 9
didn't. l went to sleep. Along abou,
daylight the stage stopped before an
other mountain tavern. The snow
was blowing in every direction. A bliz-
card was on. The stranger left me at
that place. He wished me a very pleas
ant journey and said in sort of CHEEKY
way that he hoped that driver would be
more agreeable: at the same time he
said that drivers were not to be feared.
that as class they were the soul of
honor. Then he handed me his card.
1t seemed odd in that godforsaken
country, in a stage coach too, for a
stranger to be so courteous People
seldom do that in a railroad train.
showed the card in my pocket. | was
still drowsy. l fear l may have ap-
peared gruff. l slept until / reached my
destination. Later in the day / UNI
loaded my pocket and the card turned
up. Then l knew l had, in my deter
mination to be comfortable, lost the op-
portunity of hearing some good stories
from man who became one of the
foremost writer's of his time The name
on the card was Bret Harte."