El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1900-08-02
A Friend 0 The fQni|y.


"Well, SIR" said the shoemaker, short
ly after the sunfish quit biting, Il got a
letter yesterday that done me lot of
good. You remember l told you the last
time we was out fshin together that 1
used to have Il shop of my own up in old
Illinois an made good money too. Well,
sir, all the kids in that town knowed me,
an they wasn't one of 'em that
wouldn't have gone to the bad place for
me if they'd a been old enough to know
what that really meant. But they wasn't
bless their little hearts,
IAN there was two of 'em in pertickler.
the incest little kids you ever seen. It's Il
fact that there little grid come from
school every day leadin her little brother
by the hand. An they'd never be a time
they'd be passin the shop on their way
to school or goin home to dinner that
they wouldn't stop an knock on the shop
window.
'An often after schoord be out they'd
stop in an see me. Why, I've had as high
as 10 or II of 'em at one time after school
in my shop singin the shoemaker song
an goin through the motions, just like
their teacher'd learn 'em to.
sometimes some of EN- would have
to stop an laugh-they thought it was
such a good joke on the shoemaker But
there'd always be two or three of 'em
would go on an finish out. cause they
knowed they'd never get the dime fer
candy if they didn't. An there's where
used to have the joke on them. They new
er knowed how much 1 liked to hear them
sing that there song. I'd sooner hear it
now than have a dollar.
"Well, that's just the way it was all
the time with them kids. They all know
ed me, an they all knowed my dog. An
when they knowed my dog, they knowed
a mighty good dog.
"Well, sir, this little girls daddy used
to be station agent there at that town.
an it was known all along that part of
the Big Four line that there wasn't a
depot anywheres that was what you
could call as model depot s his. Course
/ knowed him an he knowed me, an his
wife, she used to tell the little girl when
they'd want me to come an take dinner
or supper with 'em. 1t wasn't very often
I'd go. but L couldn't refuse when they'd
send the little girl after me.
Now. him keepin his depot so model is
what got him promoted. The Big Four
sent him over to a bigger town i'll Indi-
ana. Course | was glad to see him do
in better-he deserved it. But after
they'd gone. me an my dog. we used to
shut up shop an go fishin an huntin lit
tie oftener than before
well, come along Christmas time, al
this here little girl tellin me her an her
little brother was goin to have Christ
mas tree an couldn't l come over to In
diana an see 'em Christmas?
$50 l made all arrangements to go, an
you bet | laid out dollar or two for
presents. But, course, like it had to be,
one day l gets word her an her little
brother was took down sick-diphtheria,
the dispatch said
so l makes up my mind I'd go any
way. There's no tellin, you know, what's
liable to happen in a case like that. So
put 500 in my pocket-an even at that
l didn't have to put it there; 1 always
carried at least hundred in them days
an 1 went over. An I'didn't get there
none too soon neither. She died the aft
ernoon of the evenin L got there.
well, didn't know what the devil to
do. l wasn't what you could call "a friend
O the family but i wished | could do
somethin for that poor little girl a-layin
there. An before three days was out l
got my chanst.
you see, her dyin of diphtheria they
wouldn't let 'em ship the body back over
the railroad. Her daddy bein agent
didn't help 'em none in that case, nei-
ther. He tried hard enough to get a per-
nit, but it didn't do no good. He just
couldn't get it.
THE mother was just about crazy to
think they'd have to lay her away in In
diana instead of the old buryin ground
over in old Illinois alongside of them that
had gone before. But you bet yer life
they didn't have to, fer l went an got Il
team an a wagon, an l says, IN drive
her through
1T was II below zero when / started,
little before midnight. They took the
mornin train next day an got there long
ahead of me. Ninety-one miles in a
spring wagon at II below amt no picnic.
Il didn't get to see 'em after the flu
neral l felt just little bit wore out.
an l thought the best thing 1 could do
was to go lay down awhile. An, leave me
tell you, 1 got all the layin down 1 want
me everything l had but my tools an
shoemaker's kit. I've got that stored up
there in old Illinois yet.
II wrote to her folks one time, but l
didn't get no reply. 1 thought maybe
they thought 1 wasn't quite as good as
they was, so 1 never tried writin no
more.
This here letter 1 got the other day
was from a friend o the family that
knowed them an knowed me. 1t said
they hadn't never heard a line from me, |
an they often wondered what had become i
Of me. 1t said that little girls mother of |
ten wished she knowed where 1 was at. |
SO she could write, because, this letter !
went on to say, she said l was the best |
friend o the family they ever had.
IAN that's the kind of letter that makes |
a Teller feel good.'-St. Louis Republic.