The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1903-10-10

on tell 1t. can't tell It,"
Il growled Neighbour.
OO oh, no. No That's
your story, Neighbour
II amt no story-teII-
Err"
&, "Just an able awed
liar" suggested Callahan thru q, beneyo-
lent blush haze. |
b Delaroo's story wasn't any lie, tho,
muttered Neighbor But a fellow would
think 1t was to hear it; now he would.
for a fact, wouldn't hep
# you want him, quick and short it
would be: whiskers, secret societies, sta .
tlstlcs and plug tObacco-the latter mostly
worked up. That was MAZE Sampson.
Bluntly, wind-bag; two hundred and
seventy pounds of atmosphere. Up on
benevolent fraternities, up on politics, up
on the money question, up on everything.
Inc Seven Financial Conspira cies engaged
Male SIMPSONS attention pretty contin-
uaiiy, and had for him a practical appli-
cation; there were never less than seven
conspiracies afoot In Medicine Bend to
make Maize Sampson pay up.
/ Fay? Indeed, he did pay. He was al
ways paying. It was not a question of
paying. Not at all. 1t was a question
of paying up, which is different.
The children-they were brickbats.
ToW-headed, putty faced, wash eyed
youngsters OF all sizes and conditions.
About MAZE SIMPSONS children there was
but one distinguishing characteristic, thew
were all boys, nothing but boys and they
spread all over town. Was there A hal,v
run over? 1t twas MAZE SIMPSONS. Was
there child lost? Maize Simpsons Was
there a violently large headed, coarse
featured, hang-dog, Gathering sort of ..
chap anywhere around? In the street.
station, roundhouse, yards, stock pens? IT
was q brickbat, sure, one of Male Samp-s
sons brickbat boys
The Simpsons were at the end of the
street, and the end Of the street was in
the mountain. Maize SIMPSONS lot,
ralred,' as Neighbor put it-stood or
us hind legs. His house had a startling
tumble-over aspect as you approached it.
The back end of his lot ran up into the
sheer, but he marked the line sharply by
klnd OF horizontal fence, because the
cilH just above belonged to the corpora
tlon that owned everything else on earth
around Medicine Bend; $3.50 :, - - !.
| MAZE sampson did not propose to let
any grasping corporation encroach on. his
ilnes so he built, and added to from time
TO time, a cluster Of things on the hind
end o.. his lot-an eruption of small build
| lngs IKE p1mples on boys nose, run
ming down in size from the barn to the
last dry goods box the boys had heaved
| up the slope for doghouse. To add to
| the variety, some one Of the structures
was always getting away in the wind. and
Il anything smaller than hotel was seen
sareehangs across lots in Medicine Bend
| breeze 1t was spotted without further in :
Vestlgatlon as Maize SIMPSONS. When
I the gale abated, Joe McBracken, who con-
quoted the local dray line, was pretty sure
10 Pc seen with a, -henhouse or a wood
shed,. or something likewise, loaded on his
trucks headed for Maize SIMPSONS. Once
! the whole lean-to of the house blew off
but Joe McBraclxen stood ready for anv
| emergency. He met the maverick addi-
ton at the, foot of the grade, loaded it on
ms mouse moving truck, hitched on four
i ofonchos,s craWled inside the structure
Il a ann9dn gsttlng dimes thru the front win
cow. grove UP Main street before the
wind had, gone down. Joe was photo.
graphed in the act and afterward uset
the exhibit in getting judgment agains
Male Sampson for his bill. "a - gZ
NOW, man like MAZE wouldn't be like.
TO nave very much of a run nor yer,
much Of an engine. He had the 2e4: az
Old pop bottle with a stack like a. tepet
turned upside down. For a run he ha(
always trains Nos 20 and 80, the loca
1relghts, with an accommodation coacI
east OF Anderson. There were times q
stress frequently on the West End time.
Wnenz everybody ran first in first out ex
cept Maize Sampson; he always ran 20 ant
gu west Ito Silver River and back. 4
pettifogging, cheap, jerk water run, will
no rights to speak Of not even against re-
spectacle handcars. The only things Ma /,
sampson did not have to dodge wer,
tramps, blanket Indians and telegram
: poles;z everything else sidetracked % anf
81 and Male Sampson. Almost everybod,
on thru trains must at some time hay,
seen MAZE Sampson putting on a siding a.
moore: or Mullen shot by on No. or No
Male was so big and his cab so littl
that when he got his head thru the win
dow you couldn't see very much of tn
cap Tor shoulders and whiskers ant
things. From the cab window he locke,
like a 14-year-osd boy springing out O
l0-year-old jacket. Three things onl,
made MAZE tolerable. First, the nunbe
of benevolent orders he belonged to: sec
POND, sDelaroo; third, Martie
; Male Sampson was a Joiner and a. site
up. He would join any thing on the Yves
End that had a ritual, grip and a pass
word, and he would sit up night afte
night with anybody that had broken lie,
: or a fever; and If nothing better Offered
: Maize, rather than go to bed, would tackl
a man with the stomach ache This kin
!, OF took the cuss off; but he was that be
] culiar he would sit up all night with q, Sic
J man and next day make everybody sic
? talking the money qeustion-at least ev
i erybody but Delaroo. If Delaroo wa
I bored he never showed it, AS long a
t Male would talk Delaroo would lister
Y That single word was in fact the KEY t
r Delaroo. Delaroo was a listener; for tina
Y reason nobody knew much about him.
! He wasn't a railroad man by birth. bu
S by adoption. Delaroo came from tn
n mountains he was just a plain mountai
J. man. Some said his father was a trapper
d If so, it explained everything-the quie,
o the head bent inquiringly forward, tn
: modest unobtrusiveness Of a man deal
> OF a size and shape nothing remarkable
s Delaroo-but a great listener, for tho h
: looked like a deaf man he heard like
7, dispatcher, and saw marvelously from GU
e the ends Of his, silent eyes. Delaroo wa
e| for all the world a trapper.
v He came into the service as round
d house sweeper; then Neighbor, after
d long time, put him at wiping. Delaro
g said nothing, but wiped for years an
n years, and was in a fair way to becom
: liked, when instead, he became one morn
e ing pitted with umbilical vesicles, and tn
: doctors, with Delaroos brevity, sal
r. smallpox. The boarding house keepe
v threw him out bodily at once. Having n
q better place to go, Delaroo wandered int
n Steve Boyer's saloon where he was ger
4 orally welcome Steve, however, pointe
& a hospitable gun at him and suggested h
B Igetting away Immediately from the fror
Ii end Of it. Delaroo went from there to til
Il roundhouse with his umbilicals and aske
3 Neighbor what a man with the smallpo
Is ought to do with it. Neighbor wouldn
22e run, not even from the smallpox-but
i told 4 Delaroo what 1t meant to get th
sell smallpox started in the roundhouse, an
,e Delaroo wandered quietly away from tn