Evening star., 1899-04-15
CHANGED HIS MANNER.
Entrance of Noted "Gun' Men Made
Him Polite and Attentive.

From the Minneapolis Times.
He was a meek and patient little tele-
graph editor out in Denver but sometimes
he felt murderously inclined, as telegraph
editors often do. He had been left all alone
in the office-city editor out shaking dice
with his assistant and reporters all on their
runs or assignments. Three A. P wires
and the usual specials We're unloading copy
on him. He was not so very mad about his
own extra work, for that was not far out
of the ordinary, but it made him mad to
answer the telephone for the delinquent
and Tin his opinion) utterly worthless local
department, and by the time he had enter
tanned and taken notes for the usual early
evening run of volunteer purveyors of in
formation about their precious selves he
was ready for desperate deeds.
There came a calm and he settled down
to catch up when he suddenly became
conscious of presence in the room-three
of them, in fact. They We're neat-looking
young fellows of medium size well and
quietly dressed as western garb goes, and
with hats off, stood waiting for the man of
telegraph to look up. Presently, and after
due deliberation, he vouchsafed a glance
and grunt of interrogation. The stranger
nearest the desk politely but quickly seized
the opportunity and inquired:
CITY editor?'
Nope Pegging away at his copy)
Amy reporters in?'
Nope. (Still pegging away)
I'VE have a little item ! thought YOU
might like for your paper"
Better come in again later and see a re-
porter
But pardon me- We can't wait; have to
catch the $3.50 train east
"Well,' grow-ed the man of wires, what's
your item?" and he looked as if he would
like to eat the quiet trio, item and all.
We'll, you see,' said the neat little man
with the blue eyes and the pink mustache
Luke Short he sends for US to come down
to Dodge and help him straighten things
out You know, he's marshal down there,
and the gang gives him hours to pull his
freight. He lows he stays, and he tele-
graphs us to come down and ride up and
down the avenue and look at points of in
terest with him; Me? Why, my names
heard of me. And this is Mr. Holiday. Mr.
Editor-'Doc' Holiiday-and this is Mr. Col
lins-.Shotgun' Collins they used to nomi-
nate him down al Tombstone"
And by that time the erstwhiie surly tele-
graph editor was the politest man in the
room. He was breathing hard, but he was
jollying the visitors for all he was worth
For verify Masterson had record for
something like twenty-four dead ones and
three or four wounded, and Holiday was
called Doc because he had given up den
tistry to become a peacemaker of the bor-
der type. He also had a dozen or so in the
cemeteries of the west Collins had earned
the soubriquet Shotgun" because his favor
lite weapon had once been a fowling piece
of large caliber, but he had sawed off the
barrels and carved the stock into a pistol
butt Loading both barrels with generous
cargoes of hardware he could clean out
whole street with great economy of time
and effort.
And that is why the surly telegraph edi-
tor became a very Chesterfield Of politeness
and insisted on sparing the time to pur-
chase stirrup cup for his distinguished
visitors 1t may be added that they went
to Dodge and rode up and down the street
and they didn't find 1t necessary to "shoot
anybody up either.