The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-04-10
THE TENDERFooT TURNED.
Another of Those stories About the
Undoing of Bad Men.
From the waghington Sea-.

years." said George Craig. an Arizona
man. who is in Washington in connection
with a mining case. "Tenderfeet have
way of coming to life once in while, and
the wolf eaters have found this oat. re-
member the case of a tenderfoot who ar
rived by himself in Phoenix back in 1887.
He was tow-head, with white eyebrows,
a peachy skin and a slight lisp-but he
made good. lie had struck Arizona straight
from a mining school somewhere back
east. He hadn't made the mining engln-
eer' proposition stick, and within month
after he landed in Arizona he found him
self broke in Phoenix, So he got 80 a
day job pounding the piano in the back
room of Joe Hardesty's 'Palais saloon. lie
was a pretty fair piano sharp and earned
his wages His name was Algernon Mont
clair, and he looked the name, with MS
girly skin, big blue eyes and mild, inq'ur-
ing expression. The boys got to guying
him good deal, calling him mamma an
gel child and that sort of thug, 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 guying him the hardest. Joe
Hardesty called the gang down once in
while for ridiculing the piano player, but
when Joe wasn't around they poured II
into the tenderfoot pretty hard. His two
chief tormentors were Buck Freeman,
genuinely bad man, who ran another sa-
loon 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 tendertoot
piano player by Joe Hardesty. who was
pretty quick with a gun himself; but on
| Sunday the pair, who were thick friends
| for some reason or other, combed up the
whole lot along toward night and went
down to the Palais. They knew that Har-
desty was out of town. and they wanted to
have some fun with the piano whacker.
| The tenderfoot was drumming away,
| when Freeman and Pollock lurched into
| the back room of the saloon. Most of the
| patrons of the place were upstairs, trying
TO beat the faro layouts.
Hey, sis said Freeman TO the ten
| derfoot, as soon as he got into the room,
| you thump that thing purity well, don't
| you? But there's one thing l never seen
you do, an that's play the piano an
waltz at one an the same time. Never
teached you t do that, did they? You ever
seen him do it, Chop?' he asked his pal,
turning to Pollock.
d" Not any, said Pollock. But it sounds
as if it ought to work pretty good
q don't know how it I'D work. said
Freeman, because never seen 1t did. But
1 got a powerful hankerin' t see it. Sis,
spose you heave US one o them doublin'
up stunts I'm a-talkin' about. I've heern
you do tn key ,punchin' end of it; now l
want some ballay with it. Go aheadr
g I don't danth.' replied the tenderfoot
a. Oh yeth you do chimed in Pollock
initiating the tenderfoots lisp You can
danth all right You got to danth.
g 4 thay, you fellowth,' began the piano
playing tenderfoot, I'm not feeling well
tonight, and thith it'll no time to -
" 'Danthr shouted both Freeman and
Pollock together suddenly pulling their
guns, and both of the DULLES planted balls
within an inch of the tenderfoots heel,
the bullets boring through the soft pine
floor.
"Algernon Montclair struck up ON the
Beautiful Blue on the plano, at the same
time shutting his feet about clumsily in
time with the music. His gyrations tickled
the two devils behind him to the limit
They roared out directions, and when the
tenderfoot's movements seemed TO slacken
from WEAKNESS they put another pair of
bullets through the floor close to his feet,
and he went on with renewed energy.
There were a 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 il
twice before his tormentors grew weary
of the fun and let up on him by walking up
to the piano and bringing their paws down
on the keys together. They had put away
their guns
''Thatll do you, sis said Freeman 1
knowed you could danth, an you We proved
it. You danth like you were born to it,
Your mother mutt ha' been a ballay dan
Their. or else -
Freeman was walking toward the front
room with Pollock as he said this.
i thay, YOU called Tenderfoot Alger-
non Montclar after him, in quiet tone of
voice, and Freeman turned around to see
what the key puncher wanted. AS he did
so he saw the tenderfoot standing with his
back to the piano and gun in each hand
| There were two almost simultaneous re-
ports, and both of Buck Freemans arms
were broken close to the shoulders. Chop
| Suey' was quick on the trigger, and he
had his two guns out before the tender
foots pair belched forth a couple more
flashes Then Pollock's twin guns fell to
the floor like so much junk. Both of his
arms were broken, too.
D." You dirty dogth,' said the tenderfoot
to the two helpless DULLES as they stood
I and looked at him saVagely with their
shattered arms at their sides, and then he
walked over 10 them and spat in their
| faces, one after the other. Freeman gave
a sudden reach out with his right boot as
If to trip the tenderfoot-his idea probably
being to get the piano player down and
stamp the life out of him-but the tender
foot, whose mild blue eyes were now blaz-
ing, was too quick. He hoped back out
| of reach like a boxer, and with his right
hand gun he bored a hole fair and plump
through Buck Freemans forehead. Pol
lock begged for his life like cur and the
tenderfoot, after looking him over doubt
fully for full minute, gave 1t to him. He
took Chop Suey' by the back of his should
ers and kicked him all the way to the
front door, where he thrust him across the
wood pavement into the gutter. Then he
got his hat and started out. Meanwhile
the whole crowd from upstairs had come
done, having heard the shooting. They
held the tenderfoot up, and for ten minutes
he had his hand shaken as it was probably
never shaken before. and he would have
been blind paralyzed on champagne that
cost S12 bottle if he had consented to