Arizona republican., 1899-03-08
GOOSE STORY
Mayor Dyer Knew One Which Deficd
 RaVagss of Time ard Friction.

Here is a story which if told by a | ton for truth than Mayor c. J. Dyer,
 no careful newspaper would have the | hardihood to publish. Even with i Mayor Dyer's character Of veracity be-
 hind him, 9 Republican reporter ap- 1 preached it with trepidatioE and mis- giving. The mayor sat in the council chamber yesterday relating incidents
 of his early life in Arizona. When he
 first came to the territory ne cluster ed about Prescott engaged in mining and painting pictures. He sank S1,1O2, all he had, in m1n-ng operations and got another start by painting q birds
 eye view of Prescott, for which he re-
 ceived $900 from admiring property 1 owners, prOspectCrs, saloon keepers and other cOnnOisseUTs of art with
 which northern ArizOna abounded
 twenty years ago. The Dyer didn't
 bring as murh as a Rembrandt" or |
 Wan Dyke but it brought enough to
 be engulfed in a new mining venture,
 after which, Mir. Dyer started south
 ward to paint picture of the new anu thriving town Of Phoenix
 The artist arrived here eighteen years ago yesterday. It is an episode of that journey which this article is designed to embalm. Said MT. Dyer:
 When we got to Kirkland valley. we were held up three or four days by floods. One day one of the boys shot a wild goose and we cooked it for sup per. That is we thought we were cook ing 1t for supper. We tried boiling it awhile, but that didn't seem to faze it.
 r roasting We ate bacon for supper
 When we got ready to go to sleep We gave the goose another test, but there wasn't knife il the crowd that could make an impression upon it.
 You couldn't even Sti&I a fork into it. We threw it away ard tried to forget it. The next morning while we were rigging up to start, Old Foster, (EverybCdy in Ari- zona knows Foster.) was hunting around trying to find a piece Of timber to replace a brake block which had been lost from one of his freight wag- Ons. He couldn't find anything suit able and one of the boys happening to notice the goose lying under q, grease bush near by, suggested that nothing could be better for a brake block Foster cut the goose in two with all axe and fastened a section of it to the brake beam. It was next to impossible to drive spikes through it. But after it was once fastened on it served it's 1 purpose better than a wooden blcck. i I travelled with the outfit for couple of days and when I left the goose was all right
 q ran across Foster four mo1ths ! afterward in the Santa Maria country and he still had his gOCse block 1t | was dry and the face of 1t was as smooth as glass, but it had . kind of resiIiency in spite Of it's dryness that | prevented it from wearing away very fast. It was Q good deal like rubber, l but oh! very much tougher. 1 don't know whether it was harder on wag- on tire than a wooden block faced | with 6 boot sole was. Foster may have | used that goose block as long as he | followed freightng. lie died about | three years ago, CT maybe four but | had not noticed his wagons of late i years and don't know whether he ever i had occasion to replace that block | Oh! I suppose though it would nat urally wear out some time"