The Western news., 1903-08-05
Old S1ouch's
Dilemma

written two complete and hair raising
novels of about 100000 words eacl
within the space of six working days
and he was wont to aver with conf
tevce that he could rereat the per
I "'.ance with one hand tied behint
l. III.
was klown to tens of thousands
!4.r,ll readers of red, yelicw ane
=. i.c..c ca as "Old Slouch," and he
..t q. strange and weird happen
> in ,,.ange and weird T. aces in a
,.":!,l vi rsore strange Il, q weird.
r'l s.ouch had started life as q
Ir:i,tcts devil" in the office of the
Fir%site r. tiyctor, but he YVES am.
hriCuS :.i.,. soon became an Office boy
I!'ot hv ;ook to night school nnd made
such progress i'm the three =. x" that
his cui q" was recognized in due time
by IL! advance to the position of copy
rea''cr. in "l.ich capacity he Was called
upon to read several million words
froin the accomplished pen of cali
fo:';l.a harlie," who was at that time
The ;,instny of the fiction department
of TIE e,"vctor.
HIS ,.h;,i.ce came one night when a
messtna,'r arrived in hot haste from
the lodgings of "Ca!ifornia Charlie" to
report hat he gifted author was un-
able to tii sh the concluding INSTALL
m':.t of hS thrilling novelette, en-
titled: ''Three-Fingcred Steve: or.
H., Cowboys Curse for the reason
t ! h was greatly incor',rcGed by
tn presence IN his room of hree pink
. '-t'l.Ir z"bras with yellow polka
ard six old-goId lizards with
I"?' k t;,'S.
lie editor was in despair, for the
Rc.!' 6 or must go to press in six hours.
until he IL w copy reader volunteered
to fln'sh h" story from the point
where tE" lizards had so inc Mt inentlv
interrupted it. Thi, he was allowed to
do, and he accomplished his ti> K with
such succes hat when. Il few months
later. Calis;rnja harEc's acquaint-
arcsship w h reptiles and such land
ed him in III" incurable ward the fu-
ture t.d Slouch stepped easily and
grace f,...y iito his Lace.
ProiHi !ities never hampered Old
Slouch. What his readers wanted were
iMprGI abilities, nor would jIi"y even
ba!k at an occasional imp,s ssih,litv.
which was just as wen. In the most
successful of his works. a tale of ro-
maEct and adventure entitled: wick
ed Rill or. The nauntless Hero of
bloody GGlch.' III" talented author
landed his people on the rocky shores
OF ore of The Fiji islands. shipwrecked.
starving, and defenseless. Up rushed
band of cannibaIs bent on a good
meal. Did they get it? "Over my dead
body" said Old SLOUGH to himself and
he wrote:
ut so chanced that our hero had
once known FIJI islander in San
Francisco and from him had learned
the language Of those parts. He there
fore addressed the leader of the band
in the vernacular. Amazement seized
the savage cannibals. They dropped
their cruel weapons, grasped Bill's
horny hand, and hailed him as a broth
er. They were saved!"
But with assured success languor
overlook Old SLOUGH. Only when he
was pennlless could he be induced to
write, and that was why he sa one Nav
morning with his feet upon the win
dow sill, looking out over the neigh
boring chimney pots, although he had
just received an urgent demand for the
first chapters of "Shivering Sara; or
The Counterfeiter's Stratagem" He
had 36 cents in his pocket. Why should
he toll? Why, indeed?
1t was at this moment that he had a.
y ~, Il T.
whose father ran a pawnshop around
the corner. He often took delight in
inquiring of the guileless how it could
be that Jake's father was his uncle, al
though he himself was not related to
Jake. Jake had holiday and he was
Planning a sailing party. A friend of
ms had loaned him a eatboat that Law
some few miles up the sound, and
Jake and his sister were going TO take
sail. Wouldn't Old SLOUGH join them?
Old SLOUGH thought of the SO cents and
guessed he'd better not.
"Oh, come on" coaxed Jake. "It's
a fine day and Tim Monahan going
and Sally Paterson, too. What's the
matter with you. anyhow" Had it
e'y ooHN but va SlOuch
would have had no compunctions about
borrowing, but he did not care to bor-
row from Tilly's brother because
we'll, there were reasons.
At the mention of Tins name. how
ever, Old SLOUGH pricked up his ears.
He shrewdly suspected that Tim was
not far behind him in his appreciation
of the good points of J,ka,, .;,
Moreover, he was quite sure he could
borrow from Tim certain coin of the
realm. At length he decided to 90,
and Jake departed with an injunction
to be sure and meet the others at the
Long Island City station a ten O'Clock,
One cent for morning paper, five
cents for an elevated ticket. and three
cents for ferry ticket landed Old
SLOUGH at Long Island City with 81
cents in his pocket. He had taken
good care not to be on hand first, in the.
hope that somebody mipht hnv b;s