The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1899-06-17
A PAIR OF DULLES.
AND HOW TAsywERe WELL SETTLED
4, eY A IENDERFooT.

The Mise Eyed Dude Took They Ia
suits Until They Went just One
Step Too Far, and Then Came the
Tragic Gilman and Retributien.
"The bad men down my way haven't
been fooling with tendcrfeet much Of late
years." said George Craig, an Arizona
man. "Tenderfeet have a way Of coming
to life once In awhile, and the wolf eaters
have found this out. remember the case
Of q tenderfoot who arrived at himself in
Phenix back in 1887. He was a towhead,
with white eyebrows, peachy skin and q
slight lisp but he made good. He had
struck Arizona straight from mining
school somewhere back east. He hadn't
made the mining engineer proposition
stick, and within month after he landed
In Arizona he found himself broke In
Phenix. So he got a % day job pound
ing the plano in the back room Of Joe
Hardesty's Palais saloon. Hewas pretty
fair piano sharp and earned his wages
His name was Algernon Montolair and
he looked the pame with his girly skin,
big blue eyes and mild, inquiring express
sion. The boys got to guying him a good
deal, calling him mammals angel child
and that sort Of thing, 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 HaNlesty called the
gang down once in awhile for ridiculing
the piano player, but when Joe wasn't
around they poured 1t into the tenderfoot
pretty hard. His two chief tormentors
were Buck Freeman, genuinely bad
man, and Chop Suey Pollock, bad
proposition from San Francisco. Both
were killers with records. They had both
beLn warned to cease their picking ON the
tenderfoot piano player by Joe Hardesty,
who was pretty quick with a gun himself,
but one Sunday the pair, who were thick
friends for some reason or other, went
down to the Palais. They knew that
Hardesty was out Of town, and they want
ed 10 have some fun with the plano whack-
or. The tenderfoot was drumming away,
when Freeman and Pollock lurched into
the back room of the saloon.
"'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! Out bucIO . Uuo buluB 1 ACfCI SSGu
you do, an that's play the piano an waltz
ut one an the same time. Never teached
you to do that, did they2 You ever seen
him do it, Chopa' he asked his pal, turn
ing to Pollock.
"'Not any, said Pollock, but it sounds
as if 1t ought to work pretty good.
"'I don't know how it 'ud work. said
Freeman, because never seen 1t did, but
1 got powerful hankerin to see it. Sis,
s'pose you heave us one of them doublin
up stunts I'm a-talkin about. I've hearn
you do the key punchin end of it; now
want some ballay with it, Go ahead!"
81 don't danth, replied the tenderfoot
"'oh, yeth, you dol! chimed in Pollock
initiating tho tendcrfoot's lisp. You can
danth all right. You got to danth.
"'I thay, you fellowth, began the piano
playing tenderfoot, I'm not feeling well
tonight, and thith it'll no time to-
"'Danthl' shouted both Freeman and
Pollock together, suddenly pulling their
guns, and both of the bullies planted balls
within an inch of the tenderfoot's heels,
the bullets boring through tho soft pine
floor.
"Algerpon Montclair struck up On the
Beautiful Blue on the piano, at the same
time shuffling his feet about clumsily in ,
time with the music. His gyrations tic
killed. 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 anoth-
er pair Of bullets through the floor close to
his feet, and he went on with renewed en-
ergy. There were number Of men in
the front part of the saloon who didn't
like the thing 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 lot up OIL him
by walking up to tho piano and bringing
their paws down on the keys together
They had put away their guns.
"'Thatn do you, sis, said Freeman.
L knowed you could danth, an you've
proved it. You danth like you were born
to it. Your mother must have boen a bal.
lay danther, or else
Freeman was walking toward the
front room with Pollock as he said this.
"'I thny, you, called Tenderfoot Alger-
non Montclair after him in a quiet tone OF
voice. and Freeman turned around to SEQ
what the key puncher wanted AS he did
SO he saw tho tenderfoot standing with his
back to the piano and gun in each hand.
There were two almost simultaneous re-
ports 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 ont before the tender
foots pair beiched forth couple more
flashes, then Pollock's twin guns 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 bulles 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
II to trip tho tenderfoot, his idea probably
being to get tho piano player down and
stamp the life out Of him, but tho tender
foot, whose mild blue eyes were now blaz-
ing, was too quick. He hoped back out
of reach like boxer, and with his right
hand gun he bored hole fair and plump
through Buck Freeman's forehead. Pol
lock begged for his life like cur, and the
tenderfoot after looking him over doubt
Iully IOr ltll inlllute, RUNe ~ W llliu.
Tho piano player surrendered himself to
the night marshal and was locked up over
night in the calaboose. A coroner's jury
was got together at 10 O'Clock the next
and inside Of exactly eight min
utes the verdict was reached that Buck
Freeman had met n justiflable death at
the hands Of tenderfoot, who is hereby
acquitted Tho jury having been dis
solved, the members of it repaired to
room ard formulated resolutions of thanks
to the tenderfoot for having wiped two
hard citizens out of the towns population.
When Joe Hardesty came back the next
day and heard how his piano thumpcr had
lined up to meet an occasion, ho gave AL
gernon MontGlair $500 and ticket up to
the Colorado mining country, where the
wanted to go.
"1enderfeet haven't been toyed with
much down here in Phenix since that
thing happened Washington Star.