The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1899-04-22

Tragic climax aud Retribution.
Tho bad men down my way haven't
been fooling with tenderfect much of late
years" said George Craig, an Arizona
man ''Tenderfeet have way of coming
20 life once In awhile, and the wolf eaters
have found this out. remember the case
of a tenderfout who arrived at himself In
phenix back in 1887. He was towhcad,
with white eyebrows, peaohy skin and a
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 q month after he landed
In Arizona he found himself broke in
Phenix. So he got 81 q day job pound
ing the piano in the back room of Joe
Hariesty's palais saloon. He was pretty
fair piano sharp and earned his wages.
His name was Algernun Montclair, and
he looked the name, with his girly skin,
big blue eyes and mild, inquiring express
sion. The boys got to guying him good
deal, calling him mammals angel child
and that sort of thing, and they tried pretty
hard to get q 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 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, a genuinely bad
man, and Chop Suey Pollock bad
proposition from San Francisco. 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 Sunday tho pair, who were thick
friends for some reason or other, went
down to the Palsis. They knew that
Hardesty was out of town, and they want
ed to have some fun with the piano whack-
err The tenderfoot was drumming away,
when Freeman and Pollock lurched into
the back room of the saloon.
"'Hey, sis 7 said Freeman to the ten
derfoot as soon as he got into the room.
You tlrump that thing purity well, don't
your 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 to do that, did theyS You ever seen
him do it, Chop he asked his pal, turn
ing to Pollock.
"'Not any said Pollock, but 1t sounds
as if it ought to work pretty good,
"'I don't know how it 'ud work, said
Freeman, because never seen it did, but
| got powerful hankerin TO see 1t. Sis,
s'pose you heave us one of them doublin
up stunts IN a-talkin about. I've hearn
you do the key punohin end of it; now l
want some ballay with it, Go aheadP'
~ don't danth, replied the tenderfoot.
"'Oh, yeth, you dot chimed in Pollock,
initiating the tenderfoot's lisp. 'You can
danth all right. You got to danth.'
~ thay, you fellowth, began the piano
PLAYING tenderfoot, I'm not feeling we'll
tonight and thith it'll no time to-
'Danthp shouted both Freeman and
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 tho soft pine
floor
"Algernon Montclair struck up On the
Beautiful Blue on the piano, at the same
time shutiiiHg his feet about clumsily in
time with the music. His gyrations tic
Killed. the two devils behind him to the
limit. They reared 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
=
ike the thing little bit, but they kept
,ut of it from motives of prudence The
enderfoot played the waltz through and
danced to it twice before his tornentors
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.
"'Thatn do you, sis, said Freeman.
4 knowed you could danth, an you've
proved it. You danth like you were born
10 it, Your mother must have been bal
lay danther. or else
Freeman was walking toward the
front room with Pollock as he said this
al thay, you called Tenderfoot Alger-
non Montclair afterIhim 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 n gun in each hand.
There were two almost simultaneous re
ports, and both of Buck Freeman S arms
we're broken close to the shoulders. Chop
Suey was quick on the trigger, and he
had his two guns out before the tender
foot's pair helohed 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 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 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 hlaz-
ing was too quick He hoped back out
Of reach like boxer and with his right
band 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
fully for fun minute, gave it TO him.
The 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
morning, and inside, of exactly eight min
utes the verdict was reached that Buck
Freeman had met a iustifable death at