Waterbury Democrat., 1902-02-07
TorSon's Tobacco Pouch
By II. I. CnEVEnHND.

TORSON carried the mail between
 Blue Duck, Hamar, the Mouse and Cub Creek. The pay he received from the government was compara lively small, but the honors of his position were many. By custom he was al- lowed free feed for his horses at any ranch-house. A plate was always put on the table when he was seen ap- preaching. The best draught of mii- tary punch was always at his com mand, and there was not pretty girl on the trail that would not go out of her way to greet him. All this because he carried the mail. Yet Torson cared for neither horse feed, good food, punch nor winsom smiles as he did for his pipe and tobacco.
 Torson never said much about. his pipe, but be loved it, and the pipe re- sponded to all his moods with a con- solation that was unfailing. There were other mail carriers and there were other pipes, all we'll known to Blue Duck, but Torson and his pipe were so conspicuously one that they boldly stood out from all the rest. Torson was industrious and prosper ous. He had an amiable wife and thriving children, but even they were never so conspicuous as the pipe.
 Torson's tobacco pouch was made from the inner and finer skin of an antelope which had been we'll tanned by an Indian woman and then worked over with beads. Two long tassels hung from it, and to one of these the pipe was always attached when not in use; that was when Torson was asleep. The pouch carried four ounces of clipped plug, or six ounces of granu- lated tobacco, which as smoking goes is just twice the distance between Cub Creek and Hamar.
 The pipe was briar, with a curved stem of amber, the bowl carrying just enough tobacco so that gentle puffin 2 would not consume it's contents iii less than 30 or 40 minutes. The wood of the bowl was from the white heath, and in it's manufacture had been so we'll boiled and cooked that it had the richest kind of brown hue, to which long smoking had added polished spots and rings of black. Consistent clean ing had kept away from this bowl all traces of sourness, and the smoke never became offensive nor the stem heated. No sharp instrument was ever put into the bowl, but when it was touched it was softly swabbed.
 It was Torson's fashion never to smoke on an empty stomach, but, Is he was never hungry, his pipe was never out of his mouth while he was awake. When he had long journeys to make he ! always carried biscuit and dried meat in his pocket and a bottle of some mild drink, and by judicious use of these he found that his pipe was always ready for fresh filing.
 Hold-ups or highway robberies were quite infrequent inthe Blue Duck coun- try. While many people were on the trails when the weather permitted, they carried few valuab bles and the temptation to rob was slight. Then, too, men prone to highway robbery were not many in numbers They never found the climate healthful. Torson in his journeys with the mail carrled more wealth about him than any man in the region. Nearly all of the letters he brought contained money from friends at home to those who were making the life of the from tier. Yst day after day and month after month Torson pursued his way unmo olested.
 It was q New Years week that Tor son found himself at the Cub Creek with over 600 letters in his posses sion for the settlers east of that point. He knew that everyone of them was expecting mall and that the