Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1900-06-30
| The Man on the Bridge


it than in prospecting anyway, or tt
put it plainly there was as much wealth
as I chose to gather in, with ever.
prospect Of a public funeral in cas-
I happened to get shot. The trouble
was where to draw the line, for if
just let things slide the boys woult
massacr each other until there wa.
nothing left but the town site, ant
if I did my duty the first thing would
have been to clap the whole popula
ton in Jail or run them all out of thu
country. I did neither, but just dis
eliminated. Suppose a. man got into
trouble, the first thing to find out
was whether he had 4 vote, secondly
if he had voted to put me in office
thirdly if he belonged to the knights
Of Labor, Knights Of Pythias, Miners
union, or any other kind Of secret
society. Should he prove any of These
things or be we'll fixed as regards
wealth, it was no use to bother beyond
4 formal arrest and q wink with the
of eye. If he was a destitute alien
without any friends he had no right
to get into trouble, SO l made an ex.
ample of him. Another difficulty was
about unlicensed or prohibitive bust.
ness; but if I had turned the law loose
or every offender l should have closed
up all saloons, gambling halls, restau-
rants, dance houses and t%heaters-in
fact the whole city Of Amber, includ-
ing the church, for running a gam
bling show which was advertised as a
bazar. There were a few other indus
tries, a laundry, a mortuary and a
hospital, but they were mostly liable
for overdue taxes, so that / ought to
have put them all in the jug, includ-
ing the city marshal, which was mt.
The usual thing was to blackmail
everybody instead of running up Jail
expenses, but the question was where
to draw the line. You see if l didn't
enough, people concluded l
was useless, and if I assessed them too
much they kicked like the bulls of
Bashan. AS Dam McPhail said once in
the vigilance committee when I lacked
him up for numbering the sidewalk
with packing-cases to show what q
stock of goods he had to Sacrifice
"This job requires tact"
Now in case there's any benighted
pilgrim here who doesn't know Am
Der Gulch, I'd better explain that it's
the Bitterroot mountains of Idaho,
between Dead Mule pass and the
Pacific railroad. Well, as l
was saying, I was city marshal of Am
Der in the fall of 80, when an English
man turned up from goodness knows
dead broke. "Look here" says
he, "you're city marshal"
II air"
"Well, look here" says he; "I'm
broke. I've tramped here out Of Wash
territory, and my partner at
Spokane Falls has stolen all my clothes
except what I've got on"
"What made you come here, any
saysI.
""Look'here says he, IT got strand
ID in the farming country with win
ter coming ON and I'd have starved to
leathf for all the work I could get. So
| made for the nearest mining camp"
He had an old SLOUGH hat, q shirt,
overalls and a pair of boots; hadn't
'een a square meal for months, looked
ne straight IL the eyes, and what he
laid was true.
SWELL" says I, what do you wantT"
He looked up the street, then down,
collecting his thoughts, then at me
itraight.
I've written three times to the
police to ask them to recover
ny clothes. I got NO answer-now I
want you to write"
go to that store" says l, pointing
Q Dan McPhail's, rig yourself out,
nd tell them to charge it to me-"
He thanked me, turned his head
way, wiped his eyes with one finger,
hen faced me again. I'm not that
ind Of a man. VIII you write the
etter?"
OF course I did. He had proved that
ven though he was only an alien Brit
he was straight goods-and l
liked straight goods in any man.
forever l got his baggage from Spo-
.ane within the week.
Next thing I knew that young man
he was "a or less-went to McPhail,
aid that he had earned ten dollars
for newspapers, and wanted
D start trading. +,
"Where?" asked McPhail.
ION the bridge"
Now the Amber river runs down the
Ide of the gulch with the town on
he south and only the railroad depot
gin the cliffs on the north. The
is right at the foot of Main
treet, joining the town to the depot.
here's only one sidewalk, so that the
hole crowd to and from town has to
o yer on the right hand of the bridge.
t's a wooden trestle business, and half
'ay across, over the middle of the
mber river, there's an angle, where
he sidewalk bends round. The tender
BOT wanted to trade at that angle.
.cPhail represented the county, the
ity and the vigilance committee. He
new that the thing was plain against
1ree different laws, and yet that Brit
her was smart. He had chosen the
est stand for business in Amber
ulch.
"You can't trade" says NePhsil. ION
ne BRIDGE"
NO." says the Englishman. "and I
ont want to. Who does the air over
ne middle of the river belong to?"
1.-THE Almighty" says McPhail; '1f
ou want to trade there you'll have to
Ike out a license from Heaven"
evil you interfere?"
"No," says McPhail, II guess not. I
ever interfere outside Of my jurisdtc-