The record-union., 1899-04-19


him to shoot me- and. in fact, dom
know yet why he didn't use his gun.
s..I got him square on the neck with
my right when he was about on top
of me, with his arms thrown out as
if for a clinch, and he went down Nike
log with a yelp of surprise and rage
"'Get on to that dude!' / heard a
lot of the men in the place say, aho
when my antagonist picked himself up,
as he did Immediately, we were in the
middle of ring of about the conven-
tional size for pugilistic encounters. MY
man rushed at me with some show OF a
guard this time, and slammed nam
one in the pit Of the stomach with my
left He gave a grunt and doubled W
like a jaekknife I stood and waited
for him to come again. He was psh'
double for a minute, mumbling terrine
curzlas. and while he was doubled up Z
man slipped up behind him and gently
drew his pair of guns out of his hno
pockets without his knowing it. When
his wind came back to him he mdde !
leap for me and squared off in regular
fight style but he didn't know the game
at all. and his work was coarse.
punched him in the right eye after ter
seconds sparring. He recovered MS
balance when he was almost down, ano
once more he made for me. with
growl like a. grizzly bears. This time
l caught him square on the point OF
the jaw, and his hash was cooked. He
went down, good and out The croWo
made for me on all sides, some of them
hopping over my late antagonists un-
conscious shape and gave me the cor
dial handshake. l had to take gooc
many more drinks than l wanted wltf
them In ten minutes or SO the big
chap that had laid out came up, tolo
me that he had probably been mistaken
about that blue chip, and handed ou'
his paw l took it, and so l started IN
with no enemies in the camp, and plen-
| ty of friends.
"A lot of the men asked me what my
graft was in Creede, and | told them
1 was lawyer just in camp in search
of enough mining cases to make liv-
ing. They promptly told me that Td
, get all the mining cases 1 could ham
die, and they made good. The very
next day l got sizable retainers in ter
cases, mostly from miners who had
seen or heard about that good luck
made good with Mrs Cannon by TAX
ing one of her ground floor rooms and
| hanging a shingle on the outside of it.
| 1T did not take me long. however, tC
find out that I had a reputation to sus
tain, not as a lawyer, but as fighter
The boys got to arranging a scrap fol-
me on every Saturday night. 1t was
plain that I'd lose caste if 1 f1unked
They We're treating me right by Civ
ing me a very large percentage of the
camps legal business. So I went in fol
moderate course of steady training
and went up against all the men they
dug up for me on these Saturday night
| occasions. l found most of the mer
fairly easy, although l got a few hare
! jolts from some big men with long
reach and a lot of sinew behind it
These gosS were generally scheduled as
ten-round affairs for points, but the mer
they put up against me were always
out for a finish, and so I had to take
the same end of it. 1 put out mos
of the men in camp who had regulations
/ as fighters without ever earning the
hard feelings of a man Of them. 1 was
only young chap then and 1 guess
felt pretty cocky with all of these
things-scraps and more law cases thar
I could attend to-coming my way
but l had enough sense to hold dowr
any evidences of the swelled head. Ths
gang used to address me as the dude
scrapper. and 1 let it go at that.
AT the end of about three months
had cleaned out most of the Creede mer
! who had an elementary knowledge o1
| the boxing game, and then the boys
! began to hunt around for new material
| The new arrivals in the camp were al
sized up as possible scrappers, and {
slew of them We're asked if they knew
anything about the game A number OF
| them answered the question affirmative.
! ly.
! Well the boys would say, we've
got a 15S-pound man here that knows
something about the mitts. Want tt
have a hack at him? He's not a pro
: fessional. 1t won't hurt you any in the
camp if you go UP against him, and il
you make any kind of a showing will
| him it'll help you heap with all hands.
Thus it got to be a regular thing
! that I had to stack up against all the
new arrivals that the boys picked ou
| for me, as promising. None, of them
though, really knew how to spar, and 81
l didn't have much trouble in hanging
on to my laurels. The Saturday nigh
! scraps continued for another couple Of
months, and l certainly was it with
the boys as man after man they fishet
up went down.
"One day a quiet duck wearing {
, black sack suit and a blue sweater III
! around his neck walked into Jim Ker
mans saloon. He was a new one OF
Jim. He looked agile and athletic K
! Herman.
Say said Jim to this new mar
in camp, you're pretty husky looking
young fellow Can you do anything with
your hands?'