Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-04-15
GAVE A
BAD MAN A LESSON.

w iSIlIlS lpll 'lGI nv pNo A'ON NO''
my way haven't been fooling with ten
derfeet much of late years. said George
Craig, an Arizona man. who is in wash
ington in connection with a mining case.
'Tenderfeet have q way of coming to life
once in a while, and the wolf eaters have
found this out. l remember the case of
a tenderfoot who arrived at himself in
Phoenix back in 1887. He was a tow-
head, with white eyebrows, a peachy
skin and a slight lisp-but he made good.
| He had struck Arizona straight from a
mining school somewhere back east. He
hadn't made the mining engineer prop
osition stick, and within q month after
he landed in Arizona he found himself
broke in Phoenix. SO he got a So a day
! job pounding a piano in the back room
of Joe Hardesty's 'Palals' saloon. lie
was a pretty fair piano sharp and earned
his wages. His name was Algernon Mont
clair, and he looked the name, with his
girly skin, big blue eyes, and mild, IN
curing expression. The boys got to guy
ing him a good deal, calling him mann
mas angel child and that sort of thing,
and they tried pretty hard to get a, rise
out of the key purcher, but he stood for
the whole thing, and never stopped play
ing when they We're guying him the hard
est. Joe Hardcsty called the gang down
once in d while for ridiculing the piano
player, but when Joe wasn't around they
poured it into the tenderfoot pretty hard.
His two chief tormentors were Buck
Freeman, a genuinely bad man, who ran
another saloon and gambling joint fur
Their down the street, and Chop Suey'
Pollock, a bad proposition from San
Francisco, who got his nickname because
he could talk Chink and loved the dope
| pipe. Both were killers with records.
They had both been warned to cease
their picking on the tenderfoot piano
player by Joe Hardesty, who was pretty
quick with a gun himself; but one Sum
day the pair, who We're thick friends for
some reason or other, combined up the
whole lot along toward night and went
down to the 'Palais.' They knew that
Hardesty was out of town, and they
wanted to have some fun with the piano
WhaCker. The tenderfoOt was thrum-
ming away when Freeman and Pollock
lurched into the back room of the saloon.
Most of the patrons of the place were up
stairs, 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 pretty well, don't
you? But there's one thing I 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.
"'Not any, said Pollock. But it
sounds as if it ought to work pretty
good
ct don't know how it 'ud work. said
Freeman, because l never seen 1t did.
But 1 got a powerful hankerin' t see it.
Sis, s'pose you heave us n O. them
doublin'-up stunts Pm a-talkin' about.
I've hearn you do tn key punchin' end
Of it; now I want some ballay with 4 Go
ahead!
"I don't danth,' replied the tenderfoot.
l sgEc1 al 10 1I;r,N~ t~ ON11On
initiating the tenderfoot's lisp. You can
danth all right. You got to danth.'
ct thay, you fellowth,' began the
piano-playing tenderfoot, I'm not feel
ing well tonight, and thith this no time
TO-
Pollock together, suddenly pulling their
guns, and both of the DULLES planted
balls within an inch of the tenderfoot's
heels, the bullets boring through the soft
pine floor. t#
"Algernon Montclair struck up ON the
Beautiful Blue on the piano, 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 roare1 out
directions, and when the tenderfoot's
movements seemed to slacken from
WEAKNESS they put another pair of bull
let's through the floor close to his feet,
and he went on with renewed energy.
There were q number of men in the front
part of the saloon who didn't like the
thing a little bit, but they kept out of 1T
from motives of prudence.
"The tenderfoot played the waltz
through and danced to it 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
runs.
'.That'u do you, sis said Freeman. Il
knowed you could danth, an you've
proved it. You danth like you were born
to it. You mother must ha' been a. bal
lay danther, or else
Fireman was walking toward the
front room with Pollock as he said
this.
"I thay, you,' called Tenderfoot AL
gernon Montclair after him, in a quiet
tone of voice, and Freeman turned
around to see what the key puncher
wanted. AS he did so he saw the tender
foot standing with his back to the piano
and a gun in each hand. There were two
almost simultaneous reports, and both OF
Buck Freeman's arms were broken close
to the shoulders.
"'Chop Suey' was quick on the trigger,
and he had his two guns out before the
tenderfoot's belched a couple more
flashes. Then Pollock's twin gums fell
to the floor like so much junk. Both of
his arms were broken, too.
"'You dirty dogth,' said the tenderfoot
to the two helpless DULLES, as they stood
and looked at him savagely with their
shattered arms at their sides, and then
he walked over to 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 prob
ably being to get the piano player down
and stamp the life out of him-but the
tenderfoot, whose mild blue eyes were
now blazing, was too quick. He hoped