Potosi journal. (Potosi, Mo.) 1894-1929, 1899-01-04
4 KENTUCKY SENATOR
Bottom Falls Out oe EoaIn-His La1s
Trade.

Bottom Falls Out oe g EoaIn-His Las
Trade
4 drove OF lean cattle We're s;N ing
ing easily over Black mountain. and be
hind them tr.nle a big man with wild
blacl. hair and Dusly beard. Now and
then he would praw at his niustsach"
with his long yellow teeth, or would
sit down to let his lean horse rest, aud
would flip meanlnglessly at the bushes
with q switch. Sometimes his bushy
head would droop over On his breast,
end he would snap 1t up sharply aud
e,ar: painfully on. Robber, cattle
thief, outlaw he might have been in
another century; for he flied the figure
Of any robber hero In life or romance,
and yet he was only the senator from
Bell, as he was known In the little
Kentucky capital; or, as he vas known
In his mountain hcme, just the senator,
" no he'd totled and schemed an'i grown
rich and poort who had suffered long
nnd was kind.
Only that Christmas 10 hod gntted
every store In town. '-Give me every
thing you have, brother" he sail, across
roch counter, and next day every man,
woman and child in the mountain town
had q present from the senator's haLC.
lie looked Ike a hriyand that day, as
be looked now, but he called every man
his brother, and his eye, while black
aud lusterless at night, was as broottlna
and Just as kind.
When the boom went down, with II,
nnd with everybody else, went the sels
ntor. Slowly he got dusty. ragged long
of hair. lie looked tortured and ever
restless You never saw him still. AL
ways he sve1. by you, Tapping his leg
on his lean horse or his arlns In hi:
rickety buggy here, there, cvcTywhcre
turning, twisting. fighting his "aJ
back to freedom-on+! sc. II iaursaur
Still was every man his brother, and i
some forgot his once open hand. n
| forROt ii no more completely than d1t
the senator. Ee went very Tar to pa,
bis debts. He felt honor bound, indeed
to ask his sister TO give Rack the iarll
that he had given her, whicf., very prop
erlv, people said, she declined to dc
Nothing could kill hope in the senator
breast; he would hand back the farm
in another year, he said; bnt the stste
vas firm, ond without 4 word still tn
senator went other weys and scheme
through the nights, md worked an
rode and walked AMI traded th-oug
the days, until now. when the llgh
was beginning to glimme-, his end VIA
come.
This was the senator's last trade, en
in sight, down IN Kentucky valley
was home. Strangely enough, the Sci
ator did not care Ii: all, and he had jus
enough sanity left t. wonder why, al
to be worried. II was tie "waisin
typhoid" that had caught up with hin
,,nd he was listless, and he made strang
gesture and did foolish things as b
stumbled down the iDountain. He wa
going over little knoi, now, ana h
cosli1 see the creek that ran ar0uIl
the house, but he WAS not touched. u
: would just as soon have lain down IiRl
where he was, or have turned aroun
ard gone back, except that it was ht
and he wanted to ge+ 80 the waite
lie i.alne!nhered that It W. nigh Chris
: mas; he saw the snow about him an
= the cakes of ice IN the creek. He kne'
that be ought not to he hot, and %
he was-so no; that he refused to reaso
, with himself even minute, and hui
: rled on. 1t was odd tl1ati it should be st
hut lust about that time. over III vi
cinia, a cattle dealer. nearing hom
, stopped to tell a neirhbor how he ha
, tricl,ed come hlack~whisizercd foCl II
! in the mountains. II may have bee
lust when he was laughing aloud owe
there. that the senator, over here. tol
his wooden shirt from his great hair
chest and rushed into the icy st1ean
, claDping his arms TO his burning side
: end shouting in bis frenzy.
; ''If he had lived little longer" sal
. a constituent, che would have lost ii
+ rext election. He hadn't the none.
you know"
''If he hnd lived a little longer" sai
the mountain preacher high up on fe
: low creek, "Td have got that trade
:, had on hand with him through. NJ
that ! wanted him TO die. but II be ha
to-why-"
.s1f he had lived .ittIe longer" sal
the senator's lawyer, he might HAY
cleaned off the score against kim
IF he lad lived 4 little longer" eai
, the senator's sister. not meaning to
: unkind. she would have 90; ali nave
That was what life held for the SC,
, ,tor Death vae more llirli.-Johr Fo