The Portland daily press., 1900-03-15
JIM REEDS PRIZE.

Never neATQ tell OF JlIn ItctN Anu bhiu
time no had with that postage stamp girl
from North CarolinaS Why, I thought ev-
erybody knew about that Well, the way
1t happened was this: Jim was In charge
of coal mine down near Trinidad, Colo.
The mine really belonged to Uncle Sam,
but there were two or three different sets
of people who were trying to prove up on
1t, and Jim was sent down by the richest OF
the lot to sort of hold the fort being that
possession is nine points Of the law, as tho
saying goes, and rather moro when It
comes to a land case.
Well, at first Jim thought he had soft
snap There wasn't much work TO do ex-
eept to cook his own meals and look after
tho little log cabin and the little Sc q day
coming in as regularly as the clook licked,
but 1t didn't take him long TO find out that
the hardest kind Of job man can tackle
is ono where no doesn't have anything to
do, and that's exactly what was the matter
with Jim, and that's where tho trouble
began.
Now, / never knew exactly whether 1t
was because of the ordinary way that satan
fixes up mischief for people out Of work
or whether it's sort of human nature for
man to 20 and got married when he hasn
anything else to do, but at any rate Jim
seemed to get mighty fond of the postof-
fec all of sudden, and then he began to
let on that there was a girl back east that
he had known for long time that was
likely to come out and help hold down
that coal claim. Some of the neighbors
suspicioned that she was q postage stamp
girl, but Jim said no; she was an old
schoolmate of his that be had known when
he was kid, and that the two of them
81 Ef.,1 Of ON oarh ut h.
or and only waiting until they could see
their way clear to getting married.
And then, after awhile, Jim went up to
the hotel at Trinidad and gave it out that
he was going to meet his bride, and she
was to be there on certain day, and ho
was to DO back at the station on another
day with his wife-they wero to be mar
ried at tho hotel - and the neighbors
thought it wouldn't be any more than po-
lite to meet the newly married couple at
the station and give them a pleasant well
come to their western home. But, in spite
Of the folks at the depot to meet them,
Jim didn't come, and he didn't come tho
next day, and the next day he did come,
but he came alone, and he explained to the
folks that after he had been ut the hotel
couple of days he got letter from Minnie
saying that she couldn't come at tho time
she said she would.
So that made moro talk than ever, and
some of the boys wanted to bet that she
wouldn't come at all. But about "a couple
OF months after Jim got another letter,
and it said tLis time she was coming sure,
and Jim went to Trinidad again, though
this time he didn't tell anybody he was
going on account of the way he had been
joshed before But when he got TO the
hotel he found that the people there seemed
to know his affairs pretty well, either on
account of what he'd told them the other
time or else because the whole county by
that time knew pretty well about Jim and
his postage stamp girl, not having much
else TO talk about, as you might guess.
So the clerk said real polite like, "Well,
Mr., Reed, when do you expect Mrs. ReedY"
And there was nothing for Jim to do but
redden up like Ben Davis apple and tell
him. And, of course the whole town was
Oh the lookout for Minnie, from the kid
who sold apples at the depot to Judge
Coombs, who used to leave his seat In the
courtroom and walk over to tho window
when the train came In, for they looked
for her more than one day, and poor Jim
said he didn't know whether he was a
widow or an orphan, because he didn't get
any letter and didn't know what to ex-
pect. So he waited around for pretty near
ly week, eating his head off at the hotel
and nothing to show for it, and finally he
made up his mind that he'd have to go
back to the cabin again all by his lone
some
But the very night that Jim made up
his mind that he'd have to go back the
next day something did happen. The
train was late that night, and Jim had got
SO discouraged waiting that he didn't
think there was any use of sitting up, SO
he went off to bed early. When the bus
came up to the hotel from the depot, some
body says to the night clerk, shes come. !"
And sure enough she bad, and nobody had
any doubts about who "she" was.
She wasn't more than 80 years old, kind
Of chunky and not SO very bad looking for
| tho kind, as the fellow said. But the worst
thing about her was her complexion, which