The silver messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1890-1912, 1903-08-11
Written for THE MESSENGER
THE STORY OF DAN, The OUNCE.

(BY T. SHELLEY SUTToN)
Have you heard O. the weddin' o. Dan, the
Ounce p
He was married to Maggie Trace,
And IL doesn't seem over er dozen months
Since Dan was er hopeless case
He swore that the women wuz all ther same,
An said that they wuz made o. wood
But Dan, we thought, was a trife lame,
AS fur as his thinkin' stood
He came TO tn camp In tn early fall
think twar In eighty nine
A great big chap, over six feet tall,
And as rough as er mountain pine
tn furst durnsFords tibet tn stranger said
Wuz. Boys, am out o. work -
I'm plum dead broke, an I'm almost dead,
And as sore as hungry Turk :"
The mines war closed, but it wouldn't do
Fur miner TO show his heel
So we all chipped ia with a dime, er two,
And bought him good squar' meal.
Well, say II never you've seed man
AS acted the nat'ral Ounce,
You ought to a-looked at ther stranger, Dan,
Or a-talked to him-only once
Fur he kinder grinned in silly way
Which caused us to feel fur him,
And he moved erbOut like a ton O. hay,
And he hadn't a bit o. vim
1 never seed In my whole life long
4 feller so deuced dumb
We thought thar wus somethin' trihe wrong
But we knew that it wasn't rum;
He drank bit, like Teller will,
But we never could ketch him drunk.
Though wslkin' in camp. or climbin' a hill
He was just like a helpless chunk.
But Dan-well all OF us learnt one night
That he wasn't the fool we thought;
Thar we're moments, l know, when his mind
! was right.
And times when his mind was not.
But the night that the camp burnt wn--well
sir,
| You ought to a-seen him then -
Thar wasn't man as could throw slur
On the dunee o. the camp; an wheA-
When the fire broke out-God, ,sir,-'twar worse
Than the fires of a coal oil mine
The groan and the cry and the miners curse
Went up with the cracklin pine
An up on tn hill whar' the quartz mill stood
| Was the cabin O. old man Trace
The red flames leaped through the mountain
wood
As fast as a horse could race
An Dan-he remembered that Mag was there
THE girl with the big, brown eyes,
An he rushed right up in the crimson glare
In spite OF our warnin' cries.
Il can save her, boys - the Ounce cried out,
Leaving us thar-alone-
'Tis tn life OF tn fool - we heerd him shout
An Maggie's against my own ="
We all fell back, for the flames was brisk,
An we wouldn't dared to try
But Dan was the Ounce, and Ounce will risk
More danger than you er 1.
Well tn last we seen o. the Ounce, that night
Was Just as he reached tn door;
Th' flames closed in and a flood o. light
Fell over US, as before.
Thar was none OF us seen whar Dan went down
But the cabin took fire and fell
And a pine-tree crashed as it struck tn ground
An the Ounce gave an awful yell;
But Maggie was saved and her father, too,
Came clear OF the forest-wreck-
An ne found tn Ounce in a kind o. slough,
With a cash on his head and neck;
But we brought him down on an oil straw bed
An the bones that he broke was set
'Twar a terrible blow that had hit his head,
But the Ounce is Twin yet.
An guess 'twar the blow that made him right
Fur now he's as bright as gold,
An Maggie and Dan got spliced last night,
But the story, s'pose, is old